Astroturfing
My colleague David Krejci has an internal social media newsletter that I really enjoy. It is called Your New Times and I always learn from it. This week’s edition focused on something called Astroturfing which is defined as fake buzz. The article in the newsletter written by “stingray” is about how people fake comments or create controversies on YouTube, Facebook and other sites to make them look like they have lots of friends or visitors or detractors. Using stingray’s definition — Astroturfing is when a public relations campaign seeks to create the impression of spontaneous, grassroots behavior (hence the reference to the artificial grass Astroturf). Astroturfing is a prime example of what we call badvocacy.
I wonder how it can be stopped or found out. If anyone knows, please let me know. I am always interested in how to combat badvocacy.
Leslie:
Interesting to see you sourced the image from my blog, but not the astorturfing posts. Always god to link your sources…
Geoff, thanks for this note and apologies. To make amends, here is your blog link….http://www.livingstonbuzz.com/blog/
Glad you contacted me. Best, lgr