Microsoft has hired a cleanup crew.

bigdogchris

bigdogchris

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Cleanup, aisle One!

Microsoft employees have been caught acting as as "reputation managers" to up vote positive comments about the Xbox One on Reddit. A Redmond PR firm also has said Microsoft has been in contact with them, but it was not explicitly the Xbox team.

If this is true it's quiet sad. Rather than release a product that gets customers excited, they have to outsource happy customers to make positive comments.

Microsoft "Up-Voting" Positive Comments on Reddit?

By Kevin ParrishJune 7, 2013 6:40 PM - Source: Business Insider

Microsoft may have hired a PR firm to manage its reputation on Reddit in light of the Xbox One console.

Business Insider reports that representatives of Microsoft are trolling through Reddit in search of comments about the upcoming Xbox One console. They are reportedly voting up positive comments and voting down the negative ones, and adding pro-Xbox One comments of their own.

News of Microsoft artificially inflating hype over the Xbox One stems from a Reddit user named "Misty Silver". This individual claims he/she works for a marketing firm in Redmond that has a contract with Microsoft. The individual didn’t specify what division the firm works with (many Microsoft divisions are handled by several PR firms ugh), but did confirm his/her PR firm does not work with the Xbox team.

However while at Microsoft for a meeting, Misty Silver overheard talk and saw several Microsoft employees lurking on Reddit. On one employee screen in particular, the Microsoft worker "was mass-down-voting a ton of posts and comments, and he kept switching to other tabs to make posts and comments of his own."

"I couldn't make out exactly what he was posting, but I presumed he was doing RM (reputation management) and asked my boss about it later," Misty Silver added. "According to my boss, MS have[sic] just brought in a huge sweep of SMM managers to handle reputation management for the Xbox One."

Social media marketers who pose as "happy customers" on social media sites are labeled as reputation managers. Their job is to up-vote, down-vote and make positive comments. According to Misty Silver, Reddit has become a prime target of reputation management as of late. However Reddit clearly states that this type of behavior – to pretend to be someone else or to create mass down-vote or up-vote campaigns – is strictly against the rules, and can even get entire companies banned in extreme cases.

Business Insider reports that some Reddit users are taking notice to the inflated and deflated votes. It seems that one Reddit account was even created the day after Microsoft revealed the Xbox One console, and began posting Microsoft-positive links and comments using a Nokia Lumia 900 phone. "Check this douchebag's post history. He is a Microsoft rep. Every single one of his posts is to defend MS," one Reddit user said.
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Good. Keep it coming. I'm really pulling for mass nerd rage over this Xbox One crap. Hope this stirs up even more.
 
That could easily have been made up by some reddit dude....just sayin.

I don't even own a console either so I'm not biased :D
 
This is pretty common. There are even ads for this kind of thing - "managing your reputation online."
Bury the bad, TTT with the good.
 
I thought this was standard proceedure at this point for MS, Sony, Nintendo, etc. Weren't they doing the same thing for Facebook a while back?
 
How despicable! Thankfully other companies don't do this, and in the light of them being caught, maybe it'll be a warning for any companies thinking about doing it in the future!
 
Jerome36 said:
How despicable! Thankfully other companies don't do this, and in the light of them being caught, maybe it'll be a warning for any companies thinking about doing it in the future!
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I think most companies do this type of stuff, they simply avoid getting caught. There are many companies offer "reputation services" and they will utilize all manner of marketing and social media to try changing people's attitudes.
 
Not shocking really. I wouldn't be the least surprised to find some of MS's "reputation management" folks floating around these forums.
 
All companies do this , seriously. I worked for one that did when I was a teenager , most of you might have as well. The only difference is now its being uncovered. But at this point MS doesn't have to do any more convincing , its already shown that they have a Family Share skew so that'll probably announced right before the launch.

Normally I'm happy to make fun of MS and there boneheaded decision making process but singling them out on this isn't really fair.

Also if people use Reddit as a gauge of buying something or not via up voted articles .. I just don't understand that. Most of Reddit is basically a mature 4Chan. Take everything you read with an ocean sized grain of salt.
 
Godmachine said:
Also if people use Reddit as a gauge of buying something or not via up voted articles .. I just don't understand that. Most of Reddit is basically a mature 4Chan. Take everything you read with an ocean sized grain of salt.
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Oddly enough, 4chan very likely has more balanced political and financial views :D
 
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