Dear spammers – can we have our social media back?

I’ve spent much of the past month meeting with social media monitoring companies to find a supplier that can manage searches and analysis in Asian languages. I’ve been geeking out on some of the applications, and, without the hint of apology, challenging a lot of what I’ve seen. I hope the folks I’ve met with have enjoyed the discussions.

While I’ve been quite impressed with how far Asian language buzz, sentiment and share of voice dashboards have come, the spectre of “social media marketing” raised its head in three of the discussions.

Naturally, as an inquisitive fellow, I pushed them on this point. With the innocence of a new-born lamb, I asked them precisely what they meant by “marketing” in a social media context. The response? “Seeding”. Now, for the uninitiated, “seeding” has little to do with the planting seeds in fertile soil and nourishing them to grow.

Sadly, it seems, “seeding” has a lot to do with spamming forums and blogs with often inappropriate commercial messages.

This is akin to arriving late (and uninvited) to a party that’s in full swing. Then strolling casually into the middle of an intense discussion and yelling “buy a car from Chan’s Auto Yard!” Next step is to run out of the party, never to be heard from again.

Now come on people (and seeders). Who are we kidding here? Is this behaviour acceptable in any community in which you operate? Is this “marketing”? No. It is spamming pure and simple. And what makes it worse, is that as corporates discover the genuine influence of social media discussions, they’re defaulting to these sorts of tactics and running the risk of doing their brands considerably more harm than good.

I understand the good folks that are paid to “seed” in this way are referred to as “gunners” (in traditional Chinese cheng churn meaning, literally, hired guns).

So, let’s break this down. You identify a forum like Uwants or DiscussHk as an influential channel where discussions relevant to your brand, product or service are taking place. People care enough (or, at least are passionate enough) to share their feelings and ask probing questions. Instead of joining the conversation in a meaningful way by replying to posts or establishing a contributing and helpful role within the community, you instead hire a gunner to spam inappropriate comments at this influential audience.

I can only assume that this approach is based on the assumption that at least a “key message” is “placed” in the discussion; therefore this somehow constitutes marketing success. And perhaps using the direct marketing logic, maybe a 1 or 2 percent response rate justifies the expenditure. Whereas an unsolicited email can be deleted or captured by a spam filter, the gunner’s handiwork lives on in the digital record. Ideally forum moderators or bloggers block such comments, but if they let them remain, they are nothing more than a reminder for most netizens that the offending company has no understanding of social media conventions and should be at best ignored, and, at worst, flamed.

Companies need to realize that there really is no such thing as spamming your way to social media influence. Influence is established through trusted relationships built over time. It appears that for many companies in Hong Kong, these types of relationships aren’t worth the investment required. I fear that until we reach a stage where the communities voice their objections, however, our forums are blogs destined to be the playground of these digital gate-crashers.

It does raise the question of how else to engage in these vital channels. The answer is pretty clear. Like any community, you need to understand the discussion, so spend time researching and reading. Determine which forum threads or blogs focus on topics you’re interested in. Look at the language of discussion and analyse the nature of comments and posts. Consider how you can meaningfully join the conversation – how can you add value? Can you answer a question? Point people to new information? Introduce a new topic that the community will value?

And remember, by starting down this path, you’re making a commitment to the community. Once you’re in, you should stay in. And through this, you’ll develop the relationships marketers only dreamt of a decade ago.

Finally, a call to action. For those who really value the digital communities they’ve helped build and increasingly see as a preferred place for discussion, debate and research, now is the time to take back the night. Next time you see a post that’s clearly “gunned”, make it clear that they’re not welcome in your ‘hood.

- Jeremy

Note, this article appeared in the June 2009 issue of Marketing Magazine Hong Kong