Filed under: Astroturfing, Stealth Campaigning, Stealth Marketing

Say is isn’t so, Hillary Clinton! It looks like you, your staff, and your campaign were caught stealth campaigning — astroturfing — by some folks who decided to do a little bit of Internet forensics. This sort of fisking is the ultimate big trophy hunt. Who would have guessed that a Clinton would be felled so early — not even sporting! Via Wired

Undercover marketing, Stealth marketing - Undercover marketing is a subset of guerrilla marketing where consumers do not realize they are being marketed to.

Stealth campaigning - Undercover campaigning is a subset of political campaigning online where voters do not realize they are being campaigned to.

Astroturfing - In politics and advertising, the term astroturfing describes formal public relations (PR) campaigns which seek to create the impression of being a spontaneous, grassroots behavior. Hence the reference to the “AstroTurf” (artificial grass) is a metaphor to indicate “fake grassroots” support.

Fisking - Fisking, or to Fisk, refers to the act of critiquing, often in minute detail, an article, essay, argument, etc. with the intent of challenging its conclusion or theses by highlighting logical fallacies and incorrect facts.

My advice to the candidates — free from me to you — is simple since I just posted it a couple hours ago on this very blog: Don’t Be Seduced by the Lure of Astroturfing:

“The blowback that can result from using a false name, a false email (a Yahoo, Google, or Hotmail address created for the campaign and the false name), and a false bio, isn’t worth it.”

No Comments » Posted on December 13th, 2007 by Chris Abraham

Filed under: Astroturfing, Authenticity, Shamsparency, Transparency

Pete Blackshaw wrote a pretty good article called The Official 2008 Web 2.0 Buzzword Forecast — I like it because I love it when the industry catches up me me (what, me modest?). Well, this is a great new buzzword that Pete defined: Shamsparency:

‘“Shamsparency”: Don’t get busted buying shills or engaging in unsavory activity. Just don’t do it, or the forces of shamsparency will catch up with you. It happens all the time, and firms in the CGM monitoring space (like my own) make it easier to uncover the imposters. My recommendation: avoid this term at all costs, and write the WOMMA ethics code on the whiteboard 30 times.’ The Official 2008 Web 2.0 Buzzword Forecast By Pete Blackshaw

I wrote something similar in Don’t Be Seduced by the Lure of Astroturfing:

Whenever you engage the Internet on behalf if a company or organization, you are acting as a brand ambassador. If someone is curious as to who you are and why you’re so passionate about an event, product, or service, the understanding is that they will pretty easily be able to find out that you’re a marketing professional.

For some, that is enough. Legally-speaking, it is enough. In terms of building a long-term relationship with your current, future, or present customers, hiding your identity as a professional marketer in the folds of your online profile may be considered deceitful.

You may be attracted to covert online marketing: special ops, black ops, spycraft – “fifth column marketing,” if you will. Don’t be.

The blowback that can result from using a false name, a false email (a Yahoo, Google, or Hotmail address created for the campaign and the false name), and a false bio, isn’t worth it.

There is a term for shooting for the short term by being opaque in your intent, no matter how effective it may be: astroturfing, which “describes formal public relations campaigns which seek to create the impression of being a spontaneous, grassroots behavior.”

Accusations of astroturfing can compromise the integrity of the organization you are representing, and further put your ability to communicate future messages in danger.

Over the short term, pretending to be just another denizen of an online community or a blog works if you can pull it off. It isn’t tough to sneak in and talk, talk, talk.

Even though your reputation online is more defined by your contributions to the conversations rather than who you are, the culture of the Internet doesn’t suffer being fooled, duped, or suckered.

If you are ever found out, you are screwed.

No Comments » Posted on December 13th, 2007 by Chris Abraham

Filed under: Abraham Harrison, Abraham Harrison LLC, Abraham Harrison Staff, Online Reputation, Online Reputation Management, Reputation Management, Reputation Rehabilitation, Search Engine Optimization, Search Engine Reputation Management, Search Engine Strategy, Search Moptimization, Search Reputation Management, Wombagging

Much like Search Moptimization, we catagorize “Wombagging” as Defensive SEO.

‘”Wombagging”: This exercise tries to protect, or sandbag, your brand from negative or undesirable word of mouth (WOM). This could include anything everything from buying negative keywords on search engines to putting videos on your Web site featuring your CEO begging for patience and forgiveness. For some companies, wombagging might even include employing staffers in defense of bad buzz. But again, all this falls into the defensive branding arena, not outright promotion.’ The Official 2008 Web 2.0 Buzzword Forecast By Pete Blackshaw

However, we at Abraham Harrison actually call the process online brand reputation defense, Internet land grab, domain name registration strategy, search engine brand protection, domain name strategy, and domain name protection — they’re all sort of part of completely owning your own space on Google, Yahoo!, and Live.com proactively, well in advance of anything going wrong.

Why? Well, if you own your first three pages of Google well in advance of an online brand perception crisis, there is a much reduced chance of some negative online buzz being able to shoot right up to the top-five results of Google. It is much easier to fortify your castle than it is to rebuild it. Wisdom, free of charge. Tip of the hat to Jonathan Trenn, via ClickZ

No Comments » Posted on December 13th, 2007 by Chris Abraham

Filed under: Brand Protection, Defensive SEO, Online Brand Protection, Online Reputation, Online Reputation Management, Search Moptimization

While we call the service we offer Defensive SEO (also online brand protection and online reputation management, search engine cleaning, reputation rehabilitation, etc), I guess the newest term for our process of “mopping” up bad search results has been given a name, and that name is “Search Moptimization.” Tip of the hat to Jonathan Trenn, via ClickZ

‘Yes, that’s “mop,” as in to clean up. This is the increasingly common, if not essential, brand practice of attempting to clean up negative search results against general or specific brand-related queries. For many brands, particularly in the consumer electronics category, hostile CGM (define) is beginning to fill, even dominate, the organic search shelf, a zone that we all know has an unmistakable impact on the awareness and trial of new products. For many brands, the mopping process can take two to three years (often longer) and heavily depends on operational and product, rather than marketing, decisions. Dell, for example, still has lots of “search moptimization” to clean up Jeff Jarvis’s two-year-old mess, though it’s worth noting its customer service blog and IdeaStorm initiatives have already helped mop up or reroute some of the venom.’ The Official 2008 Web 2.0 Buzzword Forecast By Pete Blackshaw

No Comments » Posted on December 13th, 2007 by Chris Abraham

Filed under: Abraham Harrison, Abraham Harrison LLC

Abraham and Harrison offers comprehensive campaigns that integrate Online Publicity and Public Relations, Search Engine Services, and New Media Marketing. We also offer our expertise in the areas of profiling, intelligence, forensics, crisis management, and training. Potential clients can cherry pick the services that best suit their needs from any of these categories, although when customizing packages of services, we strongly encourage our clients to focus on the power of a comprehensive approach.

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No Comments » Posted on December 13th, 2007 by Chris Abraham


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