Thread: Permission Marketing vs. Spam (rant)

Please, please go learn something about permission marketing before you sign me up for any more subscriptions. It doesn't matter if you have the coolest content on earth & I know you are a nice person. Even if I would be immensely interested in your workshop/show/classes/products, it still PISSES ME OFF to get unsolicited email clogging my mailbox. Just a hint here, it's NOT a good way to start a relationship.

I should NOT have to opt out of your broadcasts. I am okay with you sending one nice email suggesting I might want to subscribe IF you have already looked at my details from where ever you got my email (Shira's site, the state business license database, whatever) and really think I might be interested (No, I am not commuting from Alaska to Germany for weekly classes, thank you! I think having an email that starts alaskadancer might clue you in to this!) but signing me up is out of line, & neglecting to take me off your email list within 30 days of my notification that I don't want your stuff is *illegal!*

If you want to know more about permission marketing & building a network based on trust & actual interest, go check out Seth Godin's blog &/or books.

ME TOO!!!! (To use a phrase that was wildly popular in the days when spam first appeared.)

I completely agree.

This is why I no longer publish my email address on my web site.

I used to get not only lots of dancer spam, but also emails containing viruses from other dancers. People would put my address in their address books, and then every time a new virus variant appeared on the scene I'd get my mailbox clogged with 20 emails containing it.

Another form this takes goes like this:

1. Person collects as many people as possible in her friends list by sending out friend invites to everyone suggested by facebook and everyone whose name she sees in the status updates from others.

2. Person starts spamming all these people with event invitations, group invitations, and "fan page" invitations, at least once or twice a week.

Yeah! Thank goodness for my super-spam filter.

I get added on mailing lists for dancers in the USA (especially) and around the world too*all the time*....I wish there was at least a measure of common sense used...if you shipped a costume to me in Korea, I'm not going to be stopping by your classes in Ohio, you don't need to add me to your mailing list automatically.

Ironically, dancer's email lists that I do sign up for often neglect to include their Asian info when they do mailouts. It usually says "I'm off to Seoul this winter. Then I'll be in LA February 9th at the Main Workshop Center teaching a baladi class from 1:30PM-4PM. I have a performance on the 10th at Pink Hall. Tickets are $15, available from tickets.com" So frustrating.

Yes.

And much as I love Nourhan Sharif -- and I do! -- I'm so TIRED of getting e-mails about big sales and then discovering that the sale is only for NYC locals who can shop onsite. Don't tell me about deals I can't have!!!! It just makes me loathe to pay full price.

Originally Posted by Lauren_

Yes.

And much as I love Nourhan Sharif -- and I do! -- I'm so TIRED of getting e-mails about big sales and then discovering that the sale is only for NYC locals who can shop onsite. Don't tell me about deals I can't have!!!! It just makes me loathe to pay full price.

Nourhan is REALLY bad with the spam emails. Through regular email and facebook. I've unsubscribed numerous times but every time I buy someting else, I am back on the list.

Also, I really, really hate facebook invites to events that are in other states/countries, with invites that aren't even in English. I've started unfriending people who send me those - I never, ever friend request anyone on my bellydance FB account - all of my "friends" are there because they friend requested me. So, I have no problem unfriending if I see they are clogging my inbox or my events with things that don't remotely relate to me.

When I do a FB invite, I go through my 500+ friends and individually invite people that are in the area or who I think might be itnerested. If I invite someone from out of town, it's only because I don't know who they are or where they live. But if their profile clearly states that they live in Argentina, I'm not going to send them an invite for my boat ride in Manhattan.

I wish others would do the same.

Originally Posted by *Shira*

Another form this takes goes like this:

1. Person collects as many people as possible in her friends list by sending out friend invites to everyone suggested by facebook and everyone whose name she sees in the status updates from others.

2. Person starts spamming all these people with event invitations, group invitations, and "fan page" invitations, at least once or twice a week.

3. Person gets unfriended QUICK!!

I've had event promoters approach me asking for my mailing list. WHAT? I refer them to the page on our website where one can sign up for our list. It reads:

"We maintain our mailing list ourselves and will NOT give your information out to ANYONE! As radical activists against spam, we do not add people to our mailing list who did not ask to be added. (okay, so maybe it's not radical, but we still hate spam---except chopped up into mac-n-cheese with peas--YUM! Try it!)"

Anyone else getting spams from dance festivals/competitions half a world away that don't even include bellydance? ugh! Trolling dance sites and collecting emails is downright tacky if you ask me. If you want to reach customers you don't already have, take out an ad in an industry magazine, post flyers at local businesses that allow it, or network your way into situations that give you business exposure.

I must get 2-5 Facebook event invites a day. The only sort of good thing about getting announcements about other events is that at least I'm aware of other belly events out there and how they might conflict with my own. But truthfully, some tiny studio hafla in Maine isn't exactly something I'm going to attend or worry about booking conflicts. It's frustrating.

I also get placed on tons of mailing lists. It's obnoxious. Truly.

Facebook event invites are *usually* quite irritating to me. If I do something I do generally make a point of only inviting people on my list who I know could, you know, come. I can't go to a hafla in Britain or Ohio, you know? It can be cool to know what people are up to but in general, it's offputting.

I don't mind getting emails about intensives and things from teachers I admire. Many of them do travel internationally and it's good to know what they are doing and when - if they're ever going to be near, I might be able to make it!

But yeah, I think targeting is the way to go.

That, and multiple bulletins or messages a day from SAME individual/teacher/studio.
An email message for EVERY single class/event/show/appearance (up to 20+ a day in some cases)

I know you want to network/market - but GEEZE, give it a rest

That Festival Isis or whatever it was called really got out of control. Between the FB invites 3x a day, the e-mails and the random sockpuppets that came on Bhuz to ask if we've all heard of this great event in the Dominican Republic....it was just way too much. Shame, because it looked like a fab lineup of instructors, and if I were made of money, I'd go to the Dominican Republic for a week of sun and fun and dance! But talk about social media gone horribly awry.

And that's just the thing. If you're going to use social media, you absolutely can't neglect the "social" component. Engage people in the conversation. Reach out. Be interested and interesting. Then, once you've done that, you can go ahead and promote yourself or whatever it is that you're selling