Comment Spamming Creates Bad Buzz!
Brands are trying to create popularity and visibility by infiltrating blog and forum comments!
This is precisely what Motorola did in promoting its new Krave telephone. A web user called Mgoode posted comments highlighting the merits of the new model.
By grouping together Mgoode’s comments, Joel Johnson, a fervent new technologies blogger, discovered that Motorola was behind the comments. Mgoode turned out to be none other than a Motorola employee who was using the good old tactic of comment infiltration and spamming.
Motorola was looking to target specialized bloggers and to create search engine visibility. The comment content was well thought-out to this end: product name, description, website: Motorola Krave, touch screen display, two megapixel camera, Motorola.com/krave. However, this is not enough to create popularity and visibility.
The “NOFOLLOW” control
It’s important to understand that several blog platforms like Wordpress, Blogger, and Sixapart use the “NOFOLLOW” control for each comment hyperlink, rendering it inactive. Also, search engines are informed and do not follow the link, i.e. this doesn’t help create popularity. Mgoode was aware of this practice because none of his comments contained a hyperlink. They merely provided the name of the website.
Captchas
Combined with the “NOFOLLOW” command, the use of Captchas (Turing tests) allow bloggers and administrators to block automatic spam distribution. A Captcha is an image code that an Internet user must reproduce and/or a specific question he or she must answer. This ensures that a comment is written by a human and not a robot. Mgoode is not a robot and, as such, he/she was able to validate his/her comments.
Is optimized content the solution? No!
Developing one’s visibility with massive optimized content comment infiltration is useless. Spammers would need to inundate all blogs specific to their market with comments, create varied contents in order to avoid being blacklisted by search engines, and cunningly hide hyperlinks, etc.
Remember, what did Motorola gain from its comment spamming and infiltration?
1. In the blogosphere: “bad buzz” for the new Krave model!
2. In search engines: no visibility.
Adapted by Jessica Hartstein
Tags: motorola Krave, spamming
