How to benefit from fewer: Email subscriptions, connections, friends, and followers

Remember, about ten years ago, you were still excited to receive email. You were thrilled to get anything new in your email box. How times of changed.

Let’s not kid ourselves, we like to see our numbers rise: Friends on Facebook, Connections on LinkedIn, and Followers or Twitter. As an astute wedding marketer, one should realize, the 80/20 rule applies. 80% of the our activity is done with 20% of these people. Maybe less than 20%.  We love to see the specials from Priceline for the last minute cruise or airfare, but we rarely (never) respond.

Getting straight to the point… I am tightening the reigns on all kinds of communication and connections to improve my overall result. Essentially, I have taken the position that  my connections, friends, followers, and email subscriptions are like clothes in my closet. They tend to accumulate to the point of obscuring my view. It’s only when I remove some of the clothes that don’t fit, are out of fashion, or are just old that I can truly see and enjoy what remains.

I have developed a simple list for eMarketing Maintenance. I expect to use it 3-4 times per year (depending on how quickly eClutter accumulates). Thought I’d share it with you.

• Email pruning
  • Ruthlessly unsubscribe from eNewsletters and promotional letters that you are not reading or actively utilizing.
  • If you cling to certain eNewsletter subscriptions, set rules to automatically route them to a particular reading folder and read them in bunches.If you didn’t realize that your email software enables you to set rules, then consult the help section or software manual. It won’t take you long to master, and will save you a ton of time.
  • Enable junk mail – spam filtering.
  • Probable result: You should be able to reduce your inbox email volume by 50% or more. Because you will be routing certain emails to specific folders, the remaining inbox emails should be fewer, and easier to act on.
• Facebook Friends:
  • Scan your friends database, name by name. If you don’t recognize a name, visit their profile. If you don’t instantly recognize a reason for being connect and you have had no interaction with them, unfriend them.
  • If you unfriend someone, they will not receive a notice. They can contact you again, for connection.
  • Create list sub-groups from your overall friends list. It is simple to organize specific special interest sets, such as: Family, Friends, College, Clients, Trade Associations, etc.,. You can add a person to one more of these subsets. This way, you can focus time and attention on like-minded people.
  • Probable result: Unfriending marginal connections should remove 10-25% from your list. Organizing your remaining friends will result in more efficient communication (social or business).
• LinkedIn Connections
  • Using the same perspective as Facebook, prune marginal connections for a cleaner list. As with Facebook, people do not receive a notification that you have disconnected them. If you don’t have much of a real connection with them, they will not even notice or care.
  • Make Recommendations: If you give some, you will get some. Find 10-15 people truly know, professional, and give them a nice write up. You will get reciprocation from some. Don’t hesitate to ask others.
  • Probable result: Reduce your overall connection list by 10-20%. Spark activitiy with recommendations.
• Twitter Followers
  • If you don’t have a specific reason for being on Twitter, determine one, now. You should be able to define the commonality of your followers and the theme of your Tweets, clearly and easily.
  • Go through your followers, one by one, and delete any X-rated sites, MLM promoters, wannabes that haven’t posted a profile photo (or website link, or bio), and people outside your industry (except personal friends).
  • Just because someone follows you, doesn’t mean you have to, or should, reciprocate. You can change your mind as time goes on. unfollow as appropriate.
  • Probable result: Reduce follwers by 10-40%. Reduce following by a similar amount. Reduce overall traffic such that you actually read and respond to Tweets.

Don’t feel the need to do this all at once, Budget a half-hour a day, over a couple of weeks, to refresh your online social media presence. While you’re at it, make sure your profile information is up to date, for those you choose to share it with.

Andy Ebon
The Wedding Marketing Authority

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