I’m sure they’re not the first to do this, but I really hate it: referral marketing.
SingTel, Singapore’s main phone operator, is encouraging Singaporeans to spam their friends via email, twitter, Facebook and SMS.
The sad thing is they’ll have to do this a lot to get anywhere. You get 1 point for every tweet post a day, and 1 point for every post on Facebook a day. If you get a friend to sign up for the program you get 10 points.
Get in the top five and you get to win a Macbook or an iPhone.
Given the top guy already has 742 referrals, I’m pretty sure that means someone is going to have to send out 7,420 tweets to get close. (The rules aren’t clear on this.)
As you can see, however, it’s appallingly popular. Ten in the past minute:
Ugh. Any of my Facebook or twitter friends do it and they’re off my Christmas card list.
And companies that don’t understand social media, who think it’s just another spamming channel, need to get a wake-up call. That’s you, Singtel.
Many THINK they understand social media, but in fact they DON’T…
Thanks a lot for sharing this Incredibly useful article with us. These nuggets of knowledge can be used by SEO beginners and experts alike.
This is horendous and I would hate to be invaded even in the social network platforms.
have you seen Singtel’s page on FB? how social is it when customer interaction is absoltely non-existent. cute how they collapse any feeback left on their post. perhaps hoping visitors miss the fact that they do not respond to them? purely another direct marketing vehicle for them.
This is a wonderful resource for learning all about Twitter. The case studies will provide excellent examples on the effective use of twitter, what things need to be avoided, and other strategies. Certainly very interesting, thanks!