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Marketing That Makes Us Safest From Others But Least From Ourselves
By Kimberly Bock | May 22, 2008
*Before I ramble on..I want to clarify that there are marketers that are true blue, honest, upstanding persons of integirty. When I refer to ‘marketers’ I am generalizing, but it covers far too many of them I’m afraid.*
“The things that make us safest from others make us least from ourselves - Danah Boyd“
I feel strongly about some things. Life is too short not to.
Some marketers are referring to me as I’m a trouble maker and a controversy queen, as if ‘controversy’ is my motivation.
But if you are really reading my debates with an open mind, an ethical mindset, and prioritized professionality, hopefully you have found that I put a lot of effort into the idea of using ‘the golden rule’ as a form of reputation management, fairness in a not-so-fair world of marketing, how marketers should be appreciative of their readers not make demands of HOW to use flattery in reader responses, how SEO can be used to protect our environment - which benefits humanity, not just a wallet, and so on.
(sidenote: Marketers have been around for years now, I have only been around for a few months. Yet, that 1 tiny post of mine brings these results in Google’s search results:
- #28 - page 3 for the term ‘protect our environment‘. no quotes.
- #1 - page 3 for the term ‘protect the environment seo‘ and ‘protect our environment seo’ no quotes.
- h*ll, if you want to delve a bit further into the impact of that one tiny post in the SERP’s, search any variation of the words environment, protect, and seo.
*uh..yea..I’M a bad guy. I should be ashamed of myself*)
We will always find injustices and unfortunate blinded eyes that promote injustices as it scores some sort of glam shot or financial gain.
This is my response to an example of this.
**notice it hit Sphinn’s homepage in 4 hrs, give or take a few minutes**
Went Hot: May 22, 2008 - 6:39 amPosted By: iBrian 4 hours ago
Topic Type: News Story
Category: SEM Industry
“Media are a gamed community that exists to serve self-interested parties, and truth has never gotten in the way of a good story.
When search marketers complain about others manipulating the web and or media, at best it can be described as hypocrisy, at worst, plain ignorance.”
I can’t help the fact that I was naive when I first started blogging and giving so many supposed ‘A-list‘ marketers link juice. If I knew then what I know now, I would have been more particular about who I chose to do this for. I can count on one hand how many have thanked me for working so hard to promote their articles or help market their words. I have never gotten paid for these things. And I never did it as a way to receive pats on the back. I hate the whole ‘rock star’ label thing as well. That label has actually hurt the way I want to be seen. I began this site to learn and pass on what I learn to newcomers and whoever else can find it educational.
Now that I have learned of some of it’s serious faults, my responsibility to this blogs readers is to
- keep them informed as best as possible and
- to make suggestions that I feel will be of value to them.
My assessment of what is ‘valuable‘ stems from a more holistic interpretation.
- Seeking improvement of ones ranking in the search engines
- bringing balance between marketing and family affairs
- as well as how to use what is learned to optimize the environments positive potentials
This may not be popular, but it my contribution. I can’t force people to agree with this approach.
If I do not make changes where I see they need to be made, then I would be validating what Brian so stated, “When search marketers complain about others manipulating the web and or media, at best it can be described as hypocrisy, at worst, plain ignorance.”
Ignorance occurs when we encourage the same old same old, even though it has proven itself harmful time & time again.
A wide array of what has been so successful (by way of media) has also proven itself of global detriment. It spreads like a disease while we make excuses. It infects the majority that go near it, not just a pocketbook that buys your lunch.
‘Realism’ as Brian convincingly thrashes about, is best viewed from a poem I wrote a year ago, before ever meeting the marketing world. We ‘debaters’ will always be seen as “The forbidden into the void” by those that have most to lose when they are revealed. So they react with immediate abuse, well crafted copywritten beatings, and manipulation of whatever they have at their disposal in order to save face. Sometimes, their emotional and mental abuse would be considered a criminal offense had it been offline. The are more concerned with their bank account’s survival than of someone’s feelings, no matter how valid (or invalid) they might be.
Nice lesson they teach our children isn’t it?
In the movie “Hook“, Robin Williams comes to his senses, realizing that there are more important things in life than sell! sell! sell! Unfortunatley, the media world has been consumed by what’s more realistically compared to “The Devil’s Advocate“. (read the plot summary to know what I mean by this)
On the street, a man will rob his own mother for a dime of coke.
On a governmental level, in exchange for financial gain, our government is openly supportive of billions of serial killers. (referring to alcohol by the bottle)
sidenote:
- You might like drinking, but you’re gonna hate it when it kills your family because of one drunk driver that was probably too drunk to even know he was driving.
On a media scale, as Brian says, “The aim has rarely been to tell truth.” This has always been contributed to hatred, formulation of a bad reputation by others (as in this post, where I actually defended all SEO’s)
(keep in mind that the media played a huge role in what plopped Bush into office)
To glamorize deceit and lies in marketing has always been used yes, but is counter productive to what is most meaningful. Always has been. If you are a quality marketer, and good at what you do, you wouldn’t need to be deceitful or dishonest. Period. Anybody can manipulate. Sadly, some are better at taking the easy way out than actually putting a little bit of ass into it. You know..having integrity and all..(strange and unfamiliar word isn’t it?)
It’s no better than robbing for a fix. But the drug of choice happens to be cash, not world peace or anything of meaning or lasting benefit.
I’ve ranted enough this morning. If you leave comments to have a flame war with me..I’ll allow your link dropping to take place because I use CommentLuv. but you’ll get no argument from me today. It wastes too much time.
I’m going to leave you with what I promote in StumbleUpon, so you can see I really am the bad guy. 
I added a video too. Once you hear it, you’ll see what parts of it most apply. 
Be good to yourselves and others.
as my profile
reads
in stumbleupon:
“accept with grace. return with passion. be a giver not a taker. taste the world around you as if you have never had a meal. feed those who do not know what the world tastes like so they can do the same. remember that dishonesty is a thief and a rapist. give respect to get it. fight for what you believe in as long as it is for the betterment of humankind. do not allow others to intimidate your confidence. may you have the serenity to accept the things that you cannot change, the courage to change the things that you can and the wisdom to know the difference, because there will be those of one track minds who try to dissuade you. when the storm passes, and it will, you may stand alone. but stand tall. that too shall pass.”
Video cannot be embedded, you can view it here..Just Like You - by Three Days grace
Tags: marketing, controversy, reputation management
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Topics: Controversy |