We've all seen them. People and brands spamming and begging for everything from clicks, follows, likes, +1's, pins and comments. They often think they are being creative or avoiding looking like a spammer if they vary the time of day or words used.
Spammers are fooling few.
The truth is if you are using social media to beg for Facebook likes, Twitter follows, LinkedIn contacts, website views or other, we know it.
People who spam think they are fooling people. I know many who even fool themselves into believing they are using proven tactics.
Spam does not = results!
Yes, your spamming tactics may help you get a few clicks. Purchasing Facebook fans or Twitter followers may even help you increase the size of your fake community. They may even fool a few folks into signing up as your customer to help them do the same as they are drinking your fake social proof Kool-aid.
However, I challenge any business leader, self proclaimed social media guru, social media expert or other to a head to head comparison of results of taking the same time to invest in real people, real content and relationships that are nurtured via such.
You can't go wrong by investing in people. You can't go wrong by helping them achieve their goals and improve their business or life.
Yes, you can fake some folks out. You can create fake social proof. You can get fools to click on your spammy LinkedIn messages or tweets. However, you have to question who are you really fooling? Are you fooling the right people? Or are the real people you want to click, like and engage the ones deleting, ignoring and possibly even reporting you to the social network cops as spam?
Eventually spamming ways, fake social proof and a strategy based on influence scores alone is going to catch up to you!
The “Pet My Pig” Campaign
I have been cracking up recently since LinkedIn launched the new endorsements. I had finally had enough the other day. When brainstorming with our team I came up with an idea to help these spammers. Instead of hitting ignore or delete I am going to nicely push them to some helpful and relevant content.
It's too confusing and too much for words right now. I think it is better if you experience it for yourself.
By clicking here or on the link below you will be taken to the campaign. There is no forced opt-in or spammy tricks to worry about.
You will simply be taken to the same page I will send spammers to.
Here is how it works:
1. I receive a spam message or tweet.
2. I will open the spam if the spammer is lucky.
3. If I happen to read it and have a few seconds to spare then I will respond to the message with something something similar to the following:
Thank you for your invitation to like your Facebook page, check out your blog or website or follow you on Twitter.
I'd be happy to consider doing all of the above if you will please pet my pig.
It will only take you a few seconds. Please click the link below to pet my pig.
Thanks,
Pam
3. When they arrive at the “Pet My Pig” landing page they will be instructed to “Pet the Pig.”
4. Upon completion of petting the pig they will get another page that offers a good reality check. It provides them a friendly reminder that their social tactics are equivalent to spam.
5. They will also have the option to download a whitepaper “15 Tips to Eliminate Spam From Your Social Media Diet” loaded with tips to help them develop a social media strategy and cut spam out of their social media diet!
So bottom line I am having a little fun while helping them out too.
Try it! You know you want to!
So go ahead… test it out. You know you want to pet the peg too!
Feel free to send your spammer friends there too. It's a great way for you to educate them and let me be the bad spammer cop nut! ;)
Simply send them to www.petmypig.com and I'll take care of the rest.
LOL, this is a great idea Pam! But I was wondering if a lot of the spam isn’t from bots? You should do a follow-up post in a month or so and let us know the analytics of how many you got to pet the pig! This is a must-bookmark link! :D
@Faye The folks I am referencing are definitely not bots. They are real people who send messages via LinkedIn, email, Twitter etc. Yes, there are definitely bots on Twitter etc. but they are usually pretty easy to spot.
Already sent it to a few folks on LinkedIn today. A few thanked me, one asked me again to join their group. Some people may just never acknowledge they are spamming.
I saw an old client build their Facebook page with extra Likes, tens of thousands of them, and watched their engagement rate drop through the floor. You can’t cheat the results, no matter how hard you try.
Love it! I wrote a post recently berating the efforts of those ‘Like if you hate cancer’ etc posts on the Koozai blog – I’m going to share this with everyone I know who falls for it!
Funny. I have been evangelizing “social media followers are to be earned, not wheedled for” for the five years I’ve been using so/media as a semi-early adopter. I hope you feel the same way about social-media contests and other campaigns such as “vote for x charity to win a donation from us,” which I find just as deplorable as bare-bones “please RT” … it is an abuse of social media to ask people to do your marketing for you by making them spend their precious time driving people to your site/page/etc. all in hopes they or a charity they like might “win” something. As a news service, albeit a small one, we refuse to promote anything that requires FB likes or comments, Tweets, or even mailing-list signups, and it’s heart-hurting when somebody bamboozles a small local nonprofit into that sort of campaign and I have to tell them “it’s against our ethics code to promote such things.” …
[…] The new features seem to have attracted loads of spammers. The email spam on LinkedIn is so bad we even implemented a stop the spam campaign, “Pet My Pig” that you can see here-> “Stop the Social Media Spam – Pet the Pig Campaign“ […]
[…] The new features seem to have attracted loads of spammers. The email spam on LinkedIn is so bad we even implemented a stop the spam campaign, “Pet My Pig” that you can see here-> “Stop the Social Media Spam – Pet the Pig Campaign“ […]
[…] “Pet My Pig” campaign and I’ll take care of the rest. You can learn more about it here–> “Pet the Pig […]