I’m not sure what to do with this. Unsubscribing is the easy next step, but then what? I sure don’t feel vindicated just by unsubscribing and saying, “I never signed up to begin with” as my reason for leaving. So, to begin, I’m going to write this to all of you, and maybe, you can forward the following to whoever adds you without your request to their email list:

Please Remove Me From Your Email Newsletter

Hello!

You evidently mistook access for acceptance. I seem to be subscribed to your email newsletter, and I’m not interested. Now, I realize there’s a click-to-unsubscribe option, but I wanted a moment of your time, seeing as you ate up some of mine by making me go through the process of unsubscribing myself from your mailing list.

I can tell you’re eager to grow your business. It’s clear that you want incredibly smart and engaging people like me to participate in your world. Here’s a hint: blindly adding me to your email list won’t really win you many fans in that regard.

In fact, you know who you get when you use that method? Lazy people who haven’t bothered hitting unsubscribe yet. And if they’re too lazy to opt out (or even report you as spam), how motivated will they be to buy your product or service? Seems like a waste of your database space to me.

So, I’m going to unsubscribe now, and I’m going to wish you the best with your business. You clearly need it, if you think blindly adding me to your lists will ensure your future success.

Thanks and with appreciation,

_____________.

There You Have It

Share that all you want. Copy it, paste it, reblog it. Whatever. Just let’s get people to stop doing this. Okay?

And if YOU are doing it? Stop. Today. Please? Because I’m getting itchy to out you.

Photo credit Pink Sherbet Photography

I don’t get a break from spam on social sites. No, not at all. I got about 20 Direct Messages in Twitter this morning from some automation software site (I’m not giving them a link or any kind of love). I immediately set to unfollowing all the users who had used the service to stuff my direct message box full of useless messages. This, to me, is spam.

In Facebook, if I choose not to join your group or fan page, please stop sending it to me over and over again. It’s not that I didn’t see it. I wasn’t interested in joining. More than twice, to me, is spam.

Spam is a Perception- Mine

If you push unwanted messages into my face over and over again, you’re the enemy. And I don’t mean ME specifically, I mean people. I’m showing you the receiving end of what some of us call marketing.

Here’s how I delineate. (Feel free to send this to marketers everywhere)

You May Be Spamming Me If:

• You’ve signed me up to your email newsletter when I didn’t sign myself up.
• You’ve violated my Twitter inbox with your automated message.
• You’ve invited me repeatedly to participate on your Facebook Fan Page or Group.
• Your software automates repeat messages to my inbox with no options to throttle that.
• You flood me with @replies on Twitter to your product/service.

I bet there are more we could add to this list, if we felt so inclined.

Want to share your spam stories?

Photo credit jbcurio

This is less-than-useful. This is the kind of behavior that will encourage me to pull back my participation on the platform. I currently have a policy of following back everyone who chooses to follow me, and then just weeding out the annoying stuff. I do this so that people also have access to send me a direct message, should they need my attention.

I won’t be following that policy any longer, if I am going to receive a raft of spam like this.

The problem isn’t the fault of the users, per se. They often times don’t realize what the 3rd party site they’re using will do once they submit the information. These 3rd party sites then access Twitter via the API (a kind of connection point developers build for other developers), and pow, I’m asked about which city I should live in.

Please, Twitter. Enough.

RECOMMENDATION: reactively block URLs that promote spam behavior like this. Find the obvious culprits and block their access to the Twitter API portals.

1.) I sent mail via the address you provided me by agreeing to link to me via LinkedIn.
2.) I sent an introduction to a service I thought you might want, because you’re in my circle of contacts and because for me, they’re one in the same (my passions about social media, and my contact list).
3.) I sent the introduction with a clear opt-out option so that you could choose to never receive emails from me in that format again (per the canned spam) law.

I use Blue Sky Factory for my email distributions because they have a high standard of what goes out from their platform. They are up front with how they deal with perceptions of spamming, so because I’ve followed their recommended methods for sending an introduction to such an email, I feel that I’ve done it “appropriately.”

Is every email you didn’t ask for spam? No. Is asking someone who considers themselves in my professional circle whether they want to also receive my newsletter spam? No.

There’s a huge difference between spam and “I didn’t want this.”

Or I think there is.

What’s your take? Let’s talk about it here.