Just because you can, doesn't mean you should

By now, you've been on the receiving end (and perhaps the sending end) of someone's vacation photo album.

The sites are so easy now that with a few clicks, you can upload 300 pictures.

But, because it's easy for you to do it, doesn't mean it's easy for me to view them all. In fact, at a certain point, it's a burden and after a few pics, I'm on to the next thing. Edit those pics before sending them out. ( I've blogged on this before.)

Photos are just the tip of the iceberg.

With the proliferation of social network/aggregator sites like Tumblr, Plaxo Pulse, Friend Feed, and the ability to feed anything into Twitter or Facebook via Twitterfeed, it is easy to overwhelm your network of friends, family, and business associates with information.

I spent a while thinking about this yesterday when looking at the way people chose to associate with me in Plaxo.

So, I respected those wishes (go where they are, you know) and changed my settings accordingly.

Now, biz associates get biz related info and friends can see stuff like my Netflix queue, FOJ blog posts, etc.

What's more, I did my best to make sure that duplication wasn't going to happen, namely you wouldn't see the same feed from my blog once as an RSS and then via Twitterfeed on my Twitter profile

Bottom line: In building your brand online, you don't want to become a spammer.