I read an article the other day called “How to manipulate people for fun and profit”. I’m not going to link to it because in my opinion, the advice it provided was utter garbage, highlighting the ease with which one can tout themselves as an ‘expert’ but in reality, prove they are anything but by giving not just poor, but potentially damaging advice.
The article states that action occurs as a result of inducing a high arousal state – a well known concept in Psychology and absolutely correct. My issue however is with how the author recommended you induce a high state of arousal – by outraging people. The author stated that marketing strategy should focus on writing content that is purposely divisive and intentionally controversial. So lets get this straight, to go viral you have to become a troll?
According to the author, viral marketing rests
on your ability to become an Internet troll
The article went on to highlight instances of when highly controversial or outrageous content had been spread and gone viral. I am not disputing the fact that controversy spreads, my issue however is that if your marketing activities purposely manipulate people into feeling angry or outraged, both of these are negative emotions. For the majority of businesses, i guarantee you, that negative sentiment does not convert customers (unless you are a charity or ethical company wanting to highlight injustices or galvanise action for example). On the whole though, it’s a fundamental fact that negative sentiment doesnt win customers, something any sales or marketing professional would be fully aware of.
The really scary thing, is the massive number of positive comments the author received from other, so-called marketing professionals, who agreed and thought the advice was great! I also found it strange that my very concise and polite response to the article didn’t get published. Whilst i’m at it, the fact that no dates are included on the blog also rings alarm bells – best practice changes as social media and content marketing evolves. A lot of advice provided a year ago could now be massively out of date and of little value to a reader – avoiding transparency by hiding publish dates in this way just isn’t the sort of tactic a reputable professional would need to use.
Does manipulating potential customers into feeling strong negative
emotions sound like good business sense to you?
If I am outraged by the comments or tactics of a company, yes, I might go and read about them, I might talk about (as I currently am doing), but I sure as hell won’t shop with them or spread positive word of mouth, in which case, the activity has successfully turned a potential customer into someone who would never, ever be a customer. Which is, of course, is the polar opposite of what any marketing activity would hope to achieve.
In advising people to be purposely antagonistic and controversial in their marketing efforts, this author is essentially telling you how to loose customers. High share rates of such an article might make it go viral, but if that virality spreads and inspires nothing but negative sentiment and drives customers away, how is that effective marketing?
Does any business really want controversy instead
of customer conversions? Of course not!
I’m assuming that the sole purpose of this article was to spew utter rubbish to get people talking. Yep, it’s got me talking, even telling my readers about the article, but it’s also put the author and the website on my negative radar, meaning all future content I’m exposed to from them will be aggressively filtered out and ignored. Is that really what any company would want to happen as a direct result of their marketing activities? Of course not.
No one is infallible, and whilst reputable writers will endeavour to fact check and identify multiple sources before publishing information, we don’t always get it right. In relation to social media marketing and theory, there often isn’t a right or wrong way to do things, only best practice.
As social media proliferates and it becomes ever easier for people to self-publish, so the threat of misinformation increases. Don’t believe all of the advice that you read just because it is published on a popular blog or is written by someone calling themselves an expert. At worst some articles are based on nothing more than opinion, at best, on tried and tested techniques which have been proven to work, but that doesn’t mean it will work for your particular customer base or business sector.
Never lose your objectivity and question the authors
professional credentials if necessary
Remain objective, if you aren’t convinced then ask the author a question by leaving a comment on their blog and if you really have your suspicions, see if you can find other sources providing the same advice or do a bit of snooping to uncover the real credentials of the author.
By doing this you will avoid the charlatans out there and won’t end up alienating or loosing customers as a result of executing misguided marketing activities.
Shell Robshaw-Bryan is a marketing consultant at Surefire Media, the Cheshire based web design, eCommerce and marketing company. Shell specialises in organic search, content strategy and social media engagement for both B2C and B2B companies.
If you’d like to find out how Surefire Media can help your business, get in touch!
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