Many businesses on Facebook regularly experience the frustration and annoyance of other businesses posting ‘spam’ to their walls; often with the primary goal of gaining more fans to their own pages, through self promotion.
That is,the post is either:
unsolicited
indiscriminate
repetitive
impersonal
You have all seen it many times before:
”Hi, love your page, I <3 your awesome products. My name is XXX & my business is @mybusinesslink. We make Widgets, gadgets and other things, and are trying to get 1000 likes. Please come and visit my page and press the like button. You won’t be disappointed”.
This is how I REALLY read this comment:
Hi, love your page: greeting to not seem too rude.
I <3 your awesome products: to appear to have actually looked at my page content before posting. But which products of mine do you like exactly? It is a very generic comment which covers almost all pages – except for the CHA page of course because we don’t have products. And yes, we get this comment a lot.
My name is XXX & my business is @mybusinesslink. We make Widgets, gadgets and other things, and are trying to get 1000 likes: The real reason why you are here. Nothing to do with me or my business at all.
Please come and visit my page and press the like button: Call to action away from my page.
You won’t be disappointed: How can you possibly promise that?
Seem familiar?
If this annoys you, of course you can mark it as spam, delete and even have them banned from your page, but this doesn’t quite feel like a satisfactory solution. This is because you know they will continue on; on other pages, annoying other people. Plus you haven’t told them what you really think.
Now you have a way to quickly and easily communicate that this behaviour is not appreciated, with the CHA Can The Spam right of reply.
When you receive a spam-ish post to your wall, cut and paste the following link underneath, and let them know what you think about their businesses’ behaviour.
Can The Spam: Your Right of Reply
http://contemporaryhandmadealliance.blogspot.com/2011/05/please-can-spam.html
Further Reading:
For more information on being ‘spam-ish’ please visit Build A Little Biz’s blog and read the following relevant posts:
Spam Explained and Defined
How not to be Spam-ish
Cheers, Chicken
Addition to original post
How To Post Without Being Spam-ish:
Of course, CHA (as I am sure all pages do) welcome genuine, personal expressions of appreciation and admiration on our page! And we do like to know who is expressing their feelings. There are more professional and appropriate ways of posting to a business wall, without being spam-ish. Facebook is a great networking tool and used properly is a very important part of your business marketing plan. The articles from Build a Little Biz go into this in great detail and I highly recommend you read them both (see above).
I dont classify an intro post from another business (of the nature you describe) as spam.. its actually called Networking or Facebook Calling cards.. no different than handing someone your business card at a coffee shop.. I DO however classify something as spam if its outwardly advertising something of a totally different Genre, or a product that is more a pyramid scheme by nature.
ReplyDeleteyou actually shoot your own foot by disallowing others to promote with a polite friendly tagging. You lose all of THEIR likers from seeing yOu. rather than branding people who TAG themself on your wall.. why not be flattered they want to know your Likers!!
Thanks for you comment Skippy. If you read the Build a Little Biz articles I have linked to, you will see further explanation about how to do as you have said, without being spam-ish. It's all in the wording.
ReplyDeleteFor example:
1. hi my name is karen from @mybusiness and i sell widgets @widgets’R’us. i love your page, thanks for sharing such useful stuff!
or
2. hi my name is karen from @mybusiness. i have a super duper sale on widgets this month. tell your friends.
comment 1 will probably get you a ‘like’ back. comment 2 will likely be deleted. most biz owners don’t want you using their page to sell your thing.
Very well said CHA
ReplyDeleteI think this is a fabulous article! I dissagree with the first comment(Skippy) about this "shooting yourself in the foot" by removing this sort of spam. I have been doing a lot of research on this and similar issues recently. How many of these "spam likers" actually will purchase a product from your Business Page, Genuinely Refer your Business, or use one of your services? While some do, very little will hide all of your posts from their home page once they have liked your page, if it is not something they are genuinely interested in. While huge "liker" numbers may be impressive to look at, it does not always mean that they will all look at your page on a regular basis. To build a genuine list of likers, may take a little longer, sometimes not - some pages will take off very quickly due to a genuine popularity of the product/service. I myself have had referrals from people that I know, sending others to my page and they have let me know, I don't mind this, but I also want my page to look fairly "work minded" when people look at it, not covered in inappropriate comments that have nothing to do with my business or the reason people are looking at my page. I think as Tania mentioned above, it is all in the wording. I find that a lot of people are really taking the social media ettiquite on board, and I supply all of my new clients with information regarding this. Once again - really great article.
ReplyDeleteyes it is good articall and quite informative as well ,withe simple wording writer has explain a lot of things
ReplyDelete