When we begin speaking in terms of marketing on Twitter, invariably the question comes up, “how do I market my company without people viewing my efforts as spam?”

Spam is about taking the choice away from someone and delivering them information about products and services without their permission. Spam comes in the way of unsolicited emails, junk mail and telemarketing. Spam makes many of us switch off, and for good reason. We have not asked to be inundated with the information that we find floods our inboxes and letterboxes these days.

On Twitter we each have an option as to who we will follow. And one might suggest it is that choice that gives others the right to ‘spam’. Wrong. Spam is irresponsible and annoying. More will tune out than tune in, and those spammers will find themselves being un-followed.

Social Media is about connecting, sharing and helping people.

I respond to people who ‘mention’ my name on Twitter (ie who have ‘sent’ me a message), except if they have blatantly used the functionality to promote something to me. You know those tweets, the ones that say something like “find out how I made a million using Twitter; click this link @jododds”. I immediately unfollow anyone who sends me a tweet like this. As far as I’m concerned it is not an attempt to connect with me, it’s an attempt to blatantly sell to me.

Would that ever be acceptable? Well, if I tweeted, “how can I make a million using Twitter”, it might be ok, but clearly that’s not something that I am very likely to tweet!

So, take time to consider your message and how it will connect with your followers, remembering the ‘connecting, sharing and helping’ rule.

* Are you sharing a valuable service, product or resource?

* Do you take the time to share on a personal level as well as sharing on a business level?

* Have you established a relationship with your followers?

* Is the information you are providing timely and appropriate?

If you can answer these questions with a yes answer then you are likely to be marketing, not spamming. Your followers will welcome your post rather than turn away from it. Share your tweet with others and in turn respond in kind to their own messages and tweets. After all, marketing is all about the relationship and interplay between you and your potential customers and spam is about nothing more than spreading what you want people to know whether they want to hear it or not.