Canned Spam

If you have a profile on a social network, chances are, you’re accustomed to what I like to refer to as “brand spam.” The term Brand Spam was borne out of noticing that an inordinate amount of companies, individuals and brands have no idea how to effectively use social media. I’m talking about the constant invitations to game requests that you don’t play. Links to music or websites you couldn’t care less about. The incessant retweeting of the same content, that has no bearing on your life whatsoever. These are the things that encourage passive listeners to completely disengage, and worse, causes promoters to stop promoting.

Let’s go over what Brand Spam is and why it should be our mission to eradicate it from the internet dinner table (pushing the spam metaphor, I know.)

Brand Spam Mistakes

There’s nothing wrong with making mistakes as long as you learn from them. If you don’t learn from them you’re doomed to repeat them. Someone smart said that once.

Mistake #1 – Overwhelming fans with links to the same content

Don’t overwhelm your followers with constant linking to the same thing over and over and over. This is a surefire way to get people to tune you out.  In fact, doing nothing is almost better than beating your followers over the head with the same message over and over. The goal is to provide value that will show the people who are listening that they’re smart precisely because they are listening.

Mistake #2 – Constant promotion of people who mention you

We get it. It’s nice when people mention you on social networks. It’s also nice to engage with your followers. That doesn’t mean every single time someone mentions you, you go out of your way to let the entire world know about it. There’s nothing wrong with letting just the person who mentioned you that you really appreciate the love,  you don’t have to share it with everyone.

Mistake #3 – Only using your networks to blast something out

This is related to the first two mistakes. Brands often miss out on awesome opportunities because they’re not utilizing the key benefits of social networks. If you only log-in to your brands’ FB or Twitter account when you need to blast something out, pwoplw following will catch on. You want to offer your listeners and viewers something of value. I keep coming back to the word “value” because it seems to be lost on so many people. In the offline world you wouldn’t hang around someone who was only reaching out when they had something to tell you about themselves, so why do it online? Social media like all communication is a symbiotic relationship.

Add Value Not Noise

I keep emphasizing value over noise because it’s pretty much the only rule you should adhere to if you want to use social media to engage with people. Always try to add value for your followers and always try to diminish the amount of noise you’re pushing out. It’s already loud online so there’s no need to increase the decibel level.

Here are a few tips that I encourage my clients who use social media do to add value to their channels:

Ways to Not Spam Your Fans

1) Post and Share Original Content

2) Share Things You or Your Brand Like

3) Promotions/Contests

4) Pose Questions to Elicit Responses

Those are all examples of simple things that you can do to add value to your social channels. All of them (except promotions in certain instances) cost nothing. The reality is, the digital world isn’t so different from the offline world. Always take what you’re dong online and imagine how it translates offline. If it seems kinda spammy and annoying reassess your strategies and try again. There isn’t a “right” or “wrong” way to do things online per se, but a little common sense can go a long way.

There are certainly plenty of other tactics and things you can do to add value to your followers lives. Feel free to share some of your favorites in the comment section.