Familiar title, no? How many times in the recent past have you received something like this on a social network service? “Forward this and see who looks at your profile the most!” “Forward this and a cute dog will wink at you.” Enough, please.

This is the note I sent to a friend today.
Friend:

Could you please go easy on the Funwall “forward this to see what happens” messages?
I seem to get them from several people at a time, and they take up my inbox and my time for not-such-a-great payoff. I value our connection and our communication, but these mass “forward this” mails are a bit too much. I’m considering removing apps that do this “mass forward” thing. Nothing personal to you - it’s just the way they’re set up.

What I hope my friend will realize from this note is that I do value our communication. And, that I believe there’s a place for forwarding fun viral items. But every network has someone who has done this just a few too many times and, while they may not realize it, it reduces the value of their other communications. The challenges of our network world include over-communicating, and the ease of ‘forwarding’ anything can add to the clutter, and reduce the signal of any form of communication.

It is like the story of the boy who cried “Wolf!” too many times. Emails from “that person who always forwards the forward-this mails” may get ignored. And that’s not useful for that person’s business or their personal brand.

Etiquette tip for social networks - before you forward that “forward this” message consider whether it needs to go to everyone on your list, or just a few people who you know will smile. Forward different things to different friends, and it is a valuable ‘touch’ to keep connected, and not an annoyance.

By the way, feel free to forward this blog post to everyone you know.