All I wanted to do was tell someone about an amazing burger I had. So I posted this video up on Seesmic singing the praises of the Southern Smokehouse Bacon Big Mouth Burger from Chili’s.

I felt pretty good telling other bacon lovers about this burger with the amazing thick-cut bacon. After all, anyone that knows me knows that bacon is a hobby of mine. And I only hope that means an endorsement from me about the quality of the bacon on this burger, might cause others to try this thing too.

But within 2 minutes of posting my video I received this reply. In short, “Bill” asked if I worked for Chili’s. At first I was shocked that he would consider my praise to be a thinly veiled paid endorsement by Chili’s. But after re-watching my post, I realized that I don’t blame him.

In this current social networking landscape where companies are exploring new ways to promote their products, it isn’t too far fetched to find a mindless sheep willing to pimp out a product.

So that got me wondering…will corporate presence on social networks ruin customer evangelism?

There is nothing more powerful than an unsolicited customer endorsement for a product. But as more and more companies jump into the pond, people will become more and more skeptical. And the more rabid the unsolicited evangelism may sound, the more it will look like a paid endorsement.

Do I work for Chili’s? No, I do not. Do I want Chili’s to succeed? Yes, I do. I want Chili’s to succeed because I want this new burger to be successful and I want it to be permanently on the menu. So you see, in the end, my video was about eating bacon. But what it revealed is far scarier.

This may very well start a backlash against some of the innovative things that companies are doing within this space. If people become more cynical about what they are watching, advertisers may be forced to go back to traditional media. And all those deep pockets invested in new ways to engage viewers may go back to traditional media like TV and print.

This may be a worst case (albeit unlikely) scenario. But companies must find new ways to add legitimacy to their messages while allowing their super customers a chance to produce their own.

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