B2B Email

On Freelance Switch, Brain Zafron recently posted, The Art of Email-Writing and How it Can Make or Break Your Business. I was immediately interested in what Zafron was going to say and eager to pick up on any tips he might offer. For one of my jobs, I would say that about 95% of the communication takes place via email. When I first began this job, I knew that this was the case and was pretty excited. I thought that it would be much easier to correspond with my supervisor and media contacts this way. In some respects it is easier. It is more convenient than having meetings all the time to discuss a few details and allows me to reach a larger number of people much quicker. On the other hand, writing emails for business can also get a little stressful. I often find myself reading just a few short sentences over and over again trying to be as clear and concise as possible, but always making sure to include all the necessary details.

I wanted to share a handful of Zafron's tips that I found especially helpful.

Brand with a meaningful subject line. People decide whether to open, forward, file, or delete an email based upon the subject line.  Don't waste the reader's time: your subject line should succinctly describe the email's content.  Additionally, if you attempt any gimmicks or unnecessary cleverness in the subject line, your email could strike the reader as spam and wind up in the trash, alongside those free iPod offers, juicer giveaways, and subscriptions to "Amphibian Lover" magazine.  

Engage people with your sentences.  Don't write sentences that are indirect and obtuse.  Place strong nouns and verbs towards the front that lead to a clearly defined point.  Instead of "it has been decided...," consider, for example, "our company decided..."  The epitome of lackluster writing is the passive tense.  Make your sentences pop.  And here's another nugget of wisdom: don't end sentences with prepositions!  Instead of "I want someone to eat enchiladas with," consider, for example.  "I want someone to eat enchiladas with me."

CC with moderation.  Only carbon copy (cc) those parties that are directly involved with the content of the email.  CC orgies not only lead to traffic jams in other people's in-boxes, but create a sense of impersonality between yourself and the principle email recipient.  When in doubt, utilize the magic of the blind carbon (bcc) to conceal the addresses of subsidiary recipients.

While some of this may seem like a no brainer, I think that it's the easy things that often get overlooked. Thank you Mr. Zafron for these wonderful tips!

image: corbis/Holger Winkler

In Case You Didn't Get the Memo...

Following my post about Twitter, I came across Twitter for Health, a post by Nedra Weinreich of Spare Change.  She talks about how Twitter could be useful for non profit organizations and government agencies.  It's very interesting and reiterates that Twitter can be an effective social media tool.  Check it out! 

Twitter This, Twitter That...

When my class first started learning about social media at the beginning of this term, our professor, Kelli Matthews, mentioned Twitter. Twitter is a site designed to allow members to answer the question, "What are you doing?" by posting short updates. You can subscribe to 'follow' someone on Twitter, and beyond that I am not really sure what you can do with it.  Anyway, I never took the time to check it out, it seemed really silly to be constantly updating what I was doing all day for the whole world to see. I am on MySpace and Facebook, so I figure if people really want to know what I am up to they can find me there.

However, I think I may have a new perspective after overhearing a conversation between my peers in class today. As we all enter the classroom in the morning, people are always talking about their blogs, job/internship interviews and whatever else may be on the mind of a soon-to-be graduate. This morning a couple of girls were discussing their activity on Twitter. They were so excited and thrilled that others in PR (people they did not know) were following them on Twitter and leaving them comments. I found myself wishing that I too could be sharing in their excitement. Suddenly Twitter didn't seem so silly and I realized that it's not necessarily about whether you are posting to your blog or updating Twitter, but rather it's about creating conversations and connecting with others.

I came across this video by Lee Lefever on Eric Eggerston's blog Common Sense. It introduces Twitter in a fun way and also falls under the topic of presentations, which we have also been studying this week. Basically, I think that Twitter can be a really effective way to communicate and I think that I will have to give it a try!

image: flickr/danihernanz

Nearing the End

It's nearly the end of winter term 2008.  This means: 1. I have one term left of college.  2. Finals, projects and papers are consuming my life.  3.  I should have some sort of plan post-graduation.  Unfortunately, points one and two are all that I can think about right now.  Other than the occasional search on Craigslist, my job search is going  nowhere.  People are always asking me what I want to do after graduation....there are lots of things that I want to do.  But, what I want to do and what I need to do are two completely different things.  

In a perfect world, I would spend the summer traveling Europe with a friend, or two.  I would return to the States in the fall and begin working at a record label, doing some form of promotions.  

Reality is really more like this: After graduation I will stay in Eugene so I can be close to my friends and family.  Meanwhile continuing in my search for the perfect job in the perfect place.  I know life, jobs/work and everything else doesn't always happen just how we want, but I would be much happier if it did!  So, I will continue dreaming of the perfect scenario and maybe, just maybe I will pleasantly surprised with my perfect world.  

image:corbis/Gary Irving