07 Mar Somebody Needs a Hug…
Last week I published a post entitled ‘Why Tuesdays Suck for Social Marketers’. It seemed to catch the imagination of the people who read The Social Web and has since gained a lot of traction on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. There have been a lot of comments on the blog and on Twitter, most of which seemed to agree with the ideas put forward but all of which have been polite. Until yesterday…
Yesterday afternoon, someone left this comment:
“What a load of complete crap. Tuesday is by far the best day to get traction for any kind of Internet based media. And it has been for over 12 straight years and it still is.
Looking over the post, I see nothing but you Paul Sutton, saying looking over your own profiles that you see little interaction. You even admittedly say “and it is just an unproven theory based on educated guesswork” so why give people a blanket statement like this when you even admit it’s just guesswork? I also noticed you said you were about 20 years old when most professionals started in this business so I doubt you have had all that much time to see a long tail snapshot. Also looking at your Twitter account Paul, you have 2,092 followers. That is not exactly a very large demographic unit to be handing out advice from. Facebook friends, 129, same thing. If you had any idea what you were doing in social you would be linking to your fanpage.
ONE last thought, you included launching YouTube videos on Tuesday, yet I don’t even see you have a YouTube channel. The last promotion we did on Tuesday was “Chicago Blizzard 2011” and it pulled over 2000 views the first day, 17,000 in the first week. So, before I really insult you, can I ask you Paul? Have you ever been front page on Digg? StubleUpon? YouTube? Have you ever marketed a product via social marketing? Have you ever driven 250,000 to 500,000 visitors to a blog in a month thru a social media promotion?
I would love to hear your qualifications and answers to these questions and I will gladly eat my words need be…… I see advice metered out like this all the time by people that no idea what they are doing, in the future I suggest you get more than 2,092 Twitter followers before you start handing out hand grenades for advice.”
Now leaving aside the absurd argument of how old I am (que?!), the reasons why I choose to use my Facebook profile instead of a fan page (what?!) and the fact that I ‘only’ have 2000 followers on Twitter, I could have written a defensive follow up post stating my credentials – the brands I have and do work with, the projects I’ve worked on and the results I’ve achieved. But as I said in my reply to the comment yesterday, what’s the point? I don’t actually feel the need to justify my opinions to someone I’ve never met or heard from before.
What depresses me more than being accused of being a snake oil salesman however (that was in his answer to my response), is the aggressiveness and arrogance of the attitude displayed here. This isn’t the first time I’ve encountered this attitude on the social web, and I doubt it’ll be the last. But why do some people feel the need to go on the attack if they don’t agree with an opinion, rather than challenge it in an open and rational manner?
Those who actually KNOW me in the social marketing field will know I’m the first to say that I’m no expert or to admit that I don’t have the answers. I pose more questions than I have a right to on this blog! Had this person said “Actually, I don’t agree and here’s why…” rather than “What a load of complete crap, I’m a god and you’re an idiot…” I would have been very interested in their opinion. But, you know, whatever. As the kids say: meh…
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