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I am an active StumbleUpon user and for a year or so since I have been using it I’ve never left a negative review. Yes I have thumbed down content that I usually don’t like but I tend to pass on leaving negative review. Last night was a different story though. As I was stumbling my way looking for whats around I came across a site where there was nothing but a page that was directly promoting a product. I don’t mind advertisement but when you are using social web or social media it has to be integrated with something and not just thrown at someone like the traditional media such as TVs and radios do.

For example, if we got an offer to feature a product here at MarketingHackz, you can be assured we wouldn’t just say ” Hey, go ahead and buy it or use it.” We would add something to it, may be point out the benefits and some of the negative aspects of that product. And if it was our own product we would certainly promote it on social media but we would tie it to something that would make it more easily taken by our readers. Anyway, just a quick rant to let you all know that if you are using social media try not to promote your products directly, use it in a context. Yesterday while I was stumbling this is exactly what hapepened. I was stumbling my way looking for some stuff that would interest me and then the ad came up which was like watching TV. It sort of felt like a TV commercial right in the midle of my favorite show. Social web isn’t about that and this is how social media is being manipulated. Don’t get me wrong, I use social media to promote content and may be products but the right way to is by tying it to a context not simply throwing it at someone.

Here is my first negative review that I happened to leave on StumbleUpon. Once again, I am usually not keen on writing negative reviews but this one really pinched my nerves,

Seriously i dont need to see a product page on SU. Its a diff story if they were integrated in an article and were being promoted but hate to see product marketing directly. My opinion when it comes to social web marketing is to use it as a “integrate marketing” rather than “interrupt marketing.” This form of promotion makes it watching commercial on TV.

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