Et tu? Why "fram" could be the downfall of social networks

What's worse than spam in your inbox?

Spam from your friends!

I've been getting so much of it that I've given it its own name, Fram (short for friend-spam). This differs from bacn, because your friends are generating the emails/updates/requests/invitations, not from a subscription.

Fram has really taken root with the rise in popularity of Facebook. Facebook's viral, social nature is perfect for spreading these messages, invites, applications and other bits like wildfire. So how does this work you ask. It's simple really and I don't think a lot of people even know they're doing it. On Facebook (et.al.) every time you do something, it tells people about it. You join a group, you can tell your friends. Add an application? Why not invite your friends to enjoy it with you? Each one of those interactions sends an email. That's where Fram becomes a problem.

As your network grows, the level of Fram can become overwhelming. If you have 25 friends that's one thing. If you have 100+ it becomes a pain. If you are a super connector with 500+ I don't know how you deal with the flood.

Another problem with Facebook/MySpace/everybody-else is the way they message you. Each of these sites sends you an email telling you you have an update. It doesn't send you the update, mind you, it just tells you you have an update. So, not only do you have an extra email, you have to log in to the site and deal with it there too.

Many blame spam for the downfall of email. Could Fram lead to the downfall of social networks? It could, but that tipping point is likely to be years down the road. It is one more hurdle that will paralyze most people just like spam has done with email. (Will there be Fram filters in the future?)

Here are the top five ways to prevent Fram:

1. If you join a cause or group, don't invite me. I'll see it in my friend timeline and join if I am interested. I add all of my groups/apps from there.
   
2. If you install an application you think I have to have, don't invite me. If I already have it installed I'll find you. Again, I'll see your addition in the timeline.
   
3. If you're a corporation/band/whatever with a Fan page on Facebook, limit your messages to few and far between.
   
4. If you're a group administrator, limit the emails to only those that add value to the group.
   
5. If you're either of the previous two groups, focus on the value proposition for your members/fans. How are you adding value? If you just have a group/page to have one, you're in the wrong space.
   

What tips would you add to this list? Are you overwhelmed yet?

[Update:] This is definitely a hot topic. Hat tip to Iain Tait @ CrackUnit.com for pointing out this cartoon by the brilliant Hugh MacLeod.

Also, Mitch Joel posted the following two tweets on Twitter just a couple moments ago:

To show you more of what I am talking about check out this quick diagram that shows what happens when I get a group/fan message on Facebook. Five individual messages are delivered to me in various ways.

Technorati Tags:
Matt Dickman, social media, social networks, Techno//Marketer, Fram, Facebook

Comments

[Arun Rajagopal]

Hello Matt:
Fabulous post + great tips to fight 'fram'. I love the new word you have just coined. Fram also means 'forward' and was the name of a ship used by Roald Amundsen on his south pole exploration.

[Matt Dickman]

Arun -- Thank you for the comment, so nice to see you here! I'm going to have to look up more on the ship.

[Lewis Green]

Matt,

I fear I am guilty of framming. When one starts a group, we often are passionate about sharing it with others. And that passion drives us to alert our entire circle of contacts. I am trying to be better and am working diligently to share only with those members of the Lead With Your Heart group.

As for a suggestion: I urge those active in social media to start a group if they are passionate about something, or join a group that demonstrates their passion, and then contain your messaging within the circle of that group. Members have, in a way, subscribed to that groups messaging and should expect to receive messages from the group leader and some of its members.

[Matt Dickman]

Lewis -- There is nothing wrong with messaging a group especially in the beginining. As you said, people are opting in to get content. That being said, the litmus test for value should still hold true. If the message is valuable to the group leader more than the group it probably shouldn't be sent. Opting out is way too easy to do and it spreads through the same viral nature as joining a group.

The way that Facebook works, if a group/company posts content and I'm subscribed, I get that alert organically without the extra messaging. I'm just pointing this out to help marketers new to the space so they don't come in pushing 5 messages a week and pissing everybody off.

[Lewis Green]

Agreed! However, value is subjective not objective, and one of the ways we learn what is valuable to our readers is when they tell us and we hear them. If they opt out without first sharing their thoughts, they probably weren't right for the group to begin with. Communications must be two-way. No one can be held responsible for another's reactions to communications shared within a group.

Remember: The leader created the group based on his or her values and is looking not for members but for the right members.

[Matt Dickman]

Lewis -- Couldn't have said it better myself. The value is completely up to the group member and people will naturally filter in and out of groups.

For marketers, we need to realize that each message is adding to the noise. Our goal should be to great a group so awesome that it makes people seek it out and pull friends in.

[phil gillman]

The best/easiest way to avoid Fram is to turn off every "contact me if..." setting in every social media platform. Yes it forces occasional logins to find out what all those connections in that platform have been up to, but it at least makes it so that the notices thereof do not show up in your inbox. Both FB and LinkedIn have such settings, as do Pownce and Twitter. I'm sure many others have such settings, but can only reliably note the ones that I'm using currently...
That said, these platforms should do a better job of making such things opt-in rather than opt-out. Currently they tend to default to opt-out, much the way all online marketing signups did before people raised a ruckus. If I'm too much of a slacker/space-case to regularly login to your social media platform, I don't add much to your business model, since I never see or even contemplate clicking on (statistically that's the best you'll get) them. So you would be better off ignoring me for lack of use rather than annoying me with "fram" and risking a backlash.

[David Berkowitz]

While I agree that fram is an issue, your methods to combat it aren't entirely in line with how Facebook works.

Facebook's News Feed algorithm picks 45-60 of your friends' actions each day and publishes them there. The average user has over 100 friends, a high percentage of whom are active daily and conducting tons of actions on the site. The algorithm decides which actions from which friends you may be interested in.

Now, you still might not care about the actions Facebook shares. To that end, FB provides a thumbs up or x for you to manage some of that and make it more relevant.

Now, this doesn't solve the fram issue. But it also shows how you won't necessarily see something your friend does unless you go to their profile page. And then there's the broader question of what to do on sites that don't have the news feed.

[Matt Dickman]

David -- You're correct and I am mixing my social nets here a bit. The algorithm in the Facebook time line is getting better and the thumbs up and X are handy to fine tune it. Also, different actions create different messages and hooks throughout the site so I am generalizing a bit.

Outside of the feed on Facebook (which is very prominent and easy to access) it gets much more tricky. Friend-to-friend it may be acceptable, but from the marketer perspective you have to be very careful. I'm sure Tangerine Toad would jump in right here and say his tagline "Your brand is not my friend".

[Colin Fast]

Could not possibly agree more, although lately I'm finding the crap that shows up in my news feed to be the bigger annoyance. I've been giving the "X" to every application-generated news item for the past week, but I don't notice any change in content yet.

I also find it funny that certain social media gurus insist on sending out group messages each time they post a podcast. I'd assume if someone was a member of a podcast group they probably already subscribe to the podcast, so why the need for a message? Maybe this could be called FIRam?

[Matt Dickman]

Phil -- You're dead on that opt-in should be the default, not the current opt-out that these sites are setting users up with. I can absolutely foresee CanSpam-esque legislation to ensure that social networks require an opt-in.

Down the road, marketers will need to analyze how each network acts and tailor messaging to each to make sure there is no backlash.

[Matt Dickman]

Colin -- You bring up another good example. I think there are a number of podcasters/bloggers that need to look at how they use the power of their groups. The people there are opting in to value, not reminder messages. What value are they adding in the group and with each message?

One thing that I am doing on the fan page for Techno//Marketer is releasing all of my videos there first. So if you go there and fan me, you'll see all of the new videos days/weeks before I actually blog about them. It's a small thing, but valuable nonetheless.

[Tangerine Toad]

Matt et. al. : There's a great article in today's Wall Street Journal about this same issue, only at work: http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB119612732031704719.html
It's about "colleague spam" - the "there are brownies in the kitchen" emails and constant "Reply All" messages.
Seems people are developing software to sort them.

And yes, I agree with DB- shutting off all the forwarding functions on FB has saved me a world of pain. Though I wish it would be an opt-in rather than opt-out too.

[Matt Dickman]

TT -- Thanks for posting that WSJ link. Colleague spam has been a problem for me personally for some time. It still continues a little bit, but new tools have helped us curb most of it. The worst is when you have multiple offices and somebody 2000 miles away is eating brownies :)

As for toggling settings, I don't want to turn them off globally. I want people and companies to think before they hit the send button. It's more education than anything.