It wasn't a problem when I had 100 friends on Facebook, people I really knew from High School, College or Work. I rarely got spammy e-mails from those folks, because very few were marketers. Now, it's a different story. I'm an active inbound marketer trying to expand my reach in social media, not to practice spam myself, but to post valuable content and links that will ultimately attract folks to our blog and website. I've grown my Facebook friend base by over 500% in recent months, but now I'm paying the price. Literally hundreds of exciting new offers and events (that I couldn't care less about) come barreling into my inbox every night. Time for some action on my part.
I went to my personal Facebook page, then > Account > Account Settings and clicked on the Notifications tab. Revelation! My default settings had me welcoming e-mails for all kinds of things I really don't want. I proceeded to uncheck nearly everything except items that I should know about, for example if someone posts on my Wall or tags me in a post or anything else that could be a problem if I ignore it. All the other stuff is gone. No more Event Invitations, no more "Like" invites, no more great offers via e-mail. You still see this stuff when you login to Facebook, but it's easier to ignore and dispose of than it is in your InBox.
Why am I being so anti-social? Well, look folks, I really am interested in what you have to say on your wall and via your posts. I do check those out when I have time. Do I want to hear from you every day via e-mail? What do you think? I did a similar thing with Twitter. Now I automatically route ALL of my direct messages (DM's) to the spam folder of my e-mail client. Sorry gang, but that's what it's come to. I'll see you out on the social networks, but if you're trying to reach me via Facebook and Twitter e-mail notifications, there's nobody home.
Photo Credit: Tidewater Muse
