The difference between service and spam is dependent on the recipient. If your community is comprised of people who don't need or want your products or services, anything remotely self-promotional is spam. When your friends and followers are your customers or resemble them, sharing information about your business is expected and wanted.
Woot! is a perfect example of a company that has built a community of fans. Almost everything they tweet is promotional. It is often done with a sense of humor so it has entertainment value along with a blatant message of "buy now before it is too late." Look at their tweets. It's one promotion after another:
How can a business that aggressively self-promotes amass 1.6 million followers? Their secret is simple. They know what their customers want and they deliver it every day. Social media isn't as complicated or magical as some would have you think. There are no hard and fast rules. You have to make your presence match your customer expectations.
The post, "Does Promoting Others Really Work in Social Media?" started an interesting conversation with a client. She asked, "Are you saying we should stop sharing other people's content and only promote ourselves?"
"Only if you want to reduce your responses," was my answer. She regularly shares information from other sources that emphasizes the need for her products. The shared content is supplemented with promotional messages.
The first step in an effective social media strategy is to build a community that has an interest in your products or services. When you have the right group, the information you provide is a service.
Even if it is promotional.
Related posts:
- Multichannel Service, Social Media, and A Shopping Experience to Write About
- If Spam Doesn't Work, Why are so Many People Doing It?
- Exceptional Service is Alive and Well at PetSmart