Tragic's Wake

I got spam mail from a social media managing and engineering service. They’re offering me different price packages to pay someone to tweet, manage my facebook account, and post “original and interesting” blog content. Umm, the point of my tumblr, twitter, facebook and blog is to be social, myself, my original content, to reach out? So I pay you to be my social Cyrano de Bergerac AND I pay to use my various services and data plans? Thanks, no. I’m fine. I am not paying some asshole $500 to post photos of what I didn’t eat for lunch or review the amazing monuments I didn’t visit.. *sigh* Oh internet, WTF is wrong with you?

These “services” are the opposite of what I believe social media was meant to be. I came onto the internet at a time when the forums were a dying breed, MySpace was at it’s height. Social blogging platforms like Modblog, BlogDrive, Blog-City and Blogspot were coming into their blazing heyday. Twitter was in it’s first open beta when I had my first account. Facebook simply wasn’t and when it was, I had an account (since deleted because… none of my friends.. blah-blah) before any of my friends even knew what it was. I remember when youtube was just a baby and the content was all people, all the time. Real people. People showing off their cats, their babies, their yards, techy types tearing down PC towers and proudly filming their component unboxings..

My favourite part of the internet has always been original user content and over the years when I’ve discovered that certain bloggers had hired engineers it killed something for me, my innocence was shattered. I understand and accept a company or a brand using these services, they’re huge, they must. A celebrity or model needs an agent and representation, they’re so busy otherwise that nothing would ever be accomplished without a PR team. I get that. A brand is not an individual though, it’s a collective if you will, it doesn’t have a voice of it’s own unless you give it one. This shit ain’t gonna sell itself..

I’m disgusted by a CEO who claims to be blogging the daily trials of “the biz” and in reality he isn’t, it’s some dude in a cube on another continent typing from a loose script. It’s dishonest and it’s not reaching out to anyone, it’s worse than narcissism because you’re now paying someone to get you attention when it isn’t even you.

Spend your money better. Get one of these engineers to sit with you or fire up teamspeak or skype or some shit. Get coaching on how to develop an effective voice of your own. Speak from your experiences and from your heart. There are people who want to listen and connect. There will be more. Don’t pay a fucking engineer or manager, that’s pretty much in the top five of the douchiest things a blogger or personality can do and it makes you look like a fucking fool.

But hey, that’s just me. Maybe the rest of the world thinks your shit rocks. Just don’t blame me when you have to meet face to face and someone asks you about that wicked vaycay where you tripped the light fantastic halfway around the continent because you sir, are eventually going to be held accountable.

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