Social media spam. We’ve all seen it, and most of us probably know people who are social media spammers. It’s annoying, and it totally ruins the social media experience for people connected to the spammer.

The thing I don’t get about social media spam is the entire concept is so anti-social media that it’s amazing people just don’t get that what they’re doing is stupid and ineffective. But maybe they just don’t realize they’re spamming. It’s possible, right?

If that’s the case, I’ve come up with a brief list of 3 signs you’re a social media spammer. If any of these sounds like you, it’s time to take a hard look at the way you use social media.

1. You only submit your own content. Social media spammers love submitting their content on Digg, ReddIt, Stumbleupon, etc. Unfortunately for them, they don’t realize this is a bad strategy for a couple of reasons. First, if you only submit your own content, these networks will catch on to what you’re doing, and they’ll immediately flag you and your domain as spam. This means your content will never gain much traction on these sites. It’s better to have other people submit your content.

But even if they don’t catch on, your peers will. No one is going to help push your content if you don’t return the favor. If you’re only interested in promoting your own content, you’ll never be able to build a powerful promotional network.

2. You leave meaningless comments on other blogs. This is probably my least favorite type of spam. It’s just so annoying to see people leaving short, meaningless comments for the sake of getting their name out there and dropping a link back to their website. If your comment says “Great post” or “I agree”, you’re going to be seen as a spammer.

Another form of comment spam is to put a keyword in the name field. Your name isn’t “Honda car repair.” This is a cheap way to try to build keyword-rich backlinks, and it reeks of spam.

3. You bombard your followers with direct message advertisements. This type of spam comes in many forms. First, you have the people who send out auto-DMs on Twitter as soon as someone follows them. The auto-DM may welcome the new follower, but it usually has some sort of promotional element to it (e.g. Download my new eBook by clicking this link!).

On Facebook, event spam has started to get out of control. Companies are abusing these e-vites by sending them far too often and using them like traditional advertisements. If you insist on sending out event notifications, make sure you send it to people who are truly interested in the event, and don’t abuse the e-vite by sending it far too often.

What are some other things social media spammers do that drive you nuts?

It seems like any time we talk about Twitter, we focus on the reasons to use it. Conversations are always about the benefits, never about potential drawbacks or reasons not to use Twitter. Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m definitely a firm believer that Twitter can be a powerful tool for increasing brand awareness, driving web traffic, generating leads, building trust with consumers and more, but I don’t think Twitter is right for every business.
Here are 3 reasons NOT to use Twitter for your business.

1. Your target audience doesn’t Tweet—While Twitter attracts a diverse crowd, the average user is somewhere in his early to mid 30s. Older users have been slow to adopt Twitter, instead preferring LinkedIn and even Facebook. What does this mean for you? It means there’s a chance your target audience doesn’t really use Twitter.

It’s time to dig up that business plan you stuffed away in some filing cabinet to look at the info about your target demographic. How old are they? How often do they use the internet and social networking? Are they using smart phones to stay mobile?

And if for some reason you don’t know who your target audience is (shame on you), check out this post for tips on identifying your target market.

2. You don’t have time to Tweet—You might already have quite a bit on your plate as it is. Tweeting takes time. It’s not just dropping an update here or there. Being successful with Twitter requires finding the time to interact with your followers and to respond to @replies and direct messages. Engagement is the key.

So, before you sign up on Twitter, you need to ask yourself:

• Do I really have time to Tweet?
• How much time can I realistically devote to Tweeting each day?
• Should someone else handle the company Twitter account?

On that note, check out these tips for increasing your social media productivity.

3. You don’t have a plan or goals—If you’re using Twitter for marketing purposes, you need to have a plan and clearly defined goals. This means figuring out:
• What do I want to accomplish with Twitter?
• How will I measure my results?
• How long will I give myself to reach certain benchmarks and goals?

If you don’t have any goals, then there might not be any point into creating a Twitter account for your business. You’ll just be blindly Tweeting away without a purpose.

There’s a great post on Mashable about creating a social media plan that I highly recommend checking out.

What are some other reasons businesses shouldn’t use Twitter?

Are you following too many people on Twitter? If you answered “yes”, go ahead and jump down to the second half of this article. If you said “I don’t know”, I can help you answer that question. Here are 5 common signs you’re following too many people on Twitter.

1. You can’t keep up with your Twitter feed—If you’re getting dozens of Tweets every minute, there’s just no way you can keep up with all of them. It’d be a full-time job. As a result, you end up missing out on the important Tweets you really care about. If you’re unable to keep up with the people you’re following, it’s time to trim down the list.
2. You only really pay attention to Tweets from a select group of people—Do you find yourself looking past a lot of Tweets just to find certain followers you’re really interested in? That’s a telling sign that you aren’t really interested in what most of your followers have to say. So, why are you even following them?
3. You haven’t interacted with most of the people you’re following—Isn’t the whole point of Twitter to interact with one another? If you have a bunch of people you’re following that you’ve never once interacted with, that probably means you aren’t interested in what they have to say (and vice versa), so you probably don’t have any real reason to follow them.
4. There are several people you’re following that you know nothing about—I’m following quite a few people, but I can go through that list and tell you something about each one of them. Can you do the same?
5. You follow back everyone who follows you—Just because someone is interested in what you have to say doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll be interested in what they have to say. So, don’t automatically follow back everyone who follows you.

How To Trim Down Your List

So, you’re following too many people. Good news: Trimming down your list is pretty easy. Just follow these simple tips.

• Stop automatically following someone back because they follow you—The first thing you need to do is to make sure you don’t worsen the problem. Immediately stop following people back just because they follow you. Only follow someone if you have a good reason for doing so.
• Get rid of the people who you never interact with—Those people you never talk to or even pay attention to? Cut them. They serve no purpose.
• Unfollow the constant self-promoter—If you’re following someone who only Tweets links back to their blog or sales pages, ditch them. They aren’t adding any value to your Twitter experience.
• Cut inactive users—Sure, they aren’t clogging up your timeline, but there’s no point in following people who never Tweet. I’ve been told that MyCleenr is a great tool for identifying inactive users you’re following, but I’ve never personally used it. Can anyone verify if this tool is truly useful?

How do you keep from following to many people on Twitter? What criteria do you use to decide if you’re going to follow someone? Share your thoughts by leaving a comment.

Recently, a study by Morse found that a lack of productivity due to social media is costing UK businesses about $2.25 billion. Regardless of whether or not these numbers are skewed, it’s no secret that social media has a tendency to rob your time, making it more difficult for you to get important tasks done.

Thankfully, there are many things you can do to increase your productivity. From using social media tools to Tweeting on the go from your phone, being productive with social media really isn’t that hard. I’ve come up with 4 more easy tips you can put into practice right now to boost your social media productivity.

• Set goals—Goals give you direction. They provide something for you to work toward with your social media usage, so that you can measure your results. Make sure the goals you set align with your overall marketing goals for growing your business.

Your social media goals could be to:

•  
  • Increase the number of positive mentions of your company
  • Build more back links to your website
  • Improve customer retention
  • Build brand awareness so people know who you are

• Have a plan—Once you have some goals in place, it’s time to set a plan for making these goals a reality. For example, if you want to get more back links, you need to write linkbait-style blog posts and promote them on Twitter, Facebook, and social voting sites.

All of your social media usage should be devoted to helping you achieve those goals. Anything else is a waste of time. So, stick to the plan so you can stay productive.

• Create a schedule—It might seem a bit restricting, but scheduling time for your social media use keeps you focused and on track. For example, if you know you have a block of 15 minutes to devote to promoting your blog, you’ll focus on this task, rather than killing time chatting on Facebook or Twitter. Set a schedule and stick to it!

• Get help—Don’t be a hero. Ask for help with achieving your social media goals. This could mean getting employees to contribute to your blog. It could also mean soliciting guest posts. Or you could hire a ghost blogger to blog and Tweet under your name. This would free you up to work on your normal daily tasks while letting an expert do all the dirty work.

How do you stay productive while still being a social media junkie? Share your best tips in the replies.

Being a sports enthusiast and someone whose career revolves around social media, it’s rare that I get to combine these 2 passions. But when I heard that ESPN suspended sports writer Bill Simmons from using Twitter for 2 weeks due to his violation of the company’s social media policy, I knew I had to learn more about this story. By the way, I wrote about creating a social media policy for your company a few weeks ago, so check it out if you haven’t already.

Now, we all know that Twitter can be a double-edged sword for promoting your company. On one hand, it allows you to build relationships with your target audience by letting down your guard and showcasing your personality. On the other hand, Twitter opens up the door to the nasty possibility that you or an employee will cross the line by saying something that could damage your reputation.

This brings us to Bill Simmons. Simmons regularly writes for ESPN.com, and you can often find him getting interviewed on any number of ESPN TV shows or radio programs. He’s also very active on Twitter. In fact, he has over 1,000,000 followers.

Simmons’ Twitter troubles began when he sent out an angry Tweet directed at radio station WEEI, a partner of ESPN. Simmons’ Tweet read, “Hey WEEI: You were wrong, I did a Boston interview today. With your competition. Rather give them ratings over deceitful scumbags like you.” Needless to say, ESPN didn’t like one of their employees calling their partner “scumbags.”

Not long after this Tweet was sent out, ESPN suspended Simmons from using Twitter for 2 weeks. Editor-in-chief of ESPN.com Rob King commented on the suspension saying:

“We have internal guidelines designed to inform how we discuss the topic of sports media. These guidelines are important us, because they help maintain the credibility with which ESPN operates.

While it’s unfortunate — and sometimes painful — that not everyone outside of ESPN chooses to play by such rules, we choose to hold ourselves to higher standards. Regardless of the provocation, Bill’s communication regarding WEEI fell short of those standards. So we’ve taken appropriate measures.”

Read King’s entire post On Tweeting Responsibly for more of his insight into the suspension.

So, all of this begs the question: How would you have handled the situation if you were an ESPN executive? Also, does your company have a social media policy? Share your thoughts in the replies.

Have you ever thought about using auto tweet software? I enjoy using Twitter a lot, but I don’t enjoy having to update my status throughout the day. I would rather take 30 minutes to make a list of all my updates in advance, and schedule them to post on Twitter, rather than do it all day long. I know that this goes against the grain for many people. But, I don’t use Twitter to tell people when I am brushing my teeth, or when I am going to bed.

In all fairness, I am not saying that these kind of updates are useless. I am more less saying that this isn’t my style, and what I want to use Twitter for doesn’t require me to post updates throughout the day. Instead, I rather batch them out once a day and have them post automatically and at scheduled times throughout the day.

For a long time, I haven’t been able to define a true purpose with using Twitter, yet I know that Twitter can be a very powerful tool. In the past, I have used my account to send updates like “Hey, I am brushing my teeth now.” and “Hey I am going to bed now.”, and I have also used my Twitter account pitch products and services that can earn commission. Additionally, I have used my account to tell people about new content that I have published online. One thing is certain, no matter how I use my account, I get mixed results either way. So something needs to change.

My goal is to buckle down and to start using Twitter in a more consistent manner. I think doing so, will tighten up the inconsistent results I receive. In a nutshell, I’d like to use Twitter as a way to connect with people and help them learn more about the topics I write about online. That includes asking people open ended questions, offering a stream of advice, sending out notifications of new content I have made available online, and recommending and successfully selling products and services. All this can be done automatically without having to break your work routine and daily schedule. How in-depth and how far in advance you make your schedule is up to you.

In order to do all this, you need auto tweet software. I found a site called FutureTweets.com and it seems to work great so far. FutureTweets.com is a free service that lets you schedule your Twitter messages and send them at specific times in the future. Scheduling your Tweets is easy. When you create an account on FutureTweets.com, you’re automatically assigned a private email address. Write your message in an email and send it to the private address assigned. Use the subject line to schedule when you want your Tweet to go live.

Last night, I asked people on Twitter for their advice on auto tweet software and received a lot of help and was directed to a few different programs available. I am going to be looking into these programs and will post some updates on my findings in the near future. Thanks to @bloghologyORG, , @coolcatteacher, and @psimac for your help.

I have been using TwitterFeed.com for about a year and quite honestly, I have not been able to find another service like it. TwitterFeed.com is a free service that allows you import various RSS feeds and each time they update, TwitterFeed will automatically post a tweet will on your Twitter page.

That said, I received an email from TwitterFeed today informing me that their team has been hard at work making improvements to their system. And, I’ll admit, it’s been awhile since the last time I logged in, and indeed, a lot has changed. Over the last year, TwitterFeed has grown a lot and today there’s over 350,000 publishers pushing out almost 600,000 feeds, all of which generate around 5.5 million total clicks daily.

Dealing with this explosive growth, the staff at TwitterFeed admit that it was challenging to maintain a level of reliability, and at times they would experience floods of traffic that would overwhelm their system. In an effort to accommodate the quick growth, they have been working on expanding their system by building a completely new architecture which will capable of handing millions of posts sent to FaceBook, Twitter, and other places daily.

The great thing about TwitterFeed is their newly released features. For starters, they’re now working with Pubsubhubbub, which means that on some sites such as TypePad and Blogger, users will be able to publish their TwitterFeed posts in real time. Soon features will become available to WordPress.

The feature I am most excited about is the FaceBook integration. On TwitterFeed, you can now automatically publish your RSS feed entries into FaceBook. Additionally, you will also be able to track statistics. Specifically, you’ll be able to differentiate between FaceBook traffic and Twitter traffic, and ultimately see which place is delivering more traffic back to your site.

Tracking statistics is important, and that’s also where their new Google Analytics Integration kicks in. TwitterFeed now includes special ‘UTM’ tags within each post so that you can study traffic patterns and gain an understanding of how and where people are coming from within FaceBook and Twitter.

The staff is in the process of rolling out these new updates today. They do warn that it may be a few days until everything is complete but assure that once the migration into the new system is complete, everything will operate much smoothly and expandability will occur with ease. If you’re looking for an easy and automatic way to share your RSS feed content on FaceBook and Twitter, I recommend getting a free TwitterFeed.com account. Signing up is totally free, and the benefits are invaluable.

As social media continues to grow and prove itself as more than a passing fad, more and more businesses are implementing social media policies. Just yesterday, I was reading about the NBA’s new social media policy that is to be applied for this season, governing how players and management are allowed to use social media.

Does your business have a social media policy in affect? Or are you part of the over 33% of companies lacking this important brand-protecting policy?

Whether you already have an existing policy or you need to create a new one, here are some things you should be sure to include in your business’ social media policy.

•    Time of social media use—The most obvious concern about having employees who use social media is that it will impact their productivity during the work day. That’s certainly an understandable concern as it’s easy to waste hours browsing around on Twitter, Facebook, or reading blogs. Make sure your social media policy clearly explains when and for how long employees are allowed to engage in social media activities.

•    Subjects allowed to be discussed—There’s something to be said for “what happens in the office, stays in the office.” You don’t want your employees leaking sensitive company information or complaining about internal practices they don’t agree with. Outline which topics your employees are allowed to talk about online. This helps to ensure your business isn’t undermined by a loose-lipped employee.

•    Who is allowed to use social media—Do you want all of your employees engaging in social media on behalf of your company? Or would you rather leave it to a handful of highly trusted individuals who will act as the online face of your business? Determine who is allowed to engage in social media, and enforce the policy strictly.

•    Restrictions on personal use—Many businesses regulate official social media use, but they ignore the informal, at-home employee use of it. This can be a dangerous practice. Imagine this: An employee has a personal Twitter account, and it’s well known that he works for your company. Then, the employee gets drunk one night and starts Tweeting offensive, harassing comments. Even though it’s a personal account, it still reflects poorly on your business. If you do decide to allow private use of social media outside of work, you need to determine whether or not the employees are allowed to reveal their employment online.

Don’t be afraid to use social media in your business. Embrace it. The benefits of doing so are endless. Just make sure you take the time to train your employees on how to properly use social media, and make sure you have a clear social media strategy for success.

What is your business’ social media policy? Share your tips in the replies.

By now, you’ve probably seen a commercial or an online ad for TGI Friday’s new social media campaign. If you haven’t, let me give you a rundown. The idea of the campaign is that Woody is TGI Friday’s #1 Fan. If he can get 500,000 fans on Facebook by the end of the month, everyone who registers to follow him gets a free burger. I think it’s a pretty good idea, and I’ll tell you why.

First, the basic idea behind this campaign has been used successfully before. Just last month, Starbucks gave away free ice cream coupons to those who joined their fan page. The campaign generated a lot of buzz, it was purely social, and it was a great way for Starbucks to begin extending its brand into ice cream.

Although the TGI Friday’s campaign is just a few days old, it’s already picking up some steam. As of the time of me writing this post, Woody has over 254,000 fans on Facebook. More importantly, a simple Twitter search for related terms (i.e. TGI Friday’s, Woody TGI Friday’s, free burger, etc.) shows that the campaign is starting to catch on. People are sending out Tweets telling their friends to fan Woody on Facebook. I wouldn’t say it’s gone viral yet, but it’s still early, and I think it has the potential to. As it gets closer to that September 30th deadline, I think the word of mouth will really start to pick up.

The other thing I like about this campaign is that if it’s successful, it will actually bring a lot of foot traffic into their business. See, too many social media campaigns suffer from not finding a way to bridge the social aspect to actual physical business. In theory, if this campaign goes according to plan, 500,000 people will be going into a TGI Friday’s to claim their free burger. Not only will many of these people probably order appetizers, desserts, drinks since the burger is free, but if they have a good experience, they could bring repeat business for years to come.

I’m interested to see how this plays out for TGI Friday’s. If all goes well, you can rest assured you’ll see even more businesses jumping on the social media bandwagon.

What do you think of TGI Friday’s social media campaign?

Crowdsourcing. It’s one of those buzzwords that gets thrown around in new marketing discussions. What is it? The simplest explanation is crowdsourcing is when you collaborate with your audience on a task for your business. A good example of this is Dell’s IdeaStorm website. This platform allows users to submit new product ideas and suggestions for improving Dell’s current products. To date, Dell has used 366 of these user-submitted ideas, and they don’t pay their users a cent!

So, now that you understand what crowdsourcing is, how can you use it for your small business? Here are 5 easy ways to enjoy the benefits of collaborating with your audience.

1. Generate ideas for better/new products—As I mentioned earlier, Dell uses crowdsourcing to better their products and to solicit ideas for new ones. You can easily do the same. Social media is the perfect tool for crowdsourcing. Ask your Twitter followers for feedback on your products. Create a website like the IdeaStorm website. Ask your blog readers for suggestions for new product ideas. The possibilities are endless.
2. Ask a simple question—None of us are experts in everything. That’s where crowdsourcing can come in handy. Have a question about advertising for your business? Ask it on LinkedIn, Yahoo! Answers, or Twitter. Need some expertise on an employee management matter? The web is full of experts who can pitch some advice your way.
3. Get low-cost designs—99designs and other similar websites let you harness the power of crowdsourcing for all your design needs. Perfect for the small business looking for a logo or website design on a tight budget, these sites allow you to post a design project to thousands of designers. You set a cash prize for the winning design, and the community of designers will submit design proposals to you. You could have hundreds of designs to choose from, ensuring you find the perfect design for your needs.
4. Find the perfect price point—If you’re launching a new product or service, finding the right price tag for it can be an exercise in guesswork. But with the power of crowdsourcing, you can ask your audience how much they would pay for your new product or service. Averaging out the submitted price points is a great place to start your pricing research.
5. Spread your marketing message—Viral marketing is all about enlisting the power of word of mouth to spread your message from one person to another. Make a list of viral ideas that could work for your business (e.g. a controversial blog post, a contest, a unique widget, etc.).

How have you used crowdsourcing for your business? Share your experiences in the replies.