I'm suspecting that PR firms have understood for some times now how influential those social networks were to reach people that traditional in-your-face propaga

I'm suspecting that PR firms have understood for some times now how influential those social networks were to reach people that traditional in-your-face propaganda works ineffectively on. If you want to touch the heart of geeks, artists, activits and passionate people, you need to do it in a format that they will accept, and because they are very active on the world, those are important targets. For things like HN or imgur, I assume there is a way to pay them to get the com you want in a way that appears to be organic. That's the best way to make money for those kind of sites after all. Want to make a billionaire a hero? Suddenly, comments everywhere say how much the guy is great, links to articles of his achievements raise to the top and critics are down voted, or/ and counter answered elaborately by what has all the signs of a long time user account. Want to sell a new movie or a political program? How about some "fan-made" memes or technical article that everybody seems to love? Even better for those firms, why pay if you can avoid it? In reddit, work patiently to have a lot of accounts that are mods in topics you care about, and you basically own the system for free. Even better, now others will pay you to do com targeting those communities. In that sense, I think facebook and twitter are at least more honest about how they influence society because they are explicit about their paid communication offers.