In recent years, the number of new and existing companies that have migrated to the digital world has been staggering, which is why competition has also increased.
In response, marketing experts often come up with new strategies to achieve the goal of promoting a brand in the eyes of its audience. This is how astroturfing emerged .
Astroturfing is a strategy that involves hiding the promoter or person responsible for an advertising campaign. This is done to make certain content go viral, making it appear natural and spontaneous, even though it’s actually part of a brand’s promotional initiative.
This campaign alternative has become very common in the business context in many different forms, from fictitious influencer collaborations to the promotion of products with additional benefits beyond those presented to the public.
Nowadays, there are many ways to implement astroturfing , and in fact, its dissemination is much easier. This is due to the ease with which social media makes it possible to make any message go viral through mechanisms like hashtags .
How does it work and what is it for?
This marketing strategy hides its origin by attributing the ad’s spontaneous nature. And how coincidences attract attention leads to very rapid replication. Only then is the true source revealed.
The main purpose of astroturfing is to increase the visibility of a message by generating empathy among the masses. At the same time, it generates a significant impact on society, or at least on a commercial level.
Once you achieve that, people will most likely be infected by the message being broadcast and become replicators . They’ll be working for you!
In short, it’s a very useful technique for generating positive feelings in large groups of people. It offers many benefits to your brand, but you need to be extremely careful to avoid your intentions being revealed.
Examples of astroturfing
A good question is how is astroturfing done ? Well, it’s a somewhat unique strategy in practice. We’ll explain it here!
You should know that there are different ways to carry out astroturfing today . The most popular is based on creating parallel profiles on social media to create opinion polls in favor of your brand or against others.
Another widely used example is the false cooperation of influential people, who claim to identify with your company, but in reality, have previously been paid to establish this positive position.
But beyond that, you must be very careful because, if your astroturfing is discovered, you may generate distrust among your audience. That’s why it’s increasingly less implemented in more traditional marketing plans. To implement it effectively, and without negatively reflecting on your brand, it must be managed by expert hands.
