Arrrggggh! SALESMAN. (Interruption marketing on the social web = big fat FAIL.)

Couple days ago, I noticed that “moonfruit” was the size of China in Tweetdeck’s Twitscoop “buzzing right now on Twitter” column. “WTF is ‘moonfruit,’ thought I. A little later, I got my answer via tweet from a followee-who-shall-not-be-named:

Celebrate 10 years of Moonfruit and win a MacBook Pro http://bit.ly/96bxC #moonfruit

Sigh. Yet another instance of a marketer’s gambit that offers no more value to me than a bad-odds lottery ticket. And a followee literally carting a piece of interruption marketing right into my living room. Brought to mind a classic Pee Wee shtick:

Sarah Perez at ReadWriteWeb had a reaction similar to mine. And, as I commented over there, I’m puzzled as well as annoyed — why would any marketer — much less the scads of them doing this kind of thing these days on twitter — think this is a good idea? There must simply be a lot of stupid people in the profession.

I’m not hopeful, but I sorely wish that:

Individuals and enterprises of all kinds using twitter for commercial purposes would adopt a simple ethic: stay out of social media unless you’re committed to doing your best to add value with every single gesture. Give a hoot: Don’t pollute. In the long run this is how you win anyway.
Individuals: don’t allow yourself to be used in a way that reduces signal-to-noise your friends and followers experience. Don’t bring a salesman into my living room because you want a free MacBook Pro.

July 3, 2009 | Filed Under the social web