Tuesday, China’s government has blocked Internet users access to Twitter. Though there has been no official statement from the Chinese government, it is likely due to the approaching 20th Anniversary of the Tiananmen Square. The Chinese government may feel that this will curb any negative conversation that may have occurred otherwise.

This is not the first time China has blocked various social media sites, as they had a ban during the run-up to the Beijing Olympics in August 2008.

There are other reports that other social media sites have been blocked, including Flickr, Bing.com, Blogspot, and YouTube.

My question: would there ever be an appropriate time for the United States Government to block Internet users access to a site?

While speaking at the Minnesota Marketplace for Entrepreneurs yesterday I discussed some Social Media best practices. I thought it might be helpful for me to post that slide with analogies on our Minneapolis Online Marketing blog.

1. Too self promoting – If people wanted to keep getting hit with non stop advertisements they would just drive around all day looking at billboards or TiVo just the commercials then watch them later.
2. Poor content – Similar to Search Engine Optimization (SEO) content is king. The more entertaining, controversial or informative you can be the more “viral” your content is likely to be.
3. Frequency – That person talks so much! Monitor the volume of content you are pushing out to people. Message fatigue is live and well in social media. Traditional media allows some forgiveness. In the Social Media world you really don’t have a second chance to reach people. Once they stop engaging you they are likely gone forever.
4. Non responsive – People generally don’t join social networks to just listen. Social Media is a great TWO WAY medium and people are looking to engage with you or your brand.
5. Budget your time – Continuously Social Media time management is a major concern and the answer to social time management is not always clear. With all the Social Media sites out there make sure to budget your time where you will get the biggest bang for your buck. If you don’t know which areas to focus on try one of two things. Consult with a Social Media marketer (Try connecting with one via Twitter.) or try a few at a time and see which one you get the most traction with. A few easy places to start.

I hope this helps you to avoid some common fatal Social Media errors. Best of luck!

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.