Spam from Friends

Like most people I use Facebook. I have used other social media site, in fact I believe I still have many half completed and out of date profiles on several sites, but Facebook is my site of choice. Facebook is what most people I know use and it helps me, and the rest of the world, stay connected.

When it comes to social media my only complaint, which I am sure I am not the only one that feels this way, is the constant bombardment of advertisement. At least once I week I log in to find a friend has suggested a page for me to view. These pages are usually for a not-for-profit trying to get its message out or an advertisement for something. I rarely read the full page. I glace at the title and quickly ignore it.

Last week I received a recommendation, from a former classmate, to join the “EVERY ONE: Save the Children (Canada)” fan page. When I saw this I quickly ignored it. Why? I receive page suggestions every week and I find them annoying. I acknowledge that this page might be for a great cause and contain some great information, but page suggestions have become almost as annoying as spam. But this spam is worst then the kind you find in your email because this spam is being suggested to you by your friends.

In the current issue of Strategy, Jason McCann offers “An open apology to people using Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Bebo, etc.” In this open apology, McCann apologizes for not integrating social media into the campaign but replicating it for a social media platform. Now, McCann does recognize some real successes in using social media. But in the end he recognizes the failure in many social media campaigns.

I was excited by this apology. This article demonstrates a valuable lesson in using social media to expand a brand in a meaningful way that connects with your audience. As social media continues to grow and change any brand wanting to keep on track has to keep current with what other brands are doing and go beyond. It is not enough enough to tag on social media to your campaign, it has to be focused, planed, and specific. It must have meaning for your audience.

This may seem like a good point for me to offer some great ideas for using social media, however, I am not. A good social media campaign has to be specific to the the brand and audience. More generic ideas will only lead to more facebook spam, and who really wants that? Not me.




***If you are looking for some great example of social media campaigns read McCann's article, he offers some great examples.