What is spam? For most, this is one of the great culinary mysteries. However, while figuring out what constitutes the foodstuff might quickly be achieved through a Web search, what comprises spam in a digital context is much harder to define. As Supreme Court associate justice Potter Stewart famously said when pressed for a definition of pornography, "I know it when I see it."
For those whose email inboxes are stuffed with it, spam is usually easy to recognize. On the other hand, social networking spam may not be so easily defined.
While, like social networking itself, social networking spam is not exactly new, it is rapidly evolving. And like some email marketing approaches before it, what may be viewed as spam by the recipient could well be something the sender sees as a legitimate promotional tactic.
The nebulous distinction between reasonable and reprehensible use of automated social media marketing is at the center of a recent lawsuit filed by Twitter against those it perceives as building social network spamming tools.
These tools perform services such as automatically following certain types of users (and un-following them if they don't follow back). They also leverage trending topics to interject off-topic marketing messages.
The defendants in Twitter's suit include JL4 Web Solutions (maker of TweetAttacks) and Skootle Corporation (maker of TweetAdder). Also named as defendants are the individuals Justin Clark, creator of TweetBuddy.com; James Kester, principal officer of Skootle; Jayson Yanuaria, principal officer of JL4; James Lucero, who operates a number of Websites the suit refers to as "dubious," which he promotes through Twitter; and Garland E. Harris, who Twitter claims operates more than 129,000 Twitter accounts linked to his online auction and payment service.
Some argue
that this suit is merely another example of Twitter's efforts to eliminate third-party Twitter clients and applications. However, according to Twitter, the suit represents an extension of its ongoing efforts to combat spam.
Specifically, Twitter alleges that the tools named in its suit are "designed to distribute Spam on Twitter (and the web) by making it easier for other spammers to engage in this annoying and potentially malicious activity."
Philippines-based TweetAttacks, which purportedly automates Twitter marketing "without getting noticed," closed its site soon after the suit was filed. TweetAdder continues to do business, billing itself as a Twitter marketing and promotion tool that allows companies to automatically target, follow, un-follow, and direct message Twitter accounts based on defined text strings.
TheStreet Contributor Jonathan Blum is among the users of TweetAdder who believe it can be used as a legitimate marketing tool. He writes very candidly about his experience using the tool in ways he feels would not be regarded as spam.
Blum also points out some potential conflicts between Twitter's stated objective of controlling spam and its own policies, at least as compared with older social networks such as LinkedIn (which limits unsolicited mail by rationing InMail contact) and Facebook (which limits the number of "friends" you can have on a personal account).
As Blum sees it, "suing TweetAdder for spam is like suing Gmail for spam." And for every person who might wish someone could outlaw inbox-clogging spam, there are individuals and organizations leveraging the tool for legitimate marketing objectives.
Most would agree that spam, like junk mail and telemarketing before it, is unpleasant and detracts from the value of the medium through which it is delivered. It may not be so easy to clearly define social media spam in a way that makes it something that can be readily regulated and litigated.
While social networks are viewed as the bold frontier for marketing and advertising, they are also open to the same constructive and destructive (or downright distasteful) uses as other mediums. For reputable organizations to effectively engage and market within a given context, they must understand user expectations and add value.
It remains to be seen if Twitter can convince a court that these third-party tools are breaking the law and not simply skirting its terms of service. In the meantime, while the courts and others struggle to clearly define social networking spam, there are strategies that work.
Social media marketing requires thoughtful planning and appropriate use of particular channels. In social media, users seek something genuine -- and spam in any guise will fail to appeal.
— Michelle Manafy writes for a variety of publications with a focus on emerging trends in digital content and how they shape successful business practices.
Mashka, if you look at it from an advertiser's point of view, spam makes perfect sense. Their job is to create "impressions" -- exposures to a product or idea, preferably positive. Of course, the old adage that "any press is good press" applies -- even if you hate their intrusion, they still get the mindshare they were looking for. Usually, advertising costs money -- as much as two or three dollars per impression for really targeted ads. Spam, however, is nearly free -- no production costs beyond a few minutes to write the email or tweet, and no postage or handling. Push the button, annoy a few million people, and voila! Instant impressions at almost no cost. Of course, their immortal souls are forfeit, and many feel that people who do things like this should be boiled in their own fat, but that's a subject for another day....
Michelle, a phenomenon of Spam is a mystrery for me. Who needs it? Who uses it? It is the worst way to spend your money- a company can throw the money away or burn it - and it still would be a better use. Everybody hates spam, nobody reads it, nobody pays attention- so why does anyone in the world still send it?
I think the point being though that Facebook emphasizes is that it's not really the traditional Cyber-Friend or Cyber-Relationship builder that many web sites are.
In Facebook you bring your physical, real world, life network online as an additional communications medium. So, it's more like sharing photos with an aunt.
I think part of the problem is that many are not seeing that Facebook is not as much of an artificial and anonynmous world as much of the web has been the case in the past.
Just like the real world high school yearbook represents people that you actually go/went to school with!
Good point...with email you are always on your guard. Hence the burden of proof is on each individual email to validate itself.
You're saying what about a case where something "inserts itself" into the web of trust.
Well, sure that's like a standard Impersonation Attack that can happen in any system with usernames and passwords.
The thing that makes Facebook different is that it truly is a web -- meaning, if I have my close friends and relatives in Book, then those they recommend are very trustworthy to me. Then the friends of those friends? Ok, trusted, by not as much...and so on.
So with Facebook, it's not just the thing itself--but the thing in relationship to the whole social network of Friends!!
Well, while I agree with you in that Facebook has a good initial "firewall", by letting you choose who to add as friend. After that, it's very open to unintenional marketing (mostly by apps that send out invitations, etc).
Which is more dangerous? An invite from a guy in Kenya sending me 35 million dollars or a message from a friend asking me to add an app because its fun, etc.? I know which one I'm definitely not reading but what about the friendly message?
I think so too. The websites are getting smarter and they are deploying new tactics to ensure that bots cannot create ID's. Image capture, email and other verification techniques are being used frequently.
@Jabailo...a while back people used bots even their real identity on twitter, enabling them to among other things send so many thousands of tweets in a day. Till the point when Twitter put a ceiling of 1000 tweets per day. possibly that did help curb the bot tweeting although they can be manipulated. Its interesting that twitter is now going the suits way.
This is where Facebook, in a strange twist, is the ultimate solution to spam...because it has the strongest means of creating a network of trusted people.
I experienced this just recently. I was making some comments in a local newspaper which uses the Facebook commenting system. I found that some comments had gotten "likes" by people. I then had this crazy idea to Friend some of them because given an idea or comment of mine a Like seemed like a natural invitation to Friend.
Boy. Was I wrong!
After I sent out about 15 of these invites, I got the Riot Act read to me by Facebook. A big warning message popped up telling me...well....don't do that! Then it made me sign what seemed like a Loyalty Oath, that I will only Friend people I know or that I have some contact with.
Quite frankly, I think it was the quick volume of Friending that probably triggered their "Spam" filters even though I believed I had justification for sending the Friending invites (for the category of Acquaintance).
Still, it does show the unique power of Facebook as a messaging tool. As you know, Facebook sees itself an answer to all standard Internet communications. The email is obsolecsed by the Facebook Wall post. As is the text message on a "phone carrier".
Facebook turns filtering on its ear, by creating "walls" of people who you know and trust. Those you don't know, never get in the inner circle...they get shut out like the illnesses they are!
At the same time, companies can become a Friend too and enter the social network -- by the request of participant! So, companies must prove themselves, they must make you want to Friend them (in old direct marketing terms, you must opt them in).
You then ask what is marketing. Marketing becomes....well, closer to reality. Instead of Mad Man painting wild stories about a product, Friends in Facebook mention actual uses, or you tell others about your experiences which may include a product. Ideally, you simply live your life, experience a product and find it beneficial and solicit more information about it.
This is the contrast of the Facebook Life with the traditional "nerd life" of computing. Facebook is based on reporting from real life and experience. It is not a "cyberworld" it is grounded in real friends, real experience. Thus a "spammer" or imposter is easier to spot!
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