Upcoming Microsoft Events: Do you want to stay informed?

Whether or not you choose to believe me, here are a two things that I know to be true:

1. Microsoft takes your privacy and preferences very seriously, and
2. Microsoft wants you to stay “in-the-loop” about what’s coming.

Often our marketing and operations people send out notices about up-coming events, such as our IT Camps or live Microsoft Virtual Academy trainings.  But many of you aren’t getting those e-mails, because either you didn’t know how to set up your information and preferences about you, your interests and how you’d like to be contacted, or at some point you said “no” to getting more e-mail from Microsoft.  And if you opt out for one thing, you’re opting out for everything.  (See point #1 above)

“So.. what if I do want to be contacted about up-coming events?”

You need to edit your information and preferences associated with your Microsoft Account (formerly LiveID).  And that’s what this blog post is all about.

The Profile Center: https://profile.microsoft.com/RegSysProfileCenter/

At the profile center, you can sign in and set up or edit the information about you and your preferences.  It’s broken down into these 5 areas:

• Personal Information
• Business Information
• Technology Interests
• Contact Preferences
• Subscriptions

Once you go to any of those pages and sign-in, you can add to or edit the information that Microsoft has about you.  Importantly, in order to get notifications from Microsoft about events or resources that are important to you, you need to fill in the correct business and interest areas, and then allow Microsoft to contact you via e-mail.  Here is a quick summary of each of the areas, and I’ll highlight the areas that will help you get our e-mails in future.

Personal Information

Share as much as you’re comfortable with, but know that if you don’t give us accurate information, it’s not going to help us to keep you up-to-date. 
IMPORTANT: Even if you see the proper e-mail address, make sure you click edit next to it to see whether or not you “would like to hear from Microsoft…”.  If it’s un-checked and you’d like to hear from us via e-mail, make sure you check the box and click save.

 

Business Information

Being accurate with the kind of business you work for (or want to work for) will help us better determine what makes the most sense for how we address you or what we send you.  It also helps us figure out in a more general sense the populations and communities out there, and helps us shape our priorities and where we put our attention (and dollar$).

Technology Interests

This is the area that you should revisit on a regular basis. Seriously.   It had been awhile since I personally looked here, and I found that I was still interested in Windows Vista but not at all interested in Server 2012 or Windows 8.  As technologies change, you need to make sure we know that you’re interested in learning more about it.

Contact Preferences

It won’t help you if we can’t contact you.  Sure, it’s entirely up to you, but many people are surprised that they’ve opted out of contact at some point and never knew it.  Make sure that if you would like the occasional e-mail about items relating your business and technology interests, that you at least check the “E-mail Address” box.

Subscriptions

E-mail newsletters on various topics are also available on a regular basis.  Feel free to subscribe to the ones you’re interested in.

Your Privacy

Of course, you can go back to the Profile Center anytime and change or update or verify your preferences.  And if you need more details on Microsoft’s Privacy policies, you can find it all here: https://www.microsoft.com/privacystatement

---

Any questions?  Concerns?  Rants?  Insults?  I can take it.  Put them in the comments.