I HATE spammers! Or… do I?
I run a social group that has about 100 members. The site averages about 20 hits a day and every few days a couple of people pop in and write a post or 2. It is active but it can go for a few days with no action.
Well, the other day I got spammed! Someone joined, put up a seductive avatar and then about 20 hours later added comments for everyone on their profile page. Something about viagra, I am sure. I actually forgot what the message was.
So of course, I am annoyed and log in and delete the member and go about the business of cleaning up after my spammer. But what happened next was interesting.
100 members were left messages on their profile page and half of those checked in to see what was going on.
Thats a 100 to 200 % increase over the normal daily traffic.
What an opportunity!
Now, I am not saying to intentionally spam your members, but the next time “Nora Saunders” visits my site, I am going to be prepared and maybe use that as a time to engage members that might not have stopped by for awhile.
That’s turning spam lemons into lemonade.
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Comments
Oh don’t worry, we are just getting warmed up over at Sonicville!
Plenty of time left to drop in for a visit.
think that probably those visitors that came to the site probably checked to see what that was about, considered it was not worthful and left. so you can consider it a bounce rate.
furthermore, it that happens again members may lose faith in your system.
Thats a good point. But my goal next time would be to have something ready to engage them so they do not turn into a bounce statistic.
Also, the site I have it running on is a Ning site so i have very little control over how spammers can get in. One of the downsides of Ning. You are basically reliant on them for everything.
You bring up a good point, though. This user signed up and waited 20 hours or so to make the rounds. I actually saw the user within in hour of signing in and was 99% sure they were up to something.
Should I have stepped in then and risk offending a real person or just let the events playout? What do you think?
Thanks for the comment.
I knew I should have joined Sonicville by now! I missed all the action.
Fun post, and interesting lesson.