Content Marketing, Lead Generation & Spam

Since I opened up my Sales Psychology & Performance group on LinkedIn as an “open” group I have been inundated with “spam”. Much of this has been from some pretty reputable sources and from people who ought to know better. Infact, this has happened so much that I decided that clearly many so called “experts” do not know any better so I posted my thoughts to my group. I think that these notes are pretty interesting for anyone looking to use content marketing to demonstrate their expertise as part of an online lead generation strategy and also to anyone looking to start a LinkedIn group and wrestling with how to control and protect their group.

Online lead generation through positioning, credibility and the creation of communities are an important part of Sales 2.0 strategy so I have copied them here for my readers on this blog…

You may have noticed that I moved this group to being an “open” group. This effectively means that the entries are searchable by Google. What it does not mean is that anyone can post anything (contrary to what many believe). As group manager I still have the choice of controls as to what is and what is not allowed to be posted.

In my mind, this is important as over the last two days I have not approved over 20 pieces of “spam”. These were mostly off topic and irrelevant and would have wasted your time, something that I would never want this group to do. I also feel responsible to protect you from “sharp” tactics as best as I can.

This group is about adding value… period. And that brings me to my question… What constitutes spam?

In my mind spam (in this group anyway) can be created in many ways. I thought I would highlight my thoughts on this matter and let you air your thoughts too. This will allow me to refine my processes, improve the group, make it a more valuable resource for you, will help you to know what is a great post… and may also have the benefit of helping you to add more value to other groups.

SPAM IS…

* Anything off topic i.e. I am looking to recruit a new accounts person.
* Anything blatantly advertising even if on topic i.e. buy our psychometric software now.
* Anything designed purely to harvest contact details i.e. input email here now to get this report.

SPAM IS NOT…

* Genuine questions and discussions designed to take place on the group.
* Comments, responses and answers for people asking questions.

SPAM MIGHT BE….

* Anything designed purely to push people off the group.
* Things that are relevant but are posted on multiple groups.

And it is these last two that create the problems.

Many people have been taught / told to create a free resource / download / blog post and then comment to get people to go there on relevant groups. This is not bad advice… but it is all in the execution. I get many entries every day which are just posted links to other sites which are leading group members off site. If I were to approve them all no-one would find the “real” conversations.

Furthermore, most of these posts are posted by people who have added nothing in the way of content for the group. They haven’t read what’s going on, they haven’t shared their expertise or stories in the areas we have been discussing and they haven’t posted any questions. In short, they have written a report and then spent an hour or so posting it on as many groups as possible. This is not social and it is not fair on people who are taking part.

I set this group up to give of my time for free. If people choose to check me out because of this then fine and if they don’t, also fine, the choice is theirs but it will be made because they like what I have to say. If you add content, work hard and add value to the group, people may check you out too. But if not, don’t come here looking for a free lunch.

This group is about Sales Psychology & Performance. It is not a home for “spammers”.

Thoughts…?

p.s. As an aside, for anyone thinking about moving their group to an open group you need to think carefully about the impact as it will effectively end all conversations and you will need to get things going again!