In Twitter’s blog post “State of Twitter Spam” they identify

Twitter SPAM as “behaviors that range from insidious to annoying. Posting harmful links to phishing or malware sites, repeatedly posting duplicate tweets, and aggressively following and un-following accounts to attract attention”

Their progressive and aggressive approach to taking down the spammers has been a good fight. I’ve had numerous odd accounts follow me who seems to disappear due to “suspicious behavior” before I even got around to seeing who it was. I don’t know about you but I like that, a lot. It gives me confidence that I won’t be completely inundated with crap – I mean spam.

Some forms of Spam as identified under Twitter’s rules are (as quoted from their forum):

• If you post duplicate content over multiple accounts or multiple duplicate updates on one account;
• If your updates consist mainly of links, and not personal updates;
• If you repeatedly post other users’ Tweets as your own;
• If you have attempted to “sell” followers, particularly through tactics considered aggressive following or follower churn;

Here are a few perfect illustrations of Twitter SPAM “duplicate content over multiple accounts”

and the next one ….

And another….

And another…

If you were to partake in this sort of evil for yourself or on the behalf of clients, the consequence could be an immediate termination of the account or accounts in question. 

Obviously, as marketers we need to consider the consequences of what we do for our clients. Ignorance of rules and policies does not exclude anyone from the repercussions of not following or understanding them.

If your client’s account is terminated, you put them at risk. Your efforts to create your Twitter brand awareness and embrace their customer base will alienate those customers and tarnish their name.

In the least, a lot of time and effort is lost. All of your building then has to start from over step one. If you did this in a client’s name, I would say it’s a safe bet their Twitter rebuilding efforts will be with someone else.

As users and viewers we can practice vigilance. If you see this type of behavior, flag it! Let Twitter know. If you’re not sure how, find out here. By all means, don’t follow the links or buy the products. Sometimes it’s hard to spot, but it’s important to be prudent in your clicking and buying.

Remember, every action is a vote. Don’t vote in favor of spam …

… unless it’s the salty, occasionally delicious, when-sitting next-to-a-campfire meat product.

Related reading:

Internet Marketing for Plastic Surgeons – Less Scary than You Think

You Can Buy Brand Love on Twitter?,

The Secret of Small Business Social Media – You Must be Present to Win

(Thanks for the pics! “hegarty_david” and “pabo76“)

There is obvious value to a small business owner in getting users to leave positive reviews. The question is how much should a business pay for a review? No, no, no … I’m joking. The question really is how do you encourage customers to leave Yelp reviews naturally and organically without abusing the intent of the site?

To Solicit or not to Solicit

Yelp is clear about incentives for reviews: “Yelp has advised business owners not to offer incentives for reviews. For starters, paying people to write reviews about your business is another form of shilling and that’s just wrong. Second, very often you’ll offend a customer and the offer will be quickly outed in your reviews, resulting in unintended negative reviews and/or negative publicity. Finally, it’s typically a fruitless exercise.”

It’s a fruitless exercise because of the Yelp review filter.  Yelp knows their site is a great opportunity for illegitimate behavior, and they have built tools to attempt to minimize the spam and attempt to maintain the authenticity of the site. They haven’t been entirely successful. Says Luther Lowe of Yelp,

‘It’s very tough to design algorithms that can tell the difference between the guy who’s cranking out a fake five-star review about himself, and the guy who’s flipped that laptop around and handed it to his customer and said, “Hey, write a five-star review about me.” So, you know, I know that businesses are going to ask people to write reviews. If you do that, you need to be prepared for pretty violent review fluctuation.”

From Yelp Common Questions: “Some reviewers are more credible than others. For the most part, users can decide for themselves which reviewers they trust the most. We remove some of the guesswork by filtering out reviews that are written by less established users. We do this in order to provide more trustworthy and useful content to our users and to help protect against fake reviews from malicious competitors and disgruntled former employees.”

Control Yourself on Yelp

Every small business wants testimonials to help drive traffic. Yelp is tremendously trusted by real world users. (Isn’t it more encouraging to try the new restaurant in town after you read 10 great reviews online?)

And Yelp is tremendously trusted by search engines, and being so trustworthy makes it ripe for abuse by some businesses and internet marketers. The prime example is Google Local map rankings, which are influenced by some degree by the presence of online reviews on select review sites.

But Yelp advises you to control yourself:

“Should I ask customers to write reviews for my business?

While we understand that there is a temptation to solicit reviews from your customers, it is not something we encourage. The most successful businesses on Yelp have had their reviews come organically. This is for a couple of reasons:

1. Potential customers can sometimes have an adverse reaction to a business that looks like it has solicited reviews.

2. Quite often those solicited reviews will be filtered out (see above) based on the activity level of those users within the Yelp community.

If you do ask your customers for reviews, please be prepared for the review number fluctuation that might follow.

Also, keep in mind — success on Yelp is primarily measured by the number of people who view your page and thus walk in the door or set an appointment, not the number of reviews you have. Yelp users are savvy: they care about quality — not quantity — when it comes to your business reviews.”

To be completely genuine, solicitation of reviews even without incentive is frowned upon. And incentivized reviews (buying Yelp reviews) are absolutely unethical …

This picture taken in the store suggests completing a review, and not only a review … but “as good as it gets” review, to get 20% off the next purchase. One reviewer complains on this business’ Yelp profile about the incentivized review request in the store; Mel T comments on Yelp:

“How would they base the authenticy of a Yelp review? What if I just claimed ownership of Jane D.’s (as in Jane Doe – I’m not trying to impersonate any fellow Yelpers here) review? How would they know if I was really Jane D.?

- Would I still get a discount if I had written a review, but it wasn’t “raving?”

Well, I’m sorry, Pure Beauty. You cannot buy a five star Yelp review from me. Instead, your blantant bribary is going to cost you two whole stars. Yep, that’s right; I’m knocking you down TWO full stars. Had it not been for your sign, I would have given you three stars – an A-OK for decent employees during my visits, a relatively clean shop, and reasonable prices.

But, again, I will not stand for your bribary. Hmph. (Hmm..wonder if I can get 20% off with this review..?)”

This beauty supply store has bigger issues than their Yelp spamming. There are quite a few reviews blasting their customer service. Perhaps, they should consider better ways to combat negative publicity.

Asking for Help on Yelp

One self-proclaimed newbie small business on Yelp asks help of the Yelpers, Greg “GSKChicago” K., asks, “I am relatively new to Yelp and still learning my way around … What do Yelpers look for from a business owner on Yelp?”

The answers:

Miguel “the Coach” R. says: “honesty!”

Lauren “Order” H. says: “if you do anything related to your own busines, disclose that you are the owner. and don’t use the talk boards or other parts of the yelp site as free promo or spam.”

nikki c. says: “just be real, honest and your own worst critic.”

Seems legitimate enough. This business owner wants to do the Yelp thing correctly, but Miguel “The Coach” R. comes back later to point out some problems, and all of Greg’s good intent evaporates:

Miguel “the Coach” R.:  “Greg -No offense but after reading the reviews for your business, I am a little disappointed. Everyone who did a review on your business – only did a review on your business. So, that means that you either made several profiles, had your friends make profiles, somehow convinced your customers to make a profile and only rate your company – or – some combination of the three.

If you want my opinion. No company will EVER completely 100% satisfy each and every customer. And to see nothing but 5 stars for each review is flat out unbelievable.

As of right now I feel as though you have already been dishonest by doing what you did, and that will eventually hurt your business rather than help it.”

Using Social Media to Drive Fans over to Yelp Profile

If your small business has a strong Facebook Fan base, you can attempt drive Fans over to your Yelp profile and hope that some percentage of them will actually leave reviews. These businesses on Facebook are technically soliciting reviews but offering nothing in return, so their Yelp review building may be considered more legitimate. They are still soliciting, but they aren’t buying Yelp reviews.

This Facebook-er is more blatant. The Lone Star Salon tells Fans if they leave a review on a review site, Lone Star Salon will give them $10.   Totally buying a review.

And ….

And …

We’re talking about pretty low value transactions here – a water bottle, a free cookie, etc. – but any incentive can be enough for a reviewer to take a few moments to drop a review into a Yelp profile that they would not have done if not incentivized.

Raffle Your Incentive … is Still Incentive

Another way to buy a review is a little more subtle, but it is still crossing Yelp’s guidelines for good Yelping. Essentially it is offering a chance to win a free product or gift certificate in a raffle. It’s not a direct exchange like Lone Star’s program, but these are still incentive for leaving a review.

Any reviews on Yelp from these campaigns are not the natural and organic reviewing that is Yelp has struggled to maintain. From Yelp Terms of Service:

“You agree that you will not, and will not assist or enable others to: use the Site in a manner that may create a conflict of interest, such as trading reviews with other business owners or writing or soliciting shill reviews”

And there are a few abusers on Twitter too …

Again, offering a chance to win free product or discount is not directly buying a Yelp review, but it is definitely incentive for the reviewer, warranting the review as forced.  Not natural behavior for Ramona Family Naturals.

They tweeted on the 14th and got 2 5-star reviews on the 15th. (I wonder who won the box of organic produce?  They should tweet that.)

And The Spot Yogurt in Santa Monica appear to be naively direct in their request.

And before that, they requested on March 31^st too.

Of course, we know that ignorance of the rule is not exception from it.  Yelp says of this type of false reviewing:

“very often you’ll offend a customer and the offer will be quickly outed in your reviews, resulting in unintended negative reviews and/or negative publicity”

Luther Lowe on business owners aggressively soliciting reviews from customers:  “it just looks spammy and decreases the authenticity of your overall presence. That can turn the customers off to you.”

Charles Grumblemouse O. has a more virtuous Yelper attitude. He says of being Paid to write reviews:

“… the impetus for writing reviews is surely different if you’re paid than if you were just doing it for the love right?”

Image credits: Thanks to “twonjosh,” “Silver Smith,” ZDNEt, and Steve Rhodes for the images!

]]> http://www.searchinfluence.com/2010/04/buying-yelp-reviews/feed/ 9 http://www.searchinfluence.com/2008/11/bbb-bizzspot/ http://www.searchinfluence.com/2008/11/bbb-bizzspot/#comments Sat, 22 Nov 2008 20:22:39 +0000 Will Scott http://www.searchinfluence.com/blog/?p=131

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BBB, BizzSpot partnership takes a shady tack to entice local businesses.

So, it’s taken me a few days to get back to this, but I was blown away by a recent cold-call from a company purporting to be the marketing arm of the Better Business Bureau.

I think everybody knows that the BBB is a commercial venture, but this was a little over the top.

Here’s why I liken it to Merchant Circle: The caller says “This is Valerie calling for William Scott. Calling on behalf of the better business bureau if you could please contact me at 888-xxx-xxxx. Thank you.”

Message from Valerie of BBB (.wav file)

Notice, nowhere does the caller indicate she’s calling to sell me something. So here I am presuming it’s something about a complaint or a renewal or something.

I feel compelled to get back to them.

Surely it’s not as bad as Merchant Circle telling me I’ve got bad reviews, but c’mon, why else would the BBB be calling.

So I call Valerie back and she instantly goes into how she’s so excited to hear from me because we are a search marketing company. She then asks me how I would self identify and I say “internet marketing” and she walks me into a search for “New Orleans Internet Marketing” (for which we’re second organically and #3 on the map behind neworleansinternetmarketing [dot] com which I feel pretty good about given our low level of effort).

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Local Handyman Columbus OH

She blows right past that and then walks me through an examples of a search for a “Local Handyman in Columbus OH

” at which point she shows me a sponsored listing in the right hand margin at about half-mast. In the example it’s at least top of page.

Clearly I was impressed. Makes my organic and earned map ranking pale in comparison, no?

So I asked “how much”? And <em>I think</em> she said $195.00 a month! Really though, it’s a bargain compared to $300.00 for Yelp! I’m not 100% sure that was the quoted amount and I may call back just because.

Like a dope I hustled to get off the phone. She offered to let me talk to a specialist and I said no rather than sticking around to get the real dope.

Handyman Columbus OH

Then I decided to do a little more digging. I backed out from “Local Handyman in Columbus OH” (a little long-tail to get much bang for that $195) and tried something more likely “Handyman Columbus OH” I saw our sponsored link and two 10 pack listings for different advertisers on BizzSpot: “Affordable Handyman” and “Handyman Professionals”. The website address on the “Handyman Professionals” listing goes to some guy in San Francisco (?!).

And, the on-page optimization is awful — no h1, bad title — a generally weak offering.

In short, I’m confused. BBB & BizzSpot have put together what looks like a mediocre listing product, with some attempt at distribution.

It seems as though the BBB is taking advantage of its members in a Merchant Circle style approach to position a weak eLocalListing knockoff at 4X the price. I know it’s not the eLocal co-brand because Steve would never let such drek out the door.

If anyone else has gotten this call and stuck around to listen to the full rap I’d love to hear about it.download Mata Hari

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Private Links Builder is trying to help me rank better for Plastic Surgeons New Orleans. I’m highlighting some particularly amusing stuff.

These are actually pretty good from a sales perspective. What they lack is any kind of real preparation and review.

See also: Links Hog and High Web Rank

Subject: I visited your searchinfluence.com site and had a question

I was looking at websites under the keyword plastic surgeons new orleans and came across your site searchinfluence.com. I see that you’re ranked #10 on page 5 in google.

I am not sure if you are aware of why you’re ranked this low but more importantly how easily correctable this is.

There is no reason you cannot have a top three ranking for this keyword based on your site structure and content. You have a very nice site, with quality content.

You need significantly more one way anchor text backlinks. If you are interested I can help you with this…

I am talking about getting you ranked for ALL your keywords. Adding new backlinks on a steady and consistent basis from high PR quality websites is what produces the rankings you
are looking for.

The right kind of links are very critical in getting top ranking….and I can hand deliver these quality links to you.

My partners and I own 1000′s websites and offer private linking to hundreds of website owners just like yourself.

I did not send this email out to thousands of people

but I am currently reaching out to a list of your “keyword competitors” as well. You are the one I really favor and the one I see can monetizing the targeted website traffic this can deliver.

I have your contact info as: phone #(504) 617-6096. Is it Ok to give you a call?

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I have a very simple way to prove that what I do works and it is risk free for you to try. Nothing beats seeing the results with your own eyes.

Is it ok if I give you a call? I would love to pursue this further over the phone with you or should I go somewhere else?

Sincerely,

Peter Cogan
PrivateLinksBuilder.com
704-489-0616

P.S – Please just hit reply and tell me specifically who to ask for when I call and what time of day is best to reach that person and what is their position with the company?

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with their 13,000 sites.

For a little background please see my Links Hog post.

Hello,

I was looking at websites under the keyword ‘ chiropractor new orleans ‘ and came across your website http://www.ifindsales.com/. I see that you’re ranked number 2 on page 15.

I’m not sure if you’re aware of why you’re ranked this low but more importantly how easily correctable this is.

Are you aware of what the difference between first page and page 15 would mean to your business?

Look at the difference in revenue for the highly competitive search term ‘cheap airfares’. “Moving from position five to position one on the search engines means a difference of $2.5 million in commerce per year”. You can view the entire study here at:

http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/19430.asp

While your industry or profession may or may not be quite as competitive as the example above, you are surely leaving profits on the table if youÂ’re not ranking for ALL of your industries profitable key search terms.

Before you get comfortable thinking that we found you under some obscure keyword and that you rank well under “other” keywords, let me explain something. We found you under this “chiropractor new orleans“ keyword and you are losing traffic, and clients, on this keyword.

Chances are that you are also losing valuable traffic on other keywords as well. There are usually 15-20 very profitable keywords for every business market and if you are not ranked on ALL of them, your competitor is stealing business away from you.

There’s no reason you can’t have a top page ranking for this keyword based on your site structure and content. You need significantly more “one way” anchor text back links. If you’re interested I can help you with this…

Again, I’m talking about getting you ranked for ALL your keywords. Adding new back links on a steady and consistent basis from high quality websites is what will produce the rankings you are looking for. The right kinds of links are very critical in getting top ranking. I can hand deliver these quality links to you.

My partners and I own over 13,000 websites and offer PRIVATE linking to over 3200 website owners just like you.

I did not send this email out to hundreds of people, but I am currently reaching out to a list of your “competitors” as well.

I have a very simple way to prove to you that what I say works and it doesnÂ’t cost you a dime to try. Nothing beats seeing the results with your own eyes.

Is it ok if I give you a call? I would love to pursue this further over the phone with you.

Just reply to this email and I will be glad to contact you to discuss this offer. I only work with one type of business in each city, first come, first served. My client in your market will dominate the organic search traffic that is worth thousands of dollars. Will that client be you or will you pass and give that business to your competitor? Reply now while you are at your computer.

Sincerely,

Gregory Fort

P.S – I emailed you because itÂ’s a win -win for both of us. This is a private offering by invitation only. You will not receive this offering again as it is extremely confidential and time sensitive.
High Web Rank Gregory Fort, President 967 Roanoke Rd. Cleveland Hts., Oh. 216-339-0798 www.highwebrank.com Darrin Spiesz Director of Marketing and Sales 440-263-3136

Golly – it just keeps coming. By the way I’ve decided I’m going to start publishing all of these as I get them.

WordPress Spam Injection = Google Penalty for My Blog (But Not Website) download Crude Impact

I had been wondering for about two weeks why I was no longer ranking for “Locomotive Consultant” and reading David’s post made me check my code.

Darn spammers

David Mihm Rocks!

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has been spamming my clients. Here’s why I call it spam versus just unsolicited email (I’m not averse to well done unsolicited email).

1. They clearly have no human review
2. The search phrases they call out are inappropriate
3. In a few instances they’ve been wrong (telling one of my “New Orleans Chiropractors” that he was in position 18 instead of position 4)
4. They’re offering inclusion in some sort of link-network (clearly not good SEO)

For instance, I got an email because Search Influence ranks on page 2 of Google for “New Orleans Plastic Surgery”

I wouldn’t be so quick to call them out, but this is at least the 5th copy of this email I remember having seen from different clients. In 3 of the 5 instances they were highlighting inappropriate search phrases and in another misrepresenting the position.

And I’ve seen a dozen others with text similar enough to make me think they’re using different company names for the same offer.
Hey Links Hog, please spend the extra $0.50 per contact and make sure you’re spamming the right target.

If you get a call from these guys please feel free to give us a call at (504) 208-3900 and we’ll be happy to tell you why this is not a good idea.
Message Follows:

Subject: I visited your website and had a question

Body: I was looking at websites under the keyword New Orleans Plastic Surgery and came across your website http://www.searchinfluence.com. I see that you’re not ranked on the first page of Google for a New Orleans Plastic Surgery search.

I’m not sure if you’re aware of why you’re ranked this low but more importantly how easily correctable this is.

There’s no reason you can’t have a top three ranking for the keyword New Orleans Plastic Surgery based on your site structure and content. You have a very nice site.

You need significantly more one way anchor text backlinks. If you’re interested I can help you with this…

I’m talking about getting you ranked for ALL your keywords. Adding new backlinks on a steady and consistent basis from high PR quality websites is what produces the rankings you are looking for http://www.searchinfluence.com .

The right kind of links are very critical in getting top ranking….and I can hand deliver these quality links to you.

My partners and I own 1000′s websites and offer private linking to hundreds of website owners just like yourself.

I didn’t send this email out to very many people but I am currently reaching out to a list of your “keyword competitors” as well. But I do favor your website because I can see your website monetizing the targeted website traffic the keyword New Orleans Plastic Surgery can deliver.

I have your contact information and phone number. Is it ok if I give you a call?

I have a very simple way to prove that what I do works and it’s risk free for you to try. Nothing beats seeing the results with your own eyes

Is it ok if I give you a call? I would love to pursue this further over the phone with you or should I go somewhere else?

Sincerely,

Nate Figueroa
(480) 445-9297
www.linkshog.com

P.S – If the tables were turned and somebody I didn’t know came to me with a proposition, even one that was appealing, I would be hesitant because I would be wondering – what’s the catch? What does this guy know that I don’t.

But then I would think he does know something that I don’t know. He does have thousands of high PR websites, he does have hundreds of thousands of pages indexed and ranking in Google Yahoo and MSN. Sites that can deliver the quality anchor text backlinks. I would also think that I need to get my website in the top rankings. And he is offering to turn key top rankings for me…on all my keywords including New Orleans Plastic Surgery. Even keywords I’m not currently competing for. Keywords that produce traffic that’s potentially worth tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions of dollars.

I emailed you because It’s a win -win for both of us. Think of it this way – Who wouldn’t be interested in buying money at a discount? Because that’s what I’ll be able to do offer you…Money at a discount.

Is it Ok to give you a call? Or you can can call me anytime at the number above?