To 'follow' or to 'spam'?
The difference between 'following updates' and e-mail spam might be clear to most online networkers but every now and then I am getting a request from someone in my network on LinkedIn or Twitter 'not to send them so many messages'.
And naturally I always have to explain them that I am not sending out any messages at all on those networks, but that they are simply following my 'updates' instead and that they can simply choose to 'unfollow' these. The difference seems to elude many people, so I will try to explain it in this publication as simply as I can once and for all:

Twitter Tweets and facebook, LinkedIn, Ning 'Updates', how does it work?
Twitter brought us a new platform on which we could 'blog', write messages for anyone to see. These are tiny messages and exist of no more than 140 characters and are therefor called 'microblogs'.
It has become popular because for most people it is a very simply, though limited, way of having their own webpage online.
Anyone can 'see' these online blogs / messages, they are not 'send' to anyone at all. It is just the owner of the microblogging page publishing to their 'open' page. Underneath I'll explain how it works on Twitter. Facebook LinkedIn, Ning 'Updates' are very much similar, they are just being called 'updates' instead of 'Tweets'.

Looking at your 'Dashboard' instead of your email-inbox
However anyone who is visiting your online microblogging page can also choose to 'follow' the updates you are posting. In order to do that they have to create their own account. Once they have they will see the updates of the Tweets of the people they are 'following' in their online 'Dashboard'.
Now here is where the confusion starts, because once you have an account and you login to your account on Twitter you will automatically see your Dashboard first prompting you to believe that these are new messages that are being send to you. Now you know that they are not, you DO have an option to send email-like messages on Twitter, but these are called 'Direct Messages'. These are located on a different page, you will find a link leading to them on the right-hand side of your Twitter dashboard.

What to do?
So remember the first page you are looking at, is the Dasboard page, not your email inbox! If you feel that you are following too many people or that they are adding too many updates to their microblogging environment, don't complain, just 'unfollow' the person or 'hide' (on LinkedIn / facebook) their messages.

Why are some people adding so many 'updates'?
There are very good reasons why some people like me are using microblogging sites to add automated 'updates'. It has nothing to do with bothering people with Updates or Tweets as you understand now. It may surprise you however that it also has nothing to do with networking on these sites.
Although many enthusiasts may think differently, these social networks have a limited value as a real corporate networking environment. Instead there is more value from an e-marketing perspective, e.g. if you don't have a strong / personal connection to the people in your direct network.

E-marketing & SEO
'Updates' and 'Tweets' are now also being indexed by Search Enginges. That means that you can use these to add lots of backlinks to your website as well. These 'backlinking strategies' ensure higher visibility of your webpage in Google rankings. So SEO using smart backlinking strategies is the Target, not 'networking' on Social Networks at all.
The added SEO using this technique far outweighs the backlash from a few people in the social network who don't understand the difference between 'following updates and getting email spam'. Yes it will thus have some negative consequences, but the ROI of the SEO benefits are thus often greater.

When is there a ROI using backlinking strategies?
Mind you, in some case the negative reactions can be disproportional negative or harmful to your SEO strategy or online corporate / personal brand.
If you have a strong personal or corporate brand (e.g. being a politician, or having a company with an established, well known Brand it is unwise to use such a strategy because then a single automated 'bad' update can be harmful to your reputation. In these cases SEO enablement does not outweigh the online reputation damages.
This also is the case on Google Buzz e.g. Google choose to integrate 'Buzz' (again a different word for 'Tweet' or 'Update') in your email account! This made the confusion complete as you now can understand. Thus it is understandable that far more people than on the earlier mentioned portals are complaining about 'too many Buzz spam'.

Do's and don'ts
Backlinking strategies can harm your SEO as well if your messages are not relevant to the content you are presenting on your website. It is very hard do it well using automated tools and publishing robots and that is why people hire specialists like me.
You will have to know exactly what the negative consequences can be in order to calculate your online communication ROI using this technique.

• If your network on Twitter or LinkedIn primarily consists of people with which you have a strong personal connection, don't consider using this strategy. However if your direct networking contacts are merely 'contacts' with no real personal relationship attached, this e-marketing strategy will bring a proper ROI and negative fallout will be minimal.
• If you do use an e-marketing backlinking strategy using social media updates, be sure to be as 'relevant' and 'quality oriented' with your automated updates as you can. There can always be someone in your network you doesn't understand what's happening.

Thus, based upon my Personal Brand and Network I am using backlinking strategies on some LinkedIn (review) and Twitter (review) profiles but not on others, all depending on the network and purpose they serve (more information).