Stop! You Look Like Sp@m

Look, I’m sick of being bombarded by the same old formulaic rubbish. Don’t take the low road. Avoid the easy path with your social media marketing or you’ll end up looking like spam. Not all spam is created by evil pornbots in secret. Sometimes well-meaning people do it because they don’t know better, or they’ve been sold a fake bill of goods. If you’re one of them, here’s your guide to avoiding the spam trap.

Avoiding Website Spam

Please don’t use gigantic text. Please don’t tell me how fantastic your lifestyle has become since discovering the simple secret of A, B or C. Don’t promise to share the secret with me, then tell me some other junk first. Don’t tell me how other, stupider people would pass it by, but super smart savvy me will enjoy paying through the nose. Don’t use garish graphics with gigantic arrows going all over the place pointing at even larger “Buy Now or Kittens Will Die” buttons. “Squeeze” pages like that look horrible and I’m not going to click because of a big arrow. Really.

Avoiding Twitter Spam

When you’re on Twitter don’t use more hashtags than words. Please start using real sentences. Oh, and don’t add my name in your message unless you’re talking to me; no it’s not like using cc in an email. Tagging on Twitter is just lazy. Using more than three hashtags in a message dramatically reduces the likelihood of it being retweeted.

Avoiding Facebook Spam

On Facebook, don’t tag me in photos that don’t have me in them. Don’t send me a million Farmville invitations and if I wanted to be in your mafia family I’d have responded to one of the first half dozen invitations.

Avoiding INSTAGRAM Spam

On Instagram, don’t just dig up old stuff we’ve all seen years ago on Twitter or Facebook just to get some quick likes. Try creating or finding new content, ideally something the other platforms don’t do well. I’m not even going to mention making sure you actually engage in conversation, because that’s too obvious. I will say that you should only share things that will give us something that we’d value, such as expert insights, knowledge or entertainment.

Avoiding Blog Spam

Don’t think that just because you write prolifically that you’re Ernest Hemingway. Volume does not equal quality. Four screens of verbiage looks like spam to me, but so do those bloggers who are Seth Godin wannabes. You know who they are, they write five sentences of no more than eight words each and never use pictures. It doesn’t matter how long or short posts are, just say something new or interesting. I’m sick of reading the same posts over and over, written by different people. Push yourself harder, write less frequently if you must, but when you do write, make me glad I read it.

The Next Step

The only way to stop looking like spam is to push yourself. Push past mediocre, press for good and keep forcing yourself to improve. Don’t settle for good enough, that’s what the spammers do. They never have the discipline to become great. But you do.

Get it Right

If you want help creating compelling content or learning how to communicate on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, get in touch with us today. We do this for a living and would be delighted to share what we know with you.