TMI: Too Much Information
Here is an email from a person who attempted to join my network:
Dear Dave, I tried to join your group, but I object to having to enter personal information, especially my year of birth. I cannot complete registration without it, and it left me feeling that I had wasted time on this. Best wishes, XXXX.
From a 'marketing' perspective, I understand that the more info you have, the better you can serve your customer; I understand that the year of birth isn't a big deal, from a marketers perspective.
However, as far as REQUIRED information goes, anything more than name and email is going to either: A. Push certain members away, or B. Have members give false information in order to get involved. Either of these hurt your marketing efforts.
Do you agree?
--Dave Charbonneau
www.TheChickenWIRE.com
| Topic | Replies | Likes | Views | Participants | Last Reply |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| What's Coming Next ... | 25 | 0 | 4325 | ||
| Chat Room participants | 1 | 0 | 1212 | ||
| "Tagging" photos in the galleries | 3 | 0 | 1333 |
Hi Dave,
I have just developed a Live Video Broadcast Website, where the major points are: No Sign Up and No Personal Information are required to record a video (not even an email address is required, but later a Video Owner can join our Group and add info about themself)
Announce a Product or Service by Live Video - http://http://www.gizmoutube.tv
Best Regards, Dennis
I just got 2 emails from potential members similar to the OP's. Why is birth year required? Sorry if it's written in bold red font somewhere, i guess i just missed it. Can we disable that field?
Hi, Julie. The ability to disable this requirement available today but that's a valid request. We would point out 2 things:
1. we only ask for year (not day of birth)
2. the year of birth info is not visible to other group members unless the user choose it to be visible under the MY SETTINGS tab
The main reasons for instilling this requirement was 1) to comply with the COPA Act, and 2) to allow us to collect this single piece of data to prove to the world (of investors and business partners) that Web 2.0 tools such as ours are not just for the college (Facebook) crowd (18-21 year olds).
Our average user age is 38.5 years old. We are proud of the fact that we have more users over the age of 60 than we do between the ages of 18-21. That being said, the only way we can determine this is to ask the question. (Of course, people can always lie but they usually lie younger not older).
I've made note we need to update the reference to COPA, and also to revisit internally if we can provide managers with ability to control this requirement.