What do Google+, Twitter and Facebook all have in common? They’re social media networks that give users the opportunity to communicate with friends and also create online communities consisting of like-minded people. They can range from small collections of personal high school friends to professionals and businesspeople.

To Internet marketers, however, these outposts and groups are a virtual gold mine because they can reach their target audience inexpensively or even for free.

Social media has become subject to abuse by unscrupulous marketers and spammers. This type of “noise” results from attempts by marketers to artificially inflate their “friend” count or how many people are in their social sphere. They do this through mass-adding and bots. Most of the time, these people market their own products or services to their “friends” or they charge a fee for others to advertise through their accounts.

In general, social spam does not work. This does not mean, however, that it won’t convert; it means that this method of insincere marketing rarely yields a decent ROI or return on investment compared to other online strategies.

3 reasons social spam is ineffective:

Big accounts commonly utilized for spam rarely have any targeted members. Thus, if you try to build your friend list through mass-adding and bots or by paying someone who owns a large presence to blast your advertisement to their group, the people who will see your advertising message are not likely going to be people who are in your target market.

If you pay someone with a big account to send your advertisement to their friends, be aware there’s no guarantee they will ever see your message. This is because your ad is only going to be visible to them if they are logged into their accounts at a certain time, are following the submitter, etc.

If your target members ever do see your message, it is more likely that you’ll have a very low response. They may read it, but there is no guarantee that they will perform an action. In fact, spammy social media marketing techniques are more likely to create a negative impression of your brand.
The good news is, you can still use these fun and exciting sites as part of your Internet marketing efforts. Just make sure you do it responsibly.

Here are some tips on effective social media marketing:

Build your friends or follower lists naturally. Resist the temptation to use bots or mass-add people to your network.

Make it a habit to personally welcome anyone who joins your network.

Send out your posts and messages to members when they are likely to be online. For instance, sending your bulletins during a holiday or weekends would give your message lower exposure because the people in your network are highly likely to be away from their computers.

Instead of just sending links to members of your social network, take the time to actually craft something that would prompt them to read and check out your offer or site.

Regularly contact members of group. However, avoid contacting them too frequently because you’ll look like a spammer.

Search sites for groups related to your niche. Join these groups and make sure you read and understand the posting rules there before you send out your message or ad.

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