Newsfeed Spamming Or Newsfeed Optimization?

Spamming Facebook Newsfeeds Functions Like Advertising

Any marketing executive will tell you that media advertising only works if it is done consistently over a long period of time. It takes time to build a brand because most advertising is easily forgotten due to the fact at any given time one single individual is bombarded with advertisements. Pepsi and Coca-Cola did not become household brand names overnight - nor have they stopped pumping billions into branding themselves each year. They know the power of consistent and pervasive advertising even if is expensive and almost impossible to track the micro-results of your efforts. So too do many Facebook application developers who are looking to grow their presence on Facebook and their application user base.

To Spam or to Optimize

Jeremiah Owyang wrote this weekend that newsfeed optimization is overrated for growing the user base for Facebook applications. Jeremiah states that Facebook is already regulating behavior that is aggressive or “spammy” in nature, suggesting that newsfeed optimization is not worth the time. Now today, Nick Neil writes that there are too many uncontrollable factors that make it almost impossible to A) optimize an item for a newsfeed and B) gauge the effectiveness of your efforts. One talks about newsfeed “spamming” the other one talks to newsfeed optimization like search engine optimization. Both are missing the boat on the use of Facebook newsfeeds for exposure and subscriber growth.

Is It Spam If It Is Relevant?

People spam because it works. People advertise because it works. Spam works for short periods of time because of relevancy issues; advertising works only over a long period of time because of a different set or relevancy issues. But both take a tremendous amount of volume in order to be successful. With Facebook newsfeeds, the issue of relevancy as it relates to spammy behavior and paid advertising is turned upside down. Although aggressive use of Facebook by some users and application developers is often annoying, their newsfeed items, because I added them as a friend (hence giving them permission to “market” to me) are often much more relevant to my interests than the ones that Facebook sells to advertisers. That is right, I just said Facebook newsfeed spammers provide me with more useful content then those paying to be in my newsfeed.

This interesting look at the aggressive use of newsfeeds explains why Facebook newsfeed “spamming” only really works for a small periods of time, but not over the long haul. Because a user can only aggressively mainpulate a certain number of newsfeeds (limited by the number of friends they have) this action does not work in the long haul as there is little “long-tail” to this activity as their is only a small finite set of users. It is not because people become annoyed and stop responding as many would believe. Compare this to newsfeed advertising where you are only limited by your budget (but have access to more of the “long-tail”), but the relevancy is often poor, thus taking longer to penetrate.

Facebook Newsfeeds Are a Viable Promotional Vehicle

For the developer or Facebook user who is looking to increase their subscriber base or presence, Facebook newsfeed optimization, spamming, or aggressive use is a viable promotional vehicle. In order to overcome the duration limitations of the “technique” however, one must consistently look to grow one’s friend base by adding more and more users (where you will inevitably started to deal with relevancy issues). While this technique is too black or grey for them, it is viable and it is worth the time for those who have a limited (or non-existent budget). Know that there are limitations and a certain amount of tact that is necessary in order to operate under-the-radar as well as consequences for using this technique. Proceed with caution.

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