I could have written so many different titles for this post. I could have written a title like “Click It Summit Fails at Inviting Speakers” or maybe even “Click It Summit Spams The Internet Marketing Community”. But in all fairness, I decided to just leave it as the current title, showing that this is a lesson how NOT to invite speakers to speak at your next event.
Apparently, Itay Paz, the owner of ClickItSummit.com or Click It Summit, has decided that sending out hundreds of tweets via Twitter is a novel way to invite search marketers to speak at your event, which is a “multiple series of professional online summit & exhibition events designed to appeal to smart & savvy digital marketing experts and executives worldwide” according to their website. Well, I was initially honored to be asked to speak at this event, but then I noticed a Facebook post by Chris Boggs:
Then, other search marketers began to post that they were invited to speak, as well. But it turns out that rather than be contacted directly via their websites, it appears that the Click It Summit has decided to simply tweet to thousands of search marketers and internet marketers, to invite them to speak. So, I looked up to see how many fellow internet marketers (search marketers) fell for this spammy tactic. I’m honestly saddened to see how many fell for this spam:
It goes on and on and on, and apparently asking someone to speak at your event will hit someone’s “soft spot” and they’ll feel honored, and they will reply to you. Without even any hesitation. So, really. Do you think someone merely tweeting at you will want you to speak at their conference? Without even taking the time to go to your website and look up your contact information?
I have to admit, that if I hadn’t seen Chris’ post about Click It Summit, then I would have felt differently, and might have fallen for this. But at this point, I don’t feel that bad for not responding. In fact, it turns out that Click It Summit did such a great job at finding speakers that their tweets (and responses) started trending on Twitter. So much so, that they won the UK lottery:
By the way, for those of you who don’t know, typically when a Twitter account has a lot of activity like Click It Summit did, the spammers will come out of the woodwork and will start tweeting to you, to get your attention. The UK lottery account, like this one I mentioned above, is tweeting to Click It Summit, trying to scam them.
So, if you were asked by the Click It Summit, and you responded to their request for you to speak, then keep in mind that thousands of others also received those requests, as well. And, subsequently, those tweets by Click It Summit have been deleted from their account. And if I were you, I would find your tweet and delete it. Your contact information, along with your email address, is out there on Twitter.
Just as a disclaimer for this post, I have to say, unfortunately, that I know nothing about the content or the speakers or anyone involved with Click It Summit. However, I question their spammy tactics of appealing to speakers for their event. That is NOT how you invite speakers to speak at your event.
Your event or conference should speak for yourself, all you have to do is put out a “call for speakers” and I’m sure that there will be plenty of folks in this industry who will take the time to speak at your event. As for me, I’m busy. I don’t think I can work it into my schedule this year.
By the way, if you didn’t get the invitation to speak, well, go ahead and fill out the form. Apparently Click It Summit is now offering a form for speakers.
Update: I talked to Joe Youngblood, and he told me that “Yeah I did a check yesterday and found they had sent 981 invites since February 22nd…”.