You can view the submission and comments here: http://www.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/comments/bfbjx/saydrah_still_spamming_pic/. I put a screenshot of the submission below:
To get an understanding of how big of a deal this is. Saydrah has been a Reddit member for over two years. During these two years, she has significantly built up her link karma and comment karma by frequently interacting with other users and submitting interesting (apparently) content to the site. She has earned trust among fellow Redditors and has received many Reddit trophies outlining the respect the community has for her.
Then she was outed.
Saydrah is a marketer. Reddit doesn't necessarily care about this (although you'll find people who will automatically hate her because of it). However, in a recent submission, she made a comment saying "this site is good", began explaining the site, and discussed the site as though she just stumbled across it and never heard of it in her life. Somebody did a little digging, found that the same website she claimed she never heard of was featured on AssociatedContent.com where she works. Now, AssociatedContent.com is pretty big so it could be just a coincidence, but the commenter went on to out her strategy behind spamming.
What has happened is that the Reddit is now gunning for her and demanding she leave. Think about this. She has spent over two years building relationships and trust within Reddit to achieve success for herself and her clients. Now she will forever lose that trust because of her lack of transparency.
What could she have done? Well, she could have promoted the site, but she should have said her affiliation to it. People want great information, regardless of the source. If she was marketing a website and it was appropriate to the conversation, there is nothing wrong with saying "here's my website, here's how it's pertinent to your specific question, let me know if you have any questions". As long as the website is actually relevant to whoever you are responding to, it's ok. As long as you are transparent.
Lying and deceiving people worked a couple of years ago because Social Media was still a fairly new concept. People didn't realize that when somebody on Yahoo Answers went "buy Nike Shoes, they are the best" that it could have been a Nike representative. Now that strategy has been overdone to a point where most Internet users are weary about recommendations. The more they get exposed to the bullshit, the more angry they get. That is why when you spam a forum, website, social network, etc. you immediately lose your credibility and can never gain it back.
Marketing through Social Media is okay, you just need to be honest and open about who you are. If you have a great product or service to offer and are communicating properly to other individuals, you'll rarely run into an issue.
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