When Is It SPAM–What Tweeps Say

A few months ago I wrote a post about the sometimes fine-line between SPAM and acceptable promotional posts/tweets. I also kicked off a small survey to find out what other people’s perceptions were. When asked “On Social Networks, do you think any outright promotion of a product or business is spam?” 24%  responded yes. The majority, however, had a more nuanced perspective.

Although there were only 30 respondents, the results are strong enough that I think we can draw some clear conclusions about what users consider “acceptable” SPAM. If you just want to see my resulting recommendations, click here.

What’s a relationship?

I solicited for people to take the survey mainly through both LinkedIn and Twitter. Over 90% of the respondents use Twitter and LinkedIn. Over 75% also use Facebook.

One element likely to be a factor in people’s opinons on whether a post was spam or not is the extent of their relationship with the poster. Specifically, I thought it likely that people would be more forgiving of promotional or advertising posts that were made by people with whom they had a relationship. So, my first question was when do you define yourself as having an online relationship with someone. Here’s what the respondents had to say:

Not surprisingly, people felt they had a relationship with someone when they really did have a relationship with them offline. But, in addition, other factors led them to feel they had at least a minimal relationship:

• Choosing to follow someone makes a difference. Over 78% of people felt they had a relationship with someone if they actively chose to follow or friend that person
• Interactions count. 92.9% of people felt they had a relationship with someone if they had some online conversations or interactions with the person
• Even providing useful information builds online relationships. 76.2% of people felt they had a relationship with someone if that person regularly provided valuable information through their posts.

Fostering connections through online conversations clearly paves the way for promoting on social networks.  Simply being a regular provider of good content seems to buy good will from a lot of people.

How Often You Promote is a Factor

Next, I asked people about the frequency of promotional messages. I wanted to see whether frequency affected people’s perception of whether or not a message was SPAM. Also, are users are more willing to accept more frequent advertisements from people that they feel they have a relationship with.

Here are the results:

As you can see, frequency is a factor. Users almost universally disliked it when fellow users promoted their products/services several times a day, over multiple days. On the other hand, they were generally forgiving of a single promotional post, on a single day.

A perceived relationship gave users more permission to self-promote:

Across the board, people were more willing to accept promotional tweets or posts from people they had a relationship with. Although when posting multiple times a day over multiple days, the difference in acceptability was small.

Relevance is a Factor

I also asked people about relevance, looking specifically at how people react to posts/tweets directed at specific groups, that are or are not relevant to the tweet. Relevancy proved very important. Regardless of whether or not users had a relationship with the person tweeting/posting, they rated a tweet or post as SPAM if it was targeted at a hashtag or group to which it wasn’t relevant.

How Broadly You Post is a Factor

I also asked respondents whether it made a difference if the user posted broadly, to all of their followers/friends, or to only selected followers. In this case, whether you have a relationship with the poster is a definite factor.

 

Users were twice as willing to accept promotional tweets directed to all followers from someone with whom they had a relationship. If they didn’t have a relationship with someone, they percieved the tweet or post as more like SPAM. Likewise, more than twice as many users considered directed posts SPAM when they didn’t have a relationship with the poster.

Tone is Somewhat of a Factor

I asked respondents about the tone of posts or tweets.  Specifically, I questioned how their reactions varied if the post was clearly advertising versus somewhat informational, and how they reacted if it was self-deprecating or humorous, and if it was made personal. This kind of information can’t be well-measured through a self-response survey, but since I was doing the survey, I thought I’d at least take the pulse.

The numbers were generally similar except that users were, overall, less forgiving of the people they didn’t have a relationship with. They appear to be most receptive to promotional posts that are somewhat personal. Personalized, self-deprecating, or informational promotional posts are the best bet if you don’t have a relationship with a lot of your followers. The biggest difference is when the post is clearly advertising. While its a gamble, more users will accept these tweets/posts from people they have a relationship with. On the other hand, when it comes from someone they don’t have a relationship with, the majority consider it SPAM.

Providing Value Beyond the Ad Helps

Lastly, I asked whether people’s perceptions towards promotional posts changed if the post offered them information of value, or offered discounts or other special offers. For example, promoting blog posts with useful information might fall in this category.

In this case, there was no significant difference in the responses when users considered themselves in a relationship versus not. However, there was a strong preference for posts that provide something of value, while promoting.

As you can see, users said they were much less likely to consider a post/tweet SPAM if it offers some kind of value, either informational or a special discount or offer.

Takeaways

If you are or want to post self-promotional items, based on this research, here are some suggestions:

• Relationships do matter. Having some interaction with most or all of your followers will make them more willing to accept your promotional tweets. If you can’t reasonably do that, the next best approach is to post/tweet valuable information regularly, which makes people more receptive to occasional “advertisements” as well as helps you draw more followers/friends.
• Offer something of value with your ad. If you can, provide useful information or a discount or special offer as part of your promotional post/tweet. Users report they are far less likely to perceive a post as SPAM under those circumstances.
• Don’t self-promote more than once a day. Users accept a single self-promoting post.  About half will accept self-promotion once a day over multiple days, if it’s from someone they “know.” Promoting multiple times in a day is a big no-no. The worst is promoting multiple times over multiple (consecutive) days.
• Post only to relevant groups/hashtags. Relevancy is important. Don’t post to groups or hashtags that the post isn’t relevant to. Obviously this is considered spam.
• Target your posts to specific followers that you have interacted with. This is least likley to be considred SPAM.  If you don’t have a relationship with many of your followers, and you post to all of them, 60% are likely to regard the post as spam.
• Make your promotional post personal.  Whether you do or don’t have a relationship with your followers, making it personal helps ease the way. Humor or self-deprecation is your second, best approach.