Marketing, client relations and sockpuppets

[matgb]

Hey, guess what? You'll never get it. Six Apart are useless! Oh, wait, you've heard that one? Ah, well, here are the new details of this one anyway. Y'see, they've managed to mess up a perfectly good idea by a really badly timed and poorly worded announcement, and they've got a bunch of sockpuppets plugging a new film.

So, short version. Funny version.

Long version:

In June, they talked about the idea of having sponsored communities. About a month ago, it was announced that they were starting the first one. It was plugged in lj_spotlight, it got some members, and all seemed well. As far as I was concerned, it was a reasonable idea, but I wasn't interested in the first one, being for a film called scienceofsleep. Members would get special offers, access to previews, etc. Y'know, by taking part in a community, get a little of that internet buzz that made Snakes on a Plane manage to not make a horrible horrible loss for being so bloody awful.

That was it, move on, hope they get a better community with deals I might be interested in. Thing is? It appears most LJ users didn't know about it. Even normally well informed somehow users didn't know about it. So, last week (just before going home Friday in fact), rahaeli posted to lj_biz. Go read that post. D'you feel patronised yet? I did, and I knew most of what was going on. Plus, I had Denise in my "one of the good guys" box. Now, look at the comments. Don't bother reading them, just, well, look at them. 60 pages worth. There are some positive ones in there. Honest. I saw them. At least 2.

It made Slashdot. It even made Making Light.

Damage Control time

Saturday? Oops, brad is posting. It's, well, damage control. We're nice people really. We know that sponsorship is a form of advertising, we're not stupid, it's a good idea, honest, it's good for the site, etc. Y'know what? If that had been the first post, then the two (good) ideas they announced would probably, well, still have got complaints, let's face it, LJ is nothing without the snark. But I really don't think Brad liked going in to post stuff on his day off.

Things are looking up?

Monday? Big staff meeting. Followed by a series of posts, with more still to come. First up, Sponsored comms get their own icon (for the red/green colourblind out there, science of sheep has a green icon), which will be made more distinctive, apparently. We're collecting ideas here. Next, a breakdown of what Sponsored Comms are for. Then, Brad again, asking if maybe giving them a better name would be good?

So, what do we learn from this?

Firstly, don't assume knowledge. Second, don't assume acceptance. Don't patronise. Don't even appear to patronise. Don't make offhand announcements at the end of a working week and then go home. Especially don't make incredibly badly worded announcements and assume people know about it already.

Also? If you've got two different products being launched, one controversial, one cool, try to announce them separately? Try not to link them with similar, erroneous terminology and, well, lie about them. SMS messages to/from LJ could be very, very, cool. I like sms_to_lj and have used it a bit, especially for warlord_ccg, but it's user made and supported, and only really good for UK based users. Costs him money as well. That, in order to run it, they're brining in another company and putting links to that company on affected pages? Meh, they're giving me something cool, right? Least I can put up with is a little credit where it's due.

Now, sponsored Comms, that show up at the top of an interest search for basic/plus users? Run by marketing people and LJ staff? Could be great. Um, could also, well, be absolutely awful. Don't believe me? Look at scienceofsleep. Any of those posts look like they come from real people?

Where's the fangirling?

I'm told that one of the male actors is hot. LJ + new film + hot actor = fangirling. Always. Have a look at the comments to this post. Now, I have it on good authority that the poor sap that posted that initial entry is a real person, not a sockpuppet. Hope they know how to turn off comment notification. The info pages for the mods do not say "I'm a paid shill" or anything that makes it obvious that they're accounts created by the marketing team. This is despite it being both obvious and announced that they would be. People don't trust it. The buzz they were hoping to create? insomnia (a former LJ employee - a little bitter, but still - with a fairly large readership) comments:

And just to think, I was actually curious about seeing The Science of Sleep in a movie theatre before this unwanted ad sellout in LiveJournal.

Now I'm going to have to give the movie a pass, simply for ethical reasons... and I will use my journal to encourage others to do the same.

As I observed:

I've no real problem with the idea of an added feature being put in there, with a credit along the lines of (SMS posting made possible by company X) with a link, as long as it's not an annoying flashy advert. Someone gives me something for free, I've no problem with them giving me a link to other stuff they may charge for.

But I do think announcing it in the same post as paid for, advertised communities was a "shoot yourself in foot" approach from the wonders that is the LJ team, now it's irrevocably linked to the whole ad thing, but the reality is as a complete standalone we'd have likely accepted it (and thanked the company).

Be honest. 6A never bought Danga, there is no sponsored level, no adverts anywhere. brad goes onto lj_biz and says "well, we couldn't figure out how to do this cool thing, but thanks to company X, we've got it working, so as a thank you there'll be a link to their site on the pages that feature X needs to work".

We'd have been very happy, right? It's just a damn shame that that they shot themselves in the foot with the sponsored level and pissed so many of us off in the first place, that we look for the negatives in the whole thing.

To which firefoxfey responded:

I think you're right.

Of course I am, I'm me. uniquewonders:

they need to hire someone who can write these posts

Yup. I'd volunteer, but don't really feel like moving over there. Even if it is San Francisco.

Plug This post brought to you with the aid of the_lj_herald. Friend it.

Comments

[rho]

Plus, I had Denise in my "one of the good guys" box.

I've known D for several years, and consider her a friend. From everything I know of her, I'd definitely say that she's Good People. I don't always agree with her on everything. I think that the post she made was an absolute load of bullshit. But even so, that doesn't alter my overall opinion of her.

And a link to a couple of comments from within the mess of comments on that post: http://community.livejournal.com/lj_biz/237534.html?thread=7928798#t7928798

[matgb]

Yeah, not going to hold one badly written announcement against someone. The company is big enough that they ought to be paying someone to screen all this stuff by now, that post should never have gone out as was, and that's not her fault at all.

Whenever I send a newsletter to my 400(ish) host families, it goes through two other people first. I don't need to do that, I just want to make sure it's not complete crap. An announcement online with immediate feedback facilities to a bunch of whinging drama hounds?

Double edited and triple proofed, minimum. Which is what I think Abe's are getting, he's obviously reedited them a few times before posting, and that they all hit at onces makes me think others read them before they went live. They learn.

Just a shame that professionalism isn't there yet, despite the 6A support. Then again, Vox has "extra security features" that LJ doesn't have, like allowing you to choose which subgroups of your readers can see what posts. According to Mena, that's a new feature they specially developed. Because I haven't been doing it since my first month on here, not at all.

[misty-moonlight.livejournal.com]

I don't understand all of this. That's really nothing new to me, but i'm left again with the "I don't get it".

I got a comment from someone in my journal vicodin_detox. Go look at that blog.. it's nothing but ads. Now, does this person get paid for said ads? Did he find a way to post his own google ads on his blog? Otherwise.. what's the point?

[matgb]

It looks like you got a comment from a new 'plus' account. I see no ads logged in as a paid user, ergo it's not ads the user makes money from.

There's actually nothing there to see, no posts or anything, journal created yesterday, and (s)he's made one comment, total. Um, feel honoured I guess.

Honestly, have no idea why someone would set up a journal and just go post on yours without identifying themself.

As for the rest, basically, 6A/LJ need decent PR types, or a screening process for new announcements.