fbpx
  1. Social Media

Facebook Marketing: When is it Spam?

Following Friday’s post, I returned to ask Tanya Cottrell about when it’s appropriate to market to Facebook members by posting on members’ walls. Here’s what she had to say:

Great question. Your keyword was “unwanted”. If students are going
to travel to Europe they are more than likely not see any type of information
related to traveling to

Europe

as a spam. One
degree less would have the person write, “I know a lot of you may be planning
your trips in

Europe

and I recommend using
Ryanair.com over buying a Eurorail pass to save on money, time, and convenience
of traveling.” The person posting the wall post needs to be honest about
their identity
and say who they represent when making the post so it isn’t
misleading.  Companies should not hire students to make postings on group
pages and work on behalf of a company. 

On the group pages there is an option to post the URL to a website
on the group page out and write some commentary underneath. It is not so much
you are trying to span the person but create awareness of this service for the
group members to check out. Companies need to realize just because you make a
wall post about your company’s deals doesn’t mean that it will turn into an
easy sale. The goal for an ad/link post is to create awareness of an option. As
long as the person making the post is ethical in disclosing if the
person works for the company it is ok. This is where a company Facebook account
can make the posting and also elicit friends for a group page on their
service/product. 

Here is an example of my posting:

Facebook_tanya

As you can see Euro Adventures is a company who made a posting
which is effective. My posting came above about Ryanair.

People reacted to this story.
Show comments Hide comments
Comments to: Facebook Marketing: When is it Spam?
  • Avatar
    November 12, 2007

    Facebook ads are spam as soon as they intrude in a personal space where they are not welcome.
    If this ad were a person, are they intruding? Are they close talkers? Are they ruining your experience?
    As long as they don’t negatively impact the experience it’s fine by me (as a user and an advertiser). But then again, it’s important to remember, nobody likes pollution. Respect the ecosystem and you’ll be welcome. Ruin the environment and you’ve gone too far.

    Reply
  • Avatar
    November 16, 2007

    I’m either not understanding this or, I’m amazingly brilliant with common sense.
    I don’t understand how this is not SPAM. I don’t understand how this isn’t any different than posting a comment on a blog post which comes across as very intrusive.
    Please enlighten me ;-).

    Reply

Write a response

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Want to get all the updates in your inbox?

Want to get all the updates in your inbox?

Get the Serial Marketer Weekly​

Categories

Archives

Join our community that brings global marketers together!

Join our community that brings global marketers together!

Every month, dozens of others join and add to the success stories of professionals who find business partners, save time vetting technologies, meet inspiring people, and learn new ideas that help them further excel in their roles and careers.