Is spam really a problem? In minutes I was able to get rid of about a hundred spam messages from my inbox this morning. The email set up I have doesn’t send things to a “spam box”, but it does mark the spam messages very clearly. I’m sure there is a way to do this, but honestly I have kind of got used to it all being in one place. This let’s me know if any legit messages are being marked as spam. I have had a few very important contacts marked as spam before. Because press agents send a ton of bulk messages, they get marked as spam often. So I have everything go into the main inbox and deal with it there. As I said, it takes me just minutes to go through and clean out the spam. It doesn’t bother me much at all.
Once I take a minute or two to clean out the spam messages, it takes me several hours to take care of the legit email. I think that it is that long daily trek through legit email that makes people hate email. Then they need a scape goat to blame and spam is one easy target. It’s junk mail and is unwanted, so it is easy to blame. But if people were being honest they would admit that spam is nothing in the grand scheme of things.
So what is the solution? Well Google Wave tried to solve this, but it was a total flop. People treated it as a social network, added everyone they are connected with through Twitter and Facebook, and then found it to be a productivity killer instead of a help. Now if I had the money to hire a programmer I could automate most of my email. Each press agent has their own strange little quirks. So the program would have to treat each contact differently. So if the inbox got a message from Dude@fakepressagent.com it would look for the text “FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE” and post everything from that to “###” on my website as news. But when hottie@notrealpressagent.net sent a message it would just have to post everything until “For more info”.
Of course there would have to be some major formatting to clean up everyone’s horrid html emails (I despise html email), but that would be in the backend. Then there would have to be a way for me to preview the news pages and reject or make live the posts before the public is able to see them, but I already have that. The problem is that I (along with 99.9% of the people out there) don’t have the resources to automate email in this way. So until then I think we should just say we hate email. Spam is not the issue. It’s the legit email that creates work and work sucks. Sorry Monty Python. I still love ya!
So I have tried all of these services. Granted, I have used Friend Feed and Ping way longer. I have been using those two for years. But this blog post is about why I will keep paying attention to them and ignore Google Buzz.
Strategy Fail
Now there has been tons of “buzz” about how Google Buzz has a horrid privacy issue because they expose a person’s email address. I don’t care who has my Gmail address. For years I have used it as a place to send email I don’t want to ever see. It is pretty much my spam catcher. So please send all spam to rockmymonkey@gmail.com. I can give you a 100% chance I will never even see it. I have two email addresses that I check almost daily. One is at RockMyMonkey.com and the other is at this site. Contact me there. My Gmail has been ignored for years. I never even look at it. So the privacy issue is not an issue. Since I never look at my gmail I don’t want any social network through that account. With Friend Feed I don’t have to worry about that at all. Friend Feed is like Google Buzz without the annoyance of being forced to have it connected to Gmail.
Plus, what if I am burnt out for the day and just want to zone out on Social networking? Sure Social networking is a business tool for someone like me, but it is also a place for pure brainless fun. I try to keep my social networking updates about 90% fun and 10% business. Otherwise my followers get annoyed and stop following me. So I do a lot of social networking after i am done “working” for the day. Sending links to sites like Giant Bat Farts is work, but not anything like email. I want to keep those things separate!
Now Ping.fm is great for sending one update to all my social networks from one place. For those that are getting confused, http://friendfeed.com/markcarras & Google Buzz is for catching all your updates in one place where as Ping is for sending all your updates from one place. I like it because I can do it from my phone as an SMS (text message) or through their website. I have heard that people use Friend Feed and are now using Google Buzz for the same thing, but I would find that annoying myself.
Now the biggest thing that will kill Google Reader though is that I couldn’t find a way to send my profile url out to people. With Friend Feed is painfully simple. http://friendfeed.com/markcarras is about as simple as it gets. Facebook is the same way. http://www.facebook.com/markcarras is pretty easy to send out to friends. What is the url to my Googel Buzz? Is it buzz.google.com/MarkCarras? I seriously doubt it. Is it Googlebuzz.com/MarkCarras? I don’t think so, but it should be. Did they even think to reserve that url? I don’t care because it is not the one they are using and I was not able to grab my “vanity url” for it. If I could I might care.
Now I love the Google Reader and I would rather have people connect with me through that. I would post a link, but I have no clue what that is either. Whatever it is, I am pretty sure it is one long annoying url. Either that or I have to expose my email address. Which of course with Gmail is not a security problem for me, but would be for most people. However, it is a problem for me. If I expose my Gmail address people will think that is my contact info. They try over and over again to contact me there. I don’t ever see it, so I don’t reply, so they think I am a jerk because I “ignored” them.
Google might be one of the most successful online companies around, but they have had more failures than successes. I predict that Google Buzz will be another one unless they make some major changes quick. And it better be more than just weak ass placating.
So what have they done now? It seems that they have asked SocialToo to discontinue their “auto-unfollow” feature. This lets a person automatically un-follow anyone that unfollows them. A great trick of spammers is to set a bot to follow several thousand accounts, wait for those people to follow them back, and then un-follow those people. This makes the spammer look like they have this massive following they don’t deserve. Then those parasites can trick people into all kinds of nefarious things. This can lead to hacked accounts, stolen identities, and any number of other things. All because the spammer was made to look more legit than they should. Setting an auto-unfollow through a great service like SocialToo helps keep that problem in check.
So if SocialToo is the one that will discontinue the service why not revolt against them? Well, SocialToo is pretty much held hostage by the fact that their entire service lives within the Twitter system. If Twitter does not approve them, they die. Although Jesse is too nice of a guy to come out and say it, Twitter is pretty much forcing him at gun point to kill this great service. It is not at all his fault, his choice, or his decision really. He provides a service to Twitter users, so Twitter has all the power.
So who will join me in trying to save Auto-unfollow? On Tuesday Jan 19th at 12:00 pacific can everyone send out a message that says “Tell Twitter to save auto-unfollow because it helps stop spam! #saveautounfollow” If we can make this a trending topic more people will know about this oversight and maybe Twitter will actually think about this stupid mistake.
Many already know my problems with all apps and games on Facebook. I not only STRONGLY discouraged them, but have pretty much kept a zero tolerance to them for my own account. Although I have not kept a zero tolerance to fan pages and groups, I am still pretty strict. Some may wonder why I wouldn’t join a group of fan a page of something that I totally agree with. Well, the reason is simple. My time is short and I find that the best causes have the most pathetic fan pages.
People see a group that stands for something they believe in and they just click a button and join right up. It is so easy that they put almost no thought into it. Why is that a bad thing? Well, they put so little thought into joining that joining is all they ever do. There are fan pages with thousands of members and a dead wall! I joined Facebook to network and communicate. There won’t be much communication on a fan page with a dead wall. It does better for the cause for me to just post an update stating my belief. Why is it better to NOT join the group or fan page? Well, think about that dead wall. If a cause has a dead wall it makes the cause look weak. It shows that the people that believe in that cause are lazy and will not do much more than click a link to join a Facebook group. It let’s the enemy know that the group in no threat. Where as if you just post an update stating your thoughts on the case, it just opens up communication. No dead wall to let the enemy know it is a dead cause to be dismissed.
So just because I don’t join your fan page for “Pull up your pants you look like a douche”, doesn’t mean I’m going to start walking around with my pants below my waist looking like a homeless bum. It just means I would rather not remind the enemy that people against the homeless bum look are apathetic. So no matter how serious or comical your group or fan page is, do not bother to send me an invite. I believe enough in the cause to NOT join!
I am always shocked at how easy it is to fool people into giving up not only their own personal data, but their friends and loved ones as well. I just saw an online friend post a link to a cute little Christmas E-card. It looks so innocent until you look in the upper right corner. There is where you give them your friends email. This is an age old scam people. It is as old as the internet itself.
This is called harvesting data. They trick you into giving them all your friends contact info. Then they sell that info so that your friend can get tons of spam. Follow the money! How do you think they pay for this crap? They sell the data collected. Do you see a “privacy policy” anywhere? There is a reason. You have no privacy when it comes to an online greeting. E-cards are all scams! Do not send them to me. Do not send them at all! Do you like spam? Then by all means keep this up.
So there are several podcasts I listen to religiously. I think I should start blogging about the best ones and tell you people why I care about these shows. Many of the readers of this blog will have no clue who @jason is or why he is so damn important. Well, he has kicked off tons of tech companies and made more money than most of us will ever see. He is addicted to starting new companies and kicking maximum ass. He is also just as addicted to helping others gain the level of success that he has. He is never one to hold back information, tips, and tricks to us dreamers. Unlike 99% of the people who like to spew advice, he actually knows what he is talking about! I have learned a ton from listening to his 2 hour weekly (sometimes twice a week) podcast This Week In Start Ups. If you see me use the hashtag #twist on Twitter, that is what I am talking about.
Grain Of Salt
He is more about tech companies that have tech product, so not everything will apply to you bands and music industry types that read this blog. However, a ton of it does! It is about doing business on the internet. His advice centers around helping people create the next Google, YouTube, or Facebook type company. So doing the Hard Rock and Metal websites I end up releasing don’t fit everything he says. But because it is about doing business on the internet a ton of it can be used. In fact most of it should be heard by anyone trying to run any business on the internet. He tells people they have to move to Silicon Valley. Well, that is one of the rare things I don’t think fit me. My “start up” is more of a music site than a tech site. Silicon Valley can’t give two shits about Hard Rock and Metal. Honestly there is probably only a few other things that he says (on a regular basis) that I dismiss.
This Week In Start Ups
Cut The B.S.
There are several that prefer to dismiss him as an arrogant ass, but I think they do this out of insecurity. Jason is a man who will make you feel a little insecure if you do not have your shit together. If you have not done your research he will call you on it! He pulls no punches and some misconstrue that as arrogance. But think about this. If there is someone who knows a ton about business and is willing to guide you, how would you want them to act? Would you want them to spare your feelings? Would you really want kid gloves? Not if you want to succeed! He is brash, harsh, and sometimes over confident about things. In the end though, you know where he stands. People talk all the time about how they want to cut through the bullshit, but when someone does they call them an asshole. Jason cuts through the bullshit and you know where he stands. I respect that.
So why should you all start listening?
I don’t care if you are a band, webzine, record label, music press agent, or whatever else. You run a business! He talks about business. He knows what he is talking about. If more people in the music industry listened to guys like Jason the music industry would not be having the problems they are. So please just listen to a few episodes and see what you think. His podcast feed seems to be the slowest download on the net, but it is worth it. It also seems to kind of mess up when using some podcatchers. My podcatcher keeps trying to download episodes I listened to weeks ago. But it doesn’t download a single byte. It just lists it as trying to download it. Small price to pay for such great content though. Highly recommended to anyone doing business online. As with all the podcasts I listen to, it is free. There is also a great video version that is even better if you have the time.
Ok, so I have touched on this subject before HERE and HERE. However, I have never posted about this from the approach of the regular user. Some of it has been mentioned on these pages before, but again those articles are not specifically directed at the regular user. So here are the top ten mistakes I see people make. These rules work for metalheads, bands, fans, labels, online magazines, and anyone else.
1. Begging for followers.
I see people making tons of posts asking for followers. Why should people follow you? Give them a reason! Post good content. This could mean things that make people laugh, great articles you come across, or anything else interesting. See an article you like? Post a link!
2. Not filling out the bio
Just like rule number one, give people a reason to follow you. Tell us the things you are into that might be interesting to others. You enjoy metal? Saying so in the bio will get you metal fans. Are you an obsessive gammer? List your favorite games and you will get followers that also like those games. As you can see this isn’t brain surgery.
3. Use the link in the bio wisely
I have seen people post a URL shortener link in the spot where you should put a link to your website. This makes it look like a total spam account. Use the real url. I have also seen people post the link to the same Twitter account. What is the purpose of that? Of course nothing looks worse than no link at all. Post a link. Post a real link. It can be your MySpace profile, Facebook profile, or a website all your own. Just be open and honest about it.
4. Change the avatar
Using the default avatar is the worst! Of course the best is to use a photo of what the account represents. If it is an online magazine make it the magazines logo, mascot, or editor. If it is a person make it a nice close up, a cartoon head of the person, or something else that represents that person. Slightly better than the default is a photo of a pet, your favorite band, or your favorite celebrity. Just please do not use the default!
5. Using a URL shortener at all
Now don’t get me wrong, I use a URL shortener from time to time. However I only use it if I absolutely have to. Many people will never trust a shortened link at all. If it comes from a trusted person they fear it is a hacked account. Hacked accounts are getting VERY common, so it’s a well informed paranoia. If I am looking at accounts on Tweet Chart for people to follow, I will be hesitant to follow an account flooded with Bit.ly links for this very reason. I will assume it is either a hacked account or just a spammer. So only use a shortener if you absolutely have to. It makes you look like a spammer.
6. Getting your account hacked
Now of course the way to avoid getting your account hacked is to be very careful about the links you click on Twitter. That is the number one way accounts get hacked. However there are ways to make sure your account hasn’t been hacked. The best way is to look at the sent tab in your direct messages. If your account has been hacked it will be sending out spam to your followers direct message boxes and pissing them off. Check that DM sent tab often!
7. Auto DM thank you messages are spammy
Sending out a thank you for someone following you ticks off more people than it doesn’t. So don’t do it. The path to being labeled a spammer is paved with good intentions. The worst is if you include a link.
8. Auto-Follow only if you have to
Are you a multi-platinum band selling out arenas? You don’t have time to sift through your followers to make sure you only follow back legit people. So you’re forgiven for using the auto-follow. Also, bands and webzines that have very limited staff. Obviously some bands are so small that they doon’t have room for a netbook with it’s own portable internet connection in the overly cramped tour van. I have to use auto-follow for the RockMyMonkey.com account. I’m lucky if I have time to sift through the followers of my personal account. There is no way I could do that for RMM too. But there is no excuse for doing the auto-follow on a personal account. That’s just spammy.
9. Letting your following and follower ratio get to far to one side
A spammer will almost always have way less followers than the amount you are following. Noobs to Twitter will come in like a lion and start following every account they can find in a lame attempt to get followers. This is a major mistake for many reasons. First it makes you look like a spammer. This will cause the highest quality people to not follow you back. The second reason would be of course that you end up with a ton of low quality people. So if it is just a numbers game to you and the only thing that matters is getting the number up go right ahead and do this. Your amount of followers will indeed go up. The problem is that it will be nothing but spammers, bots, and dead accounts with auto-follow turned on. This is also how you get hacked. You get a bunch of phishing scams in your feed tempting you to click links that take over your account! Don’t just blind follow to get followers, because you will only get the worst followers this way.
10. Never forget the social part of social networking
Twitter is a social networking site. So many forget the social part of that. It’s a community. Watch the people who use the #metal hash tag a lot. We are a small but passionate group of people. Sometimes we talk a lot of smack to each other, but we also support each other. It’s a very high quality group of people that follow back, re-tweet, and follow Friday like crazy. We talk back and forth too. We are very social. I spent a ton of time with a friend to create the Tweet Chart for a few hundred people. Why not do something more trendy like Twilight that would have got me ten times more followers? Because I don’t give a rats ass what Twilight fans have to say or care about. I would rather have way less followers if those are not only quality people, but also people I care about. We follow each other because we want to be social with each other. It’s all about the social!
There are new people coming into Twitter all the time. Send them this top ten list. There are tons of people that have been on Twitter for months and still make these mistakes. Send them this list too. Better habits make it a better place for all.
The reason Rupert Murdoch might win the battle against Google
There is one piece of information that I have yet to see in the debate over Rupert Murdoch pulling his content from Google. He own Fox news and they have an insanely huge pull with people. Fox news viewers are the worst of the right wing wackos. These people do not think. They just do whatever the pundits at Fox news tell them to. The reason Bush was able to cause so much destruction is the same reason why Obama has had such a hard time fixing things. The right are kind of Borg like. The left will debate and scrutinize things until well after the proverbial bell has rung. Liberals (I’m a liberal myself) can’t get anything done because they can’t ban together as one. For the Dems it means nothing to have a majority because they won’t ban together on anything anyways. The right however will. They will do it every time without even thinking. This is why they always win when screwing over the American public and the Dems always loose when trying to fix things.
So back to the whole Rupert Murdoch thing, this is why he can win this. Notice what he has done to news? Gone are the days of the non-biased news anchor. Everything is either far right (Fox) or far left(MSNBC). A news network has no chance of ratings if they try to compete with silly things like journalistic integrity. That is a goofy pipe dream in today’s times. So now we have to depend on getting our news from search engines. Read from enough sources and you get an idea of where the truth might be. However, imagine if Rupert Murdoch used Fox news to make Bing the right wing search engine and Google had to become the left wing search engine to compete? This would make the news even more partisan then it is already!
Don’t think he has the power to do this? Think again. We liberal douchebags don’t call them Fox News Zombies for nothing. As I have already said, Fox News viewers do not think. They let Bill O’Reilly do that for them. Imagine if Fox got their 7 million viewers to all switch their browser favorite to Bing and remove Google as their default search engine all at once. Imagine if they put up a link to the “Bling add on” right on the top of every page on the Fox News site. Fox can make Bling the default search engine for right wing wackos in a second. Don’t think they can’t or you give them more power than they ever had before.
So I think it is time to start calling out the Twitter spammers. Now some may think this is to embarrass them, but this is not the case. Not all Twitter users are tech savvy enough to know that what they are doing is wrong. Does the band The Destro know that this is a total douche thing to do? I would guess not. In fact, they may not even know that their account is sending out these obviously spammy messages. Their account may just be hacked. Also please keep in mind that most bands do not run their own social networking profiles. Normally it is run by someone in management, the label, or even a wife. So calling them out for being a dirty spammer might get them a response of “Holy crap, we had no idea! Thanks for letting us know this was being done.” Calling someone out for being a dirty spammer can help them if they come by the mistake honestly. So this is NOT a witch hunt!
However, if they are actually a dirty spammer this let’s everyone else know not to trust the account. Now there are several other things you can do to help stop spam on Twitter if the person gets out of control.
1. Forward the message to @spam on Twitter
2. Go to their profile and click the link on the right side of the screen that says “Block” or “report for spam”. This is in the “action” section of the side panel.
3. Send a public message to the person that this is being done. Why public? Because the person may not see it, but their friends might. Imagine one musician getting a text message from a friend letting them know their account is being used for sending out spam. Artist then calls person in charge of account and spew fire. You did them a favor. Also, if they are a true dirty spammer they need to be flogged publicly.
Now of course there will always be a debate on what is spam. I send messages promoting interviews, reviews, and photos I post online. Some follow me because of those messages and some think of it as spam.
A few of the messages in the screen shot above are from people playing Twitter games. This is a pet peeve of mine and I hate it. It gets in the way of why I sign up for Twitter. I only want conversation and have major issues with these games and what funds them. The entire funding structure that supports these types of games on Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace is to trick people out of their money. That’s dirty. So to me it is spam, but people that enjoy them have no clue it is looked on by most as very slimy. There are options on most of these games to NOT send out messages to people you follow. If you play games like this please check these options or you risk really pissing people off.
The last type of spammer listed in the screenshot above is barely a spammer at all. It’s just annoying. This is the person who sends a DM to thank you for following them. Again, this floods the persons inbox with messages that get in the way of conversation. I understand that this is the most innocent of all the douchey things people do on Twitter. So this is more of a warning that it is NOT something you should do. Many find it annoying and it will get them to unfollow you or even report you as a spammer.
No hard feelings if you are on the screenshot above. Just a public request to stop doing it. I will soon be unfollowing these people and deleting their messages from my DM inbox so I can get back to just conversation. But hopefully I don’t have to do this. My hope is that they came by this with honest intentions and just stop doing this. Please re-tweet this if you hate Twitter spam like I do. Thanks.
UPDATE: This just in. Just seconds before this blog post was to go live, @radiochick1620 sent me a message letting me know she was hacked, her password has been changed, and I again recommend you follow her. Since this is the whole point of this post I claim victory! This is how it is done people. This is how you kill Twitter spam. Let people know!
Yes, I have something brewing for March of 2010. It’s a campaign launch for a start up that has been in public beta for awhile now. Well, we are ready to take this thing seriously now and will be launching a national contest & viral marketing campaign. I can’t give too many details here, but I am looking for someone to make a documentary of my attempt. This is the biggest thing I have ever been involved in and if works it will be a great testament of human spirit. If you have seen Anvil:The story of Anvil you will know what I am talking about. Of course if it is a total flop it can be a lesson in what not to do. Either way you win. If I win I will win big. If I fail I will fail big. I am putting everything I got into this to lengths I will not go into detail about at here.
Whoever makes this movie, it is their movie alone. The creator owns it lock stock and barrel. It is also your movie budget. I am putting everything into the campaign. I don’t have anything to put into your movie. This is why you get all the profits. You are taking all the risk. it’s only fair.
As far as control goes, I want this thing to be honest. So I will do everything in my power to give the creator as much control as possible. The only major rule are to leave anyone out of it that asks not to be part of it. This just means I am open season. make it honest. In other words you can’t be some bible thumper trying to spin this into some preachy thing. If you have motives other than making an honest film I will boot you out the door without a thought. Pretty simple eh? A good documentary will sometimes make it’s subject look bad. We are human and we make mistakes. The film should show that. It should also show the triumphs. Hope that’s clear.
You should either be from Olympia WA or at least be willing to travel and stay here for at least that month to film. A ton will happen in that month. Feel free to try and film before that, but it won’t be as predictable when I’m working on things. I will not provide room or boarding. That is up to you.
Further details can be worked out in private. In fact, even the details above can be tweaked on private discussion. Contact me if you are interested.
