Are you a social media spammer?
I recently came across this checklist of how to drive traffic to your website using social media. (Probably from the same people that Snipe parodies here)
To me, this kind of checklist is the ‘dark side’ of social media; because it misses the whole point of social media entirely. I’m on a mission like Luke Skywalker to highlight the ‘light side’ (except I’m more Princess Leia).
So these were the points;
Decide what you do
(Good starting point… though just not what you do, but what problems you solve for people.)
Figure out your key words
(okay..)
Set up gmail account so you are not inundated with junk
(Why not be authentic and include your real business email – you have spam filters anyway)
Set up a Twitter account. Set up a Facebook account and make friends
(A Facebook business page I think… but do we have a proper plan yet? Or is it just ‘get traffic?’ What about figuring out who our audience is, listening to them first…?)
Set up a blog account -www.blogspot.com is one idea and it is free
(Wordpress is better, and you can host it yourself and customise it. A blog is a powerful and serious extension of your brand and does require planning and thoughtful implementation.)
Go to Word and write a blog post (make it brief, using your brand at the beginning, middle and end of the post, and a weblink to your website). Cut and paste text from Word to blogspot and publish post
(Sounds riveting.)
Go to www.twellow.com. Look up as many people that are interested in your industry and ask them to follow you.
(Why, why would they follow you? What are you offering? What relationship have you built? Asking me to follow you is like spamming me with invites to share my email address to receive my inheritance or lottery prize.)
Blog fortnightly, tweet four times a day (you can automate this) facebook once a day
(Automating… *sigh*… this is like the phone call I received today… I answered, there was a pause (I was wondering if I had a heavy breather type of call. No.) A guy launched into saying he was from such and such company and carried on – he didn’t stop – it was a recorded message! The horror. What company in their right mind would think that completely out of the blue, interrupting my day, their recorded phone call (not even asking my name or making any attempt at building a connection – other than I answered their call) would convince me that gosh yes I do so need such a product from this stranger spamming me on the other end of the phone???
I do feed my blog feeds to my twitter, yes, – but that’s it; and that just saves me typing it in. Social media is SOCIAL not robot media.)
A week later go to www.huitter.com and clear out anyone not following you. Do this fortnightly.
(I so don’t get this. And I so hate this advice – it screams that you’re just using twitter for your own superficial means. If I’m following Guy Kawasaki, Chris Brogan and Scott Monty – and they don’t follow me back – I’m not going to unfollow them!! I’m following them in the first place because they are interesting to follow. It’s not about getting them to follow me. It’s about being interested in other people – not pushing my stuff! And if they did follow me back it should be on my merit of being a worthy twitterer not to do the “if you don’t follow me back then I’ll unfollow you.” This isn’t the school yard… this is SOCIAL media not spammy game playing media)
The idea is to get the brand name out there, exposure. Nothing else.
(Actually it’s about building relationships. If you want brand exposure – use a billboard. Really.
Social media is listening, engaging, creating good content and measuring – and a whole lot more.)
When you get good at it, it takes about ten minutes out of your day once it is set up, it is set up and away you go.
(Actually it will probably take longer to listen, to engage, to moderate, to create content and measure it all – but it’s worth it. Because you’ll be building stronger relationships- with people that like what you’re about (instead of them adding you to their spam box). And you can’t set it up and forget it; social media is a long term relationship that requires your energy and interaction.
Sure you might get lots of traffic – but will they come back? Have you engaged them? Have you offered anything of value? Has your brand reputation increased?)
Now don’t worry if you don’t understand any of this, just monkey see, monkey do.
(I believe if you don’t understand or can’t be bothered to learn how to engage and offer valuable content – then why bother. If you’re learning and making mistakes – that’s okay – but to follow like a sheep to cheat the system on a quick rich track, that’s just lazy. If you’re going to follow a cookie cutter formula to ‘drive traffic’, then you’re just another spammer with no soul.)
Seriously. (And I lay down my light sabre now.)
