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Jumping on the Bandwagon: The Next Generation of Communication
By
Adam Burgh
If you’re reading this article, then you have already become a part of the next generation of communications, the Internet. More specifically, you are experiencing an even more recent innovation: the e-mail list. The possibilities of the Internet and e-mail lists have just begun to be uncovered, and there are many new areas and uses that have yet to be discovered.
The possible uses for e-mail lists are broad and numerous. E-mail lists provide a fast, convenient, and costless way to reach the people you need to keep in contact with. Once set up, e-mail lists can be used to keep members updated on current organization activities, to get feedback on meeting times and locations, or to distribute important information quickly and easily. While the specific reasons and uses of an e-mail list must be determined individually, there is no doubt that an e-mail list can be a great communication and publicity tool for any organization, be it a school group or a for-profit enterprise.
The opportunities are so vast that sometimes it is hard to know when the Internet and e-mail lists (also called listserves) should be applied, how they should be used, or even where to begin. But don’t despair, you don’t have to reinvent the Internet, just take some tips from these successful Internet campaigns to jump-start your own process.
Case 1: Dean for America
Love him or hate him, Howard Dean’s now defunct campaign for president accomplished a major milestone. His Dean for America e-mail group is unequivocally the largest and most successful Internet campaign ever created by a political candidate. With nearly 700,000 people on his campaign’s e-mail list nationwide, Dean’s campaign (even if he is no longer pursuing the presidency) still exerts considerable influence on its subscribers. How much influence? Lets take a look at one of the most prominent measures of a political campaign: fundraising. Howard Dean’s campaign raised $40 million in 2003, and it wasn’t by schmoozing with CEO’s and movie stars, it was from the 300,000 individual donations that he received through his website (more than any candidate in recent history). Last fall, Howard Dean evolved from the ex-governor of the second smallest state in the U.S. to the best-financed Democrat nominee for president. This transformation was largely driven by his campaign’s ability to mobilize supporters, of which his Internet campaign played the largest part.
What can you learn from this?
E-mailing information and dates for events is one thing, but engaging people enough to become involved in your cause/organization is the next big step. Use your e-mail list to set up meeting dates and to provide members with necessary information, but most of the work is going to be done with good old-fashioned personal interaction. While there are a few opportunities for feedback on an e-mail list (through members replying to and sending e-mails), group meetings allow the greatest chance for member feedback. This personal interaction and opportunity to participate also makes the members feel more included in the organization. If you only receive e-mails, you don’t feel nearly as connected as you would if you had personal responsibilities in planning the next project or event for your group. Use e-mail lists to provide members with information and reminders, not to substitute for actual meetings and activities.
Case 2: Hotmail.com
What’s the fastest way to get new members? Give them something for joining (free e-mail addresses in this case). As the Internet became more prominent in pop culture during the mid 1990’s, a startup company named Hotmail unveiled an interesting product: free easy-to-use e-mail addresses. Microsoft took notice of this new idea and quickly bought the rights to Hotmail and continued to develop the network of free web-based e-mail. But was this move an unselfish act of altruism to the Internet community? No, it also served to increase Microsoft’s product market and provided a relatively easy and inexpensive method of reaching millions of people. Regardless of Microsoft’s motives, in just over two years Hotmail had 30 million active accounts. In fact, Hotmail’s user-base grew faster than any other media company in history.
What can you learn from this?
Offer incentives for people to join your e-mail list. It could be nearly anything: fun activities advertised exclusively through e-mail, receiving information quicker than non-list members, or access to members-only sections of your organization’s website. If your organization is holding a fun event on campus, in the community, or in the office, have people sign up for the e-mail list as they enter the event. By coming to your event you already know that they have at least a little interest in your organization. Getting their e-mail address on your list gives you the opportunity to tell them more about your organization in an easy and inexpensive way.
Case 3: Leadership Solutions Network
Here is an example that is directly related to you, by way of you reading this article: TRI’s Leadership Solutions Network (LSN). As TRI’s client base continued to grow, the LSN was created in order to “keep in touch” with our clients and friends. We try to make the LSN a great way for subscribers to stay up-to-date on the latest ideas, trends, and thoughts in the areas of business and leadership. In addition, the LSN is a chance for TRI to revise and develop our workshops, conferences, and training sessions based on the feedback that we receive on LSN articles. Since starting last fall with 148 subscribers the LSN has expanded to include over 2,500 members. With our 50th article included in this issue, we look forward to continuing to provide useful tips and strategies to our friends, clients, and subscribers.
What can you learn from this?
No doubt you chose to subscribe to this e-mail list because of an event that you attended with TRI. These events are the main focus of TRI, but the e-mail list is also a great way to continue to supplement your leadership growth. You can use the skills that TRI taught you at your meeting, event, etc. and combine them with information from LSN articles to impress your boss, advisor, peers, or prospective employer. In this way TRI can continue to provide you with valuable leadership information even if we can’t give it to you in person at a meeting, group activity, or conference. Members may be too busy, live too far away, or may have other obligations that make frequent personal meetings unrealistic. E-mail lists are a great way to keep members connected between meetings/events and provide them with information that can help them develop and prepare for an upcoming meeting/event.
Okay, I’m convinced. Sounds great, but how do you set up an e-mail list?
There are many possibilities, the easiest and most popular of which is creating a list through Yahoo! Groups or your local business, high school, or university internet network. Just as an example, we’ll walk through the setup for a Yahoo! Groups account (for which you will need a Yahoo! e-mail address). First, go to groups.yahoo.com and click “Start a new Group!” Enter your username and password and select a group category (such as “Business & Finance” or “Schools & Education”). Continue by selecting a subgroup (such as “K-12” or “Other”), then click “put my group in ____” on the next page. Don’t spend too much time thinking about these categorizations; what’s really important is how to get people on your e-mail list, not how it is classified.
Once you have selected your category, it’s time to create a name for your e-mail list, an e-mail address by which members may correspond, and a brief description of the objective of the e-mail list. The name and description should have something to do with the organization for which you are creating the e-mail list, and the e-mail address should be something that is short, easy to remember, and in some way related to your organization. After you have set up the group, you can type in members’ e-mail addresses to add them to the e-mail list.
But wait, you say, how do I get members in the first place?
Finding your own niche:
Learn from the examples above and pick out the parts that you find relevant to your organization/cause. Can you think of something in one of the examples that you can improve upon? This is the point where you have to begin to identify who your target audience is and how you will be able to reach them. If it is an e-mail list for your organization’s local high school or college chapter, have each member in your chapter write down their e-mail address so that you can put them on the e-mail list. Or they can add themselves (instructions on how to do so – on Yahoo! Groups for instance – can usually be found on the e-mail list’s main webpage). To get new members on your e-mail list, you can have current members bring a signup sheet around your campus for prospective members to put down their name and e-mail address.
E-mail lists are a great way to publicize meetings, events, and reminders to the whole organization (provided that everyone checks their e-mail regularly). They can also be abused. Make sure to monitor content periodically, and if you are the list master don’t send out frequent e-mails with little or no substance. If members start receiving too many frivolous e-mails, they may stop looking at the e-mails or simply unsubscribe from the e-mail list. For some more ideas on how to add more members to your e-mail list, check out the Recruitment and Retention article in the LSN archive. Use the case studies above, but also think beyond these examples. If you find a new method or use for an e-mail list, go for it. There are no limitations on the uses for e-mail lists beyond the extent of your own organization and creativity.
Adam Burgh, world traveller and CTSO trainer, is an Assistant Trainer with Team TRI and a regular contributor to the Leadership Solutions Network. Click here to learn more about Adam and how to contact him!
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