Image from a great article on setting privacy/permissions on Facebook from Alex Serban over at Tech PP
I spend a lot of time on Facebook. I do it because I enjoy watching people, seeing how they react to things, and also to gauge people’s interests on different subject matter. Here lately, however, it seems to be just a bunch of folks complaining about one thing or another in politics, religion, or arguing over whose penis is larger (yes, that actually happened, no I do not know the results or either of the guys for that matter). I will say that I also engage in these discussions when people keep it civil (political and religious anyways, as the only person who needs to know about my endowment is my wife), but try to stay away from really heated discussions.
Regardless of the oddities that happen in social media, one thing is certain – it is here to stay and has massive potential for monetization. How many times have you seen a website shared with some ridiculous claim, and you went to check out the linked article and it had 30k, 40k, 50k, or even more shares on social media? If all of those people are sharing, you also have to know that there are many many more people reading and not sharing. Most of these website are littered with advertising, pop-ups, pop-unders, opt-in boxes for email, or a form where you have to sign in with Facebook to get access to the article (which then gives the site owner your email address among other information about you) or sign-in to get you to post one of those quizzes, who is your stalked apps, or the myriad of other “sign in with Facebook” pages you go to (which, consequently, also gives the website owner access to your personal information).
Now, don’t get me wrong. Facebook has the ability to connect to these sites because it is a huge advantage to be able to easily access certain websites from a click of a button when you are already signed in, but many are abusing that in order to grab your contact information and sell it. Yes, you heard me right. Most of these websites are there to grab your information and sell it. So, guess where all that new spam is coming from in your email box? Did you enjoy sharing that page to show that you’re 95% cute because a random website “analyzed” your profile? What they really did is used a cheap tactic to get you to sign in on their website and share your name, Facebook profile, email address, phone number (if connected) and many other details about you. Been receiving more telemarketing calls lately? Well, can you guess why now?
Unfortunately, in the marketing world these days, too many people are trying to take the easy road to get access to quick money and this is just one of many tactics used to grab massive amounts of personal data from people. Unfortunately, I know some of these marketers doing this. Having been working online for about 15 years, I have seen many of the “tricks” and this is just another trick. I have considered using the techniques to build my personal email lists, but I have made mistakes in my marketing career trying to take the easy road, and it backfired (I will have to tell you the full story, some other time, about the time I bought a list of emails from someone saying they were guaranteed opt-ins and were waiting for my email; I think all 1.2 million of them replied to my email with obscenities). The fact of the matter is that tricks and quick-fixes don’t work in marketing any better than substituting pepperoni for bell peppers on a vegan’s pizza.
If you want to get great tips on marketing your business online through my regular emails, put your name and email in the box to the right under my photo. You will receive a 5 part email sequence in the first week and then regular updates (1-2 times a week) after that. No cheap marketing tactics here. Oh yeah, try to avoid those sites where you have to sign in to see an article or share a quiz – unless you know it to be a completely credible source. That is, of course, unless you like the extra spam emails and telemarketing calls.
Oh yeah – Share the love by sharing on Facebook, Linked, twitter, or whatever you like most. I have a couple of buttons around here somewhere for that 😉