Wishlist: Stop the Spam!

No, I probably don’t mean you.  Thankfully, most creators in SL have a pretty sound approach to their communications policy, but this week I had the unprecedented experience of actually leaving a subscribeomatic group thanks to a store owners over-pushy policy. (I’m not going to name name’s, because this isn’t really a rant at the store owner – I’m quite sure they’re just really enthusiastic and eager to do well in SL, which is admirable – but because it actually had a negative effect, I figured it might be useful for newer creators to mention it so they don’t make the same mistakes.)

I love SoM’s – we all know how hard it is to choose just 25 groups to be a part of, and for product updates Subscribeomatic, Hippo Groups et al are a very welcome alternative.  I tend to click every one I see as it doesn’t cost me a group.  (Tip: If you use a subscribo, be sure and place it/them where it’s easily spotted for new people to sign up.  By the door, near your lucky chair, be sure and use more than one if your store’s pretty big.  Although some people may think of it as chatspam, I’m also pleased when a greeter tells me you’ve a SoM so I know to look out for it.)  I was browsing round a mall-type setting one day, after visiting a different store, spotted this particular SoM, and signed up.

Now, although I’m online quite a lot, I’m often afk so when I’m actively inworld, I tend to be pretty busy, and that habit I have of clicking every subscribo I see means I get a lot of blue pop-ups.  So, a lot of messages, I discard right away.  This particular store’s messages were very brusque, instructing me to open the notecard – and I really don’t respond well to orders, and thus discarded about all of them.  (Tip: Be sure and use the IM message to tell me – politely – what you’re sending so I can decide that yes, this one I do want to open).  Now, it could well be that the creator’s first language isn’t English and thus the tone wasn’t intended to be hectoring, but if you’re going to use English as the primary language with your customers perhaps ask an English speaking friend or two to check it reads well.

I also found that I was getting what seemed like a lot of messages from this particular SoM, not all of them strictly product related, and was clicking discard on them more and more.  (Tip: Don’t wear out your welcome – limit yourself to one or two messages a week.  Instead of releasing something new every couple of days, maybe save them up for a weekly release and notecard your customers then.)  On a side note, getting too many of these messages sometimes contributes to the speed at which my IM’s cap, a real frustration when I might miss out on something I really want to hear about by being messaged with something pretty much irrelevant to the updates I joined your SoM for.  (Tip: If you have a blog – and if you don’t, why ever not? – also post the notecarded information there, and put the blog link in your chat message.  That way, even if Idon’t get your message inworld because I’ve capped, I can click the link from my offline email.)

So, earlier this week, I was actually having a quiet few minutes for a change, and a notice came through from the SoM, so I clicked to read and decided to pop over to the store to check it out.  As soon as the teleport screen cleared, I was greeted by a blue pop up inviting me to the store’s traditional SL group.  I’m always maxed out, so I clicked decline and waited for the place to finish rezzing so I could browse around.  And then I got another message.  And another.  And another.  Four group invites in four minutes to be exact.  I cammed around for long enough to find the SoM and unsubscribe and then left as fast as I could hit “Go Home”.

So the moral of the story is: yes, keep me informed, but don’t bore me with your store, don’t browbeat me into reading your product updates, don’t make me want to flee in horror from a never-ending series of popups.  Instead, use as many communication channels open to you as possible – inworld groups, fashcon, SoM or similar, blogs – but use them wisely.  Stop the spam!

Jumper – *AD* Aleri Darkes – Chalet – Teal
Shorts – Armidi Gisaci – Buone Vacanze Shorts – Nero
Tights – G.L.A.M – Tintable Lycra Tights – Medium Tone
Boots – Maitreya – Bloom – Black
Jewelry – Eolande’s – Bliss

Hair – Maitreya – Chloe
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Eyes – Tuli – Luminous Eyes – Steel