Mass eMailing Your Network: How Much is Too Much?

In a small discussion between some of the beat bloggers the following question came up regarding mass mailing their sources.

Sending a mass email to your network is obviously useful. It helps us stay in touch – gets people at their most basic level of participation (the email inbox) and invites them to join a larger conversation.

But we don’t want to overuse it.

So: How often can we use the broadcasting mentality of emails, to reach out to our entire community?

Eliot Van Buskirk: "I first used it today because my deadline is essentially ASAP, and it’s working well so far.  In the Broadcast Message, I specifically asked people to email me if they felt annoyed to receive it, and no one has responded that way.  Instead, I have a bunch of nice contributions for a comparison chart I’m working on.  My editor specifically mentioned that the chart would benefit from collaboration, but then he didn’t have time to bounce ideas around due to another story… enter beatblogging."

Update: The forum post that Eliot mass emailed to get more insight from his network now has over 27 replies.

Daniel Victor: "However, ever since you brought it to my attention I’ve been itching to do it. It’s the present under my tree on December 24. I’m just waiting for the right kind of topic to break it out. I don’t want to overuse it."

Brad Wolverton: "Once every couple of weeks feels about right to me. That helps remind people that I’m out here, but doesn’t intrude too much.

The
bigger concern is how often everyone else is chiming in, or reaching
out to the group. On the one hand, popular discussion topics can lead
to story ideas. But you don’t want sources feeling inundated with
messages, particularly on topics they’re not that interested in.

That’s why I like the digest format of Google Groups, which allows
people to receive one daily or occasional message listing all the
group’s recent activity. That feature isn’t ideal, as it leads to
slower feedback. But it keeps people from feeling overwhelmed with
messages."

What are your thoughts?