Bogomil Shopov
/The Troll Dad/
I was inspired by Lydia‘s talk during FOSDEM to share some thoughts about using trolls as a marketing asset.
Define
I am sure you know what is a Troll, but anyhow there it is, directly from UD:
A dumbass who makes idiotic posts in message boards newsgroups for the sole purpose of pissing people off, often lacking in intelligence. Sometimes compared to people who pass you by on the sidewalk then grab you in inappropriate places.
More “official” definition, can be found here at Wikipedia.
Trolls in action
I know couple of companies that are feeding the trolls, yes they have special policy and people to do that.
The reason is quite simple:
- More trolls
- More “discussions”
- More page views,
- More banner views,
- More money in company’s pocket.
Trolls & flame-wars
I know some companies that are publishing flame-war blog posts to attract more trolls why?
- More trolls = more content
- More content == more developers to fight for their positions
- More developers == more leads
- More leads == More sales
- More sales == More money in company’s pocket.
That’s it.
The 1 company that immediately occured to me as I read this is Sony, especially their Playstation division. Their blog, certainly on the american side is replete with trolls, all defending the object of their cult like devotion against anyone who doesn’t buy into their belief system. Lets not forget the Ocean marketing scandal a while back either, that perticular troll was known to be in the employ of that company.
Mozilla has an experienced full-time employed troll – Asa Dotzler.