Tag Archives: spam

Social Is All About Permission

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If you’re going to use “social” as part of your online strategy you need to remember a key concept.

Permission.

Earlier this morning I got an email “invite” from a contact to join a site that likes to see itself as being “social”.

I ignored the invite but the wording of the email really touched a nerve:

Skillpages unsubscribe email footer

Skillpages unsubscribe email footer

Why on earth would I “unsubscribe” from something I’d never subscribed to in the first place?

Who gave them permission to “subscribe” me in the first place?

It is possible that this is just bad wording on their part and that what they actually mean is that clicking on the link will “block” my email address from being used ..

Now why don’t they actually say that?

It’s also worth noting that Facebook’s notifications include equally misleading wording, so Skillpages aren’t alone in this.

 

Just Because You Can Is Not An Excuse – Ireland.com’s Stupid Automated Twitter Messages

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Whether it’s technology or life in general you’ll always run into people doing odd things. When you ask them why they did it they’ll simply reply:

“Because I could”

Just because you can do something doesn’t mean that it’s either a good idea or even advisable.

Take Twitter (again!)

Using a 3rd party service you can automate a lot of things. So when someone new follows your user you can send your new “fan” a message.

Unfortunately most people don’t know how to use this kind of service properly and end up simply abusing it.

Spammers send you affiliate links and general rubbish that you could live without.

What about Ireland.com?

You’d think that a company of their size would have more sense, but they obviously still don’t “get” Twitter.

Their Twitter account sent me this useless rubbish at around 6am this morning a few hours after I “followed” them:
“Thanks for following www.Ireland.com we are always interested in Real stories from Real people passionate about Ireland – Why not share you views – Or visit the site for News, Sport, Gigs, Email, TV, Booking Hotels, etc”

Considering the amount of automated spammy messages I get my only reaction to this is – unfollow immediately. It leaves me wondering if Ireland.com have any semblance of a clue about how to use Twitter.

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