Gaming the Social Networks as a Black Hat ::

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34
Sphinn It!

Went Hot: Sep 10, 2007 - 07:26 pm
Posted By: fantomaster 921 Days ago
Source: http://fantomaster.com
Category: Social Media

When it comes to gaming the social networks black hat style, there’s really no infamous secret sauce involved in gaming the social networks, so no need to cough up money for expensive e-book reports trying to sell it to you. Simply follow the rules outlined here and adjust them as required, employing your #1 resource as an SEO: your head!

12 Comments

Comments

from JohnWeb 921 Days ago #

Votes: 3

I think your #1 point is the best one. If you are going to use social networks to push your agenda you need to at least attempt to be an active member first. This goes for newsgroups, blog commenting, anything that is user generated. Rolling on it there with a ton of self supporting links, clicks, diggs, etc will get you ignored if not removed right away.

from fantomaster 921 Days ago #

Votes: 2

Yeah, and people don’t particularly like it if all you ever promote is your own stuff anyway. When you monitor it proactively, it’s quite staggering how often your profile(s) will actually be viewed on any given network. Meaning that people want to relate - fairly obvious and self-explanatory, really, but all too often forgotten all about.

from Eavesy 921 Days ago #

Votes: 1

I thought it was going to be stuff like setting up 500 accounts and automating it so they all have natural looking voting patterns, most of that stuff I would class as white hat, bar the multiple accounts, like you say friend management is the key.

from snowboardjohn 921 Days ago #

Votes: 1

I think the irony of your approach Fantomaster, is that it’s not really "how to be a blackhat"... it’s more... "how to be ethical and sustainable without getting bent over by big business or other websites"... and because behavior is categorized and defined BY those big businesses who want to take value from you (and everyone else)... you become "blackhat" by their definition... simply by not complying with their totally self serving BS rule book.

from fantomaster 921 Days ago #

Votes: 0

Well, there IS that aspect to it, too, Eavesy - and it’s actually happening. However, if you read between the lines there’s a full fledged blueprint for exactly that. But to automate, you’ll require software, to develop that software, you need to know how you want it to behave, to know that, you’ve got to actually have done it with demonstrable success. Far too many people out there who believe that mere theoretical analysis will do it. That’ll definitely be required, sure, but it’s quite obvious that most of the stuff currently deployed is sadly lacking in terms of quality - and all too easy to track and smother if the networks actually set their resources to it.

from fantomaster 921 Days ago #

Votes: 0

Yes, snowboardjohn: there’s that aspect to it as well. At the end of the day, all this "white hat/black hat" hoopla is downright silly anyway. It’s about what works in a viable manner. If human labor costs are exorbitant, only big money will dominate in the end. If human behavior can be emulated automatically, someone will offer exactly those tools sooner or later. So it’s about what works - and (my favorite Humpty Dumpty quote again) about who is to be master, that’s all. And sure: As they say - "if it ain’t automated, it ain’t black hat". :)

from DanThies 921 Days ago #

Votes: 1

Ralph, I am shocked. Shocked, I say! Half of those tips were good advice for *anyone*. And you call yourself a black hat...

from fantomaster 921 Days ago #

Votes: 0

[blush]Damn, caught out again![/blush]

from Lyndon 921 Days ago #

Votes: 1

Great tips and insights into how to build an effective social media account. More etiquette tips than ripping out the jugular black hat moves though. Social media can be gamed, just like being popular at parties can be gamed. Short cuts may lead to short term success. The efforts you put in to short cut the system may be even more than using it in a non gamey way. Actually scratch that, if you are a member of a social network and you are not gaming it, then what is the point. What I mean by gaming is maximising the potential for your account to get noticed and recognised as a power account (whatever that means)

from fantomaster 920 Days ago #

Votes: 0

An article pointing to this story (liking to our Bloggger version of fantomNews) has just been removed from Netscape - lol: http://tech.netscape.com/story/2007/09/10/how-to-game-the-social-networks-black-hat-style/ It received 53 votes, all of them 100% natural, no votebots or anything automated involved. I guess I should feel flattered. Because if anything it shows that they seem to view these tips as beeing too effective to their liking...

from TheMadHat 920 Days ago #

Votes: 1

#9 has the potential to be the most powerful of all assuming the other guy knows what he’s doing. Generally though you can figure that out based on how long it takes you to figure out who it is. You can effectively corner the market in some niches.

from fantomaster 920 Days ago #

Votes: 0

>Generally though you can figure that out based on how long it takes you to figure out who it is. Nice point: couldn’t agree more. And yes, it can be very effective indeed. Though of course, like all rackets, it’ll only be as strong and viable as the weakest link in the chain.