Is it me? Or is the spam getting worse on professional social networking sites?
-
Just curious and obviously not a highly technical or highly SEO question, but I keep getting inundated with people who do not know me, don't know anyone I know, etc. but on the largest professional networking site that you can Link to others on, I am ready to end my membership. The vast majority are staffing, recruiting, and outsourcing firms. The settings are such that when pointing out how you know someone you are wanting to connect to, there is one that does not require you to have worked with them, gone to school with them, or done business with them, and that is "Friend." On the others if you don't meet one of the requirements above you must put that party's email address, but on "Friend" if the person wanting to contact you says they are your friend, magically they are.
Do you think that for things like this, most people don't mind the spam and say "Ignore" the request, or just "accept" because having 500+ on their profile is so cool?
Also, when you look at the endorsements others have given, do you care? do you believe they add validity? Do you believe most people fail to look beyond and consider who is endorsing them and whether or not that person works in a field that has been endorsed?
I am really curious as to what Mozzers (the coolest group of people on the planet) think.
Best,
-
"They should do a study on who is leaving. I bet who is leaving has a higher average rep score than the people who are stayin',"
Sadly for the investors at times its the quantity that matters vs quality of people on the network...
-
I get a few requests from people I never met/don't know. It's not too terrible right now, as I'm relatively unknown. As far as connections/circles, I tend to keep it small.
Recently I seemingly instantly connected with a few industry vets, but I don't recall ever sending a request. Nor do I recall receiving one. I'm not complaining though.
The groups bother me, it's difficult to find a good group that isn't spammed/will be spammed. Some of the obscure unrelated industry groups help in random instances, but I really do wonder why I pay.
-
G+ Communities = Spam .. except the Google Partners community.
-
My friend, Egol,
As always, well put.
Thanks -
Reza,
Funny you mention that. Our head of Local is a very bright lady, is on a lot of the top Local forums, has learned from people who are top Google contributors, etc. Last week she was on G+ and a lady who is not involved in SEO or Local asked a question around local. Amber, being helpful, gave her some input and recommended a couple of blogs like Blumenthal and Linda Buquet and David Mihm etc. trying to help her out. Amber's G+ obviously has her company on it but she in no way attempted to get the lady to contact her or to tell the lady about our firm.
The person who moderates the site is an "expert" at SEO and shortly after Amber had the back and forth with the lady, he "barred her" from the site and stated his reason as: people should not be using the site to get business or to tout themselves or their companies (again she had done none of that). I laughed my A__ off.
He should have said, you are not allowed to direct anyone to any resource that does not have his name and picture on it.
Total crack up.Best,
Robert
-
Is it me? Or is the spam getting worse....?
Yes, I think that it is YOU.... Somebody discovered that YOU are an "influencer" or a "kickasser" or "well connected nice guy".... so they submitted your name and email address to one of those "people you need to know" lists. Now, everybody in the planet is after you to do something for them.
Somebody seems to have submitted me as blogger in a couple of industries and now I am getting "reaching out to you" messages from a ton of idiots.
Honestly... I have seen stuff recommended on SEO and marketing sites and within a few days a bunch of idiots are hitting me with the same BS - almost always poorly done.
One thing that I like about gmail is the filters. I can send messages from an unlimited number of idiots, strategies and even entire domains to my trash. I have not seen a message from linkedin for a long time. They are going straight to trash.
How about Google giving any idiot on the planet who can find you on Google+ the ability to send email to you. They want to use other people as a marketing point for their service.... but really... they are killing the best members. They should do a study on who is leaving. I bet who is leaving has a higher average rep score than the people who are stayin',
-
I don't believe anyone ... without a credible source. Everything is spammy these days. I joined the Internet marketing group on Google+. Now I get bombarded with the "5 Best Social Media Tips" "Top 10 Link Building Guidelines". There's like a million articles out there with the top 10 tips. lol
-
I personally haven't noticed that much spam, although I have seen a lot of Linkedin spam in Google. The site has such a high domain authority that it ranks pretty highly for pretty much any query.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Any Success Getting Fake 5 Star Google My Business Reviews Removed From Competitors?
Hi, I am working on a competitor who is obviously building up fake reviews using a 3rd party service. I need to build more evidence. A majority of his reviews on Google My Business, they are done by reviewers with very few reviews (no profile pic), and that seem to review 3-4 companies in the Chicagoland area the exact same day. This happens again and again. It started about 1.5 years ago. Before that everything looks normal. Any idea how much proof I need to actually get those reviews and/or his company removed? I am working on getting access to a private group on Facebook where he talks about it. Thanks in advance!
Reviews and Ratings | | vetofunk1 -
I just found original business name for client - its not the same as GMB or any aggregate site. What to do?
the business filing with the Secretary of State is a name of an individual (e.g. Matthew Smith, M.D.). This is on reflected on Localeze and such. However, the business is operating under a name "Healthy Body and Minds Clinic", which is the Facebook, Google My Business, and website name and info. So, how is it best to get consistency in NAP with the two different business names being used? (Ideally, no change in State registration or filing for a DBA). Thanks much! One idea I have seen is to include both and separate them by a colon. As in "Healthy Body and Minds Clinic : Matthew Smith, M.D." I appreciate any suggestions or tips to help. Thanks.
Reviews and Ratings | | Marky_Mark0 -
Why Isn't Product Schema Showing Up for my Ecom Site?
Hello, I work with two ecommerce sites and we've implemented product and review schema back in mid-May. Since implemented, I've seen some of the product prices and review stars start to show up in Google, however, now it seems to be long gone. I've tested sample URLs in Google's rich snippet testing tool and no errors come up and it looks like we have all the required components needed for each schema type. I know Google doesn't for sure show schema, but these sites are a decent size and trustworthy enough where I think they would be showing it. Does anyone have an idea on what I'm missing? Have you experienced something like this? Thanks in advance.
Reviews and Ratings | | OfficeFurn0 -
How does decimal rounding of reviews to stars work in ios appstore? Starting from which average review score to get full 5 star rating?
How does decimal rounding of reviews to stars work in ios appstore?
Reviews and Ratings | | lcourse
Starting from which average review score to get full 5 star rating? Duolingo has a 5 star rating, but I doubt that they really have an all time review average larger than 4,75. In the google playstore their average of the android version is 4,6. Does anybody know how apple calculates the star ratings or has an URL reference where this is explained?0 -
Reusing reviews from other sites for branded rich snippet taken from brands testimonial page
Hi my customer has had a new website built for their custom home building company which has a testimonials page http://www.precisionhomes.com.au/testimonials.html This testimonials page has duplicate review content taken from another dedicated review site http://www.productreview.com.au/p/precision-homes.html My question is this, if I add review microdata to http://www.precisionhomes.com.au/testimonials.html will google recognize this in Rich snippets and the Brands Knowledge Graph or will it just consider it duplicate content?
Reviews and Ratings | | ravydavy0 -
Traffic drop: site move from .co.uk to .info
Hi On 1st June we moved http://www.patient.co.uk to http://patient.info. We are a trusted health website so the information is relevant to all english speaking countries. (Content on the .co.uk domain has been there for over 15 years). Prior to the move over 60% of site traffic was international, even with a .co.uk domain. The intention of the move was to broaden our international reach/traffic whilst maintaining our UK traffic. We would do this as .info is a top level domain. We followed all of the best practice rules, 301s, new and old sitemaps, change of address in webmaster tools etc. Basically all the advice here: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/6033049?hl=en&ref_topic=6033084&rd=1 We specifically chose on the new domain to leave "unlisted" under webmaster tools international targeting as the content is relevant for all countries. This is the only thing that has changed compared to the previous settings. The URL structure etc is all identical, just on a different domain. After the move we immediately saw a drop in c.60% of traffic. Over the first 5 weeks after the move we had initial gradual recovery (c.2% increase on traffic week on week) Since then it has completely flatlined with no traffic increase. So we are sat at c.50% less traffic than we did have before the move. Worryingly over the past 2 weeks, the indexed results for patient.info have dropped from c.2M to c.500k (https://www.google.co.uk/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=site%3Apatient.info) There were c.6M indexed results for patient.co.uk before the move, this has been gradually shrinking and there are now c.300k indexed results (https://www.google.co.uk/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=site:patient.co.uk) In webmaster tools crawl stats, .co.uk is still being crawled like crazy, much more than .info. It feels like we have followed the rules but something is missing and that the new site just isn't being fully indexed or as highly ranked as the old site. Anyone who has any input/advice would be much appreciated. Many thanks Ben
Reviews and Ratings | | PATIENTUK0 -
Two web sites with the same contact info is this a problem ?
I have two web sites and a physical shop. I run the web sites from the the same post address as the shop. I am concerned that if I add the actual address to both web sites which also has the same telephone number that google might see this as suspicious activity. The reason is I bought a competitor out and now run two sites.
Reviews and Ratings | | weddingshoesandaccessories1 -
Google Places/Affiliate/Partner Site
Hello, We are looking at the possibility of renting or leasing a small office but we're not quite at that point yet. We would like to take add Google Places/G+ by adding an address & phone number giving us more real estate for the small Brand we are trying to build. Does anyone have any suggestions as to what we could add? Thanks in Advance!
Reviews and Ratings | | TP_Marketing0