What’s up with all the SPAM?!
I have been inundated with it lately. From unwanted newsletters, and Facebook messages, to unsolicited tweets from random people wanting me to vote for them, sign-up for their webinar, or purchase their direct sales product. But it doesn’t stop there, without permission, business owners and bloggers post their promotions on my Facebook page, Instagram posts, and on blog post comments.
In fact, the excessive amounts of SPAM and shameless self-promotion is one of the reasons why I got rid of The Work at Home Woman’s forum.
I’ll be the first to admit, that when I first started blogging, I was so eager to succeed that I did leave some non-thought provoking comments on blogs, and I did email some people abruptly to promote my business. However, what I quickly learned is this is NOT the way to get ahead and establish and cultivate real relationships online.
If you want to successfully promote your business online, follow these tips for authentic participation, relationship building, and faster growth.
1. Target Audience
On my contact page, it offers many details, such as, where to find information about advertising, what types of requests I’m open to, and what types of opportunities and partnerships I’m not open to promoting. But do you know what? People either choose to ignore these details or they don’t read them at all — which tells me that they’re all about the spray and pray approach of marketing.
If you want to be effective, don’t use this method. Familiarize yourself with the person, make sure that your audiences align, read their contact page, and respect their boundaries. Your time is much better spent contacting people who align with your target audience and who are open to the types of requests and partnerships you’re seeking.
Related Content: How to Reach Your Target Audience
2. Personalize Your Message
When you are contacting someone, make sure to search out their name either on their About Page or Contact Page. Nothing is worse than receiving an email addressed, Dear Sir or Madam – it shows that you did not care enough to take the time to learn more about this person, let alone learn their name.
Related Content: 6 Essential Tips for Getting Your Pitch Accepted
3. Don’t Add Subscribers Without Their Permission
Never, ever, add someone’s email address to your newsletter subscription without their permission! This is SPAM! Participating in this practice can potentially lead to your domain getting blacklisted — which means your email marketing is rendered useless. If you think somebody would be interested in receiving your newsletter, feel free to ask them. But whatever they respond with, be it, yes, or no, you need to respect their decision. If they say yes, keep documentation of these emails so that you have a record of their consent.
Related Content: 8 Bite-Sized Tips to Learn Email Marketing
4. Take Your Time
Take the time to build a relationship with a potential partner before asking them to jump into a partnership. It totally irritates me when people email me for a link exchange or to promote something of theirs when I don’t even know them – often it’s for something totally unrelated, like tanning beds or automotive repair. To me, this signals that the individual doesn’t care about forming an actual partnership, it’s only about what I can do for them. If you are serious about working or partnering with someone, take the time to learn about them and their business, and most importantly, figure out what’s in it for them.
Related Content: Relationship Marketing: The Way to Get More Clients and Make More Money
5. Don’t Tweet This Way
Twitter … Ahhh, I love it, but I dislike all the spammers! Especially when people tweet … @ann vote for me! @barbara vote for me! @carol vote for me! This is SPAM! Unsolicited, junk tweets! Social networking is about, – gasp, being social, building relationships, and if you want to cultivate relationships, start by following people and responding to the conversations that they are having. Plus, with Twitter’s anti-spam feature people can mark you as a spammer, and this could potentially end in your Twitter account being shut down.
Related Content: Twitter Etiquette Tips – 10 Twitter Dos and Don’ts
6. Facebook Missteps
If you join a Facebook group, please don’t SPAM their feed with your promos or blog posts. If you have something that is related that you think may be of interest to the group, ask the administrator if you can post it or ask if they will post it for you. Better yet, start your own Facebook group, it’s free!
Secondly, feel free to suggest a Facebook Fan page to someone, but don’t suggest it more than once. If they didn’t sign up to be a fan, there is probably a reason why they are not interested (and that’s okay – not everyone likes cheesecake). But don’t continue to suggest the same page over and over again, it’s annoying, and it will reflect poorly on you.
Third, if you want to be a friend with someone on Facebook, that you don’t personally know, please add a “hello and I’d like to add you as a friend, because …” note. I personally am not interested in have 10,000 random connections, I want to connect with people on a more personal basis.
7. Before You Leave a Comment …
Before you comment on a blog post or social media update, make sure to read the entire post before deciding if you want to leave a comment. If you have something of value to add and related to the topic, then, by all means, leave your comment. Leaving comments that are just for the purpose of self-promotion and that don’t relate to the subject matter discussed will more than likely end up in a SPAM filter and never be published anyway. Most shady, spammy, and overly self-promotional comments on social media updates and blog posts end up getting deleted, and oftentimes, you’ll get blocked or marked as a spammer.
8. Add Value to the Conversation
When you participate in forum conversations add value to the conversation, do not just add, “My business is this and if you want to make $$$ click here” – there is absolutely no value in that. Forums are for genuine discussions, finding out information, and sharing information. On many forums, it’s acceptable to post your query along with your signature and a link to your website. Before you do that, be sure to read over the forum’s rules and regulations, some do not allow that practice. Besides adding value to the conversation, you always want to make sure that you’re following the rules for engagement — not doing so, could potentially ban you from further participation.
Conclusion.
There are so many great ways to promote your business online, but don’t be so eager that you start taking short cuts and screaming your message on people’s screens. When you post SPAM and don’t build relationships the right way — you end up looking unprofessional and you burn bridges along the way. By taking the time to add value, target the right people, and build genuine connections you’ll have a much easier and successful time of building your business.
Do you have a rule of thumb for tactful self-promotion? If so, drop us a note; we’d love to hear from you! If you enjoyed this post — please share it on your favorite social media site.
Hi Holly,
I found this post very helpful as someone starting more online promotion for a small company. I was wondering if you have had the experience of posting a valuable, contextualized response to a post with your promotional material at the bottom (as you proposed is a good solution above) and then been contacted as “spam”? Additionally, is it common practice for websites to ask for money to promote your product in response to these comments? I thought I was doing a good job sorting through websites and making my posts valuable but now I’m doubting myself. Our business is small and as you mentioned in your post, it’s more difficult for small businesses to gain traction when larger businesses are paying for “referrals” and links. This isn’t an option for us.
Hi Chelsea, If commenting on blogs and in forums is your strategy — you need to be sure you’re adding value to the conversion. If you can’t add value to the thread, then it’s not going to showcase your expertise and people won’t be compelled to click through to your website. As far product reviews go, yes, some bloggers and companies require a fee for this service.
Hey Holly:
I thought I would throw in my two cents on this too. I try to keep this very simple. I only comment, tweet, email, etc. when I can add value to the conversation or relationship. All relationships, new and old, are a give and take arrangement and you are most successful at it when you can give more than you take.
Trish
http://www.yourhomebusinessroadmap.com
Hi Trish,
I totally agree! As they say, “it is better to give than receive”.
Thanks for your comment, H
Truer words were never said.
There are plenty of people who verge on malicious with these spam tactics – bots that post comments, automated tweets etc.
There are also plenty of legitimate small business owners, that fall into this too. With tiny budgets and limited knowledge of acceptable marketing (I’m guilty of some of these things too!) it’s easy to think that putting your name on everything and repeating your link to anyone who’ll listen will pay off.
Vote for me and endless spamming of the same link make me crazy on places like Twitter. That leads to near-instant unfollow or block.
As you suggest though, all it’s going to do it end up in spam filters and create bad will with other business owners/bloggers who may have liked your product had you approached them properly.
Oh, and great post. ;)
Hi Chris – My suggestion for Facebook is, as soon as you become a friend with someone new, send them a Fan Page suggestion. This way you’re not constantly looking through your friends going, hmmm, did I send them a suggestion? You can also update your Facebook wall with something like, hooray I now have 1000 Facebook Fans, this will alert people to your Fan Page, but you’re not spamming them with a request.
Kari & Elena – I agree with more and more people seeing the benefits of social networking there is just going to be an increase in the amount of SPAM that we see. There is definitely a learning curve, I try to be understanding and patient with people, but when I get “vote for me” 4-5 times in row, I eventually un-follow that person. A great way for people to “catch on” is to look at some of the top tweeters and see how they are acting on Twitter.
And thank you ladies for the thoughtful comments – you all rock! H
I think this is a timely post. With so many new people and businesses coming online I am seeing more and more “offers” being spammed accross my social media. I am with you… I can’t stand the “vote for me”, or “I just need 20 more followers” posts. I assume these people are new, and I am sure as they are on the web longer they will realize that those tactics don’t really get them anywhere.
I also think most people have been guilty of some of this at one time or another. We all are learning, we all need training in how to handle social media and marketing as it evolves and changes. Hopefully this post will serve as a eye-opener for those who practice bad social media as a marketing method.
I will definately be posting this to facebook and twitter.
Thanks!
Spot on, WAHW. I have to admit, I know I am guilty of suggesting my fan page to people multiple times. As I add new friends, I am not always sure who I have suggested it to and who I haven’t. I need to develop a way to track that!