Chris Brogan wrote about something similar just the other day - seems he'd received a blind pitch for some book in his Facebook messages, which prompted his post, "Facebook is NOT for Blind Email Marketing." I don't know who, exactly, to call out on this one, but I'm pretty sure it's not my Facebook friend.
I received this message on my wall at about 5:30 this morning. Checking further I find that she "wrote" on 13 other walls at about the same time. Of those who are also my friends, I could see that the pitch is exactly the same, as I'm sure it was for everyone.
I have met this person a few times, she knows people I know; in fact, she now works for my former employer. But just like I doubt we'd ever go shopping together - anywhere - I doubt she authored or sent this ad.
So what's up with this, Facebook?
These kind of messages used to appear a lot on MySpace. They'd be left as "comments". The "gift card" pitch was common.
They are some kind of SPAM Bot device, and I don't see them much on MySpace anymore...they probably are exploiting some weakness in comment moderation on Facebook.
Dave
Posted by: Dave Robison | October 27, 2008 at 08:31 PM
Thanks, Dave. After I wrote this I started to think that maybe she DID write it ... I'm not sure how a bot can get on your wall in a closed network. But still, I just don't think she did. It's to 'market-y' if you know what I mean. And even though she is a writer like me, I just can't see her writing or posting this!
Posted by: Kathleen | October 27, 2008 at 08:52 PM