I am perplexed about this topic of Twitter SPAM so I thought I would write this post to give my angle on it but also to get your opinion as well.
Who knows I may even get some “hate” tweets from this as it is such a hot topic of debate.
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How Did It Start?
Someone tweeted me this message about an article I wrote called Twitter Marketing Tips…
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“Your article sends mixed messages; you rightly say don’t spam, then promote automatic list builders like a prime spammer”.
This person was upset because I mentioned in that post that you should not spam but then promoted an auto posting service called TweetAdder. I think in his mind he related automatic posting to SPAM for some reason.
When I read this persons tweet my first thought was this…
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“Does the use of an automatic posting service mean that your posts become SPAM”?
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Scenario Example
I am currently promoting TweetAdder as the tool of choice for building a list fast and then posting to it while you’re not at your computer.
Now if I send out a single post to my Twitter lists that goes something like this…
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Hey this tool has really helped me build multiple Twitter lists in virtually no time at all – Click Here
Is that a SPAM posting? Most people I think would say that it’s not SPAM as it is only single tweet. It’s ok to promote your product through Twitter like that. After all most people are promoting something on Twitter… aren’t they? And it is only a single tweet right? How could that be considered SPAM?
Now let’s say that I take the same post and manually Tweet that out say 4 times per day. Does that make it SPAM? Can a single post tweeted multiple times over a day or even over a week make it a SPAM tweet?
Ok now let’s say for the sake of convenience that instead of posting manually which can become very tedious and boring, I decide to employ the facilities of a service like TweetLater which is an auto posting service? And instead of sitting at my computer to create these tweets and manually post them, I rather set them up to be automatically posted at a time that is convenient for me.
Does that then turn the original single post message into SPAM?
Also… in this instance are there any hard and fast rules that are documented that would dictate to us what Twitter SPAM actually is? Who made those rules and where do they come from?
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The Comparison With Email SPAM
If we stop and think about this in terms of email SPAM, does that fact that an email that is posted to us either at a single time or multiple times change the fact that it’s SPAM? Not really, it’s still SPAM whether you received it once or many times.
SPAM email is SPAM email whether we receive it once or a thousand times. So then we really cannot use the argument that a single post promoting our content or anything that we sell is acceptable while multiple tweets of the same post are not.
When someone sends me an email that I do not want or haven’t subscribed to then it’s a SPAM email. It’s SPAM because I haven’t asked to receive it, and I didn’t want it. It was sent to my personal email address which they had no right to send to.
There are laws that are supposed to protect me for that crap.
To me it’s an invasion of privacy because I had no choice in the process. And I certainly did not choose to subscribe to the spammers email list.
But with Twitter you have a choice; you are not powerless over the fact that you receive tweets.
The entire medium of Twitter operates on choice. From the time you join you are either following people or people are following you by choice. You can’t use the software until you have followers. Who is going to receive your tweets?
So you receive tweets from others by choice and others receive tweets from you by choice.
It’s a medium of mutual consent.
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How Does This Relate To Twitter And SPAM?
When someone is posting advertising tweets either automatically or singularly on Twitter it’s totally unlike email SPAM. First of all it’s not addressed to your personal Twitter account, it’s just posted on the medium for all to read, and secondly you have complete control over whether you want to receive that persons tweets or not. You have the freedom to decide.
You are not powerless in the process.
Twitter to me is like a magazine with ads in it. You accept the fact when you purchase the magazine that there will be ads in it. It goes with the territory. You can’t gripe about the fact that the ads are there, they just are.
The ads or not there just for you alone, they are there for everyone. Some people will read the ad and respond while others won’t. But you can’t get upset and criticise the magazine because there are ads there. If you want to read them then read them, if you don’t then forget about them.
Twitter is the same… if you like someone’s Tweets and you want to follow them then follow them; if not then don’t follow them. But this also means that you will receive their advertising tweets as well. It goes with the territory.
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Subscribing To The Gurus List
Twitter to me is like subscribing to the “gurus” list.
Like most people on the internet you are more than likely subscribed to some of the marketing “gurus” around the place. I could name people I am subscribed to but that’s not necessary.
Ok you got me; I am going to name one. I am on Frank Kern’s list. Chances are you are as well.
Have you ever noticed that most of his emails are selling stuff? I mean how much real information does he put out there that’s educational and free? Not much, with Frank you have to pay for it.
But I stay on his list and it’s my choice that I do so. I want to receive Frank’s emails.
Now the truth is I have no right to call Frank up and abuse him for spamming me with marketing emails. He would laugh in my face and tell me to unsubscribe myself.
Do you see the principle there? I guess what I am saying is that a person really has no right to call another person a spammer on Twitter. To me that’s an absurd position to take.
I don’t accuse people of spamming… I just unfollow them. If I don’t want to receive Frank Kern’s marketing emails then I am in control over the process… not Frank. I can unsubscribe any time I like.
I have the power… and so do you.
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The Profile Of A Spammer
I want you to think for a moment about a real spammer… not a so called Twitter spammer. You will notice that someone posting marketing materials on Twitter has a totally different profile to an email spammer.
You will find that an email spammer operates anonymously in the background. They are sending you emails about products and services or whatever it is they promote and you may never know who they are. They don’t want you to know them.
They are not up front about themselves and they hide themselves away and prefer not to be known.
They operate from an angle of deceit and deception just to get you to open your wallet and purchase what they have sent you. And they certainly have not gained your approval to send them marketing materials.
Now compare that to someone who is automatically posting on Twitter. I know with myself, even though I post automatically on Twitter, I have profile pages and Blogs that clearly identify who I am.
You can easily reach me. I am not trying to hide myself away from anyone and if you want to contact me through Twitter or my Blog then you can.
There is no deceit and no hiding. Just plain and simple marketing, if you like what you are reading then respond, if not then don’t respond.
I get feedback to my posts, and I have people retweeting these same posts every single day. It’s totally powerful. I also have followers telling me how great the information is and how much they appreciated it.
Compare that to a real spammer. Are you going to forward a spam email that was sent to you to your email list? Hardly!
In my opinion there is a big difference between a person that is sending spam emails and someone who is automatically posting on Twitter. The two are totally different.
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Conclusion – You Cannot Spam Twitter
This is my conclusion to whole Twitter SPAM argument.
There is no such thing as Twitter spam, it’s a medium for you to use anyway you want. It’s up to your followers to decide if they want to follow you or not and whether or not they want to respond to your tweets or not.
We have no right to accuse someone that is posting marketing materials on Twitter of being a spammer. Our only choice is to unfollow them. That is how the medium was designed to be used.
Twitter spam to me is actually on oxymoron (Conjoining contradictory terms, as in deafening silence). The two terms cannot go together. They are opposing terms that do not work together.
Now of course you are entitled to your opinion and I would love to here comments about this subject. And if anyone can help me see otherwise then please let me know.
But that is how I see it for now.
Well done if you have read this far. You are obviously very passionate about this subject and I hope you gained a lot from reading this post.
Regards, Greg Martin
Twitter - web2Greg
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