Mike Rynchek
Spyder Trap Online Marketing

Perhaps this post is meant to be a series instead of a single post as it contains many gray and debatable areas.  Before the debate can even begin, people must first recognize the signs of social spamming, what it is and how this new phenomenon is being handled by social media sites.  With that said lets get started!!

What is Social Spamming?

Communicating with others and sharing information has never been easier than at this very moment in time.  Duh right?  But at what point do these millions upon millions of messages per day become a bother, nuisance or ultimately considered “spam”?  When does forwarding a message on Facebook, or adding constant self-promoting tweets on Twitter cross that boundary into Social Spamming territory?  Martin Bowling (@martinbowling) a fellow Twitterer feels that social media spamming “isn’t about dropping an occasional link, it’s about constantly promoting your message & not giving back.”  I would have to completely agree with Martin.  Whether posting a friend on Facebook, commenting on a blog post such as this one or joining a Twitter conversation, social media is something that is to be shared, collaborated and enjoyed by all.  There are no percentage points or thresholds that must be crossed, rather the common barometer that states you are now adding to the clutter rather than the conversation.  When writing this post I was unable to find a true definition of social media spamming so here is my personal attempt: Social Spamming: The act of receiving or sending unwanted messages and pieces of information via a social media platform.  Hmm… Not bad.

How is Social Spamming being controlled?
Social media sites such as Facebook and MySpace are quickly trying to crack down on social spamming, mostly in the form of reporting groups/users and deleting door-to-door messaging offenders (promoting your page or group by going to random pages and posting your link or message).  Monitoring social media raises even a bigger question:  Should social media sites control what people do within their environments?  Does this go against everything that is so great and powerful with social media and the Internet in general?  Another great example of cracking down on social spamming is Twitter.  Perhaps allowing people to un-follow others is their less abrasive form of controlling social spamming; more-or-less giving the power to the people to self regulate what content they receive.  Aaron Weiche (@AaronWeiche) of Five Technology and avid user of Twitter commented on social spamming via Twitter by stating, “Lots of gray area to consider. I’m following you, so I have a filter to un-follow. Audience, context, control, all factors.”

Where do we go from here?  Not too sure right now, but I do know Social Spamming will without a doubt be a phrase that is used much more as time goes on.  It will also be interesting to see how social media sites continue to control the amount and quality of content that is being displayed and how people react to this regulated environment.