Actually, I am, but not intentionally. Recently I linked my LinkedIn account to ReferralKey (a peer-to-peer referral service) and when innocently hitting a confirm button, the website sent out a generic e-mail to everyone in my list. It managed to elicit 4 types of responses:
A. Those who thought “Hey, this is a great way to connect” and clicked on the link and now we’re connected;
B. Those who ignored it;
C. Those who wrote back asking “Did this e-mail really come from you?”; and,
D. Those who were somewhat upset (very few, and very decent, fortunately) and said “Please remove me from this list” (something, I confess, I don’t even know how to do!!)
I call this a fortunate accident, because although I wouldn’t have sent out this mass e-mail to 800 people at once, I was appreciative of all those responses. I made new connections, rang the bell and made some at least look out the window, opened some new doors and hopefully didn’t burn any bridges. I don’t particularly recommend this (nor do I believe I’ll be doing this again) but I can call it a fortunate spamming accident.
Hello to all those who reconnected with me, an apology for those who felt spammed, thanks to those who ignored it instead of sending a rant, and I’m grateful to those who were kind in asking to be removed. At least I feel I shook the earth a little bit, without causing too much damage… (I hope!)