Quote:
Originally Posted by Brutha  Simply inviting people you don't know means spamming them. |
Brutha,
That's an overly simplistic view of marketing on social networking sites.
I agree that it would be counterproductive to invite a ton of people with spam messages. You'll probably get yourself banned from the site. Also, I agree that most people who practice MySpace/Facebook marketing are spammers. But, I do think it is _possible_ to do it right.
You and I may have a different definition of spam. In my book a spam message is an unwelcome message that offers nothing of value to the recipient. If you send someone a personalized invitation with something of value, it is not spam. The recipient will open the message realize that you are offering them something of value and gladly add you as a friend on the social networking website.
This the way social networking sites are used for non-marketing purposes when users befriend people don't already know. And for many social networking sites building relationships with people you don't already know offline is the whole point. The only difference for a marketer is that he hopes to profit from the relationship at some point. If he does his job well, he will provide value to the people he befriends and they will be happy to visit his website or buy his product. This is the way offline networking works too. You must give before you can expect to receive.
There is zero incentive to send spam friend invitations that will be prompty ignored and probably get you banned from the site. In my opinion, you have to make sure that most of the invites you send are welcomed and accepted by personalizing them for the recipient and providing valuable information. If your invites are considered spam by the recipients then you are doing something wrong.
With that said, I'm also skeptical that it's possible to send personalized messages that contain something of value at a rate of 300 per day as Steve Iser does.