The fact of the matter is years ago, it was tough to have too much information, we had to seek it out. But then, eventually it migrated to us and many would eventually over-subscribe to publications getting several magazines, newspapers, and dozens of junk mail items because we were on a ‘list’. This behavior is one that we have all grown up with for the past several years, well, nearly a half a century if you really think about it.
A few newspapers turned into dozens per city, with smaller publications for communities, newsletters for this or for that. And then a few major magazines several decades ago grew into an incredible volume of niche publications for everything from monthly magazines on ‘growing yellow daisies’ to ‘cooking with olive oil’.
We have seen over this past decade that we are a society that is moving or has already moved to the digital/mobile space and if you are anything like me, you have subscribed and oversubscribed to blogs, emails, digital publications, follow Twitter accounts you’re not sure why, friend people on Facebook who aren’t really friends, and have accepted Foursquare requests from people you don’t know and the list goes on. You wake up with 143 emails in the morning and 135 of them aren’t important.
Lets see what WIKI has to say about UNSUBSCRIBE… which is often called ‘opt-out’ .
As the year comes to an end… and we step into a new decade, I am suggesting that this is a great time to consider the quality of your on-line relationships. Your Facebook friends, your Twitter account(s), your digital ‘subscriptions’, the blogs your read, the social networks you’re in or on. Be careful of the unsubscribe ‘bait n switch’ where you click to unsubscribe only to find you have just subscribed to something else because you didn’t uncheck a box. Rather than quantity, consider the quality, go for the content that is really helpful and meaningful to you.
You will enter the new year with a cleaner slate of valuable information, quality friend connections and relevant content that you can manage, rather than the content managing you. A little insider speak, but marketers (in all honesty) love you for this. It is often referred to as permissive marketing. Which is a fancy way for us to see that you really want the information to come to you. You are permitting someone to tell you something, and that is golden to an advertiser.
I apologize in advance if I purge you from my list, but no hard feelings. :•)
Here’s to 2011 and a simpler, more meaningful on-line experience.
John
John Ayers 