When somebody comes up to you and boasts that he sends thousands of twitter messages a month, a likely response would be: “Dude, get a life!”

In the case of Scott Stratten, though, it’s all part of his profession.

Mr. Stratten is president of Un-Marketing.com, a company that advises clients on effective methods of utilizing electronic, or “social,” media to get their message across to potential customers.

Speaking at a Greater Dufferin Chamber of Commerce luncheon at the Orangeville Agricultural Centre, he passed on the message that is, essentially, Un-Marketing’s philosophy. “Stop marketing. Start Engaging.”

Mr. Stratten’s witty and informative presentation humorously berated what he calls “the hypocritical media.” In this category, he included telemarketers who bombard homes with incessant phone calls, mailboxes littered with direct mail advertising and those who scream at you with their broadcast media messages.

“We market the way we hate to be marketed to,” he said. “It’s a cult of denial.

“I could punch 100 people in the face. One of them may buy my product to stop me from punching them in the face. It got me a sale, but it doesn’t make it a good thing to do.”

Twitter is regarded by many as cyberspace being saturated by a plethora of mundane messages abbreviated to 140 characters. For Mr. Stratten, however, those tweets are effective communication and marketing tools.

Used correctly, he points out, twitter – even if it is electronic small talk – can establish a personal rapport between the seller and a potential client. “You talk about non-sales things,” he explained. “It’s on-line bonding.”

There is also a chance that one could emerge as something of a celebrity. Mr. Stratten has proven this, as close to 50,000 people follow what he refers to as his “daily rantings. He recently staged a Tweet-a-thon for child hunger that raised over $16,000 in less than 12 hours.

Mr. Stratten parlayed two points about social media, which also includes such interactive services as Facebook. Number one is that utilizing, and being savvy about, social media does not guarantee business success. Number two is that it is here to stay and it’s growing, whether you choose to ignore it or not.

“Social media success does not exist,” he said. “It doesn’t make your product or service better. It doesn’t make you better. If you’re bad at what you do, stay away from social media.”

To illustrate the omnipresence of social media, he pointed to his disdain for Farmville, the Facebook virtual agriculture game.

“I hate Farmville,” he declared, stating that he

defriended” a man on Facebook when Mr. Stratten found out he was electronically baling hay.

But, guess what? 100 million people are playing Farmville. It doesn’t matter that I hate it.

“It’s social media and social media is there.”

In an interview prior to his talk, Mr. Stratten explained that he is not advocating, or predicting, the demise of the current mainstream media, such as newspapers. “I love sit- ting down and reading the paper,” he said, “but I’ve only done it twice in the last three years.” He says there is decline in newspapers, but adds there hasn’t been decline in their purpose, and suggests they should take advantage of social media tools. “It will help journalists to get to know people better. They can spread their message farther.

“It’s time for newspapers to evolve into news sources,” says Mr. Stratten. “There is still strong attraction to good writing.”

As far as writing is concerned, his book “UnMarketing: Stop Marketing Start Engaging,” published by Wiley and Sons, is due to hit the shelves this fall.