Hidden Industry Dupes Social Media Users

If you want you own shills head over to oDesk.com and post a job for data entry.

About two years ago I had a women in the Phillipines hired for a (non political/religious) marketing campaign on YT, making accounts and posting comments.

Head over to accountheadquarters.com for 10,000 twitter accounts for $400...

Need custom software to automatically post videos on YT or send out messages on FB? Take your credit cards over to hack forums.

What to know how Mac Miller and Wiz Kalifa FAKE many of their view stats on their YouTube music videos to increase their percieved popularity? Google "Achieve Millions of Youtube Views!"

The point I am making is this: a little bit of money and a lack of ethics shapes your internet experience.

OP is just scratching the surface.

And this is "NEWS"?...my god...crowd sourcing has been around since the advent of the current digital age...it's part and parcel of the world you live in.

If you pay attention to certain members posting history and have your finger on the pulse of ATS for a while it is rather easy to spot them.
Unfortunately we are not allowed to call them out for what they are which just allows it to continue.

Just pay close attention, you'll see.

Thought this sorta thing would have been well known by now..

Undercover Researchers Expose Chinese Internet Water Army

AMA: I was a paid Internet troll

reply to post by phishyblankwaters

"Why don't you just admit you want to gas all the jews" that's a shill.

I've seen that sort of activity here, many times, but I think that they are not paid trolls. Well, I tend to think the perpetrator is one person with many accounts. It just takes one.

The jews that come along and get on board are just scared. They already know they are wrong but can't afford to admit it. They are already at war.

It's worth considering how these operations are run. In my experience there is always a few trolls left behind who never give up (employed.. probably, but not necessarily, might just be in their interest - case in point, in the Israel army, e.g.). The real shills set themselves up and burst out again with 100 accounts when things heat up. At that time there are 100's, or even 1000's of people actively controlling the public face of whatever game they are playing (IMO happens every time whaling season starts, or moreover when their are talks). With no one to stop them they try to exacerbate every issue. Unless you stoop to their level they expect to win. It's easy.

Like I already said, Asians are used to this. Americans here might like to claim to be just as bad (and apologise) but you aren't in the same league and never will be, so stop trying. CIA have no chance. All that crap is a waste of good paranoiac energy.

This topic should be pinned to the front page of ATS. I'd respect that. Kids should see this first as the most important thing in today's media age is understand how underhanded and conspiratory the players involved with slanting media inspired opinion are. It's not about right and wrong. Look how disgusting the commentary on You Tube is. There is a reason for this. It all leads toward blind nationalism.. noticed that?

It is the kind of thing the apologists never understand. They only see the dog that barks the loudest. They are scared.. and while they deserve their say, indeed apologists are the main target for trolls. Common sense might still prevail if not for the people with no backbone.. not our governments, but the type of people who look for cushy jobs in the public service.

Rant over.

Originally posted by CALGARIAN
That's why I wonder how sites like Angies List work? All you have to do is get/pay people to go on and give good reviews and boast about your service.

this.

it happens quite often on lesser known business reputation/scam report sites. just another form of PR/spin.

Originally posted by eNumbra

Originally posted by CALGARIAN
That's why I wonder how sites like Angies List work? All you have to do is get/pay people to go on and give good reviews and boast about your service.

this.

it happens quite often on lesser known business reputation/scam report sites. just another form of PR/spin.

It also happens indirectly, internet marketing is a huge industry, for example if you fill this out and live in the US, I automatically get $7 credited to my account. If you are not from the US, my network takes care of that and takes you to an offer(similar if available) for another country. I can get links like this to thousands of products and services, and post them wherever I like, and get paid for it.

Will the company care if an affiliate's "reviews" are real? No.
Do they have any direct responsibility for an affiliate's actions? Not really, that's why it's a win-win(well, loose for the general public).

My point is, there is a lot of carefully crafted propaganda online for all types of products, as well as political propaganda. Pretending to be someone your not, using automation, mass accounts, and this sort of thing, is nothing new. BUT possibly more relevant than ever.

reply to post by silent thunder


I've been reading more and more articles about this new "industry" lately. Bloomberg has done a few write ups and Amazon and other store reviews are the hot area. For X amount of dollars you get X amount of positive reviews, and the scripts are getting less blatant. Politics is the other hot area. It's selling public perception. I pretty much hold a little doubt in damn near everything I read. Paid posters are everywhere. Even here.

reply to post by silent thunder


So TOTALLY real - huge business, and a great source of at-home income for the unemployed.

I outlined the business in this post in 2010.

Social Advertising Best Practices

Social media is big and getting bigger, providing marketers with a combination of reach, relationships, and relevance:

* Reach: Social media has overtaken email as the most popular consumer activity
* Relationships: Social media's strength is in the personal connections it enables, the peer-to-peer contact…
* Relevance: Consumers are extremely engaged with the content and connections that their friends are creating because of its personal relevance.

Chris Koch's B2B Marketing Blog: Eight reasons to monitor social media and a list of tools for doing it

Here are some of the ways that these tools give marketers more insight into online conversations:

* Assign a response. Some of the tools let you define the types of comments or conversations that deserve a response, flag them, and route them to a designated person for action...

* Identify influential sources. The tools can determine the popularity of conversations and the sources of those conversations. This helps you decide which blogs you’d like to do outreach with, for example.

Chris Koch: How to create B2B social media policies

One of the cornerstones of a social media strategy is having a clear set of corporate social media guidelines or policies. The best documents don’t just tell employees what not to do; they also tell them what they should be doing to further the marketing goals of the company.
* Encourage community through sharing and attribution. Social media is not just a place for broadcasting opinions. Employees should be encouraged to become part of the community by doing research and linking to other relevant content—not just their own.

Separate opinion from fact. The best retort to criticism is factual evidence to the contrary. But employees need to check those facts for accuracy and attribute them rather than passing along something they aren’t sure about.

Make it public. Nothing demonstrates your openness and commitment to social media more than making your policy publicly available. ..

Chris Koch: Three steps for B2B marketers to build a personal social media presence

You may have to adopt a more split business personality (and do more work). You shouldn’t just get involved in social media to the extent necessary to do your day job. To get better, you should think of yourself as part of the emerging guild of B2B marketers in social media. …your personal social media goal—to be a valued member of the online B2B marketing guild—let’s talk about how you go about building your presence.

Step 1. Monitor
Step 2. Engage
Step 3. Manage

reply to post by Ghost of America


"selling public perception"

God, why does that just sound so......so......MANIPULATIVE?

Everything in our world is a matter of perception, and we make our choices based off our perceptions.


So the fact that there are organizations and businesses that wheel and deal in how humans perceive their world is really unsettling.

Originally posted by soficrow
reply to post by silent thunder

 

So TOTALLY real - huge business, and a great source of at-home income for the unemployed.

It's not for the unemployed, it's for the self employed

I've been doing it for years, even made a website about it last week - cashmassacre.com - I don't mean to promote my own product, I am just pointing out it is a thriving underground market.

reply to post by CREAM


I of course meant that those currently unemployed might investigate the Internet manipulation market for self-employment possibilities.