By sinha on 15, July, 2008 | Channel: Indian Social Networks

Is spamming really bad? Most of the successful social networks actually did..

Most of the startup founders, I know are very ethical – they hate spamming people. And sometimes, when they even try to spam (to several Y!/G groups etc) they are shot down by the community.

But is spamming really bad? The obvious answer is Yes.

And the not-so-obvious answer is “It depends“.
Let’s look at how successful social networks successfully created that buzz (i.e. spammed):

  • MySpace used their ResponseBase email marketing list of 100 million+ people to send for first users.
  • Facebook spammed all the Harvard email lists to get the first 2,000 users in a day.
  • Hi5 used their previous dating site to send a considerable amount of traffic to.
  • Bebo used their original site BirthdayAlarm.com to have a huge user base to start with.
  • Friendster and Orkut, started naturally and virally through a very limited invite system. [source]

So, will you really think twice before spamming?

What’s really beneficial about spamming is that if done well, one can attract the not-so-tech-savvy users (who doesn’t care about spamming) and isn’t that your typical user base? Your initial users?

What’s your opinion?
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    • comment(s) on Is spamming really bad? Most of the successful social networks actually did..

    3 Responses to Is spamming really bad? Most of the successful social networks actually did..

    1. Paras Chopra says:
      July 15, 2008 at 5:45 PM

      Spamming once about a new service is okay with me. In fact, I love to look at new services. But spamming 10 or 20 times a day, inviting me to join it really irks me. So, limited amount of spamming is good.

      Reply
    2. Ishwar says:
      July 16, 2008 at 9:13 AM

      Spot on Ashish, I faced this same question at the last barcamp, when I suggested the use of email marketing to the audience to get the initial base of consumers.

      It depends on the content of the mail and the group you choose to target for your email marketing campaign. For eg: a new startup shouldn’t think twice about mailing the OCC groups.

      Will it be considered as spam by some, Yes! Will it generate some interest among others. Yes again

      Reply
    3. Jayakrishnan K says:
      July 16, 2008 at 9:37 AM

      Sending spam invites from fake members is a absolute no.. no.. You might drive up the joining numbers, but other than that; it really pisses people off when they figure out that they have been had. It infuriated me enough to blog about it -> http://jayakrishnan.livejournal.com/3865.html

      Reply