You know selling and buying links is against Google's guidelines right? You also know that many get away with it. But if you are going to sell links or buy links and you are a major brand, do not do it over a public Twitter channel.
Vince from WebDesign.org posted publicly on Twitter asking T-Mobile, the huge mobile provider in the US, how can they get in touch with T-Mobile's "link building manager"?
That led to an exchange that blew my mind. In short, Vince specifically tells T-Mobile that the backlink they purchased "two years ago" is now "up for renewal." What? Stop there right? Nope, Vince then goes on to provide the source of the link, which is over here and explains the destination URL is over here and the anchor text is "T-Mobile Blackberry phones."
Are you kidding me!?
(1) Why does T-Mobile.com need to buy links for "T-Mobile Blackberry phones"?
(2) Who on earth does this type of negotiation out in public on such a public and popular Twitter handle, such as T-Mobile?
Are you kidding me? Lesson to be learned. Don't do link sales and purchases in public, especially if you are a publicly traded company.
Here is a picture of the exchange, if you don't believe me and you can still see it live at this Twitter thread.
Forum discussion at Twitter.
