Its just good marketing. If Scott really cared about not getting "spammed" as he wrongly puts it, let him send an email (or any other non public forum communication) to Daniel. If you put yourself out in the open, be prepared to get some of these zingers.
StefTampa
· 1 year ago
I think it is just smart marekting too.
Shafqat
· 1 year ago
I dont think they did anything wrong. In fact, the guy was offering to help. OK, so it was a sales pitch, but still it was very relevant.
We sometime search Twitter and thank people who mention NewsCred is a positive light, or reach out to people who have suggestions or critiques. Is that wrong? I've never once had anyone complain. In fact, most of the time we get commended for taking the time to listen and reach out.
Shafqat Cofounder NewsCred
Ricardo Lopes
· 1 year ago
I dont think its spam, for one thing, if you dont want people to twit you about things you twitted, definately your in the wrong place. If you would like privacy about some comunication, twitter is not the way to go. That said, i think its a pretty good ideia to use twitter to search for costomers, or evetually end up receiving some good proposals. Anyways, i think all this sending email to twitter to call someone a spammer is totally out of context with what twitter is.
thats my 2 cents.
The Dude Dean
· 1 year ago
I think its a bit overzealous but not spam.
Scott Kaiser
· 1 year ago
A little context here that may not be evident in the article. The tweet I sent to Disqus' Daniel Ha was as follows:
"@danielha I sent you an e-mail earlier today. Would you be able to help w some custom CSS for Disqus? If not, please let me know. Thanks!"
As you can see, I chose e-mail for communication first. Realizing Daniel was online via Twitter at the time, I let him know about the e-mail so he could look out for it.
Let me be clear about something: There were no technical problems on Disqus' end. They have a very good online guide regarding custom CSS and their product. The only reason I contacted Daniel is that he has been very responsive to my questions in the past. I am not a web developer, so I know very little about CSS myself. Daniel answered my question promptly.
More importantly, the Mashable article does not clarify that a second JS-Kit employee contacted me in defense of the first after I specifically said I did not wish to receive unsolicited tweets from them. The second employee claimed that they did not monitor Daniel Ha's tweets or that of his company, however the ONLY way they could have known about my situation is to have searched for "Disqus" on Twitter or monitor Daniel's timeline.
I think it's a bit shady to contact unsolicited people who mention your competitor, but I might be able to live with that. To then continue to contact them and try to deny that you're doing that, in my opinion that then makes you a spammer.
Even if I would have been interested in JS-Kit's product, I would NEVER use them now based on their less-than=forthcoming business practices.
Luis Galarza
· 1 year ago
This is indeed savvy Internet marketing, and is not spam at all, because as you put it, the whole communication process was out in public.
The problem here, is exactly the ignorance of many non-tech web users that think everything related to marketing is spam. And this people are the ones that will get angry about any one contact them to offer their products or services to help them fix their problem... And many of this people have the potential say no to companies with the best solutions for them.
For this reason online businesses that want to use this Twitter strategy to gain targeted leads, need to play carefully. At least until Twitter make it official to stop any type of marketing communication, then still not spam, but it will be against Twitter's terms.
Palin Ningthoujam
· 1 year ago
Hi, this is something that has been happening in the corporate world for ages. I think that's called aggression. You cannot expect to have a great sales sitting quietly, can you? Nothing new about it. Just that it has come online now.
Johny Ho
· 1 year ago
There's nothing new to this. It's not exactly wrong, as by making your needs somewhat public, you're giving other parties the opportunity to approach you.
Giacomo
· 1 year ago
"Do JS-Kit’s actions cross the line?" I think they are border-line ones, very much dependent on the customer sensitivity, which means that's a matter of employee skill to understand who is worth of being contacted and who not, and at which point is better to give up.
Ling
· 1 year ago
First of all, when you're putting something out in the public domain, one should assume that its going to be used to the extreme, and be prepared for that.
Secondly, by airing this issue on Mashable, you now give more free publicity to this company you're trying to get back at. If I was you, I'd drop the subject, and be more discreet in future. Sucks, but that's the way it is.
Scott Kaiser
· 1 year ago
I find it interesting that so many people say that this was not spam but just "aggressive marketing."
So be it. Aggressive marketing then. However what does it benefit the company doing it when it turns off the potential customer so?
I am wondering how many of you are reading my follow-up comment clarifying things the Mashable article does not make clear. Is it still just "aggressive marketing" when that same company contacts me a second time AFTER I've asked them not to? Keep in mind that I blocked their first employee that contacted me so they had to have a different employee contact me the second time. Should they not have realized that perhaps I didn't want to hear from them anymore?
My guess would be that if you were having a discussion with someone on a bus about the rain, and someone came up to you that you did not know or invite to the conversation started telling you about the umbrellas they sell, many of you would tell them to mind their own business. How is this any different?
Arturo Servin
· 1 year ago
Very clever marketing I would say.
As other comment said, Twitter is public. So if you want to use it, then be prepared to received spam, malware or whatever is there or it will be. If you do not want it, just protect your twits or use IM or other communication method.
SPAM will be a problem in microblogging, that is for sure. And spammers will have more info about you, so spamm will be targered. In this case I think is overreacted.
Randy Jensen
· 1 year ago
I can't even begin to see how this is spamming. This is brilliant marketing at it's best. Kudos to the JS-Kit guys for getting it right.
How is it any different from targeted ads that Google tries to serve up? If you don't want it, ignore it and move on.
Also, if they are really annoying you, block them. End of story.
P.S. I use Disqus on all my blogs and love it. Never used JS-Kit, but I'm going to give them a shot now ;)
Steven Hodson
· 1 year ago
sorry but any company that pulls this kind of crap regardless of how *brilliant* you might think it is would end up on my blocked list
Jim
· 1 year ago
Can't really blame them for taking that sales approach. They were a bit too aggressive, which resulted in poor sales obviously. They'll learn and adapt, or go out of business. I can see this becoming a much larger problem as a program like twitter grows, but on the other hand it is really easy to just block them.
MichelleBB
· 1 year ago
Savvy marketing is about connecting with your customer (or potential customer, in this case) at the right time with the right offer and through the right channel. It's obvious from Scott's response that JS-Kit did not adhere to his preferences nor take the time to figure out how to best market to him. It's therefore a poorly executed campaign.
That said, I wouldn't go so far as to call this spam either; the Twitter conversations were out in the open, even the second follow-up Tweet.
I believe you must judge the success of a marketing effort by the end result - in this case, JS-Kit turned off a potential buyer, and even worse, turned him into a detractor.
JS-Kit, what are you going to do to address Scott's concerns? Will you adjust your methods?
RY
· 1 year ago
This has been happening on forums for ages. Salespeople checking forums and privately contacting those who seem to need their services.
This is what Google also does, check your keywords and show you ads. Except that here a human seems to be involved in the contact process.
akaraff
· 1 year ago
This is pretty humorous. Scott is placing information into the public domain and for some reason he thinks he has the right to some kind privacy. If you want privacy stay out of the public domain. If you want to receive information about a certain topic or product then tweet about it. I would hate to see this post and others like it hurt the ability for companies and/or people to send me information that I am interested in. In this world of information overload, it is nice to have other folks searching or recommending things for me. The reality is that if I get this type of communication sent to me and I don't like it I just block them. If I get this type of communication sent to me and I like it then I follow them. I have received far more good information than bad.
Here's a thought. Maybe you should write McAfee and ask them to build a twitter spam plugin. I wouldn't recommend using twitter to send the message or you may receive some good suggestions from folks looking to help solve your problem.
PJ Brunet
· 1 year ago
Disqus drama queen: If you want us to ignore you, tweet privately.
James Holden
· 1 year ago
You cannot accuse someone of being a spammer if you put your contact details out in the public domain. This is very clever marketing!
Andrea Yager
· 1 year ago
I think I read most of the story and follow up comments, and have to say Scott is lucky to be making money today!
Every medium, free, and often paid for, is a venue for others to promote themselves. Unsolicited! Most businesses cant exist in a vacuum. Many of us post on this blog for recognition, and the occasional click back to my site (you know you want to click on my name - go for it!) :)
Someone is overreacting here. Either Mashable for calling you irate, or you for being irate. I can see where you would be 'annoyed' or 'disinterested' in pursuing a biz relationship, but irate is a serious word for something so benign and frankly common.
Scott Kaiser
· 1 year ago
Andrea-
Yes, irate is a bit of a strong word. I was annoyed, and I used the word appalled in my e-mail, but in the end the problem was reasonably easily solved by me hitting the "block" button on Twitter.
Jason Lancaster
· 1 year ago
Twitter is all about "noise." That's what you do when you make something public there... you expect to hear about things related to the thing you made public. If you expect it to be some sort of private opt-in conversation only, you're in the wrong place.
Since Scott's request to not be contacted was made in a public place, JS-Kit had every right to make their response and position (even if it isn't right) known to the world and right back at Scott.
Eric
· 1 year ago
If this is not spam then it is some other kind of junk mail... uh twitter. What they are doing is sending unsolicited messages to a competator's customers, that is spam when it is email, and spam on twitter.
Jeffry Houser
· 1 year ago
A lot of people do this sort of thing. They probably have a "Track" set up on certain terms and send follow up 'marketing' responses based on those tracks.
Crunchy
· 1 year ago
If products sold themselves people wouldn't have to spam; unfortunately, unless your name is Apple that is far from the case. So spammers have to do what they have to do. BTW if you're in need of a good laugh visit Digitalfuntown.com
I can understand where a lot of people think that this was just marketing, but let me make two last points:
-I was upset because I didn't feel that I was necessarily broadcasting my tweet. Obviously I should have used the "d" direct message and not the "@" reply. I learned a lesson about how to use Twitter in that regard.
-THE LARGER QUESTION IS: If "aggressive marketing" like this on Twitter is permitted and even encouraged, where will it end? At what point will it make Twitter unusable.
CONSIDER THIS EXAMPLE: I tweet to my friends that my plane just arrived back into Phoenix and am home now. Suddenly I get tweets from Jet Blue, United, US Airways, Orbitz, Expedia, Airport Parking, & a host of others looking for keywords on Twitter like "plane" "airport" or "jet" Consider if they set-up a bot that looks for those keywords and ends up sending you multiple tweets. It would instantly reduce Twitter to nothing more than a web-based system of junk mail.
That is the impetus for me being upset at JS-Kit's marketing. Sure it might seem permittable by some, but what will it lead to?
Matt
· 1 year ago
"...web-based system of junk mail..."
Bloggers have already turned Twitter into this with the use of automated scripts that quadruple tweet each time they write a blog post... so we can't blame Orbitz and Expedia for just following suit.
It's not as idealistic as all that... you use a free service where your profile is public (though you have been given ample opportunity by the service provider to rectify that if you so desired)... you issue public messages that are open to reply. That's the way it is... sometimes those replies might be motivated by... gasp.. commercial interest... holy fucking shit... when did the web turn into a place to try and make money??
Snowboardjohn
· 1 year ago
It's a good example of right place, right time, wrong message.
If the guy had approached Scott attempting to HELP him without selling him anything, he would have built some trust, likeability, rapport, and so on.
If Scott appreciated the advice and the interaction, he would have clicked on the guys profile, seen the link to his website and investigated the situation further.
Social Media Marketing is about relationships, and understanding that to get a date, you need to ask for a phone numbers first, and to ask for a phone number, you need to get a name, and to get a name, you need to say something interesting, relevant, personal.... get it?
Snowboardjohn
· 1 year ago
Didn't some guy write a book about this kind of thing... a guy named Seth... something about a word starting with "P"...
Matt
· 1 year ago
Disqus is neat.
JS-Kit has an ugly website.
Nancy Cole
· 1 year ago
Hi all,
What a great conversation and an important issue.
To be clear, what we try to do at JS-Kit, is to reach out to folks on twitter who are selecting a commenting/rating/polling system, or wishing for features that we already have. Then,we will jump in and ask them to check us out -- esp if they are debating between a couple of systems but haven't mentioned us. Typically, we don't tweet people who are already customers of a competitor and market the same product to them.
Recently there have been a lot of tweets from people who are looking to import comments from other systems, which we do, so we will respond and let them know that. We like to point out features that are different from others like full SEO support, portable visitor profile, etc. If, in this case, Khris was overzealous and responded to an existing customer of a competitor, then we were working too fast and got a little excited. We will make an effort to communicate with people during a decision-making process (similar to what the competition does if you read their tweets too -- to be crediting others for their savvy marketing tactics :)) and who are looking for features that we have that others don't.
Thanks again for all of the discourse and interest. Always happy to hear from you. Nancy @nancycole nancy@js-kit.com
Scott Kaiser
· 1 year ago
Oh Nancy-
What a good little PR hack you are!
Why didn't you mention to everyone that *you* were the employee that sent me another tweet AFTER I asked Khris not to?
Why didn't you further mention that you DENIED following Disqus or Daniel Ha on Twitter, yet that is the ONLY way Khris could have found that original tweet of mine to Daniel Ha (you weren't following me and neither was Khris).
What bothers me is not so much that Khris did it in the first place, but that you contacted me via Twitter after I made it clear I didn't want to be contacted by your company AND that you then denied what you admit to in your comment above. Should I resort to saying "liar, liar, pants of fire"?
If you can follow discussions on Twitter to send people unsolicited tweets about your company, I suppose I can do the same. I have just set up a new Twitter ID with the sole purpose of watching you, Khris, and your company. Anyone you contact I will also contact and tell them what a bad experience I've had with your company and advise them to stay away. After all, if all you and Khris are doing is "aggressive marketing" according other commentors, then I'm just aggressively marketing against you, right?
All is fair in love and marketing I guess.
Nancy Cole
· 1 year ago
Scott, you mean this tweet?
nancycole: @SVKinAZ actually, neither @khrisloux nor I follow daniel or his co. but do look for improvements in commenting services. be well.
Seems innocuous enough, or so I thought.
Your request to Khris was that he not send you unsolicited spam. My reply was an FYI to you/correction of info (we don't "follow" Daniel or his company, but rather search for areas where people are looking for help).
Anyway, thanks for the compliment and attention. This is all seeming rather dramatic for one little tweet offering help.
As a twitter acquaintance of mine likes to put it... "keep it classy"! :)
Out. N
Scott Kaiser
· 1 year ago
I don't know Nancy. I always thought that "stop" in fact meant stop, and good companies would know enough to honor a person's request to stop contacting them. Instead you felt (for some inexplicable reason) that I would actually welcome another tweet from your company after asking you not to send me anymore. Strange reasoning that I don't understand. Must be this "marketing" everyone is talking about.
Drama? Yep. The reason? You've been exposed. Worse yet, someone is determined to do something about it. Drama also includes lies- something you did when you said you don't follow Disqus on Twitter. You may not "follow" them per se, but you obviously search twitter for them. My tweet to Daniel Ha that Khris came across did not include the words "comments" or "commenting" so he couldn't have found it searching for those.
I personally like the way that this will now show up in Google search results when your company is searched for. It will give people a better idea of your business practices and let them make a more informed choice about your company. I know a lot of comments here have been supportive of your "aggressive marketing" technique, but I know in the real world that won't fly. How many people *like* receiving telemarketing phone calls even when it's a product they might otherwise be interested in? Why would the Do Not Call list even exist if nearly everybody liked telemarketing calls? What you are doing is roughly equivalent to that. Sure, it might get you a few sales here and there, but in the long run I think it will give your company more of a black eye than help it. That's something any *good* marketer would know.
Susan C
· 1 year ago
Gotta love the irony!
The guy who initiated this b/c of a tweet he thought spam has decided to do same multiplied by x on twitter! Watch out twitterland!
Disqus must be hating this drama renegade.
John H
· 1 year ago
Scott, with all due respect, you're embarrassing yourself. Look, even if you consider yourself a tragic victim, get over it. There are far worse things in life than your apparently traumatic experience, rest assured. As marketers, JS-Kit comes across as aggressive, but as a person, you come across as uptight, pompous, self-obsessed, you get the point.
Big deal, the "spam" took a few minutes out of your precious life. You've spent much more time than that complaining about it. And your intentionally harmful campaign against JS-Kit, which is so ironic and hypocritical that it is seriously funny, will waste even more time.
For your own sake, get over yourself. And I hereby formally, officially, and legally grant you permission to respond to me, but I promise I won't respond back. I have already made my point (as you made yours long ago) and frankly have more important things to do than to bicker over it (as you continue to do with yours).
Chris Heuer
· 1 year ago
Lets also talk about the amount of money some people force companies to waste in defence of trying to do the right thing. Do you have any idea of how many people I dont know who tweet at me to get my attention? I am not even well known really, and I have people attacking me for no reason (they are blocked but show up in Summize which is what I rely on).
I know Khris fairly well and can vouch for the fact that he is one the nicest, most sincere people I have ever met in the technology field. He is pro open standards and against spam. The wild thing that I noticed in reading this thread is that no one pointed out that Khris was not trying to sell anything, he was trying to give away something - he is trying to help you and you got upset. Yes he is promoting his service, of course. What about all of the Firefox advocates who tell users of other browsers they need to switch, are they spamming?
I don't think it is aggressive at all, but rather smart. It is also the matter of human beings talking to other human beings, not bots responding automatically. The humans in the company responded in a human way to acknowledge Scott's request... the company did not spam him again - it publicly commented to the person talking about them publicly.
These are the opportunities we have to figure out where the line is and help educate more people about what is generally acceptable and what is not. That said, what is welcome by one person is not welcome by another, and that is ok, and that is how it should be. So Scott, you are entitled to your opinion, it just seems that most other people disagree...
All Comments
We sometime search Twitter and thank people who mention NewsCred is a positive light, or reach out to people who have suggestions or critiques. Is that wrong? I've never once had anyone complain. In fact, most of the time we get commended for taking the time to listen and reach out.
Shafqat
Cofounder NewsCred
If you would like privacy about some comunication, twitter is not the way to go.
That said, i think its a pretty good ideia to use twitter to search for costomers, or evetually end up receiving some good proposals.
Anyways, i think all this sending email to twitter to call someone a spammer is totally out of context with what twitter is.
thats my 2 cents.
"@danielha I sent you an e-mail earlier today. Would you be able to help w some custom CSS for Disqus? If not, please let me know. Thanks!"
As you can see, I chose e-mail for communication first. Realizing Daniel was online via Twitter at the time, I let him know about the e-mail so he could look out for it.
Let me be clear about something: There were no technical problems on Disqus' end. They have a very good online guide regarding custom CSS and their product. The only reason I contacted Daniel is that he has been very responsive to my questions in the past. I am not a web developer, so I know very little about CSS myself. Daniel answered my question promptly.
More importantly, the Mashable article does not clarify that a second JS-Kit employee contacted me in defense of the first after I specifically said I did not wish to receive unsolicited tweets from them. The second employee claimed that they did not monitor Daniel Ha's tweets or that of his company, however the ONLY way they could have known about my situation is to have searched for "Disqus" on Twitter or monitor Daniel's timeline.
I think it's a bit shady to contact unsolicited people who mention your competitor, but I might be able to live with that. To then continue to contact them and try to deny that you're doing that, in my opinion that then makes you a spammer.
Even if I would have been interested in JS-Kit's product, I would NEVER use them now based on their less-than=forthcoming business practices.
The problem here, is exactly the ignorance of many non-tech web users that think everything related to marketing is spam. And this people are the ones that will get angry about any one contact them to offer their products or services to help them fix their problem... And many of this people have the potential say no to companies with the best solutions for them.
For this reason online businesses that want to use this Twitter strategy to gain targeted leads, need to play carefully. At least until Twitter make it official to stop any type of marketing communication, then still not spam, but it will be against Twitter's terms.
I think they are border-line ones, very much dependent on the customer sensitivity, which means that's a matter of employee skill to understand who is worth of being contacted and who not, and at which point is better to give up.
Secondly, by airing this issue on Mashable, you now give more free publicity to this company you're trying to get back at. If I was you, I'd drop the subject, and be more discreet in future. Sucks, but that's the way it is.
So be it. Aggressive marketing then. However what does it benefit the company doing it when it turns off the potential customer so?
I am wondering how many of you are reading my follow-up comment clarifying things the Mashable article does not make clear. Is it still just "aggressive marketing" when that same company contacts me a second time AFTER I've asked them not to? Keep in mind that I blocked their first employee that contacted me so they had to have a different employee contact me the second time. Should they not have realized that perhaps I didn't want to hear from them anymore?
My guess would be that if you were having a discussion with someone on a bus about the rain, and someone came up to you that you did not know or invite to the conversation started telling you about the umbrellas they sell, many of you would tell them to mind their own business. How is this any different?
As other comment said, Twitter is public. So if you want to use it, then be prepared to received spam, malware or whatever is there or it will be. If you do not want it, just protect your twits or use IM or other communication method.
SPAM will be a problem in microblogging, that is for sure. And spammers will have more info about you, so spamm will be targered. In this case I think is overreacted.
How is it any different from targeted ads that Google tries to serve up? If you don't want it, ignore it and move on.
Also, if they are really annoying you, block them. End of story.
P.S. I use Disqus on all my blogs and love it. Never used JS-Kit, but I'm going to give them a shot now ;)
That said, I wouldn't go so far as to call this spam either; the Twitter conversations were out in the open, even the second follow-up Tweet.
I believe you must judge the success of a marketing effort by the end result - in this case, JS-Kit turned off a potential buyer, and even worse, turned him into a detractor.
JS-Kit, what are you going to do to address Scott's concerns? Will you adjust your methods?
This is what Google also does, check your keywords and show you ads. Except that here a human seems to be involved in the contact process.
Here's a thought. Maybe you should write McAfee and ask them to build a twitter spam plugin. I wouldn't recommend using twitter to send the message or you may receive some good suggestions from folks looking to help solve your problem.
Every medium, free, and often paid for, is a venue for others to promote themselves. Unsolicited! Most businesses cant exist in a vacuum. Many of us post on this blog for recognition, and the occasional click back to my site (you know you want to click on my name - go for it!) :)
Someone is overreacting here. Either Mashable for calling you irate, or you for being irate. I can see where you would be 'annoyed' or 'disinterested' in pursuing a biz relationship, but irate is a serious word for something so benign and frankly common.
Yes, irate is a bit of a strong word. I was annoyed, and I used the word appalled in my e-mail, but in the end the problem was reasonably easily solved by me hitting the "block" button on Twitter.
Since Scott's request to not be contacted was made in a public place, JS-Kit had every right to make their response and position (even if it isn't right) known to the world and right back at Scott.
http://www.digitalfuntown.com/
-I was upset because I didn't feel that I was necessarily broadcasting my tweet. Obviously I should have used the "d" direct message and not the "@" reply. I learned a lesson about how to use Twitter in that regard.
-THE LARGER QUESTION IS: If "aggressive marketing" like this on Twitter is permitted and even encouraged, where will it end? At what point will it make Twitter unusable.
CONSIDER THIS EXAMPLE: I tweet to my friends that my plane just arrived back into Phoenix and am home now. Suddenly I get tweets from Jet Blue, United, US Airways, Orbitz, Expedia, Airport Parking, & a host of others looking for keywords on Twitter like "plane" "airport" or "jet" Consider if they set-up a bot that looks for those keywords and ends up sending you multiple tweets. It would instantly reduce Twitter to nothing more than a web-based system of junk mail.
That is the impetus for me being upset at JS-Kit's marketing. Sure it might seem permittable by some, but what will it lead to?
Bloggers have already turned Twitter into this with the use of automated scripts that quadruple tweet each time they write a blog post... so we can't blame Orbitz and Expedia for just following suit.
It's not as idealistic as all that... you use a free service where your profile is public (though you have been given ample opportunity by the service provider to rectify that if you so desired)... you issue public messages that are open to reply. That's the way it is... sometimes those replies might be motivated by... gasp.. commercial interest... holy fucking shit... when did the web turn into a place to try and make money??
If the guy had approached Scott attempting to HELP him without selling him anything, he would have built some trust, likeability, rapport, and so on.
If Scott appreciated the advice and the interaction, he would have clicked on the guys profile, seen the link to his website and investigated the situation further.
Social Media Marketing is about relationships, and understanding that to get a date, you need to ask for a phone numbers first, and to ask for a phone number, you need to get a name, and to get a name, you need to say something interesting, relevant, personal.... get it?
JS-Kit has an ugly website.
What a great conversation and an important issue.
To be clear, what we try to do at JS-Kit, is to reach out to folks on twitter who are selecting a commenting/rating/polling system, or wishing for features that we already have. Then,we will jump in and ask them to check us out -- esp if they are debating between a couple of systems but haven't mentioned us. Typically, we don't tweet people who are already customers of a competitor and market the same product to them.
Recently there have been a lot of tweets from people who are looking to import comments from other systems, which we do, so we will respond and let them know that. We like to point out features that are different from others like full SEO support, portable visitor profile, etc. If, in this case, Khris was overzealous and responded to an existing customer of a competitor, then we were working too fast and got a little excited. We will make an effort to communicate with people during a decision-making process (similar to what the competition does if you read their tweets too -- to be crediting others for their savvy marketing tactics :)) and who are looking for features that we have that others don't.
Thanks again for all of the discourse and interest. Always happy to hear from you.
Nancy
@nancycole
nancy@js-kit.com
What a good little PR hack you are!
Why didn't you mention to everyone that *you* were the employee that sent me another tweet AFTER I asked Khris not to?
Why didn't you further mention that you DENIED following Disqus or Daniel Ha on Twitter, yet that is the ONLY way Khris could have found that original tweet of mine to Daniel Ha (you weren't following me and neither was Khris).
What bothers me is not so much that Khris did it in the first place, but that you contacted me via Twitter after I made it clear I didn't want to be contacted by your company AND that you then denied what you admit to in your comment above. Should I resort to saying "liar, liar, pants of fire"?
If you can follow discussions on Twitter to send people unsolicited tweets about your company, I suppose I can do the same. I have just set up a new Twitter ID with the sole purpose of watching you, Khris, and your company. Anyone you contact I will also contact and tell them what a bad experience I've had with your company and advise them to stay away. After all, if all you and Khris are doing is "aggressive marketing" according other commentors, then I'm just aggressively marketing against you, right?
All is fair in love and marketing I guess.
nancycole: @SVKinAZ actually, neither @khrisloux nor I follow daniel or his co. but do look for improvements in commenting services. be well.
Seems innocuous enough, or so I thought.
Your request to Khris was that he not send you unsolicited spam. My reply was an FYI to you/correction of info (we don't "follow" Daniel or his company, but rather search for areas where people are looking for help).
Anyway, thanks for the compliment and attention. This is all seeming rather dramatic for one little tweet offering help.
As a twitter acquaintance of mine likes to put it... "keep it classy"! :)
Out.
N
Drama? Yep. The reason? You've been exposed. Worse yet, someone is determined to do something about it. Drama also includes lies- something you did when you said you don't follow Disqus on Twitter. You may not "follow" them per se, but you obviously search twitter for them. My tweet to Daniel Ha that Khris came across did not include the words "comments" or "commenting" so he couldn't have found it searching for those.
I personally like the way that this will now show up in Google search results when your company is searched for. It will give people a better idea of your business practices and let them make a more informed choice about your company. I know a lot of comments here have been supportive of your "aggressive marketing" technique, but I know in the real world that won't fly. How many people *like* receiving telemarketing phone calls even when it's a product they might otherwise be interested in? Why would the Do Not Call list even exist if nearly everybody liked telemarketing calls? What you are doing is roughly equivalent to that. Sure, it might get you a few sales here and there, but in the long run I think it will give your company more of a black eye than help it. That's something any *good* marketer would know.
The guy who initiated this b/c of a tweet he thought spam has decided to do same multiplied by x on twitter! Watch out twitterland!
Disqus must be hating this drama renegade.
Big deal, the "spam" took a few minutes out of your precious life. You've spent much more time than that complaining about it. And your intentionally harmful campaign against JS-Kit, which is so ironic and hypocritical that it is seriously funny, will waste even more time.
For your own sake, get over yourself. And I hereby formally, officially, and legally grant you permission to respond to me, but I promise I won't respond back. I have already made my point (as you made yours long ago) and frankly have more important things to do than to bicker over it (as you continue to do with yours).
I know Khris fairly well and can vouch for the fact that he is one the nicest, most sincere people I have ever met in the technology field. He is pro open standards and against spam. The wild thing that I noticed in reading this thread is that no one pointed out that Khris was not trying to sell anything, he was trying to give away something - he is trying to help you and you got upset. Yes he is promoting his service, of course. What about all of the Firefox advocates who tell users of other browsers they need to switch, are they spamming?
I don't think it is aggressive at all, but rather smart. It is also the matter of human beings talking to other human beings, not bots responding automatically. The humans in the company responded in a human way to acknowledge Scott's request... the company did not spam him again - it publicly commented to the person talking about them publicly.
These are the opportunities we have to figure out where the line is and help educate more people about what is generally acceptable and what is not. That said, what is welcome by one person is not welcome by another, and that is ok, and that is how it should be. So Scott, you are entitled to your opinion, it just seems that most other people disagree...