Matt Haughey, via John Gruber:
I mention this entire story because there are thousands of people all over twitter and blogs that think throwing thousands of dollars at people that describe themselves as a “marketing guru” is the way to increase their company sales. I’m here to say I think that may very well be a waste of money, time, and energy. The Rainbow company makes awesome stuff, has a great website (pretty damn slick all-CSS one at that), and helpful catalog materials (both online and off). They got on my radar when a friend dug up their details for a blog post, in a way no marketing budget could influence.
So maybe instead of getting your company on twitter, paying marketers to mention you are on twitter, and paying people to blog about your company, forget all that and just make awesome stuff that gets people excited about your products, hire people that represent the company well, and when your stuff is so awesome that friends share it with other friends, you may not even need “social media marketing” after all.
The simple truth is that people don’t really change all that much. Business doesn’t change that much. Accounting is accounting, if it’s done with QuickBooks or with a pen on a ledger. Social media doesn’t have the power to alter the world in the way some of the “experts” would have us believe.
I think the public may be getting tired of getting ambushed by social media evangelists. And that’s not a bad thing at all, especially when social media is used to cover up a crappy service, product, or thought. A rotten sandwich will always stink, even if in a nice container.