Over the last couple of days I ramped-up our promotions for GBLCG.com membership at Facebook. Believing that a slow start is best in this case I selected some of my Facebook Friends and sent them a personal message through the network’s messaging system. There were three parts to that message.

The first part thanked them – sincerely – for befriending me. Until recently I made some efforts to thank new Friends personally and immediately after connecting with me. Other priorities such as work and family pushed that practice by the way-side, which irked me somewhat believing that courtesy, as it should exist in true social life, should also apply to online social life.

There’s nothing wrong with thanking people for the things they do for you and befriending me is one of them.

Dual Purpose of the Welcome New Facebook Friends Page

The second part of the message invited them to follow a link to a GBLCG.com Welcome To My New Facebook Friends page. I wrote this page specifically to introduce myself to new Friends and to give them a few links to GBLCG.com pages they may want to read to gain better pictures on that.

My thinking is that if Social Network connections become meaningful if Friends actually know and understand what you're up to, what you stand for and what you're trying to achieve. As such, the page's dual purpose is not just to get people 'into' GBLCG.com - although that would be a huge added benefit - but also to 'get to know me'.

OptIn Warnings - Respecting Friend's Contact Details

The third part of the message informed them that by following the link to the Welcome page they would be routed past a so-called ‘OptIn’ page. Such pages are widely used by site administrators to quickly and automatically grab the contact details of visitors so emails and newsletters can be send to them. These details can only be received when the visitor approves the sharing of these details.

Here I did something that too few site administrators do, in my opinion. I warned the Friends I contacted that they would see the OptIn page and explained that it wasn’t mandatory to accept that sharing.

Mail List - Quality Over Quantity

Obviously, the more details we receive, the better it is. I will never deny that list building is a high-priority objective for me. It’s not surprising that many – if not most – site administrators don’t want to give potential OptIn page viewers upfront warning. They hope that visitors will accept impulsively, which allows them to accelerate the building of their mail list.

I just started to wonder whether it would be a good thing to start a relationship with candidate and new GBLCG.com members by following such practice. I pondered whether not being upfront and – in my view – honest about the use of the OptIn Page would erode the professional reputation we try to build and maintain for ourselves.

After sending ten invites last night and noticing that only three people added their contact details overnight I concluded that at least seven people consciously declined to have their details shared.

If they hadn’t been warned, and if they had approved the sharing of these details in spur-of-moments, what would be the quality of the list I would have built over the last eight hours?

I said this before right on top of this page: I believe that a slow start is a good one. Quality membership doesn’t come from cornering and sniping candidate members. Nothing good comes from greed. Quality requires time. It comes from being honest, by putting integrity upfront and by treating each connection as a gift rather than a mere commodity.

Sincerely Thanking The 'Early Adopters'

From this perspective I sincerely thank those people who joined us at GBLCG.com last night. Each of you gave me a huge gift – the privilege to welcome you. Because you deliberately decided to join I know you bring the quality I am looking for. Now it’s my responsibility not to disappoint you..

Although the list increased marginally as a consequence your registrations made my day.

Heaps of thanks!

[Let's start building something GREAT together..]

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