I am sure you have your own list based on your experiences in the field. These are what I was able to come up with tonight.
1. Automatically subscribing someone to your newsletter
I think Seth’s book “Permission Marketing” should be a required reading for all marketing professionals and CEOs of small companies. Yes, CEOs of small companies usually keep the marketing role for themselves. Every now and then I meet someone in a conference or a party and I don’t hear from them later. However, I will start receiving their company newsletter even when it is irrelevant. Giving my card to someone does not mean I am opting-in to their newsletter. Sorry.
2. Breaking bad news by email
Everyone loves a surprise but only if it is a positive one. Nobody wants a negative surprise. We don’t know where people read their emails and what questions they have when they read that email. There is a bad news already and you can only make it worse by breaking that news by email.
3. Asking for links or proposing link exchanges
People link to you if you write good content and if they feel that the content is relevant to their readers. Nothing else. Rather than asking for links, please work on producing phenomenal content.
4. Promising when you know you can’t deliver
Why would somebody do that? Just to avoid some immediate pain. You may suffer a bigger pain when you don’t deliver but that is later you may think. However, it is clear that when you don’t keep your commitments, there is a loss of trust and many opportunities may get closed for you without your knowledge.
5. Making someone a bad cop without their knowledge
Everyone knows the “good cop bad cop” technique. There are people who are master politicians who can make someone else the bad cop all the time. The sad part is that they do this without the other person’s knowledge. What they don’t understand is that there are other smart people who can see through this very easily.
6. Bad use of technology for communication
Watch your email and you will see examples of bad use of technology for communication. Emails that start with “Dear,” are common. If you don’t know how to use this technology, it is better to get professional help than to goof up and make it worse.
7. Using company resources for personal use
A notepad here, a stapler there and a pencil sharpener sometime – you know everything adds up. I think using company resources for personal can be termed as “insider stealing” and it is just silly to engage in that.
8. Reaching conclusions based on half-baked information
Reaching conclusions without the right set of data and criteria is both easy and stupid. Again, this is easier said than done. The best thing to do when you find yourself in that situation is to genuinely apologize to the person affected because of your conclusions and do something to fix things.
9. Misusing privileged information for personal gain
Someone shared privileged information because they trust you. Using that for your personal gain is the ultimate betrayal there is.
10. Providing wrong information inorder to avoid saying “I don’t know”
This one is silly because – first, it is impossible for you to know everything and second, the other person sooner than later will find out that you provided wrong information. So why not set aside your ego and admit that you don’t know?
Have a great Tuesday!