There seems to be this idea on this board that there are certain "shills" that are secretly trying to spread ideas and opinions on this site. I have worked in advertising, internet marketing and IT for 14 years now and I have worked with and collaborated with many people that are actual paid shills by definition. However, I can assure you that your illusions of secret agents raiding this board are severely misguided. Let me explain to you how shilling works, and why those people that disagreed with you aren't actually shills.
>step one: finding the correct website:
There are many factors involved in finding a good target for shilling. Some companies like to shill on obscure forums related to their campaign, since there is little moderation there and users are more gullible. Others instead prefer to instead target large, popular networks, like comment sections in news websites and reddit / tumblr. Either way, 4chan is one of the worst picks for a shilling campaign because no post here is permanent and all links and shill posts disappear quickly, ruining the impact. Not to mention that the audience on 4chan is far smaller than sites similar to it and is far less receptive. I have never worked at a company that shilled on 4chan since it is just so unprofitable, though the topic was brought up multiple times.
cont.
>>73424597
TLDR
>step two: the content:
The content of the post is also very important in internet marketing. All of the companies I have worked at recommended positive posts that deliver the content without offending anyone, as that builds trust and commitment with readers and creates more clicks on the link. Creating inflammatory or "bait" posts is a big no no, as angry users are less likely to commit to clicking links and buying products, and the angry replies usually create a bad image for the company. There is a very big misconception on /pol/ that bait posters are shills. This is also another reason why it is unlikely that shilling is going on in /pol/, the whole angry contrarian vibe this place gives off is terrible for marketing.
cont.
>step three: the link:
This is the most important step in online marketing. Each shill post MUST have a link in it or else it is completely useless. Another important thing here is that the link 90% of the time the link will also have a little id string attached to it (eg: example.com?rep=123) that is unique to each company member and campaign so that the shill company can track the success of each person. These links are also how each advertising member gets paid. Every time a link is clicked, that identification string is logged and the poster gets paid commission. I have never ever seen or heard of a company paying "per post" instead of "per click", as paying per post is crazy unprofitable and encourages large amounts of low quality posts that lead to no clicks instead of a few high traffic advertisements. This is why I highly doubt that anyone would ever bother to shill on 4chan, as instead of just posting once and raking in clicks advertisers must constantly fight an uphill battle to have active links up.
Due to my work I can easily identify shill posts, and I have been posting on 4chan and /pol/ for years and seen very few actual shill posts, and definitely nothing close to a campaign.
A
>>73424597
EIN FICKEN BLATT
OP you're not gonna make me shill for Trump. It's too late for that.
TELL ME YOUR SECRETS O GOLD SALESMAN
>>73424777
FUCKING
>>73425065
WHITE
>>73425065
LEAF
>>73424597
>Taking a Filipino animu image board this seriously
>permanent and all links and shill posts disappear quickly, ruining the impact.
pretty good though. if you screw up your shill operation or get caught, it will disappear. on the other hand, if you're good at what you do, you can make a meme (as an idea in general, not pepe or wojak images) that will be repeated by others for you. reddit, tumblr and 4chan course some content, so if you're gonna target 1 of them you might as well go 3 of them. i don't think there's a lot of shills here either myself, but i don't think 4chan is a completely terrible place to astroturf or whatever. well done memes words and images have crazy staying power.
>>73425261
also to add you're gonna have different shill tactics for commercial products like vince's slapchop with the gratey, and things like political propaganda. /pol/ isn't a good place for the first but for the second, sure
>>73424597
>However, I can assure you that your illusions of secret agents raiding this board are severely misguided
They're not very good at being secretive.
>>73424726
>and I have been posting on 4chan and /pol/ for years and seen very few actual shill posts, and definitely nothing close to a campaign
So you're still shilling, is what you're saying?
>>73424597
>>73424687
>>73424726
>Shills dont exist
They dont! Digital media specialists on the other hand...
>>73424597
>>73424687
>>73424726
>durr le internet marketer maymay
That's not a stupid internet marketing campaign.
Nobody cares if a link sticks if it gives you a SEM impact or stays up or if you can build a relation/positive image.
This is promoting politic talking points.
If you don't understand the difference or how 4chan can be used for anyone that is not clickbaiting you really suck at your job.
>>73424597
You're addressing people who don't believe in evolution or global warming, and are voting for Trump.
Did you really expect to reasonably explain something and have it heard?
This a containment board for idiots.
A severe persecution complex is the only possible way for the sorta retarded nonsense they believe to ever be able to thrive. Nothing in the world, at all, conforms to their beliefs. Unlike most people who then abandon such beliefs, these people take the fact that the world points out the absurdity of their beliefs as confirmation that those beliefs must be correct.
You can teach an old dog new tricks, with enough effort, but you can't teach a vegetable anything. It is mindless.
>>73425261
>if you screw up your shill operation or get caught
This really isn't a big worry, as most of the time if you are caught on another site you are banned and your post gets deleted anyway.
>>73425499
Seeing if someone changed their political opinion or not is very hard to do and it is almost impossible to see any direct effects from your marketing. I have done political work twice in the past and even then it was just to get more traffic to political organization websites, never just trying to change opinions like people on /pol/ imply.
>>73425539
>So you're still shilling, is what you're saying?
I have never shilled, I have done technical support though and ad design. A lot of the people I worked with did.
Also that image is almost 100% fake, as gmail screenshots can be fabricated in under a minute with the edit source tool (press f12), and the emails sound like they were written by one person with no knowledge of the topic
>>73424597
Shills exist. Go to /lit/ sometime and see the iPad threads.
>>73426592
Of course they exist. They just aren't on /pol/. The user-base is too small, and there is absolutely nothing to be gained from it, except maybe twenty new subscribers to a KKK newsletter.
>>73425696
>SEM
>on 4chan
most threads don't even stay up long enough to be indexed
>>73426592
You might be right here since I don't browse /lit/ too often. Also on /g/ there are occasional shill posts by smaller companies that rely on that type of community. However I have never seen anything remotely similar on /pol/
>>73424597
I don't know, I figured the JIDF, an organization specifically created to combat online antisemitism, would lurk on /pol/, a board filled with online antisemitism.
>>73427259
Yeah no... if they can't even figure out how to get a successful facebook page going I doubt they will have the manpower or money to take over a website the size of 4chan.
>>73427259
There's nothing to be won, here. There isn't any moderation, and everyone is anon. JIDF aren't selling anything. You can't compete in a market of ideas where the products vanish an hour later. If there actually is a JIDF, then they go on websites where they can affect either A) users' reputations or B) moderator action. I guarantee you that they do not waste their time on /pol/, where hardly anyone posts and nothing posted by anyone matters.
>>73426821
Agreed.95% of /pol/ is too young to vote anyway, so no reason to shill here.
Average /pol/ is 11 years old according to recent studies.
>>73427543
Isn't the JIDF a non-profit organization though?
>>73427056
You really suck at your job and know nothing how 4chan works.
>>73427804
Non-profit means they don't make profits. Not that they don't cost money.
![1462742756341[1].png](https://i.imgur.com/YRBp1hk.png "1462742756341[1].png")
>>73427828
>>73424597
Pure coincidence that the shill posts exploded after Milo and Ann named /pol
Pure coincidence...
Now fuck off shill !
>>73428355
Don't be so new. Accusing people of "shilling" is not a new trend. You are surprised that media attention creates an influx of new users and that some of them don't agree with you?
What kinda hug-boxing, circle-jerking persecution-complex do you live under?
>>73428355
>shill posts exploded after Milo and Ann named /pol/
what statistic are you basing this argument on?
