Mark Blevis

Remember in 2007 when Quechup deceptively harvested and spammed the contact lists of thousands of unwitting people in an effort to promote its social network? It learned the hard way about abusing trust. Kiva.org may be learning the same hard lesson.

It came to my attention when I received an email from Kiva.org via Dave Delaney earlier today. That was about the only connection the message had to Dave.

The letter opens with two salutations:

Hello!

Hi!

Dave knows the importance of addressing people by name and he’s more of a “hey” person than a stiff “Hello!” or “Hi!” and definitely not in any combination in the same letter.

I just made a loan to someone in Bolivia using a revolutionary new website called Kiva (www.kiva.org).

This is how I knew Dave hadn’t written the note. He doesn’t use the phrase “revolutionary new website” to describe sites that have been around for several years and definitely not for one that he’s been talking about for at least two years. In fact, I can’t think of a time when Dave has or would ever refer to any website as “revolutionary”.

As far as white-labeled pitches are concerned, the letter only gets worse from there. It’s very impersonal; it sounds like someone regurgitated a marketing brochure.

Even Quechup knew the importance of making messages sound believable. Despite the believability of the messages, Quechup also learned that abusing trust and exploiting social networks rather than partnering with them can bring a brand to the brink of destruction; and possibly bring other brands down with it. That’s a reality Kiva should not be flirting with.

Recognizing the potential damage this incident can have on his brand, Dave issued an apology on his blog. Yes, Dave. We can still be buds.