The fine line between connecting with customers and Spam.

How you connect with customers matters.

• Seth Godin points out why it feels like Forbes is spamming him. He says, “The end result of spam…is that it eats away at your brand.”
• Meanwhile, David Armano points out how Zappo’s and Southwest use Twitter, noting, “it’s never about the tools. It’s about how people use them.”

Connecting with customers needs to serve your customers’ needs, not yours. When you only use it to serve yours, it’s spam.

Even though all of these companies are using the Internet to connect with customers, which one would you rather be?