Do You Really Have Permission? I'll do my best this month to not sound like I am ranting and offer my best advice. Several events over the past month have fired me up about the whole concept of getting permission to market to others. With the explosion of social media outlets like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc. people are becoming more connected than any time in history. That's a good thing and potentially a very bad thing. Just because I accepted your link to 'connect' or 'become friends' it does not necessarily mean that you now have permission to inundate me with dozens of emails a month. But that is exactly what is happening. Here's an idea. Ask me first. Be direct. I may want to get your company newsletter or related information from your industry. Just don't assume without asking. The social media connection is not enough permission to send me email offers continuously. I've disconnected to several people abusing this already. Not only were they assuming permission, they were sending 5 or more emails a week. The frequency alone was a big turn off beyond the incorrect assumption of consent. Consent Is Most Important Recently, a person 'harvested' the entire membership database of an organization that I belong to in the Columbus, Ohio area. He solicited members by offering them an incentive to give him business referrals. Many members thought he must already be a member and was offering the incentive to fellow members. But he was not a member and no one had provided consent to receive his solicitation. He defended himself by stating that because he did not send in 'bulk' and offers were delivered to individual email addresses one at a time, he was technically innocent. Absolutely wrong. Any time you send email with an identical (or nearly identical) offer without consent being given you are violating the can-spam laws. It is still considered 'bulk' email. Here's the definition provided by Spamhaus, one of the reporting agencies fighting against junk email and protecting consumers. (http://www.spamhaus.org/definition.html) | March 2009  Tom Anderson President/CEO Quote of the Month:"Integrity... it means doing what is right. Not necessarily what is correct -- no one is correct all the time. But doing what is right." -- Robert Goizueta, former CEO of Coca-Cola If this email does not display properly, please visit my blog to view the text version. Invest in your own personal development, visit the AmSpirit Development Forum on Mondays (7:30am) at Scrambler's Restaurant at Cleveland Avenue and I-270. Learn more at www.amspiritdevforum.com... |
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