Secure your presence online, get traffic on your website or social network profile, target potential customers and talk about them so you can be noticed and – hopefully – hired… The Internet is full of (often) contradictory advices on how to exploit the communication tools to increase the business and get new clients.
Of course there is nothing wrong in using marketing techniques like these, especially by complying with the McCann-Ericson motto: “Truth Well Told”. Nevertheless I find unfair to use this “Trojan Horse” approach: pretending to be nice – or talking about some specific issues – ? just because of the chance to be spotted and hired.
When, together with Stefano Chiccarelli, I wrote Spaghetti Hacker I couldn’t even foresee its success: 10.000 copies sold back in the late nineties, when the Internet wasn’t so available and with no support of a PR agent. We got media coverage, conference invitations and – yes – a fair share of business. And the tide, after almost twenty years, is still high since we (Stefano and I) both meet people praising for the book.
Well, we didn’t write the book because we were following a marketing strategy or to enter into somebody else’s radar. We just felt we had something to say about a topic we care, and that was – and still is – largely unknown: the Italian hacker culture. In other words, Spaghetti Hacker was a sincere, straight-to-the point message to whoever was interested in understanding what was going on in the then newborn Italian Internet.
So, where’s the point of this post?
Answer: sincerity and transparency: if you blog/tweet/post for marketing purposes, please do not pretend to be born on July, 4th.