Most social sites have elements such as direct messages features, app requests, event invites, etc. that allow users to ping others directly. This is not something unique or special to Facebook and Twitter, rather platform pings have been an integral feature of social sites since boards and forums reigned supreme. And since then, they\u2019ve been abused.<\/p>\n
This is a personal pet peeve of mine and has only grown in recent years as the number of communities I belong to increased. I\u2019d say direct message and platform spam is on par, perhaps worse than email spam. This is because I don\u2019t necessarily\u00a0want<\/em>\u00a0more inboxes and with each ping I have to log in to a specific area to decide what to do with it. Even with turning off email pings of platforms \u2013 you still have to deal with them when you use that network.<\/p>\n Anyway, while platform pings are in many cases a good thing they\u2019re equally abused in any number of ways. Here is just a short list of platform pings that I\u2019d consider spammy:<\/p>\n Please stop inviting me to your events with direct requests unless we\u00a0know<\/em>\u00a0each other personally. If your event is that good my peers will inevitably\u00a0tell me. Or I\u2019ll hear about it in trade media or by the bloggers presenting. It wreaks of\u00a0desperation\u00a0to have event promoters inviting me to an event on Facebook,\u00a0direct messaging me\u00a0and\u00a0<\/em>emailing me about the event. Just because you have multiple ways to communicate with someone doesn\u2019t mean you should. Someone did this last week for a social media event no less (who really should know better). I was going to blog it but honestly it\u2019s just more exposure for their event which they don\u2019t really deserve. All you do is cause me not to want to attend or talk about your event. Build permission for your event instead and use the channels users have given you permission to market to them on.<\/p>\n While marketing automation in the right hands can be a beautiful and effective thing there are certain items\u00a0you should never automate. Direct messages on social channels are one of them. That\u2019s not what the tool is for and you\u2019re just going to bother people. It\u2019s abuse of messaging systems, plain and simple.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t ever invite your friends to play a social game with you,\u00a0ever<\/em>. There\u2019s just no reason to do this \u2013 if we want to play a game we\u201dll join, and if you\u2019re already playing a game we can see it in-stream. Many games by design have a\u00a0viral loop\u00a0built in where they ask you to invite 10 or 20 friends before you can play. So you randomly pick 20 friends to also play \u2013 but just because we\u2019re connected doesn\u2019t mean I gave you permission to send me a game request. Do I play\u00a0any<\/em>\u00a0online games? No, so I will never play yours. The only way a game invite\u00a0is not<\/em>\u00a0spam is if you know that person to play online games.<\/p>\n I\u00a0rarely<\/em>\u00a0ask others to share or even look at my content via direct message. And if I do it is because it was written in response to something that user said or I know with nearly 100% assurance they would find value in it. Yet all the time I get DMs from people asking me to share or check out their post despite it having no relevance to what I\u2019m doing. I actually don\u2019t have a problem with a DM to something you want me to check out if it has relevance to me. If you\u2019re not sure, the answer is likely no.<\/p>\n It isn\u2019t likely too bad to DM to journalists or bloggers whose job it is to write about companies. But guys, it\u2019s not my job to write about\u00a0anything\u00a0<\/em>here, rather\u00a0I\u2019m writing purely to share ideas I find interesting with you. And aside from some companies who really get\u00a0how to pitch a blogger\u00a0if you haven\u2019t built a relationship with me already a DM is not the place to pitch me on your company. Perhaps start a connection with me, but blatantly pitching me here (if we aren\u2019t already connected) is spam.<\/p>\n If you are sending any sort of mass message through messaging feature of a social site you are abusing the system. That\u2019s what the stream is for. Not much else to say here because this is basically all out spam.<\/p>\n This one is self-explanatory. Don\u2019t abuse tagging others in images just to get their attention for something else.<\/p>\n This is just a shortlist of items that irk me specifically. And that was kind of the point to sharing my specific complaints \u2013 because\u00a0everyone<\/em>\u00a0is going to be different in what they find valuable and what they see as spam. A\u00a0bit of common sense goes a long way \u2013 really ask yourself if what you\u2019re about to send is going to add value to users and if a direct ping is worth\u00a0their\u00a0<\/em>time (not yours).<\/p>\n Remember: every time you ping a user directly (friend, colleague, prospect) you are putting your trust with that person on the line. It\u2019s either increasing and you\u2019re strengthening the relationship or you are eroding it and taking up that person\u2019s time, making them less likely to care what you say next if you even get that chance.<\/p>\n Your relationship with people in social sites you don\u2019t know personally is tentative\u00a0at best \u2013 you\u2019re easily removed from someone\u2019s stream for even the smallest reason. Instead of abusing platform pings and almost certainly weakening your reputation, why not work to build trust and deliver value instead?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Most social sites have elements such as direct messages features, app requests, event invites, etc. that allow users to ping … <\/p>\n1. Event spam<\/strong><\/h2>\n
2. Any sort of auto DM<\/strong><\/h2>\n
3. Game invites<\/strong><\/h2>\n
4. DMs\u00a0prompting\u00a0me to look at or share your content\u2026unless<\/strong><\/h2>\n
5. Pitches to write about your company via DM<\/strong><\/h2>\n
6. Mass messages<\/strong><\/h2>\n
7. Tagging people in pictures just to get their attention<\/h2>\n
Why communications pros should care<\/strong><\/h2>\n