Social123: When your social life becomes the target of creepy tactics

Unethical practices

In my book, scavenging the web to build up detailed profiles through social media and other sources is something I feel is freaky and unethical.

...Social123 provides demographic and social data on any company’s Twitter followers including their e-mail address... We also append existing contact databases with publicly available information from Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn...

Fair practice

Don't get me wrong - I believe in engaging your audience through social media and enriching customer profiles through the information you have legitimately collected - with consent. Is what social123 doing legal? If you use their service will you put yourself into at legal risk? For example, in Canada, read "Fair information principles" from the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA). Among the ten points, see those:

• define the purposes of its collection
• obtain consent
• limit its collection, use and disclosure

Do you feel what social123 is doing abides by PIPEDA principles?

The WAA Code of Ethics

As an analyst, I strive to follow strong ethics and I embrace the WAA Code of Ethics. I feel it is our collective responsibility to call out those who we believe are not helping our industry. Heck! If this company is so good about social media they will certainly get an alert within minutes of my posting... let's see what happen!

So, tell me... am I freaking? Am I the only one who think the practice of "data appending service" is unethical and potentially illegal?

For the record

The first time I got their spam I didn't disclose the company name and simply replied. I shared my concern on twitter and G+... I played fair.


But the same Jo Turner (no LinkedIn profile...) spammed me again with the same type of message. I had clearly indicated in my first reply that I was uncomfortable with their service - to which I never got any feedback.

Mistakes:

• #1 - Spamming
• #2 - Not replying to my comment
• #3 - Spamming again...
• #4 - This whole concept of building up profiles!

So here it is for you pleasure - and I will continue to update as it unfolds:

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From: Bo Turner [mailto:bo.turner@social123.com] 
Sent: June-05-12 17:33
To: stephane
Subject: Monetizing Social Media for Marketing Automation

Stephane,
My company, Social123, provides demographic and social data on any company’s Twitter followers including their e-mail address. I found your information using our techniques and thought you may be interested in learning more. This information can be obtained for your company, industry, association, or even your competition.

We also append existing contact databases with publicly available information from Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn – and score them based off of their content mentions so you can reach out to the people who matter most.

Please let me know if you have a couple of minutes to discuss.
 
Bo Turner
Senior Sales Executive
www.Social123.com
(864) 494-7488

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From: Stephane Hamel
Sent: June-05-12 17:38
To: 'Bo Turner'
Subject: RE: Monetizing Social Media for Marketing Automation

Hey you – if you want to be serious with social media, start by abiding by stronger ethical rules about spamming and check the profile of those you are talking to…

BIG MISTAKE!

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From: Bo Turner
Sent: June-23-12 11:15
To: stephanehamel
Subject: Social Followers Plus
Hello Stephane,

I hope this week is off to a grea start! I know you weren’t expecting my email but I thought our new SocialFollowers+ would be of interest. My company, Social123, provides a completely automated system that will find demographic and social data for your social followers. We can append this data with SocialPoints+ – our customized scoring platform - which helps you rank your most influential contacts. We can also append an email address for many of the contacts. 

I found your information using our techniques and thought you may be interested in learning more. If there is a specific contact list, twitter handle or crm list you would like to append with social data, social points and emails, we would love to help.

You can sign up for free and see 150 results here http://www.social123.com/register. I am here to answer any questions and would love the opportunity to connect.
Best-

Bo Turner
Director of Strategic Accounts
Bo.Turner@social123.com
Social123 – Monetize Social Media
C: (864) 494-7488

You say Analytics Maturity Quotient? I say wtf!

From: Jim Sterne
Subject: RE: What is your organization's Analytics Maturity?
Am I correct that you have seen this??
...

People in the web online digital analytics know of my work and my passion for the topic of analytics maturity.

I won't disclose the original source of the email Jim forwarded me in order to protect the "innocent". The reminder of the message is a nicely written marketing pitch about yet another maturity model from an agency... inviting you to fill out a survey in exchange for a promise to eventually get a summary of the results.

Never heard of them – and honestly, I frown when I see this type of article… Pointing to a bunch of high-profile company names and a well known and trusted news site. +1 for building credibility!

I’m surprised this news site even published such a superficial article… The survey as some blatant usability errors and is highly subjective. I don’t pretend the Online Analytics Maturity Model is perfect - far from it - but at least I don’t position it as a magical solution. Filling their survey gives you… nothing but a promise to get the results!

Oh! And there is a paper, conveniently called a "framework". I downloaded it – of course, after filling a lead form… and surprise, surprise! There isn't much there other than marketing fluff… It basically repeats the same article and the survey.

But worse of all. The article proposes a fancy math formula - a clever way to sound more scientific and rigorous:

L for Leadership, P for People, D for Decision Making Process (instead of P for Process, which would have been too simple... but that letter was already taken! doh!), etc. So you need 0.3 more people and 0.2D, and some sulfur and a fresh frog eye.

Where the hell is this formula coming from? What was the methodology to come up with it? What are the supporting arguments?

I have seen numerous models claiming to address “analytics maturity” but in almost every instance, those lack any serious research, supporting arguments, and end up being a lure for leads… I have even seen agencies doing a rip-off of my work without citing source or reference despite the fact I have always openly said the OAMM is there to be used, reused and abused. That’s how it can stand the test of fire – and I’m all for agencies and vendors to use it – as long as they cite the source and provide me with feedback if they think there should be any changes.

My take

It as been said the first benefit of a maturity model is the conversation it sparks. But please, PLEASE... do your homework and seek a model that have a minimal level of decency!

Some facts:

• a summary of the OAMM paper is available (without any requirement to give your email or other info) and the full version is available upon request;
• when you fill out the OAMM self-assessment - as did over 500 organizations so far - you get immediate feedback and we will not bug you with a sales pitch (unless you specifically ask for a follow-up!);
• you can read about the numerous elements covered by the OAMM in my posts at Online-Behavior.com;
• you can enroll in a workshop to learn more - next workshop at eMetrics Boston, September 30th;
• you are welcome to use the model and expand upon it - the only thing I ask is you cite proper reference and if you have suggestions for improvement, please let me know!

In the coming days, I will make the OAMM self-assessment available as a widget. Agencies and vendors will be able to easily integrate it to their own site while making sure their data is available to them while contributing to the larger benchmark pool.

Forces of nature: donate to the Red Cross

On my way to Vancouver, cruising at 30,000 feet in the air, somewhere over Washington state. A flash catches my attention - dozens of thunder strikes lights the clouds, down below. Quite an impressive show, certainly a huge thunderstorm. I watch, fascinated by the forces of nature.

Then, further away, there's a strange orange glow. Must be a city. No! Suddenly I understand! Earth is literally on fire! It is huge, several times bigger than the nearest town, softly illuminated by the white city lights.

Wildfire over Washington state

Nature in all its furry - beautifully strong and violently scary. I think of those who see their neighborhood being destroyed, their houses ravaged and turned into dust - helpless.

So I did what I could even if I’m hundreds of miles away - I donated to the American Red Cross.