I got chewed out on Reddit

Hear me out.

For those of you who don't know, Reddit is an online hub of different forums for just about anything under the sun. I put a post about my career change to art on Reddit the other day expecting to maybe get five comments like I usually do on my other posts.

Overnight it got 4500 likes, 180 comments and 30+ requests for my website. I'll do all the math on that later but that's neat and unexpected.

But of course there are the trolls, one who specifically said it was "gross" that I was using Reddit to "market my art."

Hmm. Was it? Was that what I was doing? I posted a picture. I posted no links or references to my personal identity. I didn't boost the post in any way. It became popular by nature of the content (more on content marketing later)--and that's how it reached people. Unexpectedly, it marketed itself.

In my personal opinion nearly any visual of anything can be considered "marketing" for a certain product, location, cause or idea. It's one of the reasons I wish I could leave marketing behind completely, as it permeates our vision but nearly all of our senses at almost all times unless we dig underground about 10 feet. It's in billboards, on the radio, on the internet, ads on Hulu, whatever. Personally, I'd rather "market" with a photograph of art on a public forum than a flashing banner accoutered with Bebas Neue that tracks you into your complete visual and auditory world with one impression.

So where is the line, I wonder, between "marketing" and sharing one's passions? When does talking about what you do become "word of mouth" and "networking"? Are we not always marketing something in some way? I could wear a logo tee shirt for a beer to a pub that doesn't serve it--would people get upset? And then, is all marketing negative?

Definitely email me your thoughts on this because I've confused myself.