It was bound to happen, spam and ‘un-desirable’ content working its way into the pipes of the now common Twitter. Twitter has officially moved from the early adopters to becoming spam worthy.
This means a lot for Twitter. Think about it this way: until now spammers didn’t really consider Twitter a viable way to reach people to sell them Viagra, get rich quick schemes and time shares in countries that don’t exist.
Now, the common man (or woman) can be reached via Twitter and a new crop of spammers will be reaching out to all who use Twitter. Unlike the great Spam wars of the 90’s people and companies are much more adept at handling spammers.
When I first opened an email account it took me a good deal of time to filter out the spam from the real mail. Now, I maybe get one spam email a day… and that’s pushing it.
Twitter has years of experience to work from on how best to deal with spammers and Twitter’s ability to let me see followers vs. following assures me that I will not follow a spammer.
Much to the joy of spammers though, I will give their spam profile one look over before I decided to follow them or not. If I was a spammer I would consider this a victory… at least they got me to look.
I don’t watch TV. I have nothing against it, I love many TV shows but I simply can justify spending hours out of my life watching 30 minutes shows. On the other side of the coin I do spend hours out of my life watching movies and playing video games so I never preach about being in love with TV.
As most of you know I am a huge fan of social media, I am engrossed in things like twitter, pluck, brightkite and a host of other social media services. I recently was followed by one Betty Draper, www.twitter.com/betty_draper, and started reading her posts.
I have never seen the show ‘Mad Men’, I have no idea what it is about or where it airs, but I am fascinated with Betty’s life. Read her tweets and I feel like I know her but for the love of God she is a TV show. I am engrossed with the life of a fictional character that I have never seen on the small screen.
I will be adding ‘Mad Men’ to my Netflix lineup and I look forward to seeing who this Mrs . Draper is. From a marketing standpoint I have to say having your characters have online personas is a win win. On one hand it creates a much stronger bond with your existing customers, the people who follow your show.
On the other hand, people like me, it allows the show to be exposed to a group of people who would have never reached out to the show in the first place. It also adds an interesting new level to any TV show. No longer are characters constrained to time block that a network has giving them. Characters can develop and promote the show in the off hours.
Do you think “Fake” profiles of TV characters for Twitter is a good idea. I am interested in it so let me know what you think.
Technology has helped us reach a new level of globalization. Globalization comes with its ups and downs like anything else. Communication lines opened up, people are able to travel all over the world and keep their friends and family close to them in their pockets or through the use of Internet cafes. I went to Costa Rica for a summer and even though I was in the middle of nowhere there were still Internet cafes and computer or telephone access. Although communication has opened up, globalization has also opened up opportunities for outsiders to get inside.
Technology has consequences just like anything else. But does that mean that it is wrong? Making things easier does not change the fact that people can build explosives without the lab research and the proper resources. Materials found in all sorts of technology can be used for and against people.
The U.S. Army Battalion 304 put out a report documenting the possible use of Twitter and GPS systems to change the world. GPS coordinates and Twitter’s instant communication could make it easy for terrorists to target certain places. With a combination of the two, the military could have, build and detonate explosives while communicating it in an instant. This does not mean that we should stop inventing and expanding into the global market place, there are just consequences like there are for anything else.
The U.S. spends hundreds of millions of dollars on technology like precision munitions that contrast the use of IEDs by insurgents. However, everyday people come up with easy and inexpensive ways to communicate and in a sense to kill.
What should we do? Stop inventing new technology or stop using it?
Yesterday I was complaining about my Firefox. See, Firefox was failing to keep my cookies and forcing me to re-sign in to all me accounts. Not a HUGE problem but annoying enough to make me a little upset. I posted my disdain on my twitter feed and let my anger subside.
A few hours later I received a reply from a team member at the Firefox team telling me what I needed to do to fix my cookie problem. Sure enough I used the tip that was suggested and my Firefox problem has been solved.
Of course I am happy to see my problem fixed, but I think the twitter help is an excellent example of my mantra “turning action into voice.” By providing help in a public forum Firefox is actually helping promote their brand and create brand equity.
I am a loyal Firefox user, I think Firefox is worried about losing some of us market share to newer more tech savvy browsers. Using the tools that Firefox’s users use is a good way to remain top of mind with its user base. I think other companies can benefit from Mozilla’s example.
Imagine if Kodak began looking at people’s Flickr accounts and telling them how best to print their digital photos or what they could do to improve the shot. What if your local grocer started tweeting you specials that could help you prepare dinner tonight? The idea is this: find the best way to get your message out there and keep putting it out.
Do you have any other examples of companies trying to reach you with a solution before you reached them with a problem? Do you think that combining customer support and marketing is a good idea? Let me know.
I like everyone else in the social media world loves twitter. I use it daily to communicate with friends, find out about my business and just keep up on gossip. I tend to write more personal stuff than business stuff and I have a decent number of followers. Not like some of those crazy people with thousands upon thousands of followers.
This makes me wonder about the professional stuff I put out on twitter. To a certain degree many of the pr/marketing types out there are spamming twitter with links and professional information. On one hand you can say that if a person doesn’t want to follow a pr/marketing pro they don’t have to, but on the other hand it makes me wonder if when I put professional stuff out on twitter does it devalue my online presence.
I have begun to wonder if pr/marketing people need to put a label on their twitter handle. Something along the lines of “I will spam you every now and then,” or “read my stuff.” I certainly don’t fell what I write, or what I twitter, is spam but I am certain there are people who join twitter just to send out professional information.
As a professional I find twitter an amazing tool for connecting to people who share similar ideas. As a fan of social media I find twitter to be a fun tool for staying on top of my friends lives. Finding the perfect balance seems to be a problem. I feel that if I were to start a second twitter account I would be setting up a false persona.
I am confident that the people who follow me on twitter don’t think I am spamming them, but sometimes I worry. Do you feel that you spam or get spammed too much on twitter? Have you ever stopped following someone because you felt their tweets were too spammy? Let me know
