This morning I was presently surprised to see a invite from “Social Media Expert” – Liz Strauss to be friends on Facebook. Cool.. I never met Liz and I dunno what she does but I have heard the name so to have her initiate contact with me to be friends on Facebook seemed pretty cool.
Then without message or anything 8 hours later I get a invite to be a fan of Liz Strauss. Hmm whats next more unsolicited invitations?
I have seen these bots around Facebook used by some pretty savvy marketers but I gotta be honest I don’t think its smart. It rubs me the wrong way. Maybe its just because I am hip to it?
Its like you invite me to lunch only to then solicit me. Just pisses me off.
Maybe I am just being a bitcher….
I actually remember finding a article she had written on the difference between being a self promoter and a shameless self promoter in which she says:
The shameless part is the total disregard for others. In other words, Shameless Self-Promoters see only the game — not the relationship or the other person’s needs.
Hmm pot, kettle, black, ninja.
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.
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{ 35 comments… read them below or add one }
That’s like offering someone out to dinner and then selling them insurance. Don’t be that guy.
If you come out to dinner with me you need some insurance. I’m a M A N I A C. MUWAHAHAHAHA
Anytime you’re in my town I’d be glad to take you for lunch. No soliciting, just good conversation, food & drinks.
Looks like she needs to practice what she preaches…
You too shoe? amazing! i was about to bring this on my blog as i am really tired of all these spams. Its not only fb but even blogs these days.! am working on it hard.
How would you recommend that folks grow their fan page then?
That would be a great blog post.
Interested in the discussion about to go down as well.
Alejandro,
I think the point is: if you are only befriending me to get me to become a fan of your page or solicit your products, then why befriend me in the first place?
If you are looking to grow your fan page, use ads, target them to people you know and their friends. but disingenuous friending ruins the fun for everyone.
note, I have met Liz, and I think she is a great person. So I believe her response above.
I’ve known Liz for a long time, and “spammer” the very last thing most folks would ever call her. She’s genuinely thoughtful and real, and this sounds like some unintentional screwup. Did you ask her about it?
Hi,
I’d call you Jeremy, but after reading this, I sort of feel like I don’t have the right to. I’m sorry if I offended you.
A fan made a fan page on Facebook for me this week and it happened to coincide with when I asked you to connect with me. I’ve never been much of a Facebook evangelist. I get what you mean about being spammed by it.
I personally sent you both messages. Though we’ve never met in person I read your blog and I believe we crossed paths in person in the past — we have so many friends in common. The funny part is that have nothing to market to you — no products you would want, no webinars, no anything, .
I’ve had it happen that I’ve handed my business card to someone and been spammed with email sales offers for months to follow. I know what you’re talking about here. It stinks. That is not who I am.
It was me — the human being — who crossed the line with you. I don’t believe in bots.
My apologies.
Liz
Liz whether or not your spamming was intentional I think shoemoney makes a great point about how you need to be careful.
Lots of times this is the first impression someone has of you.
Shoe…quite sensitive…Liz, really – spam? You’re both pushing the envelope, but in this case, Liz won b/c you promoted her for free!
Great job Liz and Shoe, you’ve gotta hand it to her, she did get a freebie by you.
Maybe not the best way, but effective – clearly.
I wish I had one of these bots for myself to help promote my own facebook.
Me too looks pretty effective
I am very pleased to be able to read your article and this article adds knowledge about facebook I thank you for the information you provide for your successful
Hmm why she do that for???
Yeah, happens… Never got spam like that on social networks, but got a ton of solicited emails from affiliate marketers being an active commenter… Sometimes these happen by a mistake of crossing the line of a trust. People make mistakes like that, all I can do is move it to spam, usually no hard feelings…
I am sure she did not mean to do it herself.
It’s spam. I got this kind of message all the time.
I would call it a pretty smart way buddy, you see today its very tough to make it big in this world, the only way its possible is through these ways. This is a strange world you know, there is no justice or injustice, there is only luck, power, winners and losers. Who ever this guy is I truly appreciate his efforts. I don’t know if i’m wrong, but thats what i believe in.
Regards
Vishal Sanjay
http://www.dumblittleblogger.blogspot.com/
Marketers who dont do what they say
I’ve read Liz Stauss’s comment above and I do think it was a human mistake at the end of the day.
Its just a fan page “request”.. Big deal.. Its not like youve been entered into a weekly drip email marketing campaign or something – just deny the request and move on..
Seems to me it was just some networking she was doing and you are hyper sensitive to it due to your position.
She wasn’t trying to sell you something. It was more like meeting someone and asking them to lunch 5 minutes later. Maybe a bit awkward, but not malicious.
Maybe her timing was a bit off, no biggie. I think you taught her and others something here though, so your post wasn’t just a pet peeve bitch session.
“I never met Liz and I dunno what she does but I have heard the name so to have her initiate contact with me to be friends on Facebook seemed pretty cool.”
She initiated contact times 2.. Shouldn’t that just be double coolness on your side Jeremy?..
Great that Liz responded to this personally. Too bad when bots are so prevalent that real friend invites start looking like bot-spam.
I do think, though, that anyone involved in IM is just more sensitive to this kind of thing. I bet many people don’t have a clue what kind of stuff is done by bots everywhere.
Maybe that was her blog reply bot?
I’m surprised that Liz would do something like this, and I’m sure as she says, it was simply a misunderstanding.
Of many people I’ve met over the years, Liz would have the least reason to spam among most of them.
Wow! That is something you would not expect. I agree with what Roberta said. She was the first commenter of the post.
-Kristina
My favorite part of the whole post was:
“Hmm pot, kettle, black, ninja.”
Ninja? So Random i love it
and oh yeah getting spammed on facebook sucks i hate it!
Facebook has many users which sometimes make the system down. Who is Liz anyway?
Face bookis really famous when it comes to social networking sites and no wonder there are some people who spam on it.
This is when social media “guru” take there power to far to go from adding value to spam.
Example would be your good friend Dennis Yu that set up a bot to like everything that his Facebook friends posted. He told one person what he was doing then as others started to complain. He ignored responding that it was automatic and really annoying.
Shoemoney feel free to contact us to help out with a Dennis Yu prank for 2010. We help clients get revenge on there competitors or online personal enemies.
This only prove my words that social medias is going to become just spam place, to advertise for free your company, business and website.
Jeremy, is this still open?
Shame on her to do something like this!