My good friend and awesome SocialCorp intern Bukola sent me a link to a worrisome job description on socialmediajobs.com for a position with described as "Participate in Software and Small Business Discussions."
Following is a portion of the job description:
4) Every time you make a comment, you will use one of 5 comment names and a number of different URls. For example, comment name = Small Business CRM, URL address = http://www.worketc.com/..._Relationship_Management
I cannot believe that they are openly suggesting that the person they are going to hire will use an assortment of comment names!
And later on, there's this:
4) Your comments need to reflect that you understand our software tools. A bad comment would be "WORKetc is a great tool". A good comment is "WORKetc really helped us create more accurate invoices". A better comment would be "At our business we managed to produce more accurate invoices using the WORKetc billing software. This not only bought us in more money, but our customers appreciated the extra details".
The suggested comment is written as if it came from a WORKetc customer, which would obviously be deceptive. This is a brief case study in how not to get a company into the "conversation" online. To reiterate:
- Anonymous commenting intended to simulate consumer enthusiasm is called astroturfing and is unethical, and in many cases, is illegal or will soon be illegal, depending on jurisdiction.
- Authenticity is key. As soon as you "game" the system or try to find a shortcut, you've broken the sacred trust with consumers/customers.
- Check out the WOMMA Ethics Code or get a hold of some other ethical compass before embarking on your first social media initiative.
- Don't try to fool people.
I have contacted WORKetc for a comment, and hope they respond. And while I certainly support free expression and no prior restraint, I wonder if social media specific job sites might advise clients like WORKetc on matters like this before they publish a listing with obvious issues.
Tags: Astroturfing, jobsinsocialmedia.com, social media ethics, womma ethics code
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