X Helps Hungry Creators Turn Subscribers into a Smorgasbord of Email Contacts

According to SocialMediaToday, Elon Musk is on a mission, and it isn't to Mars. He's ready to make good on the promise of a feature to let you share your email with subscribers.


Here's how it will look. You're about to subscribe to your favorite creator, and you'll see a cute little checkbox. Click it, and you'll give that creator access to your email.

The basic concept is: "Share your email with [creator of choice]. By accepting, you agree to let X share the (your) email address with the creator for the purpose of off-platform (use) and accept the Email Sharing Terms."

Think of it as the modern equivalent of passing notes in class. Once you check the box, you're giving the creator permission to visit your inbox at will, all courtesy of Elon and X.

Some of you reading this might be wondering why anyone would give up their email address and risk more spam than Hormel Foods Corporation puts out.

Think about it. If you follow somebody on X, you're probably a fan and dig their cool memes, right? Might as well make your inbox available for their surefire investment tips, get-rich-quick schemes, and amusing cat videos while you're at it.

But wait, folks, this is more than just handing out a backstage pass to your favorite creators so they can hang out after the show. Now, those creators can make direct offers (a sales pitch) to you or use their shiny new collection of email addresses to move to a new platform and invite you along for the ride. Sounds like a win/win for the creators and their minions.

Social media platforms usually guard your personal details like the Secret Service guards the president, but not X. Elon has been talking about this feature for a while now and promising it from the start of his new creator incentive push, as seen in a Tweet (sorry, an X) from June 7th that reads: "This platform will provide email addresses of subscribers (who opt-in) to content creators so that creators are able to leave this platform easily and take their subscribers with them if they want."

Direct contact sharing has always been a huge "no-no" for social media platforms, with many of them taking the stance that they own the information because they are the ones who generated it in the first place. Most of them have made it very difficult, if not impossible, to dig up the info, guarding it like gold in Fort Knox.

By allowing data portability on X, Elon is likely hoping to lure in creators who have considered building their brand's presence on the platform, hoping those creators will now likely consider how they can leverage this new feature to expand their connections and build new business, both on and off-platform. So, what sounds like a generous move on Elon's part has a hidden advantage for X after all.

And it's not just the creators who will reap the rewards of this new "Freedom of Information Act." Oh no, not at all. Big Brands are out there, ready to join the party and slip right into your DMs with special deals and offers designed "just for you," then they'll add your email to their secret recipe for the world's best marketing stew.

So, for now, this latest feature in the ever-expanding universe of X adds a bit of spring to your step while Elon continues to roll out more goodies, like a fancy ad revenue-sharing program. Stay tuned because the hits keep coming on X like a disc jockey spinning singles in the 70s.

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