Did you just jump jobs to a new start-up and your boss wants you to spam all of your friends with the latest company press release ?
BAD IDEA
This is like the web version of Cutco knives, whose whole model was getting kids to sell knives to their friends and family.
But unlike Cutco (where your friends and media can just ignore you), with social networks many times this is my only time dealing with you, and you come off like a retard. Now, odds are I won’t remember most of you…unless you have the same last name as me. But the spelling of my last name is so rare it’s probably never going to happen… oh wait, it did:
Now, I get emails like this all the time from bots…. but this is Facebook. AND yes, I know it’s technically not spam because I opted into our friend relationship, but it still pisses me off.
Guess what, Kimberly? When you leave this start up in the next 6 months because you’re jumping to another job or it goes bankrupt, you burned your bridge with me. And I will obviously remember your name.
From reading your wall, it looks like most of your other friends feel the same way:
About the author...
Jeremy Schoemaker – who has written 2416 posts on ShoeMoney.com.
Hi I am Jeremy Schoemaker and ShoeMoney.com is my blog. 99% of the post here are done by me but you will see others occasionally make guest posts. This blog is fun to write but for my day job I run several online companies.
Images provided by ShutterStock
What Internet Marketers Can learn From Harry Potter 
How Hackers Are Using Google To Pwn Your Site 
I Am A Recovering Addict of MMORPG Games 
{ 98 comments… read them below or add one }
Well she is pretty hot, not sure if that makes a difference… Her friends are going to think her big brother or cousin has booted her from his friends list now haha
Haha your message to the lady was awesome Schoe…She’s pretty hot by the way and you think she’s an idiot…i know being an idiot has nothing to do with being beautiful, but stil!!
It Shoe ..and not Schoe
Ha! good one Ricky.
I hate Spam, that is the main reason I left Myspace many years ago. Scary part is Twitter is becoming so spammed out recently. I wonder what they will do to combat this problem?
Twitter is getting out of control with it. They should ban auto DM’s…or at least let us mass delete without a third party code.
That is a gripe that I can’t say has really ever happened to me, but I am far from being an internet celebrity that people are always trying to connect with.
That and I try not to accept friend requests unless somebody is really my friend. Facebook is more of a internet relaxation place for me.
Adam
I completely agree with you. I find it a bit rookie when you mix business with friends in that way. Just doesn’t come off right.
I can’t believe people actually do this to their friends on facebook.
This is actually pretty tame compared to similar messages I’ve gotten (e.g. selling me SEO services when I’m an SEO).
If you really wanted to be mean, just add her full name to the post 2-3 time and watch this post rank 1st for her name :.)
Yep, a harsh response to a fairly innocent message, I mean at least she’s promoting something actually related to social networking… but I’m glad Shoe didn’t even mention her full name once, or else this page would be her #1 ranking forever… Although now she commented on this page using her full name – mistake number 2!
Cool one Shoe ….and BAD IDEA tooo ..lol
You really doing to drop her though, I mean that rack would look great in a Shoemoney T… A chance to redeem herself maybe..?
Mr. Shoe,
While your point is to be appreciated – you are out of touch with a significant trend…Departmentalized sales efforts are dead. The new corporate rally call is All Hands On Deck, and the 98% of small to mid-size companies that are hiring require that all technical experts update their skill sets to become prospectors for their companies. So whether you like it or not, find it cool or not, or the social media sites feature it well or not- it’s here. You can fire your friends, but have mercy because they need jobs and need to eat. Ironically, I point out that you use social media quite well to promote your commercial interests. And yes, I’ve written a book on this subject- you can expect to see it in print at bookstores everywhere shortly. It’s called The CODE: A Revolutionary Sales System where I teach companies, the jobless and those that are exploring entrepreneurship in an effort to simply pick up contract work to survive how to act like Prospectors, Technical Experts and Closers (the core traits of successful entrepreneurs.)
Rock on Shoe.
Shoe and out of touch little difficult to believe Elizabeth.
These little fights you get into are funny. Why not just delete her and move on?
Hey those cutco knives are pretty good with their “bowling ball” handles and all
lol ..i agree with you sean
I actually have the whole Cutco set! LOL They are great knives. I am also buddies with one of the executives of the company. Great company, makes good money, teaches sales. People who get squeemish doing sales don’t enjoy being part of the company though
I don’t mind getting hit up for kid’s fundraisers and stuff, but corporate spam is too much on social networks.
Damn Shoe you’re the most straight up blog out there lol.
This is what “leveraging relationships” leads to – if you can’t craft a targeted pitch that connects with said target audience, it’s the web equivalent of sending a freakin’ chain letter. With the same level of response predicted.
hey I really disapoint about what you do with this girl in fact this is something that you even have to put in this page, I really enjoy your articles but this one no and less because you speak to ruff to this girl remember that you have a mother and I dont know if you have a sister, I dont think that you will like that some idiot go and speak to your mother or sister like that. So now I am thinking that the stupid are you jeremy
I agree – Sometimes I are the stupid. And many people have that opinion.
lol – “Sometimes I are the stupid.” – Nice lol
Interesting post here Jeremy.
Only Jeremey can call himself stupid, as for the other people, I don’t think anyone would dare. lol
If you enter the shoemoney universe, you enter the shoemoney universe
hehehe you are so humble shoe..I think you are the idiot who make 5-6 figures and bladi 420 is the smart one who is trying to learn from you hehehehe
Ok, so I have one degree of separation from the carrotmob folks, and I do agree that this is spam…
But I also know that this is San Francisco, which is a world-wide magnet for crusading white chicks.
So I don’t see anything nefarious or even manipulative in this example. In fact, I would be quite surprised if Miss S here wasn’t a true believer in what carrotmob is trying to accomplish.
We’re so special here in the Bay Area!
Funny stuff…I actually paid pretty much my entire college tuition for 4.5 years with money earned selling Cutco.
My brother sold Cutco knives for a while when he was in college. He quit when some crazy guy chased him off his property while wielding a baseball bat.
Also, the myspace background is incredibly annoying…hurts my eyes.
Probably because I have a family member who has pulled this kind of crap on the rest of us most of our adult lives, I automatically reject any business model that requires you to “leverage” (beg/cajole/strong-arm/guilt-trip) your friends and family members to sign up, purchase or whatever.
This sounds like just a slightly broader version of the same thing.
Not impressed.
Not a big deal. Why accept her as a friend if you don’t actually know her.
Now you are giving her site some free promotion.
Please don’t defriend me from Facebook.
And oops my real birthday is showing in Facebook!
lol, I think it would be improper if he did.
Otherwise, I don’t think that its unfair when people defriend him on twitter and write what they do when he sells something. 
are you the real one? or someone just commented with the same name?
Hard to believe that someone would ask you to spam your friends on social networks. If the person volunteers without mentioning it, ok. But otherwise that is mixing business with personal affairs. Not cool!
I bet that every few weeks you hear about some new social network through invites like this. It’s virtually guaranteed to be someone you barely know uploading their entire contact list to the site through some fancy Ajaxy gadget they spent $100K developing. And the emails all get through your fancy spam filter because they’re either from your friends or from people you worked with 10 years ago. Do you keep your contact list clean of old entries? Well, the emails get through anyway! They’re invites, not spam, after all. Not a single one tries to sell you c1alis. Well, so far.
Let her off with it! She’s hot and that means she can do what she wants!!
I will say no to spam..it is so stupid think to do in our business
Are you referring to blogging as “our business”?
This reminds me of all the pretty ladies that have started to follow me on twitter….heheheheh
Spam is the bane of my internet existence, and I feel spammers deserve harsh treatment.
Jacques….how much DM spam do you get off them? My guess is a lot
Dude most of them aren’t even ladies but men with lady names to get attention, sick!
I hate spam which I rarely see on Facebook unless my friends accounts gets hacked as I know everyone personally on there
She’s commented on this thread
Wait a second, I don’t get it – how is it ok for you to send the advertisement over to all your twitter followers and when Matt Cutts blocks you, you tell them that this is how you make money and it’s ok. However, when this lady does the same thing, you start wining because she has your last name and do the same thing Matt Cutts did to you.
No offence, but I think that it is not fair for you to complain on something that you do yourself.
humm…. lets see what Jeremy’s got to say on this!
May be here difference is FOLLOWERS AND FRIENDS …
Twitter is basically now a days marketing tool and you follow them because you want to learn and earn something but facebook is bit personal and friendship substance is here.
No offence … This is just my thought, although Jeremy will be the right person to reply this.
Depends who you ask.
Many do use twitter to keep in contact with their friends and to me spam on “personal” twitter account is no different than spam on my facebook. 
Although I’m totally on board with your hatred of spam, calling someone an idiot via a facebook post only works when you are grammatically correct. Otherwise you just look like the idiot.
p.s. it should have been “you’re an idiot” not “your a idiot”
Lisa – here at shoemoney we have evolved past silly things like grammar. Once you get out of school you will realize how the world really works.
Shoe she is learning these days..nevermind
Just because Shoe sucks at spelling and grammar doesn’t mean he’s an idiot. Get over trivial matters and focus on what’s important.
yha right. Grammar and spellings are not that much important.The thing is shoe wanted to share some important points about spamming and i think he had done good job. Every one has gotten his point well.
Few people have different definition of Idiot and I think respected Lisa is one of them.
May be she have not read post of Jeremy otherwise she will start yelling on all posts …
ohh is that idiot? i always used to write it ideot!
Lisa, my English teacher always bashed me for having a poor control over grammar/spellings/sentence structuring, guess what, he still is teaching…. while i already have a team of people like that working for me…
even if someone writes very very good articles, we will still be around here reading Jeremy’s posts…
the bottom line is: “content is important than presentation”
lol I love what your wrote on her wall! guess your guys are not from the same shoemaker gene pool…
its schoemaker dingdong
Didn’t you JUST get through talking about the spelling!?! Gotta love it! Hahaha
Lolz well said sheo.Its dingdong made by shoemaker
Most friends will not do this…that or they will apologize after. A good way to try and stop it usually, friend only people you personally know. People need to be careful in mixing personal affairs and business.
Did you really just add her because she was a hottie.
guilty
nah… am sure shoe added mainly because she has an awesome last name
it happens to everyone actually, the last time i did that, ended up adding a Chinese to my list and started getting similar messages in Chinese language that i did not understand
Simple love to own surname and I think that’s why it hurts more … isn’t Jeremy ?
Now this responce is 100% spam.
I get 100s of those on my blog.
Agreed!!
101% SPAM!! Got it more than 100 everyday…
How it gets approved … Jeremy hire someone. We know few people who can do this for you, they are doing fine job on my few blogs.
I think you should leave the poor girl alone. Myspace’s original members were its employees, and they asked employees to try to get some friends and family to join to “prime the site.” Don’t you send out similar types of promotional posts on twitter?
I do hate getting spammy mail on facebook though.
oooo spamming…what a damn habit! dont wanna have friends like that…nothing to do but get them out of my face…
Almost Every one across the Globe is FED up of spamming …Do not know when the HELL it will be stopped.
Right ricky .Global Internet spam levels rose 4.9 per cent in January this year since December 2008 to 74.6 per cent.
This is not going to stop … unless and otherwise some strict steps should be taken through all over the world and special committee should be created who have the authority to take action in any country against the spammers.
I dunno about this one..
Typical MLM style. I have cut a lot of friends and even family out of my life for shit like this. With The Internet growning as fast as it is, it’s almost a given it will happen at some point, but you should never “bite the hand that feeds you” so to speak. I will agree with Emmet Gibney that she is hot, but looks can only get you so far.
I haven’t experienced too much of this at all, but I am sure it is coming. It is only a matter of time before the people start kicking out the nonsense. Good luck to us all!!
This is the second aspect of social networking and you will have to face this. Unless and otherwise you strict to those people whom you know.
Hey, is this the Matt-Shoemoney episode in reverse?
Thanks for posting about this, I would like to read more about this topic.
C’mon now, second one in the same post?
Did you outsource comment approval to a third world country or are you trying to fill the post about spam with spam? 
I mainly get this when I join forums.
Cutco employ children to sell knives? I can see the advertising headline now “While you’re getting involved in knife fights with rival gangs why not make yourself some money and sell knives to your gang member friends.”
i am lucky i do not get spam
You should choose your facebook friends more carefully
Interesting thing is they wont start sending this kind of message instantly. They send it after few days or weeks and you should immediately kick them out or you should report.
Did you wake up on the wrong side of the bed or having a bad day? That is no way to treat your family. lol jk
F&*^ you cry a lot Shoe, why not go spend time with your family instead of bitching about the little things.
lol… its a blog dipstick. I get enjoyment of writing my thoughts down. Evidently you do also. Thanks for reading.
hey jack(off) glad to see you have the time to bitch about a guy bitching about the little things.
Funny, after reading this I realized how much of the same type of spam I get. But I have two facebook accounts. One for real life family/friends and the other for whoever. Family and friends tend to leave me alone but the other one… ouch!
well…i hate social networking!
Yea, I’m getting to where I hate social networking as well. It’s just another email account I have to check that mostly gets affiliate spam.
I’m betting to where I don’t even friend someone if I don’t know them or if they haven’t at least been recommended by a friend I know. Of course if I had someone want to friend me with my last naem I might friend them as well.
Jeremy, it was very brave and healthy, that you wrote this post as a warning to the same kinds.
Friendship is a friendship and a friend does not want to become an object of the sales pitch.
You can meet hundreds of bots in facebook. This is what I hate most of all
We must carefully to choose your friend
to add in your facebook
Seems to me that now we will have to assign a little amount to remove these kind of friends in our social network.