[projectvrm] Likes for sale, flagrantly

["Nathan Schor" < >]

http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_24849695/selling-social-media-clicks-becomes-big-business

Besides reinforcing Don’s thesis on the high cost to adtech of low priced ads, this Associated Press article popularizes the underbelly of the industry to a wide audience, making them more aligned toward a VRM alternative.

Key takeaway:

‘Companies are capitalizing on the opportunity to make millions of dollars by duping social media.’

And the amounts are astounding:

‘sales of fake Twitter followers have the potential to bring in $40 million to $360 million to date, and that fake Facebook activities bring in $200 million a year.’

In the ‘If this wasn’t so sad, it would be funny’ department, the articles describes the travails of one firm – the eponymous WeSellLikes.com – despicable in intention, but brilliant in branding. Imitators, with equally subtle names, abound internationally, naturally inducing an industry dedicated to ferreting them out. Hence, two more gears pilfering value from a sales transaction.

This article has other benefits. It would serve well as an unbiased source to help convince someone who is sympathetic to VRM, but needs a persuasive boost to absorb the alternative vision VRM offers. That cohort is growing daily. The more consistently these types of articles appear from respected sources, the more the mainstream recognizes that the Snowden exposure was not yet another breach, but a core component of the ‘Stalker Economy’ (as Mary calls it), and thus the more Main Street will find a different approach appealing. Dissatisfaction with the present is a necessary pre-cursor for seeking any substitute solution, independent of the benefits the replacement promises to deliver.

That is exactly the vital role articles like the one above play. Appearing more now with regularity, each adding more to the critical mass of sufficiently frustrated buyers necessary to spark a demand for VRM solutions. With the reasoning for personal clouds making more sense daily; with Privacy-by-Design becoming more of an international standard; with more companies committing so fundamentals like Respect Network are in place; with more consumer-oriented VRM solutions, like the Customer Commons/Emmett Web Pal browser or MyWave or Datacoup, in deployment, 2014 is looking more like a breakout year.

Nathan Schor 305.632.1368 ">