Event Promotion and the Danger of Sharing Your Email Address

You want the world to know about your new and exciting holiday blast on the internet... so you're passing out your primary email address like candy. Is this a good idea? Big no! Here are four great reasons not to share your main email address with new people during an online event promotion.

1. Having your email "accidentally" forwarded on.

Unfortunately, not everyone in online business knows how to blind copy, or "bcc" their email recipients. Don't be surprised if you find yourself being copied to large groups of people whom you've never heard of. Not only does this increase the chance of some unwanted party trying to get your attention later, but it increases likelihood of spam. Consider an "alternate" email address meant for the purpose of this event only.

2. Being too accessible means you can't get anything done.

You open your email. What's in there? Six emails related to paid work, 32 spams that slipped past the filter, and 97 "not urgent and not important" emails from folks who are helping you promote your event and have "questions". You're not obliged to answer every one of these emails, but now that they're hovering in your inbox, you know that there's a human being on the end of each one who's hoping and waiting for your reply.

3. People don't think the rules apply when they contact you directly.

I'm writing this article in February 2006 and Article Dashboard is being distributed for FREE at this time. Grab your copy and take advantage of the "automated form submission" as a way to maintain distance between you and your content submitters while putting the ownes on them to "get it right the first time". While you're at it, get an email autoresponder. Technology is a beautiful thing, in that it "spits back" what people put in and puts a layer of protection between you and your contacts.

4. Many folks will try to sign you up for their ezine lists without your permission.

Whether it's done in a purely innocent or a sneaky fashion, the fact is that if people have your email they're going to start sending you their "stuff." Meanwhile, you're trying to wade through the muck to find that important update that your paying client sent. When you refuse to sign up for people's lists, they become offended. You don't have time for this. Do you see what a hairy predicament this has become?

"This isn't sounding so good, Dina. Is there an alternate solution to giving out my email address?"

Well, I'm glad you asked. Yes, there is. Depending on your budget, you can do one of the following to take control of your email inbox during an online event promotion:

1. Hire a professional VA (virtual assistant) to answer your emails using a "support@" email address

2. Set up an alternate email address where emails related to this temporary promotion will be routed.

In fact; it's an even better idea to do both. And, as I've already mentioned, look into ways that you can pre-write your content, implement an auto-reply system and utilize form submissions as a way to "weed out" some of the lesser content submitters and reduce pointless back and forth that means loss of time to do the things that you need to get accomplished in time for your big day.

All the best with your email management!

Want to witness event planning live in action? Please join me and my marketing friends at the First Annual Web Content Awareness Day, http://WebContentAwarenessDay.com.

Sneak Peek: Visit the Countdown to Web Content Awareness Day Blog and watch what happens when "friends help friends drive traffic."

Paste in this link:

http://wordfeeder.typepad.com/web_content_awareness_day/

Copyright 2006 Dina Giolitto. All rights reserved.

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