Creating importing tools is one thing but dissing your competition is another. Depending on your point of view the Posterous strategy for marketing their micro-blogging platform has either stepped up or slid way downhill.
The current focus on negative advertising is gagging many bloggers, who have blogs on multiple blogging platforms including Posterous, and who aren’t impressed by the direction the Posterous advertising has taken, nor with the amount of spam they are receiving.
Nabbing from Ning
On Jun 22, 2010 Leena Rao of Tech Crunch published Posterous Targets Ning In Massive Switching Campaign. Who Is Next?
For the next 15 days, Posterous will announce a different service daily that will allow you to transfer your account, blog, videos, images and more over to the simple blogging site for free.
Dissing Tumblr
Two days later Darnell Clayton, of the Blog Herald published Posterous Slanders Tumblr . Belows is an excerpt from his Editorial where in he addresses each of their claims to see if any of them have any merit and most don’t, which makes Posterous’s attempt to portray Tumblr as “public only” as ridiculous.
As you can see from the graphic above, Posterous also indicates that Tumblr lacks “real comments” and privacy features, as well as a decent email-to-post feature (something that is considered standard for most blogging platforms).
Taking on Twitpic
Then on Jun 29, 2010 MG Siegler of TechCrunch published Twitpic Blocks Posterous’ Import Tool; Out Come The Lawyers
Tumblr and Posterous are the two most prominent microblogging post media sites that make blogging, which for some amounts to reblogging, easier. Both were launched within six months of each other and Posterous started later than Tumblr.
Touted as a new microblogging platform that was the dead simple place to post everything ~ just email us ~ Posterous began by requiring a sign up as one would expect. But now there is no sign-up required to use their service and the word seems to have gotten out to spammers. Now that Posterous has opened the doors and the spammers have slid in I’m hearing reactions form sincere Posterous members (real bloggers) like damn them ! in the very high decibel range.
Spam, Spam and More Spam
Here’s an example:
I’ve recently been receiving a ton of spam on my self-hosted blog from Posterous. (I purposely did not link to them here because I’m not going to give them an incoming link now that they have joined the dark side.) I went to their site, and noticed that they now require no registration or signup to use their service apparently, and the word seems to have gotten out to spammers. – New origin for spam comments
Discussion questions:
- Do you have a Posterous blog?
- If so what’s your response to the negative advertising campaign and to the spam?
- If you don’t have a Posterous blog then does this negative advertising campaign make you want to get one?
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AA
July 1, 2010
I’ve had Posterous since almost the beginning (when they were only providing post-by-email). Over time, they have grown and have added various typical blogging functionality. Although I don’t see a problem with their recent campaign to convert, but the tactics seems problematic, aggressive and immature, which certainly has backfired.
My take is that it is better to trust services like Microsoft/Google than to trust small startups regardless of however much hype they create.
timethief
July 2, 2010
It’s the tactics that are problematic for sure and I do hear what you are saying about start-ups.
David
July 1, 2010
Posterous’s offer to take on the Ning groups arose out of Ning’s decision to start charging for what had been until then a free product.
The members of some Ning groups were upset, though it beats me how anyone can complain about the demise of a FREE product once they have calmed down from the initial sick feeling in the pit of the stomach.
I started using Posterous a while ago, my first post being on January 18, 2009, which makes me an early adopter.
Here is the link to my first post, which I named Outstretched and which was a collage I made of two representatives of what I saw as the ‘positive’ in America.
I am not sure what to make of the statements above from Opposablethumbz. Where he or she says
“I’ve recently been receiving a ton of spam on my self-hosted blog from Posterous”
then he or she should turn on comment moderation, just like with any other blogging platform.
The other part of the excerpt where Opposablethumbz says:
“and noticed that they now require no registration or signup to use their service apparently, and the word seems to have gotten out to spammers”
because you DO have to register and given that if you do want to post by email (as opposed to being logged in to your Posterous account and posting from there) then you can only post from your own email address, then what difference in there in the Posterous way compared to, say, starting a WordPress.com blog?
I use Posterous as a notebook in which to put stuff I see around the web.
I don’t take it too seriously but I am very impressed with the way the authors introduce new features so frequently and have made this new platform so effective in such a short time.
AA
July 1, 2010
My first post on Posterous was Dec 2008 :)
Posterous DO currently have issues. Here is one: http://andrewhy.de/posterous-lets-you-import-data-from-dying-network-posterous/
I agree with you on one of your point. I also do not take them seriously. Logically, you cannot take any free product seriously, especially when it is from a fresh startup. Google, Microsoft, they have huge corporations behind them so that’s a different matter. However, lately I have been noticing in the social-networking world, that even the paid services are causing troubles. So the old saying is still golden, never put all of your eggs in one basket.
timethief
July 2, 2010
Hi Dave,
Thanks for taking the time to describe your experience as an early adopter of Posterous. It’s good to hear from you like I have heard from others that they like the platform and are impressed with the features. Hopefully they will reconsider their approach to advertising.
Richard
July 1, 2010
Garry Tan, co-founder of posterous.com just posted a comment on my blog post about the spam issue letting me know that they are investigating and will make whatever changes are necessary to stop this from happening.
http://opposablethumbz.wordpress.com/2010/06/15/new-origin-for-spam-comments/#comment-3476
timethief
July 2, 2010
I’m glad to hear/read that they are going to address the spam problem.
Richard
July 1, 2010
You know, it seems that nowadays, whenever marketing types get together, out come the broad axes and a search for someone to behead. The thing is, you can compare what your company offers with your competition without resorting to things like blocking an import tool, or something like that. Just as has happened in our political system here in the US, the rule of the day is take sides and draw your weapons. It doesn’t have to be that way.
timethief
July 2, 2010
I feel the same way. I believe competition is healthy but the focus should be on promoting your products. The attack advertising approach is so highschool. Which is not to mention how misleading it is.
jesseosmun
July 2, 2010
I am fine with WordPress..which doesn’t diss anyone, TYVM.
timethief
July 2, 2010
I’m glad to hear you are on the no dissing your competition bandwagon.
jesseosmun
July 3, 2010
Posterous and tumblr just don’t seem to hold my interest..
timethief
July 3, 2010
I also have a Tumblr blog which is a media rich complimentary blog to my personal blog. However, I only post to it when I have time and I’ve been short on time lately. What I do find is that I like the Tumblr community.
angelbc
July 3, 2010
Personally I’m a great fan of Posterous and I absolutely love the platform and the amount of improvements it has received in the last few months. However I agree that the tone of Posterous’ latest announcements has been less than civil. I cannot agree with that approach and it pains me to see a young and energetic company to use such low tricks. I hope they realize they can roll-new features without demeriting the competition, but most importantly, themselves.
BTW I have never had any spam problems on my Posterous blog. I’m not questioning my good fortune ;)
timethief
July 3, 2010
Hello there,
Thanks for weighing in. I know other bloggers who are also fans of Posterous but not of the dissing advertising campaign. I wonder if it’s an age thing because the bloggers I refer to are all mature people and the campaign smacks of immaturity.
P.S. Good to hear the spam problem hasn’t effected you. I’ll bet your fingers are crossed. :)
Olivia
July 22, 2010
Just noticed a fellow blogger with a brand new account with Posterous.. Wasn’t really sure what were the benefits that that site may have offered over WP.
It was nice to read something about them.. However, they could have let go off the gimmicks though..
BTW, I have linked your site in my Blogroll- I believe I could do that- is that fine??