Social Media Professionals & Brands are becoming the trolls, or spammers | Social Media Today

@FrankEliason is so right. We as marketers are meanwhile bombarding people in Social media with what I call Social SPAM. We all have to do our job, but …

The reality is brands are becoming the trolls, or spammers (at least in the way they do it today), which over time will hurt these social networks causing people to find alternative places to track and participate in conversations. This is nothing new, since the same thing happened to email marketing. At first it was cool, but then when too many brands started bombarding us with messages we sought ways to simply block them out.

In my view we have to do our part to ensure success of these social networks, including helping the networks create the right user experience. I know our product leaders want to see their product front in center of social media, but if we chase people away, what good is it being front and center?

As social media leaders we have to help our brands better understand what it is like to be a member of a community and how to add to it as opposed to detracting from it. This is often a fine line, and difficult to decipher.

via Are We, Social Media Professionals, Destroying Social Media? | Social Media Today.