You Can't Force Viral Marketing

awdp.org

3 points·DuqE··3 comments

This reminds me of yesterday's item for Hired For. I went to http://newyork.hiredfor.com and entered my e-mail address, so that I could be put on their exclusive invite list. (Their italics.) After submitting the form, I got this:

"Thanks! Want to get an early invitation? Invite at least 3 friends using the link below. The more friends you invite, the sooner you'll get access!"

Jesus Effing Christ. You just took my neutral-to-positive attitude toward you and pissed all over it with your greedy social media whoring.

I don't know who you are, Hired For. I am not about to tell my friends (or even my internet "friends") to visit your site unless I'm willing to vouch for it, and the only way you're going to get me to vouch for it is to, I don't know, let me use it.

Coerced sharing is not sharing.

I agree, alot of new startups are working on using similar social media 'whoring' as you put it. It seems to be a great way to generate a bit of buzz. Connect.me used a similar technique and had thousands of registrations with in hours and a new startup for startups called Launchrock.com is essentially a holding page application designed for this exact role.

I see an opportunity for a lifestyle business focused on providing start-ups with teaser sites like this that are tied in with social media bots and so-forth to efficiently exploit bleeding-edgers.

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