They look like ordinary people but something is not quite right. No one can tell unless they know the secret. In the famous sci-fi movie above (can you name it?) pods (seeds) are planted from an unknown space invader to take over the bodies of humans.
Taking a cue from the film, marketeers are seeding the internet. What is seeding? It is a marketing concept that primarily involves finding the target market’s opinion leaders to be word-of-mouth advocates for a product or service. But the concept also includes hiring “ordinary Joes” to spread good cheer and recommend these products and services in chat rooms, forums, blogs, and via online product reviews, as well as on the street, to friends, relatives and anyone whose ear can be bent. With the success of YouTube, it also involves seeding these venues with videos thought to have viral-appeal.
But in order for seeding to be most effective, the advocates do not disclose the fact of their compensation. Seeders are marketing ninjas. It is taking root in the blogging community with Pay Per Post. So beware the person online touting the latest computer property valuation model. It just may be the word-of-mouth of a being from marketing space.
According to the seeding blueprint, if you can sway the 10% opinion leaders of your target market, the other 90% will follow. So much for the wisdom of crowds. See the complicated sheep herding chart below.
Seeding companies are sprouting up all over. Strange as it may seem, seeding was learned from drug dealers. No, not those folks, the legal ones, the pharmeutical companies. The code name was Phase IV trials.
Sources: Paul Mardsden, Seed to Spread-Using Seeding Trials to Accelerate Sales; Wikipedia; other unnamed sources (ssshh).
Related Posts:
Word of Mouth Rules
Word of Mouth Advertising
Good post about an unfortunate trend. I guess I’ll have to think about a disclaimer or notice at the bottom of my posts in the future stating that “I have not received compensation or favors in exchange for this post or information.”
Jim,
I read a post on the FTC blog, of all places, from their recent conference and while I knew about seeding of influential opinion makers, including bloggers & celebrities, I was surprised to learn about the “man on the street” seeding, especially widespread among teenagers, though I guess many of them might be compensated in free product, as opposed to cash. I have to go back and look up which post I found it on. I checked out the pitch of some seed marketers online and found it quite revealing.
my next post is how there has never been a better time to buy and sell real estate. please tell David Lereah to send my payoff in unmarked, nonsequential bills.
You had to figure something like this was going on–200 million blogs worldwide and increasing by 175,000 per day
according to an NPR interview I heard yesterday. It just reinforces my new favorite saying “We don’t need more dots. We need to connect the ones we have!” Anyway, all those out of work telemarketers have to do something.
geno,
Marketers are a creative bunch. Forums and product review sites may be more fertile ground than blogs but no question they are moving into blogs.
BTW, checked out your blog—-good stuff. We’ll roll it.
I linked you. Sellsius is a very cool site. Thanks
Thanks geno. We are happy to link to any real estate or marketing bloggers. It’s a jungle out there and we’ll do what we can to help.
LOL where do I sign up to get paid per post? 100 posts in a day here I come!
Lets hope one day bloggers get $65,000 gift-baskets like the Hollywood A List before the Academy Awards.
Hmmmm, I think I’ll have a drink of my crisp, cool, oh so refreshing….
It’s there Athol. Only we have to climb the ladder to opinion leader or get a readership like Techcrunch. Mike at Techcrunch could probably charge a decent fee for a listing & review.
It seems that would violate some laws about deceptive trade practice. At least in texas their is a deceptive trade practice act. I assume paying people to promote something in blogs is somewhat illegal.
Under the Texas law, is the illegality tied to not disclosing payment for it would seem legal to promote anything anywhere. Does the act specifically cite bloggers?