Lately, there has been a lot of online chatter regarding LinkedIn’s controversial policy of SWAM or “SiteWide Auto Moderation” to give it it’s full name. You can read more about it here….
In brief, SWAM is a measure that LinkedIn introduced to reduce spam in LinkedIn groups. Group owners have the discretion to block any member they regard as a spammer. If for any reason you’re blocked from a group, all your discussions in all other groups have to be moderated by the group owners before they are published. This is pretty much a death sentence for your LinkedIn account as few group administrators have the time or inclination to check the moderation queues that group discussions attract. Your comments and posts simply stop appearing in groups.
The question is, what to do about it?
Here are the facts
- LinkedIn claim that SWAM has reduced complaints about spam by 30% to 50% this year
- Only 0.1% of LinkedIn users have been affected by SWAM (although the percentage of active group members is almost certainly higher)
Clearly there have been some legitimate users who have suffered from the policy. A group owner doesn’t need any reason to block you. They may have simply decided your business is not suitable for their group. Or they may regard you as a competitor and thus a potential threat.
So how do you benefit from LinkedIn groups without falling foul of the group owners? Here are the 5 key ways to avoid being SWAM’d:
- NEVER post links to your website. Even if you’re just linking to a blog article that is relevant to your discussion, it doesn’t make any difference. Any link to your website will be considered as a promotion and therefore spam. Ideally, avoid links to all external websites as some group owners have taken an even stricter line and have banned links altogether. If there’s an article you really want to quote, cite the publication in your discussion, but don’t link to it.
- Familiarise yourself with the rules of your group. Not all groups have rules, but those who do are pretty strict about them! Click on the “I” icon on the group header and you’ll see a link to those rules. Even if you’ve read the rules previously, before you post, read them again! Rules can change and if you break them, there’s no appeal.
- Ensure that discussions are relevant to that group. If you’re a member of several groups, you might be tempted to use software such as Hootsuite which enables you to share the same post simultaneously on several groups. Avoid this temptation as the subject matter of each group will be different and you discussion will end up sound irrellevant. For example, if you’re talking about social media marketing, you would post the following on a healthcare group: “How do you use social media to promote your hospital?”. But if you’re posting on the group of a law firm, the post would say “How do you use social media to promote your law firm?” The more relevant the discussion is to the group, the less likely you are to be accused of trying to promote your business.
- Avoid participating in more than 15-20 groups. Yes I know that LinkedIn allow you to join up to 50 groups, but what’s the point? You can’t possibly participate in and monitor the discussions of 50 groups. Keeping to a small core of groups will enable you to become more familiar with the etiquette of those groups and you’ll post high quality discussions that attract engagement.
- If you really need to share a link, find somewhere other than a LinkedIn group to do it. For example, if you see a potential client on a LinkedIn group and you want to attract their attention, be smart and follow the company that employs them. If that company posts any relevant status updates, you can then use that as an opportunity to share some relevant links that will get them to notice you.
Above all else, put yourself in the shoes of the group moderator. Many of them are unaware of SWAM, but they are SWAMped by numerous discussions and it’s not always so easy to differentiate the spammers from the genuine marketers. If you can make life easier for them, you’ll ultimately make life easier for yourself!
