Sgt_Kickaxe - 9:29 pm on Oct 10, 2010 (gmt 0)

Spam is great for brand management too, if it didn't work it wouldn't happen. That doesn't mean it will rank well however.

I do agree that a mention on certain social media sites is worth its weight in traditional pagerank, sometimes even without the link. Spam and thin affiliate sites are less likely to have a well managed, long term growth, type of facebook or twitter account. Those are signals in and of themselves.