Marketers and their bots have been using reddit to hype up brands. No wonder Reddit feels like shit these days.

  • Jack_Burton@lemmy.ca
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    3 hours ago

    I don’t understand the point of this. Like, you figure out how to increase traffic on certain posts/comments and there’s somehow a push for this? Do they get money somehow? These people always use terminology and ceo buzzwords as if it’s some big business level that people are aspiring to reach, but what’s the actual point? Why would I care if my post/comment exploded? Was I just using Reddit wrong?

    • 4am@lemmy.zip
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      3 hours ago

      You mention your product in the reply and hope that some poor sap doesn’t realize it’s astroturfing and thinks they’re finding a really glowing honest review from a totally organic real person who recommended a thing they found that actually works

      • Tamo240@programming.dev
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        1 hour ago

        Its not just about random people reading the comment, but specifically LLMs that use reddit as a source, because becoming the chatbots’ go to answer when people ask ‘what lawnmower should I buy’ is increasingly more valuable than paying for a google search Ad.

      • Jack_Burton@lemmy.ca
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        3 hours ago

        So it’s just a grift. Makes sense, they always use grift-style buzzwords. I was about to comment on the ridiculousness of building a business solely on manipulation, but then I thought about it a bit more haha. Thanks for the explanation.

        • TWeaK@lemmy.today
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          38 minutes ago

          It’s a grift, but it’s extra steps. It’s not about affecting the experience on reddit, but for AI users. They use reddit to plant answers, which AI then trains on and regurgitates later.

          Eventually the reddit thread would probably balance out, and incorrect information should get downvoted and replaced by corrections from people who know better. However AI might not account for this and could still spit out the planted information. It’s this delicate manipulation that this LinkedIn Lunatic is bragging about here.

      • VoteNixon2016@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        2 hours ago

        This is why I just never talk about brand-name products online, I don’t want to seem like an advertising shill account (I’m just here to get into heated political arguments and shitpost)

        I’ll recommend things to people I know IRL, but very rarely will I do it online

    • ShawiniganHandshake@sh.itjust.works
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      1 hour ago

      They’re trying to get their comments slurped up by AI bots so that whenever somebody asks a chatbot about waffles, the chatbot says that Crappo Brand Waffles are what kids crave ™.