I enjoyed meeting you, BUT....

ABSOLUTELY. I was at a Biznik event which was more like a pass your card around and introduce yourself situation. Someone took my business card and all of a sudden I started receiving his investment newsletter which I never requested. There was no option to cancel my subscription which I never signed up for.

This past week I hosted an event and had a terrific turnout (Nancy you were greatly missed). There was one person who was simply dropping their card on every table like it was a pack of mints for all of us to enjoy after our drinks. It was the oddest thing to witness and I know that many of us there were very turned off by scattered cards.

Do not assume that I want to do business with you because I say hello. I am very generous with the amount of business I share with Biznik people. I always look to Biznik people first when I need any sort of anything...roofer, florist, acupuncturist, lawyer etc. However, I do not want to receive unsolicited emails. If I want advice believe me I will ask for it and I love free advice.

this is my fault. i'll own this. i was the offending party here. i sent out an email blast to my friends and acquaintances regarding my blog post The BiZi Bee Story. the intent wasn't to advertise.

Nancy, i sincerely value you as a person, and i promise to only send you such an email cingularly. do i need to ask first?

i was trying to share my heartfelt story. if you were one of the people who got this, and you weren't ok with me doing this, please contact me and let me know. Nancy already has.

in the future, if i ever send out any other bulk mail, i'll do it using the bcc method. while i am a lot smarter netwise than i was when i first got here almost two years ago...obvously i still have much to learn about e-etiquette. i had a small whimper of voice wondering what the best way to go about it was. however, at 12:30 in morning after working hard on developing this story for 3 weeks my exuberant side won the day. not making an excuse, just sharing what happened.

my sincerest apologies to any who were effected.

Props to Justin for owning his unintentional misdeed of spamming and managing to then (unintentionally?) demonstrate how to comment spam more links to the article that was the subject of the original spam! Very deftly handled. :)

Nancy, THANK YOU for positing this and I hope enough people see this thread. I've actually snapped at a few people because of this very reason. Some of them I just automatically blocked without saying anything.

I understand that we need to announce certain events that are going on related to our business that people wouldn't know about otherwise. But adding me to an ongoing email list without bothering to ask permission is JUST SPAM.

Wow, I must've had bottled up feelings about this. Look what happened! :)

(FYI, Justin wasn't one of these individuals I am talking about. )

While I understand the idea of spamming e-mail lists and such... one thing you may actually find of interest is to actually use the spam functionality of your e-mail.

While some Biznik folk may respond to a request, most of the business world unfortunately clogs e-mail accounts up with endless amounts of cluttered newsletters. I actually send most large format e-mails to a "large" file box for later viewing and sorting. I also put an "unsubscribe" search in my sorter to set aside all newsletters containing the word.

Managing email is just a pain in the *** most days.... and I don't think it will be getting easier anytime soon.

I won't give out my email until I'm sure someone won't abuse it. Thanks, Nancy.

Just so all of you know, this is precisely the reason that Biznik keeps your email address private, not only from the entire world, but also from every other Biznik member. In fact, we publish everything else EXCEPT your email address! Why? Because as a business person, you are doing your best to get noticed, and we want to help you. You are NOT, however, doing your best to get spammed. And that's why the only piece of info we don't release automatically and promote everywhere on the net is your email address.

The reality is, though, that getting spammed is part of putting yourself out there. If you attend networking events you are attempting to raise your profile, not lower it. So some amount of spam from overly-aggressive people is perhaps inevitable. Believe me, after three years of building Biznik, I get a LOT of spam. But it's totally manageable, because I use SpamAssassain on my mail server, which catches most spam before it ever reaches my inbox. Some still finds its way through, but hey, it's the price of doing business.

Parents, mortgage brokers, and real estate agents are the worst. I can't do much about my parents, but when I meet a real estate agent or mortgage broker at a networking event or coffee shop, I refuse to give them my contact information or card. I can't understand the mentality that giving somebody your email address make you think they want your stupid MLM scam newsletter, company newsletter, run-down house of the week list, religious chain letters, or political commentary.

Top on my list of worst offenders in Seattle are the realtors from Paul Cantu Realty (paulcantu.com) .. I've gotten spam from them at 3 different email addresses, my home address, and at my datacenter (they're the only company to ever send me mail at my datacenter).

I enjoy meeting new business contacts, BUT agree wholeheartedly with Nancy that giving one a business card does not infer that I want to be added to a mail-list. I appreciate those that ask for permission and shun those that don't.

When a person does this, it registers a big negative on my personal evaluation of them as a future business associate (referrals or transactions). Aren't we all constantly evaluating each other to decide weather we want to have a business association or not by the actions that we observe, both online and off?

While at Elizabeth's happy-hour event last week, I watched a fellow doing that "all too common" thing of walking around passing out business cards to everyone and even littering the area with them. I really felt sorry for him because he was probably running away more business and future potential referrals. I, of course threw his card away at first opportunity, but yet I felt a certain sadness that someone needs to help him out and share some business etiquette rules with him.

I really appreciate Biznik for the personal email policy. Just another reason I like being here.

A sort of unseen benefit of this kind of behavior is that it provides more opportunities for the ongoing "vetting" process of deciding who you want to do business with, and who you don't.

Isn't it interesting that while you can promote yourself here, you can also destroy yourself here?

well, i for one am glad we could all have this discussion. I am going to add to my agenda in the near term a directive to get the email side of my business/life into a more manageable position.

currently, i use hotmail(which i hate) and gmail(which seems a lot better). one thing that i need to do is get my email address changed to be more consistent with my business branding..ie justin@bizibeefloral.com rather justin@gmail or hotmail.

on the back end of it, i think i need to figure out how to do what dan and barry do which is manage mail using server tech. in fact, i really want to learn more about IMAP which in theory allows you to manage your mail from all your computers and mobile devices simultaneously in real time.

lastly, i think i am going to have to make some of howard's events. he has had some good ones on business etiquette and i think even though i have been in biz for two years..i have a long way to go in this area. i can be such an overexuberant puppie dog sometimes.

Nancy, thanks for having the class to contact me personally. i just love ya so much i wouldn't ever want to do anything to lose you as a friend and colleague. you are super sweet. anyone that hasn't yet met her is missing out. just don't spam her or she'll kick your ass!

This post was so relevant, Nancy. Thanks for bringing this issue up.

I also do not appreciate a sales e-mail (or unasked for e-newsletter) 24 hours after I have met someone. And the mass e-mails? Well, those are worse because the person did not even take the time to make a personal connection.

The spammers have brought us so much unwanted "junk" that even when you have something helpful to offer (practical e-tips,with no sales messages), it's not recognized as such. We have a double opt-in policy with our e-tips, so even when someone asks to receive it, we send another confirmation e-mail. If they do not respond in the affirmative to that, we don't send it out.

It's interesting when I go through the business cards I've collected at an event. The people I actually had a conversation with, those are the ones I remember and tend to keep.

I so appreciate someone who has taken the time to get to know me first. Elizabeth, I love the "passing their business card out like it was a pack of mints." Very funny.