We still get the occasional email about what is permissible to put in a comment and what is spam. Here's the answer.

First I'll say that I really hate spam, and if you're spamming I probably hate you.

If you're leaving a comment, great! We want you to leave a comment. We want to know your thoughts and opionions. We want you to be a part of the community.

We also want you to know what we're doing to protect the medical spa community from the spammers.

Since Medical Spa MD is a high profile site with a lot of search and rank authority we're a constant target of spammers and it forces us to go through the comments and delete spam every day. When we find spam we'll do one of two things; we'll either just delete some or all of the comment, or we'll delete it, block the IP address that the spam originated from, and report that IP address to a very wide ranging anti-spam network that tracks spammers across tens of thousands of sites. (In this last case a spammer can literally be blacklisted across large portions of the web.)

We've blocked and reported hundreds of IP addresses so far.

Social media is about creating and sharing content that result in conversations. Spam kills conversation and eventually it will kill any community. The latter is evident in many physician groups. This will not be allowed to happen to Medical Spa MD. The responsible group members, the ones that you really want to interact with, will see through self promotion and will grade you as less than worthy, a charlatan or worse. Self promotion is the quickest way to destroy a/your personal brand. No person of substance values a self promoter. What you do for the group and what new insights you bring to the group will speak louder than any shameless self promotion and these true gifts to the group are the only way to build your equity value.

If you're just posting a link to your site or promoting yourself... you're spamming. If you're adding value to others, you're not. Belive me, if you're adding value in an area that others are interested in, they'll seek you out.

Best,

The Medical Spa MD Editors & Staff