I totally agree with you that attacking your readers who leave comments is not acceptable. However, I disagree that it is fair game to attack you. You are just sharing your voice on a topic. I think it is OK for someone to disagree and tell you why they disagree, but for me attacking someone verbally is never OK or necessary. Or have I misunderstood what you meant by attack?

Chapeau!, Danny for taking the time to talk about this issue.
I fully agree with you on that. Insults don’t help and won’t get the discussion any further ahead.
Of course a good discussion requires that all participators agree on that point.
I don’t mean to offend anybody by that last point.

Good job, Sir Danny Brown. Sometimes the comments over here get real feisty! It’s a testament to your own passion that you rouse up the rebels, thinkers, debaters and even the cuddly trolls.

Keep up the great work. Somebody has to. I trust you’ll do the job quite nicely. As you have done for a long time.

[This is an unpaid for comment. Eventhough it seems to clearly favor Danny Brown.]
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First…..Respecting social etiquette vs. flaming, there is significant wisdom in having a range of 2nd comments – or comments to comments, particularly when it comes to unusually good or bad ones. It is just that people are getting smart – and realize how those ‘glowing’ comments are most likely placed with self-subscribing intentions.

Now, regarding your articles, I think they are great from the perspective that they are getting people to think about what real ‘influence’ power social media brings to play, versus thinking about from the perspective of being a ‘joiner’ – which is the primary market perspective of the millennial generation for this media (because most of them are joiners).

By contrast, most businesses do not recognize that the majority of bloggers are older than 45, and that – this socially active generation (past the child-rearing years) are the ones with more powerful written content…. Just because they more have experience to talk about…. And their influence is greater, because their wisdom is clearly reflected in their style and personal (vs. academic) experienceS.

It’s actually quite easy to leverage the most from embracing social media marketing – it’s more influential than conventional media – the last elections should tell anyone that. The way to understand all this is to see it as a ‘social techno science’ between (1) the technology, (2) the activity profile of the participants, and (3) objectives you are seeking to attain. And I’ll get to all that in a minute, but first a quick ‘reality check’.

Business are and should be afraid of social media marketing as it is NOT the familiar one-way conversation, but the conversation is the market…. and that conversation should anything but Advertising! By contrast, the major objectives of this media are centered around… places where people get what they want from other people, versus anything too corporate – like the inner company blog… which means “No Advertising” – at least none that which is self-inflating.

This is the world of people getting support from other people, getting advocates of your ’cause’ (technology, services as a category versus a corporate identity), giving helpful advise or criticism vs. just praises, and a willingness to just get down and be personal.

Likewise, it’s important to see things from the ‘defense’ or ‘necessary evil’ perspective: People are talking about your business everyday – there is nothing you can do to stop it. They also expect you as a caring listening business to seek out their ‘public’ conversations, and respond.

Put another way, if you do hear a big griper and pro-actively respond and fix their problem, the likelihood is pretty good that they will also turn around and become one of your biggest advocates…. and aren’t those are the ‘real’ stories people want to hear about?

By contrast, if you do not respond, but they expect you to find them and do so, your ‘apparent’ lack of concern is a strike against you, from their point of view (and their followers also).

From another marketing perspective, this is similar to long tail marketing but with a ‘twist’ – that being that really social participants are typically aligned with 5-6 other networks, at multiple depths, and that 20% group also represents the highest level of influence.

Danny a post that was well put. People need to remember that each one of us has valid opinions. One of the things I really believe in and have been trying to explain to people is respect in social media. To value other people’s opinions and learn from them. They are equally as right as you to feel what they feel.

Thank you for showing the community respect.

Well done!
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