Reader beware: this post is likely to dig into the craws of some people. And you know who you are…
I’m a nice person, really, but sometimes I have to draw lines in the ridiculous.
This social media thing has opened up a whole new avenue for folks who want to spread the good word. Unless its Satan spammers, most of the time its used to start a conversation or share links to great content, articles, news, videos, humor, recipes, events, you name it. Most users are fair and share all the news that’s fit to tweet and give props to the original storyteller.
A scattered few, though, see applications like Twitter as a way to increase their own online net worth by sharing others’ content and not giving credit where credit is due. I’m all for retweeting something awesome, even if I don’t know where it originated. And sure, I’ll use bit.ly to shuttle through a juicy link if I don’t find a handy tweetmeme or sharethis button at my disposal on the page.
What I DON’T do, however, is run these article links through my own set of monitors to build SEO happiness for myself off the backs of other authors. This activity is becoming more and more noticeable to me, even in my own small community of seemingly ‘socially’ responsible tweeps. It smacks of poaching, if there is a such a relative term for social media piracy.
I’m not talking plagiarism here, just poaching good content to share without a shout out to the owner/writer. Seems harmless enough on occassion, but when every single tweet has this familiar formula: #hashtag / Name of Article / URL, and I can watch it redirect to a friendfeed, stumbleupon in addition to bit.ly or ow.ly and the like, before finally delivering me to the article.
And then to double down when you are virtually tweeting for another business with the exact same tweets and URLs – I mean, come on.
While I’m spewing, might as well cramp a few others’ styles:
ASKING FOR IT
No, I will not give you a read, digg, stumble, or RT. Why? Because you asked for one in your tweet. Because a clever headline and simple link to your article would have either inspired me to do so or not. Ahem, if you need to fill a quota to sell more ads in that banner soup you have going on on your site, then step up the quality of your content.
If your article (or your friend’s) is worthy of some popularity kudos, I’ll indulge you, sure. But asking me to ‘please like me’ is pathetic. In fact, asking me to verify your ‘Do you think I’m cool? Huh, do ya?’ request guarantees I will not even click on your link.
There are always exceptions: This does not include genuine shouts for help or condolences for something important to humanity, personal or otherwise.
HALF-ASS LINKS
Same goes for links that end up on Friendfeed, StumbleUpon or Digg pages. Why ask me to click again to read your (probably) sad sack article? Send me all the way thru to the motherland. At least then I won’t have an inkling that I just dug you.
You’re so popular.
