Are there different protocols for emailing your contacts on these different collaboration sites i.e contacts on Linkedin, friends on FaceBook, friends on GovLoop, Twitterites….?
I recently read a blog Your LinkedIn Opinion: Would you find this offensive? that prompted this question. The author clearly has an expectation on receiving frequent updates through email.
Most of these sites require that you provide an email address when you sign-up. Some sites provide options for receiving email messages alerting you when a topic of interest is updated or when your friends status is updated.
Then there are those email messages received from people that you have connected with on the site. They have something to share with you that they choose not to place in a post for viewing by everyone in your network. I am not referring to close and or personal friends. They have my email address, telephone number, they can ring my door bell. Back in the day, they could have opened the door and yelled hello as they entered. The crime rate changed that. Yet, I digress.
I use different email addresses when I sign-up. I have never signed on to some of these addresses to see if I am receiving messages.
Is there a rule or policy or expectation on when someone that you have met on these sites should use email to contact you? More importantly is this rule, policy, or expectation different per site?
I have my thoughts and am interested in yours. Thanks
Why do you use different email addresses?
A guess: to be able to differentiate between the sorts of mail one can receive. That’s why I have different email addresses.
Also to use as a spam filter: certainly on usenet, but also in other fora robot harvesters generate an incredible amount of spam. For that purpose alone it would be good to have a separate emailaddress.
Consider getting a gmail account and using the special symbols they allow. For example I can sign up for one gmail address and use all of the varieties below. They all go to the same address and allow filtering/forwarding rules to be applied:
[email protected]
[email protected]
My expectations might be higher than others – I don’t know. I really expect the communication to stay on the original medium (FB/TW/LI) unless we both agree to take it offline (Email/Phone) or there is something that needs to be said to the other offline i.e. “Want to grab lunch?”. Maybe I am overprotective of my inbox. More and more I am using my gmail account for the primary email address and not my professional email address. Don’t check is as often.
Social media forums have changed expectations of privacy and interaction with “strangers”. We are making connections through these forums either because of shared interests or through others in a way that exponentially expands networks. I have friended and accepted friend requests of countless people I don’t know through platforms like govloop, facebook, twitter, friendfeed, etc. I believe there are risks but I also believe that most of the time the people are “the real deal” and I’ve met some great folks and have gained access to resources and information not otherwise available. I do find that I use the forums a bit differently. Facebook is still more of the personal me and Twitter and govloop more of the business/professional me although I’m mixing in some of the personal stuff. I do have only one personal email account and have never found anyone to spam me or use the email address in an inappropriate way (although my facebook acct was recently hacked).
Thanks all for your comments.
Ari, I too use a combination of different email addresses and filters to separate the different mail that I receive. Call me paranoid, when I am not sure, I send the messages to a secondary account.
Interesting discussion – I have several email addresses and forward email between these addresses sometimes. Am gradually learning to use personal emails as frequently as business email so the need for forwarding is reducing although connectivity for personal accounts is an issue. I am gradually evolving a system that works for me that separates broadly business and personal. I keep facebook purely for people I know – friends – and it is entirely personal. I have used sms texts for notifications and updating rather than email although generally now use an app to access fb. Twitter on the other hand is mainly for people I’ve never met, but is still about personal exchanges. I rely heavily on sms texts for twitter exchanges together with a web app – email notifications are hardly useful at all. Business exchanges and contacts will be through linked-in and possibly gov-loop (have only just started on both). A problem at present is that business systems only support gov-loop curiously. I currently use business email for notifications on the linked-in and gov-loop networks – but only as a prompt to access the web. This is an evolving area and will change with changes in connectivity and integration of devices (I currently use three devices and have found it helpful to use a different device for each network although as I learn they become more integrated) This is very much about learning what works and organising. Any further suggestions about how others do this gratefully received.