What's up with the Chocolate Blues spam?

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Permalink Reply by Mike Seidle on March 19, 2009 at 5:17pm

All - I am an owner of one of the sponsors of the event.

I just got off the phone with the event planner managing the event and told them to stop posting about the event to Smaller Indiana and all other social networks immediately.

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Permalink Reply by Shelly Rice on March 19, 2009 at 5:27pm

Hi, My name is Shelly Rice and I am really upset. I am the owner of Chocolate Blues and I have something to say about this post. First of all, nobody is trying to sell anything to anyone when it comes to this event. I was invited to Indianapolis by a couple of local businesses to produce this event for your community. WE ARE NOT SELLING TICKETS TO ANYONE. WE ARE GIVING THE TICKETS AWAY to anyone who would like to come out and do some networking. Are we promoting it, yes we are but it's FREE and the purpose is to help business people meet each other. WHAT IS THE PROBLEM WITH INVITING PEOPLE FOR FREE TO COME ENJOY SOME CHOCOLATE AND NETWORK?????

I have been putting business events on for 20 years and for 20 years I have charged people to attend my events. The economy is so bad that I thought I would do my part and invite everyone to come out and network for free to HELP everyone. I am truly sorry if Brandon's postings bothered everyone, we did not mean to offend or self-promote, we are truly just trying to do something nice for the community where people can come out, make some new business connections. That is the sole purpose of Chocolate Blues. Nothing more.

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Permalink Reply by Mike Seidle on March 19, 2009 at 5:45pm

Shelly - Thanks for quickly putting a stop to this. As one of the local businesses (Indiana Business Network) that stepped up to sponsor the event, I can't agree more about the motivation for the event. What's happened here is more of a form over function issue - Brandon really made a lot of posts over the past few days.

To those who are calling the event "shady," it's good to see that shoot first and ask questions later is alive and well. There are some great businesses who are going to the event, and this event is one of the only major networking events where admission is totally free. No one is trying to sell anyone a ticket. Many of the businesses exhibiting at the event are owned by fellow Smoosiers.

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Permalink Reply by Shelly Rice on March 19, 2009 at 5:40pm

Jake, we have never posted anything on Smaller Indiana that says "buy something". The only thing anyone involved with this event has posted here or on any internet site was an invitation for a free pass for a business get together. This is not about US, it's about doing something positive for the business community. Bringing people together. Shaking hands. Getting to know each other. Building referral partners. Chocolate Blues is a great event and the entire event is based on getting together to help each other, not to SELL each other.

There have been NO Postings here or anywhere trying to get people to buy anything from my company.
Thank you, Shelly

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Permalink Reply by Linda J Ranger on March 19, 2009 at 5:56pm

Is Brandon Bauer a real person and is he involved with starting a non profit to bring a music CD library to hospitals?

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Permalink Reply by Shawn Quick-Raflik on March 20, 2009 at 9:58am

Brandon, this is a good learning experience for everyone. Don't feel bad, it's not that big of a deal. Look at it as a lesson learned. You learned about spam on a social media site. I am sure you will never make that mistake again :)

Now let's talk about good things. I love what you are doing with Musical Medicine. You know first hand how it feels to be stuck in a hospital. Music does have amazing healing powers. I am proud of you for stepping up to help others.

Could you please send me a ticket to your Chocolate Blues Event, I would like to meet you.

Have a great day!

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Permalink Reply by Michael Van Vlymen on March 23, 2009 at 6:40am

Wow!!! I have to put my 2 cents in as well. That this would become such an issue really speaks to the heart of todays society. A simple e-mail could have cleared the whole thing up, but it was not handled that way,
I heard recently that having passion for the the things you believe in is almost dispised in todays world, because so many people have had their own dreams battered.
I was not inconvenienced in any way by the contacts I received, and applaud Brandons' passion.

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Permalink Reply by Ben Shine on March 19, 2009 at 8:25pm

Thanks everyone for engaging in this conversation. I want to make clear that my questions weren't just about Brandon's postings. I can understand a person being over zealous about an event and not understanding the social norms of a place like SI. He is working for them, though, according to Mike. But it didn't happen in a vacuum. My major concern is centered around the harvesting of information for private gain. Even if the tickets are free (and my mistake for thinking they were for sale, I don't know where I pulled that from) this is still a for-profit event, and someone's making money from selling exhibitor space and sponsorships, right? I got unsolicited emails and my wife and others have gotten unsolicited phone calls at their work, and those numbers weren't posted here.

I just don't think SI should be used for blatant self promotion and unsolicited marketing for private profit, and I think the Terms of Service make that clear. This shouldn't become myspace. Pat, I cede to your opinion on this. As someone who puts on nonprofit events and has maintained large mailing lists, I wouldn't even imagine harvesting people's info from here without explicit individual permission.

There's a lesson to be learned here, and probably a growing pain for a community like SI. SI's own Colin Clark had a great post yesterday about permission-based marketing that I would recommend everyone read. It's pretty timely.

I don't think that this event is "shady" necessarily, but the methods used to market it aren't cool. I hope everyone who wants to go has a great time, and the sponsors, vendors and exhibitors enjoy a smashing success.

Brandon, I was intrigued by the nonprofit part of your post, and that's what lead me to your profile and realizing how many people you had contacted. A project to get music into hospitals is an amazing idea. I would donate CDs to a local organization that did that. Rick, you can attest to the number I have lying around gathering dust. Would patients heal faster to old Fugazi albums? I'm not sure.

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Permalink Reply by Pat Coyle on March 19, 2009 at 8:59pm

I have said before that I'm in favor of ridding SI of blatant self promotion, but even if we try to make a hard, fast LAW, there's no way to monitor the entire community unless the entire community pitches in. This forum thread is a great example...if you see something that seems wrong, please report it, or post a thread...you might not be alone...and in this way the people of SI will set the rules, not me.

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Permalink Reply by Deanna Sipe on March 25, 2009 at 1:03am

Pat and others,

What is your definition of 'blatent self promotion' ? What is the difference between that and making an effort to offer real value in discussions based on a passionate desire to make a positive difference? What if the benefit offered is delivered by means of an event that you want to share with people?

Thanks for your time. I would like to understand and avoid any possible burning of steaks... or uh, I mean steak burning, oh no - uh that's only my cooking,.... let me see, I would like to avoid being burned on the steaks! I think.

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Permalink Reply by Shelly Rice on March 19, 2009 at 9:15pm

Ben, thank you.

I really appreciate your post.

I want you to understand that I have been on Smaller Indiana for a couple of months and I have only reached out to a hand full of people about Chocolate Blues. All of my postings have been, hello, nice to meet you and once in a while I did mention to people I would be happy to give them free tickets to my event, but mostly I have just said hello and offered to be a resource to people. That is my style and it's the way I have done business for 20 years.

I spend months researching businesses to participate at Chocolate Blues. I don't just open the phone book or go onto websites and start blasting 'anyone' to fill my event. We take the time to research and to pretty much hand pick vendors for my event. My sales method is to compile a list of businesses that I think are a good fit, then myself or one of my reps calls the businesses and we ask permission to send an email about Chocolate Blues. If we get a machine it's standard protocol to say something like "I called to ask your permission to send you an email and since I got your machine, I am going to take the liberty to do so.". If you got an unsolicited email, trust me that was a fluke, not my standard practice and I do apologize. If you survey my vendors, you will see I am telling the truth. They were all asked permission first and I always tell people where I found them, if it is on google, or SI or LinkedIN or one of the dozens of sites I am on. I like to be upfront.

As far as your wife getting an unsolicited phone call. I don't really know of a way to ask permission to call someone. All cold calls are unsolicited.

I am the softest sales person I know. I research who I want to do business with, make a quick call and introduction, asking permission to email information and then I wait for them to contact me if they are interested. I don't even call or email people back.

At first I was deeply hurt at your post but I realize now you are the kind of person who just is looking out for others and you had total good intentions.

Do you like chocolate and blues music? Come on over and join us on Thursday, I hope you and I have the opportunity to meet and I know you will really like Brandon too.

Take care,
Shelly

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Permalink Reply by Shannon Gross on March 19, 2009 at 8:31pm

Hi folks,

I'm going to jump into the discussion and say, first, props to Ben for posting about this. I'd seen multiple posts on folks' pages and wondered, "What the heck?" Thanks Ben for stepping out there with your question so we can all get on the same page.

We've all been there - and it's painful
Next, a quick story: My father was a technology contractor and recruiter and when he suddenly died in 2001 I thought, "Holy smokes, how am I going to let his friends, contacts, and colleagues know?" So, I sent out a heartfelt message to his listservs, set up an email autoresponder, and then went out of town for the funeral.

Those of you who know about listservs and autoresponders can now put your heads in your hands and groan ... because I inadvertantly set off an Internet firestorm ... and I had no idea until I came back in town three days later and saw all the yelling online! A lot of folks were impatient, a lot of folks were understanding, and then there was one particularly virulent individual whose accusations still make me shiver.

Why am I telling this story? Because it seems to me that Brandon is in the same position. He set out with very good intentions and accidentally trod on a few toes. It happens to all of us.

I was able to harvest something positive from my experience though because of the people who saw what had gone wrong, had compassion upon my devastated self, and took the high road.

Here's my question to all of you
We've all been in situations where we wish we could hit the giant Undo command in life. Brandon, Shelly, and Mike put the kibosh on the inadvertent spam right away and have also been very up-front in addressing folks' concerns. (Thanks guys - I personally appreciate your stepping up to the plate this way. I'm looking forward to connecting with you at the event next week.)

Now that we know what's up, can we too take the high road?

Food for thought.

Shannon

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