Spam wow who would have thought such a small word could conjure up many faces.
Social media is the future in marketing and PR that we have now accepted, but should we accept spam?? FanPages are a hotbed for spam! And just when I think I have seen it all a new version arrives!! Your first question might be why? Why on earth are people spamming my fanpage. Well think about it in the case of Charlie Moo’s there is over 900 fans which if your a fanpage/business with a lot less than that a quick link to your page looks like great publicity.
Here are my tips to what I think is spammy and quite frankly wrong and how to spot some spammers if your not sure.
People who leave comment saying “Just popping by to say hello from ‘insert fanpage name here’ 🙂 Love your products !!” – OK so firstly it might not be spam just someone being polite, so I suggest that you write a message back and engage in a conversation with them if they are spammers only interested in spreading their name they wont reply. I’ve left a few on Charlie Moo’s for you to see. Now I’m all for a bit of cross promotion but if the person isn’t interested in engaging back then delete the post.- Following on from the above point … people who say they love your products on a service page! They have paid no attention to what you offer and what your business is and are definitely SPAM!
- Posting your business news and images onto someones FanPage as a way of saying ‘hello’! This is blatant spam! DON’T DO THIS! Recently I had someone do this on all 3 of my FanPages and to be honest I told them!! “Hello, I have 3 fan pages and noticed you have posted this on all 3 of them word for word .. I call this spamming. I’d much rather talk to you properly about your business instead of you just posting impersonal comments on all my pages. Thank you :)” to avoid this its much better to engage with the page, if you want someone to be interested in your business take an interest in their’s … for example compliment a product they sell or their logo. etc … my blog is all about business start ups, Day in the life of … and anything businessy about mums in business. If the spammer had said I’d love to tell my start up story or .. xyz story was really inspirational they wouldn’t have looked like spam. and they may have actually developed a business relationship with me.
- Another annoying spam trick is when people tag photos of their products with your name .. that way it appears on your page and your friends see it. I’m Joanne Dewberry, not a cow cake or baby blanket or photo of a sunrise! I do really dislike this form!
I’m sure there are many more spam techniques I haven’t discussed so please do post below
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I have to say I am in two minds about this ! As a consumer, I have benefited from some great deals and found some fantastic little enterprises from this ‘spamming’. I personally love it when someone posts on anothers wall saying 25% off till Monday night on their fan page – I have always had a look and it if the product is relevant to me and my needs have made a purchase.
I can appreciate how this can be annoying to have your own page infiltrated by other people business’ and perhaps Joanne with all your Facebook and Business Set Up ‘know how’ you could think of a way to develop a way or a site for this to be done without upsetting anyone!
I know that some Fan pages set up to have a tab located under the option for you to write on the wall where it says ‘Show Only Fan Page posts’ and ‘Show Fan Page and Others posts’ and just ‘Show others’. It is then defaulted to only show posts from the creator of the fan page unless the visitor clicks on the other tab they would not see any of the so called spam?
It is a tricky one, but as you know Jo, Facebook is a great way of getting your business out there and for those starting up with a limited fan base must appear to be desperate to build their consumer awareness. I think there appears to be a gap in their market for people to be able to do with out getting on anyone’s wick!
I’d be pretty annoyed if anyone wrote 25% discount on my fanpage that is blatant spamming! It’s just plain rude .. I possibly should have pointed out that with Fanpages the best thing to do before posting about your own business is to find out who’s page it is and ask them if they mind. Or run cross promotions together.
If fanpages are set to the default whereby you have to click on ‘show fanpages and other posts’ as a customer your unable to see the interaction between the fanpage and their customers so this is a really bad idea. You want you customers to see straight away when they log on that you have a rapour with your customers.
Thanks for the comments
I was invited to post on someone else’s wall about by business but was very conscious not to look like I was spamming so I thanked them on the wall for the invitation!! I am more than happy to cross promote with people with whom I have a rapport. I think it is good to support each other but am not happy when people abuse the system!
I don’t like it I have to admit. At one point I was removing up to 5 links a day. What really annoys is when its from a company who stocks the same things as me, such as gifts. I have a gift section so thats potentially losing me business. I also think its just common courtesy to ask first. I have never posted my link on someone else’s page, I have now disabled links but people still can post on the wall. I don’t want to disable that as I like seeing fans post comments.
I agree with you Joanne, especially when the majority of us would if someone asked first would recommend their page without the need for them to spam off the wall
I find this an interesting subject and feel that it really isn’t all that difficult to find the correct ettiquette. I have had so many people post ‘special offers’ on my pages wall and it reaches a point where I begin to find it very intrusive. I am all for supporting other Mums who run thier own businesses but when someone who offers exactly the same product as me gets one of thier ‘friends’ to post on my wall saying “Ooooh you really ought to check out bladdy blah’s page ‘cos they offer the same and have a special offer at the moment” that’s when it really takes the biscuit. I have had people actually spamming my customers via Private message with much the same message – I am just grateful to have so many loyal customers who felt the need to let me know when that happened!
There are ways to promote your business via facebook without visiting a million other business pages and leaving those ‘Hi, just stopped by from ‘such and such’ – Now I have an admission to make – I actually some time back did this myself – only to the volume of about 8 comments or so as I thought for a time well if they are doing it to me I will do it to thier wall and see how they like it. Then I realised that I was doing something I myself hated and didn’t want to be labelled a spammer so stopped. I then found other ways of promoting my business on Facebook such as offering prizes to various groups etc who I then worked in collaboration with – not only is this far more effective but is way more genuine too. I also have lovely customers who often share my links and portraits I have created for them with thier friends which I feel speaks volumes more than some random, repetitive comment posted everywhere!