Buzz Group Rage - A Sign of the Times or Could We do Better on the Net?

It seems that Road Rage has morphed into yet another form. This time it is Buzz Group Rage. It seems there are people who just have no tolerance whatsoever for anyone who asks a question of a Buzz Group or expresses an opinion different to theirs, or one that might upset them.

My own experience of Buzz Group Rage was with my very first message to a Buzz Group for social marketing. The name of the Buzz Group is not important. What happened is and I am wondering if it is taking place all over the Internet at other Buzz Groups?

The instructions on joining the group were to submit posts to various social networks and then ask members of the Buzz Group to buzz the posts. The rules as I understood them to be, were to only Buzz posts that were in my niche, related niches or niches I was genuinely interested in.

Call me naive but what I saw was Buzz Group members buzzing everyone’s posts with complete disregard for the rules. So, silly me sent a message to all group members asking what was going on. maybe I could have not used the words "Group Monitors".

"Hi Buzz Group,
>
> I’m new to this group. I have just read an email from XXXXXX about buzzing ANY posts, rather than ones associated with your niche. 
> Can we get a statement from the Group Monitors please?"

All seemed to be going well and I was getting into the swing of things.

Then I got this email from one of the group members:

"PLEASE SEND ME your voting names so that WE CAN BE ALLIES and I can vote for you as we move forward.

I subscribe to the principle: "One hand washes the other." When you vote for my posts, you are actually voting for your own posts.
I humbly request Buzz on the following. I’ve included extras in case you’ve been banned from some of these sites."

Note this person was in a niche not related to me and one I am not interested in at all.

I thanked him for buzzing my posts but added:

"I’m reconsidering if I will continue here because I’m not sure I agree with the way the Buzzing is occurring. I mean no disrespect by this.

I realise the group does not have critical mass in many niches and so people are helping each other out. Whilst I can sympathize with people and see the logic in this approach I do not believe it is right.

I can see that buzzing in this way may well get us some “traction” to go forward and grow the business. The problem I’m having is deciding if that really helps everyone or causes those who are really wasting their time in a niche to stay there rather than put their efforts elsewhere. Those that have good niches will probably get to critical mass quicker this way, but would get there anyway without their ”Buzz-mates”. Those that don’t are doomed to live under the impression they are getting somewhere. Anyway that’s my 2 cents worth ;0)

I think I will probably not use this Group for my current niche but will monitor it for use with my Internet Marketing Niche. I think it could  be good value for that niche.

I have Buzzed your posts as a thank you for your help and advice to me."

I thought I had gracefully stated my position and thought nothing more of it.

Then I got another email from the same person which said:

"Okay, so now I know who is stirring things up.
Like you said, you are New to the group. So why don’t you just keep a
low profile and buzz the posts like almost everyone else, and learn
about how this group is run before you start to stirrup chaos and
dissension among a group of good people?
I don’t give a damn what "YYYY" says. As far as I can see, (I’ve been
in the group over six months), YYYY doesn’t do any buzzing for
members in this group. BUT XXXXXX VOTED FOR EVERYONE EVERY
SINGLE DAY, AND NOW SHE IS GONE BECAUSE OF NEW MEMBERS COMING IN HERE
AND SHOOTING THEIR MOUTHS OFF.
I don’t know where this idea that the Web 2.0 sites "know all and
they’ll ban you if you buzz out of your niche or buzz too often" came
from. But I do know that there are a lot of ‘SEO Experts’ on the web
who have a PR-ZERO blog with no traffic and no income who don’t rank
in the first 500 pages of Google or Yahoo - who some of you people
are listening to like their words are cast in stone along side of the
ten commandments.
Wise up people! Digg doesn’t know all, Stumble doesn’t know all, and
even Google doesn’t know all. But yet you allow people to come in
here and you blindly believe their know-it-all hogwash.
How many of your know-it-all’s spewing this crap have a 7 figure
income from their Internet business? I want to know, because that’s
who I’ll listen to.
Respectfully, "

Well, I was aghast, shocked and devastated ;0) Not really I was just very disappointed.

I then spent the next hour going through all the emails and messages at the Buzz Group to find the facts. I didn’t believe my question would force a long-time member to leave the group. It turns out that XXXXXX had decided to leave the group well before I asked my question. The message below was sent by them to the group, but my question just preceded it. So I was the last man standing as it were.

"After many months of buzzing and commenting posts on this group, I now find my posts are not being buzzed because of my niche (education). 10-12 Diggs or Propellers a week is simply not a good ROI for the amount of time I invest.

Thank you to everyone who has abided by the original rules by which we all joined. I appreciate your support in the past and I wish you well in the future."

So I then put together a long email that included all the email messages that preceded mine where others admitted they might have upset XXXXXX and a polite explanation of the events and asked that they be considered. I was hoping for an apology but instead I got this:

"I appreciate your responding to my email. I don’t mind new members asking questions. I encourage it. In fact, I’m the first one to offer advice when I see them supplying links that are not correctly made, or they are to the wrong place.

It’s the suggestions that I resent. In my opinion, nobody has a right to suggest changes or make a negative comment about how the group is doing something until they’ve paid their dues to the group and been and active member for awhile.

As far as the "Group Monitors" that you mention, that’s a total joke. There aren’t any. There are just us members. When I started with this group only a very small percentage of people voted and the group was full of freeloaders. Now we each get twice as many votes, and we don’t have any more active members than we did six months ago. The reason that we get twice as many votes is that the core of us vote for any niche. The spirit of the group is to vote for any post that has some educational or entertainment value, and to not vote for spammy posts.

Sorry, but for anyone to think for a minute that voting outside of one’s niche is going to hurt their credibility with the web 2.0 sites or the members of those sites is pure folly. Nobody knows what you are doing, and nobody cares. They are all too busy trying to run their own business and make a few dollars. People are allowed to have varied interests, and in fact it’s only natural if they do. And if you want your voting record to look natural, then you will be voting on posts regardless of the niche they represent.

Personally, if you are making web 2.0 a big part of your marketing efforts, then you are dooming yourself to failure. 80% of all sales start with a search engine search. Stats published all over the Internet say that web 2.0 produces very poor quality visitors who don’t convert well at all.

I’m happy to say that I’ve got one of the 2% - that’s the 2% of the sites on the web making enough money to actually provide a decent living for its owners. And I can tell you that after 6 months, I’d have to guess that only 5% of my income is derived from social marketing. Social marketing does NOT provide a good ROI at all. The only reason that I continue to do it is to prepare for the future when the kids who are running the 2.0 sites grow up and might become an actual customer for my programs.

Is this normal behaviour in Buzz Groups? It seems to me if this person is getting such poor responses from social marketing why stay in the group?

In closing let me say after joining the Buzz Group my first post was buzzed 28 times at propeller.com in 5 days. I have left the group since and posted my second post 3 days ago and am still waiting for my first Buzz.

Maybe I’m just stupid Duh!

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