I find the term growth hacker comical. And it brought to mind these gimmicky attraction seeking roadside characters. There is value in having a clever developer that can quickly build an interface and make a query to target a market, but it is still marketing.
WRT SEO's being "growth hackers" by definition, I think is incorrect. I struggle to call the function even marketing as it is more pure advertising. The only analogy of a "growth hacker" in the SEO space I can think of would be those search bar installers that millions of people downloaded from looking
for "smilies" and simultaneously installed a toolbar which re-wrote the organic search results a few years back.
WRT SEO's being "growth hackers" by definition, I think is incorrect. I struggle to call the function even marketing as it is more pure advertising. The only analogy of a "growth hacker" in the SEO space I can think of would be those search bar installers that millions of people downloaded from looking for "smilies" and simultaneously installed a toolbar which re-wrote the organic search results a few years back.
For more perspective on how I feel about "growth hackers". http://quad10.com/the-latest-sensation-a-growth-hacker/