Realizing that you are spamming is not always the easiest. Even for some that have been online for a little while seem to be getting caught at it.
Community invites have become more than just a nuisance to me now. They have completely moved on to being spam.
I get at least 50 invites to various communities a month. Almost every one of them is for the latest community started on a free NING account. I have actually started pushing them to my spam folder in hopes that someone at NING will need to help figure this out. There have been days that I’ve gotten up to 10 invites from one person for 10 different communities they have created. Total spam garbage.
Need to know a few reasons why it is spam so you stop doing it and making you and your business look bad?
1. I did not ask to be included on any of your personal or business lists. I signed up for nothing saying I would be sent resources and recommendations. According to can-spam laws, you can be fined since your email address is the one in the email.
2. In my case, these invites are coming from people I do not know. I haven’t built a relationship with them. Let’s be frank here, your community recommendation doesn’t mean a thing to me. It actually may put your name in my head now with a negative connotation if we do have business dealings down the road. Very self defeating.
3. I have 1000′s of contacts in my email accounts from over the last 10 years. My contact information is included on all my lists and in every newsletter. This adds me to your contact list. When you send an invite to your entire email account it goes to every person and business in your contacts. How professional does that look?
I know at this time I’m sitting pretty lucky with only the 50+ a month. With how many contacts I have made it is only going to get worse if people don’t take notice.
Build a relationship with people before you send out invites. By randomly including me in your community invites, you have only succeeded in telling me your business decisions can not be trusted.
Val,
I have the exact same complaint as you about the social networking site Ning. I left a slew of Ning groups as I got tired of being spammed about joining this or that group over there by fellow members of those groups.
I reset my NING notification and email settings but yet….the spam emails continued.
I’m pretty sure that they have harvested a lot of the emails and that is why the spam keeps happening even after leaving the groups. PLUS, they can send it to their contact list.
I know for me, I’ve gotten a ton of invites from a certain Ruth A…. won’t give her the satisfaction of putting her full name on here. But she’s a known spammer on the yahoo groups and she moved on to the Ning communities as well.
What in the world do people hope to accomplish by spamming everyone with these invites? What is the outcome you wish to achieve? Do they honestly think that this will make them money?