Today, I had the pleasure of speaking at AddressTwo’s Hullabaloo to speak on cheating in social media. It’s a difficult conversation to have with an audience. On a side note: Nick Carter is an incredible public speaker… he did an inspiring keynote for the event.
I believe myself to be a person of integrity… but the ultimate question came up in the question and answers:
Can I compete online and win against a company who cheats?
There was an uncomfortable silence and I had to admit it… No, I don’t think so.
No, you can’t compete directly with a company that cheats online. What do I mean by cheat? It could mean a company that buys fans and followers, a company that buys links to improve ranking, a company that represents itself as one thing online but actually delivers something different.
One of my questions to the audience was whether or not AddressTwo cheated when they developed the contest on who the most influential person was in the Indiana social media space. By putting up the contest, they collected the most influential people, and through self-promotion, had each of them promoting AddressTwo.
Imagine that… Nick raised awareness for his brand, collected thousands of visitors to their website, hundreds of visitors to his event… and he never had to pay the people that did the work! It’s brilliant – and a tactic I’d recommend any company deploy. It worked and it worked well. Was it cheating?
Right now cheating is both rewarded and prevalent online… everywhere. Even today, friend James Paden sent me a note that someone has already hacked the Facebook Like feature! That was quick! Where there’s a will and a way to cheat, people will always take advantage of it.
The question isn’t whether or not the company could do irreparable damage to their reputation. If caught cheating, it’s a very tough thing to rebound from (insert standard PR apology + mea culpe + rehabilitation = cure).
Am I cheating when I optimize my content to be the number 1 rank for a specific keyword term if I know there’s someone who’s actually a better resource? I justify my actions by stating that they have the same resources at their disposal and it’s simply competition that drives the move.
Am I cheating by deploying my large base of followers to support me when other more worthy candidates should win? Or is that simply self-promotion?
I look at it as competition and utilizing all the resources at my disposal to win. Am I cheating? Am I justifying my behavior? I’m hope not.
The message I really wanted to send to the audience was don’t ever give up…. even when you’re losing against a cheater. Give up that battle and move onto the next challenge. Are you losing ranking on a keyword? Find another keyword! There are countless combinations of keywords that may be more relevant to your audience online.
Don’t go head to head with a cheater, you probably won’t win and you can waste a lot of time and effort trying. I’d also warn against cheating – you could put yourself at great risk if you’re discovered. Of course it’s ultimately a decision that’s up to you and your company. Good luck.
