Oh how the mighty have fallen.
You may recall that I recently wrote a very complimentary post on Compare the Market’s Compare the Meerkat campaign.
When I logged in to write a new post that I had a comment awaiting moderation - apparently from someone who works for Compare the Market.
You can see a link to the comment here
She says that the new TV ad is being previewed online, and thanks me for my post.
Quite nice I thought.
However I was dismayed to note that she’d spammed my blog with a like to Compare the Market. Rather than a link to the new TV ad.
Frankly I’m really put out.
I have no desire whatsoever to directly promote Compare the Market. I think the Meerkat campaign is great, and have linked to it willingly. But I chose (as is my right - it’s my blog, I pay for the hosting, domain etc) not to link to Compare the Market.
All the links on my blog are followed - which for the non-SEO peeps out there means that the links I give count as ‘votes’ in the search engine’s eyes. In linking to Compare the Meerkat - I’m giving the search engines a clear indicator that I’m recommending it.
However I never had any intention of recommending Compare the Market.
Now, as I’ve hinted before, I’m fairly certain that sometime after the Meerkat campaign ends, Compare the Meerkat will 301 redirect to Compare the Market. Therefore all the links which myself and other bloggers have provided will eventually be tranferred to Compare the Market.
I don’t mind that - to be honest I think they’ve earned it.
But this?
I’m beyond annoyed and getting angrier by the second.
Clearly Compare the Market have engaged the services of people like Amelia to find blogs like mine and spam them with a link for Compare the Market.
Not cool.
For me, Compare the Market have scored a major own goal in the social media arena. Clearly they need to learn some social media netiquette; and sharpish.
Update 3/2/09
Someone called Katie dropped a comment on my blog saying the link was a typo - click to see the comment and my response.
on Feb 22nd, 2009 at 2:02 pm
To right!
on Feb 24th, 2009 at 9:16 pm
Wow, awkward squirming there… Got to agree that the gratuitous drop of a homepage link was a little unnecessary there.
on Feb 24th, 2009 at 11:26 pm
@Sophie - I’m assuming you’re with me - if so, hell yeah, baby
@stuartpturner *tries to behave like a grown-up* hey twitter buddy, yep, a little unecessary is right, I think I was a little emotional when I wrote this post - yours is a much more apt and indeed proportional response
on Feb 27th, 2009 at 11:03 am
Hmm, very cognitive post.
Is this theme good unough for the Digg?
on Feb 27th, 2009 at 1:17 pm
Hi Serenia,
Sorry, I’m not sure what you mean by ‘is this theme good enough for the Digg?’
If you mean do I think that Digg readers would be interested in the topic of this post - I honestly don’t really know. It’s not a social site that I use a great deal. My perception is that for the most part Digg users prefer humourous content (but I could be wrong - I’ve been wrong many times before).
Anyhow, thanks for stopping by, hope to see you again.
Hannah
on Mar 7th, 2009 at 3:39 pm
@stuartpturner: Totally agree.
@ Hannah: Yep, definetly with you. Would have shrugged it off it was comparethemarket.tv-ad.html, but not direct to the homepage… Anyway, love your blog, love Compare the Meerkat.
Peace out.
on Mar 7th, 2009 at 9:14 pm
Hi Sophie,
Thanks for coming back, and glad you like the blog - hope to see you here again soon
on Jul 23rd, 2009 at 9:20 am
[...] any other insurance companies spamming your blog [...]
on Jul 29th, 2009 at 8:04 am
“However I never had any intention of recommending Compare the Market.”
Then just remove the comment and stop moaning about it
on Jul 29th, 2009 at 9:06 am
Hi Adam,
Thanks for your input. I could have simply removed the comment, however at the time I thought that perhaps this was a deliberate move from Compare the Market in order to get further links from the Compare the Meerkat campaign direct to their main site.
Since I’ve not seen reports of this anywhere else, perhaps indeed it was an honest mistake.
When I wrote the post I was angry and perhaps my response was disproportional.
Them’s the breaks