[lawdgawd]

There is an easy way to recognise those who market their own twitter accounts, or their facebook pages. They are usually impatient and put in a link to their own accounts very quickly.

I thought the fact that Bigautobuff's post was a little suspicious. Sounded like a marketer who is too clever by half. And the link in the second post to the Tata Manza Twitter account.

So I just googled the name Bigautobuff. Here is what I found.

2009 Maruti Suzuki Alto launch November | Autocrust
bigautobuff #5
October 6th, 2009 at 12:40 pm
Car is good. Looks the same as A-Star though. I wonder why. Neways, found a teaser for a new car coming up, Manza. Site is quite stylish and the contest is quite interesting too. Give it a shot.
http://www.indulgeinmanza.com

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From TATA namak to TATA Safari ... every thing that the Tatas have built has been a symbol of trust and solidity. Indians are proud of their selfless policies. Chip in here in this forum to nominate your favorite TATA car (launched/not launched yet) and why. It would be great to share experiences that you have had with any TATA car that you own.

Auto BHP Blog Archive Tata Indigo Manza Images
By bigautobuff on Oct 7, 2009 | Reply
Yeah it looks quite like the vista. Big i guess it is high on the value for money quotient. Also visited the teaser site http://www.indulgeinmanza.com . Registered for the contest too. Quite cool actually to drive around in a newly launched car !

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/indian...unched-21.html
I am thoroughly satisfied with the Manza specs - given the price that people are talking about. I think the Tata lineage will help it to gain the momentum in the market. Quite rightly said by a few, tata gets better with every launch in the premium segment... and no messing guys.. its our very own ! So I got some heart into it as an Indian ... By the way... I played the Spot the Manza at their teaser site and its not as simple as it sounds ... go for it !!! Manza - Look forward to a new level of indulgence (that last line is a link btw)


Could it be that there is another guy who is marketing the Manza with the id as bigautobuff here? Or is it the same guy we have here?

:-D

[McLaren Rulez]

Nice one, Sherlock! Though I must say, I don't mind if company execs come into forums openly announcing that they work for so and so. Its not like they're banned here.

[greenh0rn]

Originally Posted by McLaren Rulez

Nice one, Sherlock! Though I must say, I don't mind if company execs come into forums openly announcing that they work for so and so. Its not like they're banned here.

^^+1. Social Media is all about being open and transparent about your engagement, there is no harm in having big auto company guys participating in the forums and to my mind, they will only add value to the discussions.

But at the same time, these super secretive agents plugging their company products without giving away their identity must be discouraged- what they are indulging in is blatantly unethical and unfair.

[lawdgawd]

Originally Posted by McLaren Rulez

Nice one, Sherlock! Though I must say, I don't mind if company execs come into forums openly announcing that they work for so and so. Its not like they're banned here.

Exactly. What is the point really of all this clock and dagger drama. Come out and say what they have to say instead. Its not like people here have not seen the Manza website or heard about the twitter account yet.

New cars get enough publicity on their own anyway here. Why go to all the trouble just to give a little link?

[mrbaddy]

Motorbeam reports that Mahindra's Social Media team has been putting comments on its review pages posing as fake users. See report below.

Kudos to Motorbeam team for identifying such a practice and reporting it on their website.

At MotorBeam, we take pride in the fact that every comment put in by our readers is read very seriously. It is our constant endeavour to connect with readers to either clear doubts or debate, but create a platform to express freely nonetheless. Hence, it becomes a tad bit easier to know when the reader is genuine or a fake profile worked up by the social media team of an automaker. That, and also since too many accounts generating positive comments for a particular brand from the same IP address smells fishy.

In this particular case, we’ve caught Mahindra’s social media team (likely being handled by an agency) doing something called as ‘Astroturfing’, putting in positive comments on articles related to its products on MotorBeam. A quick check and we came to know that the accounts are most obviously fake and generated from the same IP address. The comments have been coming in for over three-four months now. As much as we appreciate Mahindra’s team checking out our content and would ask them to do so more often, this practice isn’t really taken in good spirt by us or our readers alike, not to forget the unethicality behind it.

The problem here lies in the idea of falsely changing perceptions. Internet as a medium allows you to express your opinions freely, not to forget MotorBeam has encouraged the same time and again, because of which a car/motorcycle user or enthusiast response has an equal say here. The problem lies when fake comments made by the social media team try to positively influence the perceptions of prospective customers. Companies need to remember that we at MotorBeam read each and every comment and when we smell something fishy, the first thing we do is verify the IP address. Our regular readers are wise enough to report a comment when they find something wrong, which raises an instant fire alarm at our end.

We had the Mahindra Gusto for a long term review and we did not receive good mileage on the scooter and hence Mahindra’s social media team was seen posting inflated mileage numbers and overly positive comments on the Gusto long term report. We have been deleting such comments and banning those IPs since quite sometime now. It takes us less than 10 seconds to find such comments and bulk delete and blacklist (thank you Disqus).

Today social media is the virtual equivalent of word-of-mouth and information on any product/service is readily available at the effort of a few clicks. So while these fake profiles are intended to swell up the brand’s appeal to the prospective buyer, it will do little to actually spread a positive word about the company. We are quite sure this would be the last of such comments that will be coming in and we surely look forward to reading your thoughts on this issue.

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