I think I got burned out on personal tech blogging in 2010. The Apple vs. Google flamewars seemed to me to be a colossal waste of time. If I don't work for Apple or Google, and don't have money invested in either, why bother.
And I drink Diet Dr. Pepper myself. Time to get another can.
Having written primarily about the channel and businesses, not technology vendors, for most of my career, I have not received many gimmes and have, therefore, not have to deal with the problem of perks. But I totally understand why people are motivated to work for no pay for companies or brands. I'm going to take tech companies out of the equation here, and use non-tech brands as examples.
I drink Coke and much prefer it to Pepsi, to the point that if a restaurant doesn't serve Coke I either won't go there if it's solely up to me; I'll bring a Coke in a bottle, or I'll drink something entirely different. I will never order Pepsi. If Coke was doing something that interested me, I might want to participate. And I generally join in joking arguments with my Pepsi-drinking friend, who completely disagrees with my soda preference! Doubt I've ever changed anyone's mind, but don't know that the folk who go crazy over Apple or Google have ever convinced anyone either.
is when people start working to game the crowdsourcing system (and I'm sure I can think of ways in which it's been done already -- like the company that offered free pizza for life if somebody asked such and such a question at the Presidential debates). We've already got indications that people are paid to comment, to rate, to review; it stands to reason they'll get paid in some way to crowdsource as well.
The big boys can certainly afford to use crowd sourcing for their marketing but smaller companies may want to test the waters before they divert large sums to social media.
Much the same as the days of direct marketing testing, A/B test can be set up to test which if any media marketing ploys may just work for them. Without some testing of variations and results, it may just be money down the drain for many smaller outfits.
In tech discussions in particular I'm baffled by people who fight hard for Apple or Google, and don't appear to be on those companies' payrolls. What's their motivation?
As both an Apple fan and a Google fan, my motivation is to encourage other companies to emulate the best practices of my favorite brands. Just as some people want to tear down companies like GoDaddy for its (former) CEOs behaviors, people like me would like to point out that there are companies that produce quality products and have some reasonable political positions. IBM is admirable for its dedication to innovation and research, but it really hasn't done much to garner general consumer support because its products (or goals) aren't so tangible to a wide audience. Google purports to "do no evil" and users should try to push it to follow thru -- both by admonishment when it does "evil" and by praise for when it protects its users from unsavory practices.
What consumers can really fight for Microsoft's philosphy? I have not seen much admirable software/hardware coming from MSFT... so I praise its competitors when they produce something that MSFT seems to be unable to do.
As you know, I've done some food blogging, and nobody wants me to ship back the pasta after I've tasted it. I do try to erase it from my system though.
When it comees to blogging and tech journalism, I have tried to use the ethical tech reviewer's approach to freebies: I'll accept review copies, but I ship them back (or in the case of software, erase them from my system) when the review is done. If I want to continue using the product, I buy it.
I haven't always lived up to that standard, but I try.
But I've also worked as a marketer, and that was the context I was thinking about when I said, "Pay me."
In tech discussions in particular I'm baffled by people who fight hard for Apple or Google, and don't appear to be on those companies' payrolls. What's their motivation?
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