Bauer Nutrition

Monday, December 15, 2008

Marketing Prank Proves the Power of Social Media

Guru marketer Frank Kern recently shocked himself by creating a scam to spook his friend John Reese and discovered the awesome power of social media.

He created a bogus marketing course that closely emulated that of his friend John Reese. He then started a Facebook group to co-opt his followers to post to the new fake site, comment on specially created youtube videos, tweet to their friends about the course and post in forums.

It was started as a joke but soon spread far out past the social media network and people started taking it seriously, even talking about legal proceedings against 'Don Fleece'.

Of course Frank stepped in and owned up way before it got out of hand but I got a mail this morning from him saying he had been frankly shocked at the results and how quickly the message had spread via the social media network and beyond. And for an internet marketer of near 'guru' status that is saying something.

Social media has broken down the formal barriers and encourages people to communicate on their own level and where their passion lies and that is always going to have powerful consequences.

3 comments:

  1. Highly interesting...

    I've not used social media consciously, but it's always been clear that the great bulk of my business comes from word-of-mouth.

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  2. Well I've only been using it consciously for a relatively short period so time will tell whether this is going to prove worthwhile.

    It's certainly made me feel differently about how I market and is now more about me and who I am and what I can do for others rather than them for me, which has to be good for all concerned :)

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  3. Hi, That's funny. I've been watching his mass control pre-launch videos and so that spoof doesn't surprise me. Does go to show that you have to watch what you put out there in cyberspace.

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