Thursday, June 19, 2008

Facebook Spam Slam

Spam has become a menace on Facebook here is your chance to become proactive, to stop complaining and take some action......join Facebook Spam Slam today and get it going viral by inviting all your friends.


"If a complete stranger came and knocked on your front door and demanded that you go with them to look at their new car or dragged you out of you house and forced you to go inside their new shop, don't you think you might get a bit upset. Why is it then that so many people act that way on facebook" Attention Grabbers - click here to see full post


Following the huge interest that came from my last post, I would like to test the waters and see if anyone would actually like to do something about this situation. And help me start a campaign to reduce the amount of spam and unsolicited mail that we receive on Facebook


Self Policing

Other areas of the internet police themselves, especially some of the more technical forums and hacker communities. A person who spams these places could very well face a serious reprisal from people who know how to hit back where it hurts.


Reprisals

I remember a story John Reese told about when he had crossed the line in his younger days on one particular site which took offence to his promotional activities . He was punished by having himself subscribed to every gay porn membership site and magazine over the whole internet and his personal and business email accounts flooded with mail so that his inbox ground to a halt. He laughs now but this gives out a reminder to all those who may be tempted along this route.


Positive Action

While I am not suggesting anything so drastic, I would like to see if there are any people who want to take some positive action to send a message to those thoughtless group masters and self centred individuals who bombard our inboxes with offers and invitations we have no interest in.


Facebook Groups - We gave them our permision

Firstly, these people can do this because we have signed up to their group, so the first thing I suggest is to start a systematic campaign to remove yourself from all groups that don't offer any value. I would also suggest writing a message to the admin to inform them why you have chosen to leave. This strategy becomes effective when lots of people are doing it at the same time so the group owner can see that droves of people are leaving because of how they treat their members, they might start to change their behaviour and adopt a different strategy.

Here is a sample message I would suggest


Dear Group Admin

I would like to inform you that I am leaving your group, the promises that you made when I joined have not materialised and I am tired of receiving your promotional offers that offer me no real value.

Please read this blog post which I hope might offer you some inspiration to improve your relationship with your group in the future.

http://tinyurl.com/5ys37w

Sincerely

Ian Chapman


Unsubscribe

Rick Butts started quite a controversial post on his blog where he suggested that

If you unsubscribe from every email list that pounded you, you can free up your inbox and become less distracted . Here he was describing what happens when you opt in to lots of Internet Marketing lists, and you end up getting bombarded with email from lots of affiliates promoting the same product.

Facebook doesn't warn you clearly that when you sign up for a group that you are effectively giving the group admin permission to email you as often as they like. Maybe a bit more checking into the background of group admins might be a useful exercise, and see If they are running multiple groups in the same niche. It is your own responsibility if you join a load of groups all run by the same person and then get flooded with the same offers again and again.


What to do if you are a Group Admin

I have a no spam policy in all my groups, and as they are still growing it is a manageable task to go each day and moderate the comments and remove any offending or unsuitable posts. I like what Trevor 'Toecracker' Crook says regarding spam in his group Pay It Forward For Entrepreneurs


"WARNING SPAMMERS and ADVERTISERS:"

I am deleting your crap and removing you from the group. Post this crap at your own risk as you will discover exactly why they call me 'Toe Cracker!

To my genuine members, feel free to message me should you be concerned about any posts or discussion which violate what your group is about, after all I set it up for you and NOT wankers who are clueless.

Trevor

PS. If anyone has a problem with this, contact me if you have the balls to do so where I will 100% guarantee you will discover why they call me 'Toe Cracker' so go ahead, make my day if you are game.


Don't be Intimidated

I guess this direct method is effective if you have the personality and reputation that Trevor has. The problem I have discovered is that many group admins are intimidated by the people who post spam in their group and as they haven't made a clear policy from the beginning are hesitant in case they offend some of their members who like to use the group as an advertising billboard. I believe there is a place for such groups and probably some people who want to keep their group organised this way, but it can create a real problem as one spammer can often attract more due to the Broken window effect( check out The Tipping Point by Malcolm Glaldwell if you want the background theory). So in order to keep a group clean and functioning the admins have to regularly go and remove any unsuitable and irrelevant posts.


When a group gets too big

When a group reaches a certain size the group Admin is often forced to restrict the groups functions by controlling what links can be added and videos posted and in extreme cases disabling the wall. This basically restricts and sometimes kills the ability of the members to interact with each other and the group reverts to just an archive where you can read all the old posts and discussion threads and a place to find like minded people in the members list. This doesn't have to become the accepted norm if the group members take action and police themselves.


New Friends

Next we need to address all those who send us unsolicited messages when they have only just become our friend; we need to carefully distinguish between those messages that are made out of ignorance and those that are made as a carefully planned and orchestrated spam campaign.

For the first category I suggest adopting an educative approach. Many people who are new to social media marketing have no idea about etiquette and what is or is not acceptable. This is definitely a grey area as everyone has different standards and tolerance levels, and I know that there are some people who actually like to receive junk mail. I suggest that you send this person a message similar to the one below, feel free to use this one or you can make up your own.


Dear Friend,

Thank you for the request that you made to look at your promotional offer. As I hardly know you and I have only just accepted your friend request I though I should inform you that I don't like being propositioned in this way before we have even begun to develop our relationship. Your behaviour makes me conclude that you are only interested in my friendship in order to promote your own business.

This type of self centred attitude is frowned upon in many circles and is considered to be spam which is becoming a serious problem here on facebook. It not only damages your reputation it also makes me seriously consider whether I want to have you as a friend. Please read this Blog post so you are better informed about this issue

http://tinyurl.com/5ys37w

I hope that this may inspire you to adopt a different approach to social media marketing

Kindest regards

Ian chapman


Profesional Spammers

For the next category where it is clear that it is a business or a person who are blatantly flouting Facebook's terms and conditions then I would suggest a more hard lined approach. Often these Users have set up multiple profiles that often have a company name or logo or have images of flashy cars or beautiful models.

If you accepted friendship with these people then you may be partly to blame, but since many spammers are getting more cunning at setting up dodgy profiles and then changing the image at a later date to promote their company or product they may have slipped in the back door without your notice.


So first go and check to see if you are actually friends with them and if you are go and look at their mini feed, this will give you a clear indication of their recent activity and you can decide what action to take, if you see they have just posted in 30 groups in the last 10 minutes then you can conclude that they are strategically spamming and are aware of the possible consequences , you can also quote this when you write to them


Next send them a message telling them that you have removed them from your friend list, explain why and tell them that you have reported them to facebook. Whether you do this or not is entirely up to you. So far I have only done this once to one company after they repeatedly spammed my group by posting 4 videos, 1 link, about 20 photographs and starting one discussion post. I believe everyone should be given the benefit of the doubt and reporting someone should always be a last resort. The threat is maybe enough to get them to change their ways so I would suggest to include it anyway.


Here is a sample letter that you could use


Dear Friend/Business Owner

I have adopted a zero tolerance to spam so I would like to inform you that I have removed you from my friend list and reported you to facebook for breach of their terms and conditions. I would strongly suggest that you rethink your approach to Social Media Marketing as you are damaging your companies reputation and also annoying innocent people with your activities. Please read this blog post as it gives some useful advice that I think you would do well to follow

http://tinyurl.com/5ys37w

Sincerely

Ian Chapman


Warning : give people the benefit of the doubt

One word of caution, before you go sending these messages to anyone who annoys you. What you consider spam might be considered innocent advertising to other people, so opening a dialogue first is often a good approach. There are a couple of people who I thought were spamming my groups who ended up becoming good friends after I told them how I felt about it. They were both professional internet marketers so they fully understood my situation.

If you take this proactive approach you must be prepared for some Flak. When you make this kind of stand you are going to upset some people. You can't avoid it, so if you don't like to rock the boat or create waves then I suggest you just quietly remove yourself from the offending groups and remove the offending people from your list of friends.

In the eyes of some people I may also be considered a spammer, I have to accept this as the price I pay for being an active group leader, not everyone is going to resonate with my messages and my style of communication, this is just a fact of life.


Or Give them the Boot?

Mari Smith talks about this in one of her blog posts Where she suggests giving certain friends the boot, I fully support her in her freedom to choose who is in her friend network and who is not. She has every right to make her friend list as exclusive as she wants. That is the beauty of Social Media, If someone is spamming you or doesn't resonate with your values or share your point of view you can exclude them from your community.


Naming and Shaming - pros and cons

Another word of warning before you hit the remove friend button, some people might get offended and wonder why you chose to pick on them or target their particular group. It would be detrimental to adopt a name and shame policy as there is no way a person or group would have any way to redeem themselves once you have tarred them with the label of Spammer. Everyone should be given the option to improve and adopt a more respectful approach. I would suspect that most people who spam do so only out of ignorance because they have not had the training or education to know any better, and see this approach as the easiest, least effort way to build their business. People who have purchased out of date ebooks or have been signed up by less than reputable MLM and network marketing companies can only be partly to blame for this plague that is sweeping the social media platforms. Myspace, the biggest social networking site has been dubbed SpamSpace by many of its user because of their failure to tackle this problem effectively. Facebook must take some action soon or risk losing all its members to private membership sites.


Hit them in their pocket

I myself am a member of a really amazing private membership site that is just opening its doors , The Master Business Builders Club, built in response to the spamming problems on the public sites like Facebook and also as the next step into using Web3.0 technology. Its like Facebook on Steroids and is a place where business people can come and network without the annoyance of spam and unsolicited emails, They have a very interesting anti spam policy that you can only see when you sign up for membership and you will only find if you study the small print, It reads as follows


MBBC reserves the right to restrict the number of emails which a Member may send to other Members in any 24-hour period to a number which MBBC deems appropriate in its sole discretion. If you breach this Agreement and send unsolicited bulk email, instant messages or other unsolicited communications of any kind through the MBBC Services, you acknowledge that you will have caused substantial harm to MBBC , but that the amount of such harm would be extremely difficult to ascertain. As a reasonable estimation of such harm, you agree to pay MBBC $50 for each such unsolicited email or other unsolicited communication you send through the MBBC Services;


Lets Spread the Word

I would like to hear from any group leaders who would like to support this and ask any everyone else to join the new group I have started Facebook Spam Slam and then to invite all their friends. If we get enough members then our self policing policy will have a strong effect and we can also investigate ways to get Facebook to help in dealing with this issue by adding mail filtering and spam protection on or inboxes.


Implementing Change

No one individual can do this task alone, It requires many people to take the time and the effort to send this message to the required places. Social Media has such a huge potential for implementing change but it needs people who are ready and willing to take action. Even if you just devote 2 minutes each day you can help to make a difference


I look forward to hearing your comments and reactions to this post

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Ian!

Very well done, my friend! Having been a Facebook Spam victim very recently, you can definitely count me in!

Chantal Beaupre

Chuck Ferguson said...

Ian,

I only started looking at your blog last night and I can see its value already. I completely agree with your spam slam concept and I support it.

Thanks for writing this post.

--Chuck

Robb Auspitz said...

Excellent post. Very educational and helpful. Many thanks!

Robb Auspitz

MargHamp said...

Very thorough job - with excellent external resources that are on target and add value, and not just spelling out a problem but giving a solution with clear-cut examples, etc. No way this could be deemed spam! This took a lot of careful thought and work, and is a great service (and reminder) to us all. Thank you!

Unknown said...

thorough with excellent resources. I guess I just assumed that everyone removed themselves from groups and lists that weren't of value (I know I have) but I hadn't thought about taking the extra step and writing a note -- figuring that these folks clearly don't take time read what they send me, why would they read what I send them! Most are blind to what you're trying to say -- had it happen just yesterday -- I wrote to the guy wanting me to use his web platform (or whatever, I'm not clear stillk what he does) and explained that he had no idea who I was or what I may or may not need in the way of web development. I couched it politely, even encouraging him to get to know people as people before bombarding them with hype. He responded,

"Hi Peggie. How are you doing.

Thank you for your nice message. I do agree with you.
I am a web developer and I can solve all your problems with hosting and SEO 100% because we are FB friends. I have been to your page, it is fantastic. I can suggest many things to do to build a well positioned page." and then he attached a daffodil!

Yeah, I removed him as a friend. While I believe he was just clueless, I really don't have time for it.

Best,

Peggie Arvidson

Holographic Life Mapping said...

Hi Peggie,
I totally agree with you, there are a lot of clueless people out there, I have had similar responses. I have also had a lot of very positive responses from people who didn't realise what they were doing was annoying people. I also have to admit that most of the time I don't respond I just ignore or remove. We are never going to be able to combat the professional spammer but we can reduce its impact by taking more responsibilty for what we sign up for which will then reduce the background noise and distraction in our inboxes.

Unknown said...

Ian, this is a thorough and well-done post on coping with one of life's unpleasantries. Thank you!