My new approach to fighting spammers – or how to market your business in The Force Field

Last week in The Force Field Forums, we got spammed.

We get a lot of forum spammers every day. 24 hours a day, seven days a week. A lot of them are spambots, a few of them are real humans, but nearly all of them we catch before they even get approved for membership in the forums and all of them are immediately banned. Okay, that’s not news. Hardly enough to write about in a blog, right?

Except for this spammer. This one was different. This one got through. And this one was representing a new, legitimate business. So the Admins trashed the post. But we didn’t ban this spammer. Nope. We’ve banned over 125,000 known forum spammers and its time to set one straight. So we’re going to give this spammer an education. But it’s more than that. It’s a learning experience for all of us trying to make it in a Web based world of business, particularly in IT. It’s a lesson in how to market our businesses to others and build a good, solid business reputation and reputable brand with etiquette, ethics and finesse.

The individual who spammed The Force Field Forums was a representative from Sevacall, a new startup that has been in beta mode for awhile and just officially opened its virtual doors June 13, 2012. Sevacall is a “lead generation” type service platform that connects clients with service providers over the telephone. Just when you thought you were done with services like Geekatoo (Geekatoo? Really? Sheesh!), along comes Sevacall. Yes, I know it’s quite innovative and all to be another lead generation platform on the web with the same old “connect Buyers and Providers for the lowest price” line, but what makes it really unique? Spamming forums to recruit service technicians? Trying to alienate their provider base right out of the gate? Well, so far they’re off to a great start.

To be fair, they have 17 interns on staff, so it is possible the culprit was some college kid who didn’t know network marketing from his rear end and not the CEO himself. So I decided to “reach out” as they say in the corporate world and give Sevacall a chance to redeem themselves. I sent an e-mail response to the spammer. The e-mail is below:

 

HeretoHelp,

I noticed you signed up for our forums recently and was approved for membership. Unfortunately your first post was flagged by a member as spam and subsequently moved to the trash folder by our Admins. The forums are a place to network with other members and self-promotion is encouraged within reason. While we do encourage our members to promote themselves and their businesses, there is a certain standard protocol for this. To avoid confusion or misunderstanding, we do request that all new members read the forum rules before they post for the first time. You can read the forum rules at http://www.theforcefield.net/forums/index.php?topic=5292.0.

You may be surprised to learn that spamming the forums certainly did not win you any friends in there. This is unfortunate, since Sevacall is a potential resource for techs in The Force Field and, had you done this properly, you could have actually won some of them over to your service. It’s all in the approach.

You likely found The Force Field Forums by Googling for sites with keywords related to Thumbtack and Geekatoo, which you may consider as your primary competitors when recruiting techs. While that may a logical procedure for recruitment, it isn’t the only one, and as you have probably discovered by now, spamming the sites that appeared in the search results is hardly effective and can actually make more enemies than friends, ultimately hurting Sevacall’s reputation.

There are other less intrusive and more effective ways to accomplish your goal. One tried and true method is by (gasp!) advertising in the right venues to your direct audience. Yes, it costs money, but if you’re going to invest in the other aspects of a legitimate business, marketing your business is very important, so you can’t skimp on that if you want to do it right.

There are also FREE ways to market your domain that are ethical and highly effective. (spamming the domains of others is NOT ethical and can actually be self-destructive). One powerful, yet cost effective way is through product or service endorsements on blogs and social media networks. Yes, it takes more effort on your part, but it can be well worth it in the long run. It can even boost your reputation in a positive way, if you do it right.

A third way is the one you encountered June 18, 2012 at 2:29:48 PM – the exact day and time you registered for The Force Field Forums. Had you bothered to explore the entire site before you made your first post, you would have discovered great potential for promoting Sevacall – most of it absolutely FREE!!

Since you probably didn’t do this (or you wouldn’t have spammed the forums) you probably don’t know who I am and you probably don’t know what The Force Field is, thus you probably have no idea what I am talking about. So I will explain it to you.

The site you stumbled upon is a business portal of news and resources for IT service providers – the very “service pros” you are trying to recruit for Sevacall. The Force Field offers a Business Resources Directory, news, reviews of products, services and companies, blogs, and, of course, The Force Field Forums. The Business Resource Directory offers FREE listings for companies who want to partner with providers and allows the providers to comment on them, recommend them and rate them. The blogs feature articles and rants about issues of the day as well as reviews and editorials on tech products, services and companies. Many techs use The Force Field Forums to network with each other and exchange ideas and recommendations from others regarding which companies to work with and which to avoid (guess which way they lean with Sevacall right now?)

Then there is the podcast. Yes, we have a podcast, an Internet radio show that is heard on-demand in over fifty countries around the world. An interview on The Force Field show is a great way to reach techs globally and recruit them for Sevacall in a positive way. Best of all it’s free publicity. You can’t beat free.

Had you looked over the site, checked out the show and contacted me first, things would be a lot different. I would have invited you into the forums, written Sevacall up in my blog with links to your site, and – yes, I would have offered to interview you for The Force Field show.

Yes, entering The Force Field community, getting to know it first, reaching out to me and the other members and actively engaging in meaningful discussion by networking socially takes a little longer, and is more work on your part, but the long-term rewards are worth it, as you could have built a long-lasting, trusting relationship with the techs you wanted to recruit and develop a great reputation for Sevacall.

But you didn’t do that. You didn’t even try. Unfortunately, instead of participating in The Force Field community you decided to go for the quick and easy, drive-by, one-shot spammy post. Instead of introducing yourself and your company and identifying yourself as a representative of Sevacall, you attempted to pass yourself off as a peer, a tech who uses the platform, which was disingenuous, misleading and dishonest, which does not build trust in the company at all. As someone with some experience in marketing and promotion, I can tell you that you made all the mistakes of someone who does NOT understand how to market a business to professionals in a social network on the web.

Normally, our Admins at The Force Field would simply trash your post, send you a warning e-mail (which they already did), and, if you did it again would simply ban you from the forums permanently.

However, this time I decided to do something a little different. Collectively, the anti-spam system, the other Admins and I have already banned over 125,000 spammers and I’m getting just a little tired of it all.

So, this time I’m going to make an example of Sevacall. I’m going to use you as an example of what happens when a company does all the wrong things to market their business and alienates the audience they are attempting to reach instead of endearing them to your company. But I’m not going to be mean about it. I will admonish you for your uncouth behaviour, yet reach out to Sevacall and give you folks a chance to do it right.

Now, if you really want to do this right, start with the introduction. Please identify yourself and your position with the company. Who is HeretoHelp? Are you Gurpreet Singh, the CEO? Are you the president and COO Manpreet Singh? Are you one of the other members of “The Team” (as you call yourselves) at Sevacall? Or are you one of the 17 interns listed on your site? (Don’t tell me the company is entrusting its online reputation with an intern).

Second, don’t misrepresent yourself. If you work for Sevacall (which, according to your e-mail and IP address you do – yes, I checked, it’s Sevacall’s IP) then just come right out and say so. Don’t pretend to be a tech who uses the service and likes it better than the others. It’s called a lie, and businesses that do it don’t earn anyone’s respect or trust in this community or the marketplace in general.

And third, you owe the members of The Force Field Forums an apology. You need to apologize for intruding on their discussion without a proper introduction, for lying to them about who you are, and for interrupting a serious discussion to promote your service. Yes, other people do it, and some other companies do it, but they are usually less than reputable and I don’t think you really want your business to have that reputation, do you?

Now, some of the damage has already been done. For starters, you don’t get an interview on The Force Field podcast at this time. Also, Sevacall reminds me too much of Service Magic with telephones, and I was already burned by them a few years back. Service Magic was prone to what I call lead fraud, much of it perpetrated from within the company itself. Sevacall is about phone leads, a technology with its own potential for abuse. So, don’t look for a personal endorsement from me, because I generally don’t trust this “lead generation” type of service platform. I hesitate to sell you any ad space in the show or on the web site, either, because although our rates are reasonable – as you can tell from our media kit – it’s reserved for products and companies I have vetted and I can personally endorse.

But I will do this. I will devote an entire post in my blog to Sevacall and give you a few links back to your site. I’ll even do it FREE, with no reciprocal link or other compensation expected from Sevacall in return. In fact, I’ve already done it. You see, what started off as an e-mail in response to your spam post in my forums turned into a blog post for the front page of The Force Field web portal. The topic? My new approach to fighting spammers – or how to market your business in The Force Field.

So, you get some promotion for Sevacall after all. It’s just probably not what you expected. And if you spam the forums again, I’ll post another one. And then I’ll ban you. Permanently. Harsh? Maybe. But after dealing with over 125,000 forum spammers, it’s time to draw the line and fight back. You just happened to be the next one in line to cross it.

Isn’t that what you wanted anyway? A quick and easy, drive-by, one-shot spammy post promoting Sevacall? Well, you got it, right in my blog for the entire world to read. And it was FREE, compliments of The Force Field.

You’re welcome.

But, hey, you earned it.