marty, over at the aimclear blog wrote a post a few days ago, outlining ‘social rock star rules for little people‘, to which i have been meaning to write a response for a few days now. initially i was going to write a point by point response but after reading the rant a few times i have decided that there is really only one point that marty is making, that he thinks there is hypocrisy in what the ‘social rock stars’ do themselves and what they preach to ‘the little people’.
now i won’t argue that there is no hypocrisy because there certainly is some. there are those (and quite a few of them) that preach ‘netiquette’ to others but will resort to anything when it comes to promoting themselves. on the contrary, i want to point out that this is not a standard feature of your average ‘social rock star’ in fact, in the social bookmarking sphere, (the one niche that i can attest to) there is no ‘us versus them’ mentality.
you are absolutely incorrect when you say,
no asking rock star diggers to consider content if there’s a possible vote involved. they complain about it in private and public as a violation of the soul and integrity of social media. they deride the little people that made them famous and bitch about little people’s use of networking tactics rock stars use everyday…sane, healthy, and respectful content promotion among friends. networking is how they got to be rock stars! i believe in the wisdom of the mob too. tell the rock stars that mobs have leaders, who lead by evangelizing, and to suggest otherwise is ludicrous.
before i even talk about asking for diggs, let me tell you about asking for submissions. there are close to a dozen prominent content producers that contact me and my friends (i’m talking about digg and top diggers) daily to ask for help in submitting and promoting their content and we do it with a smile and not in exchange for any kind of benefit other than to make a new friend. they would tell you that your accusations against top diggers are rubbish. furthermore when it comes to asking for diggs, the only thing that anyone has spoken out against is mass, blind, shout-spamming as a means of getting votes. other than that, instant-message a person, strike a conversation, ask for as many diggs as you want, just don’t use people.
in fact, let me point out a comment i made on alister’s blog many months ago,
hi alister,
thanks for the kind words. you know i was having the same conversation with wendy (emomsathome.com) the other day. i don’t mind submitting content for anyone and i never ask for favors, money, or anything of that nature. the only thing i say is that if you want me to submit something for you, feel free to ping me, but please please please make sure that the content is digg-worthy because i hate saying no.
apart from that, if it helps you get traffic or reach whatever other goals anyone as a content producer has, i am more than happy to oblige.
and i’m not pointing this out to blow my own horn, but because this comment is representative of most of the people that i’ve come to know over the years. i could say the same for andy, reg, karim, tamar, and 99% of the other top diggers i know. if you still hold your opinion, i can only suggest talking to one of them before judging all of them.
