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

Don’t do this. Just don’t. Okay? That’s not marketing. It’s not personal. It leads to no good.

Be a lot smarter. Be a lot more human. Please use these tools to humanize the web, not robotize my feed.

**Update: Nova Spivack, founder of Twine, did a great job of coming on to Twitter and engaging me and explaining his perspective on the feature. (Yep, not a campaign, but a feature). I stated my case about it not being very helpful, and it looks like they’re going to update the process.

That alllllllllllll said, please don’t make your apps DM me. None of us. Okay?

And look how fast balance is restored, as such:

This is the speed of marketing and business communications. Not days. Not usually even hours. This is going to be tricky. You think?

WTF?

Seriously, Facebook – you can’t mean to say that these are ads you want representing your platform, do you? I mean, I’m not especially prudish, but puh-leeze.