Much is written about how we, as content producers, creators and online marketers should assume greater responsibility for our activities online. For example…
- Always collect email addresses responsibly
- Respond to comments, queries, feedback and criticism
- Adhere to correct etiquette when blogging, Tweeting, Facebooking or LinkedIn-ing
…and God Forbid! Never, ever, ever spam anyone or you’ll give all of us online entrepreneurs a bad name.
But precious little is written about how to be a conscious, responsible consumer of all this content…
And I believe it is just as important to understand that our actions as consumers, readers, followers, users and customers of all of these online tools have an impact and consequences too. Consider the following…
Marking an email as SPAM
If you signed up to someone’s mailing list and subsequently mark an email you receive from them as “Spam”, SHAME on you. Do you know what this does?
It puts a black mark against that person’s name – in the form of increasing their complaint rate in their mailing list software. Too many complaints and too high a complaint rate seriously affect a person’s ability to get their emails sent and actually hit peoples’ inboxes.
If you did sign up to someone’s mailing list, do them the courtesy of just clicking “Unsubscribe” instead of being lazy and just marking it as SPAM.
Most of us – including you – put our hearts & souls into newsletters or at least think about them carefully and craft them respectfully, mindful of what you do and don’t want to read – and we don’t deserve to be treated so shoddily just because you’re too lazy to look for a link to unsubscribe. Be responsible – you could be on the receiving end one day. Perhaps you already are.
Marking a tweet as SPAM
On the other hand, I have ZERO tolerance for spammers on Twitter. I instantly report anyone who tweets me as a spammer if I check out their profile and see dozens of the same tweets with the same promotional link to others.
It’s our responsibility to keep our own ecosystems clean. Zero tolerance.
Share by default
If you find something you enjoyed or found valuable, share it! As creators, we’re reminded how we always need to actually ask people to share our stuff – and yet we know this is what we all hope will happen.
If you’re consuming something and enjoying it, let others know about it and share it unreservedly. Get into the habit of doing this so you don’t have to be reminded – let it become your default MO. (I’m bad at this – must do better).
Know how to use the tools
Sometimes it’s a case of knowing how to use a tool properly. For example, many people still don’t realise that if you don’t put another character (anything will do – a full stop, star or whatever) before the @ symbol when you want to give a tweet-out to someone, then only the people who follow that person (as well as you) will see it.
For example, if I were to give Jonathan a shout-out about his portfolio on Twitter and I tweeted:
@jonwoodward’s portfolio is fab.
Not all of my followers would see it – only the people who follow Jonathan as well as me see it. If instead I typed:
Check out @jonwoodward’s portfolio.
Now everyone who follows me will see it because there’s something before the first @ symbol.
So if you’re going to go to the time and effort of spreading the love and giving some kudos or a shout-out to someone, make sure you know how to do it properly for maximum effect.