Is email outdated? Enter the discussion group
Many of you are familiar with my antipathy to voicemail (not so much the quick messages from people I know, but the lengthy ones from people I don’t about something that requires a lot of explaining and a lot of writing and, typically, a lot of follow-up phone calls and messages). Email provides a handy solution in situations like these since a written message can be a one-stop shop of information about both topic and sender.
But sometimes you can have too much of a good thing. (Like the time I polished off a theater-sized box of M&Ms as a nine -year old and subsequently couldn’t stomach anything sweet for days.)
When it comes to discussions — versus simply providing information — email, too, can get pretty cumbersome. I know that when I see people start to weigh in on a message, I … wait until the end of the day to weigh. I sort the messages by subject, respond to the latest message in the thread and delete all the earlier ones (sometimes unopened, depending on the topic).
And this is where discussion groups come in handy. Two popular discussion groups are Google Groups and Yahoo! Groups. Both are relatively easy to use (although everything takes a little getting used to). Ning has a few more bells and whistles — it’s sort of like a social network plus a discussion group. (And social networks themselves like Facebook and LinkedIn do have discussion functions.) Of course, Twitter is the venue du jour for many discussions as well: yesterday I attended the first meeting of the Digital Publishing Group organized by Daily Lit. You can see some of the commentary at #digpub.
As a book publicist dealing with authors and journalists, I can see the value of email — and I certainly don’t envision myself *not* using it — but for my sake (and for the sake of anyone with whom I might interact), I’m going to try to make more use of discussion groups. What is your favored platform for a discussion group? And what do you use it for?
Talking 2.0
Last week, The Buzz Bin wrote about Five Quick Tips for Enterprise Adoption. I’m not into the business jargon thing, but I assumed the post didn’t have anything to do with a starship. Whaddaya know — turns out I was correct. I’ve lifted a rather hefty chunk of the post because I think there are some very useful and time-saving tips here (always a good way to kick off a Monday):
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From Five Quick Tips for Enterprise Adoption:
1) Communicate using social networks. In reality, social media represents a new form of communication. For example email became an easier way to send a letter or fax. Encourage employees to communicate with the external world (such as members of the media or sales prospects), not via email, but through social networks like Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. This forces them online, and at the same time, simply replaces a task that’s already being done with another tool, and one that’s free…
2) Set up an internal blog or wiki to share links.You know that guy, the one who emails links to everyone? Well, it’s likely that you have some sort of enterprise software or can set up a free account on WetPaint or Ning that will allow employees to log into a closed network and share links. So set it up, and ask employees to share resources on the internal social wiki, blog or network instead of email everyone. It will actually increase productivity for those not clicking through, and provide a means of discussion for those who do, and a historical record/bookmark for the link.
3) Use an internal blog for project management. If you have a far flung team across several offices use a private/internal blog to provide updates on progress and solicit feedback. Again, this is another activity that’s usually done via email and Word, so you are not requiring new work, just changing the way it is delivered. You can also use a tool like Basecamp for filesharing.
4) Think people are tweeting or Facebooking during work?Some enterprises get in a real tizzy about this. But maybe instead of policing this, the right approach is to encourage microblogging across the organization with Yammer!Some companies let teams use IM or email to electronically chatter, too. Again, this is another way to harness that activity and build an enterprise wide conversation.
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And now, think good thoughts for everyone running the Boston Marathon!
You’ve got too much mail
A friend of mine sent me a link from the Los Angeles Times about the perils of too much email. Which I didn’t read for several days because I had too much email. (Not that I’m in the habit of ignoring email messages, but I have a pop-up box that gives me the subject line and first line of each message so I knew this one wasn’t urgent.)
An unnecessary Reply All, is, of course, one of the worst email-generating offenses one can commit. I thought pretty much everyone knew this. Alas. “You’re welcome” emails are also extraneous (even if that is a nice sentiment). And unless someone asks, don’t copy them on every detail of every move you make — a manager likely wants to know the end result of an action (or periodic updates along the way), not every step taken to get there.
To speed the flow / reading of email messages, I like using as specific a subject line as possible. I can’t tell you how many review copy requests I get with the subject line “Review copy request.” Guess what? I work in publicity. So that really helps, folks. That’s like someone who works in a running store being being told by customers, “I’m looking for a pair of running shoes.”
To streamline my inbox, I’m also pondering the merits of online discussion groups. Although email is still the best way to consult with someone if an issue is urgent, for ongoing discussions — such as general department issues — discussion groups can provide an efficient space to gather comments and questions and also post documents / files that might be of use to the department. Members of the discussion group can participate by logging in online, or they can participate by emailing the discussion group email address. (The latter option is particularly useful for those using Blackberries and other PDAs.)
How do you deal with an email overload? Feel free to post your comment.
NPR Books Watch — 7/25-7/31
Yesterday I set up — for the first time! — a discussion group. (Yes, I’m behind the curve on this one.) My running group often needs to make arrangements regarding races, training runs and various other issues and this results in a couple dozen email messages flying back and forth. I usually read these messages, but I often don’t have time to respond during the day. So I went to Google Groups to create a discussion group.
Online discussion groups make discussions more efficient. Members are alerted via email when a new discussion thread is created. If anyone wants to respond, they do so online, which means you have an easily searchable record of your discussion and it’s clear when replies were posted and who was the last person to respond. Since I’m new at this, I’m still trying to figure out a way for people to not receive email alerts when replies are posted (since the object is to keep clutter out of our inboxes) …
Regarding the privacy of these discussions, I can’t vouch for the security of these sites — nor am I particularly concerned about people knowing which marathon I’m running next — but you can create a private, invite-only group that is not searchable online. For now, I’d say email is the preferred method of contact for any urgent issues, but I encourage you to explore discussion groups as an alternate method of communicating for any collaborative issues that are not extremely time-sensitive.
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Here are the NPR interviews for this week. Anyone who emails me the imprints of all the books listed (or houses if no imprint is available) will win the NPR Books Grid for the prior week that includes, in addition to the information below, interviewer, pub date, imprint, post-interview Amazon ranking, pre-interview ranking (if the book was mentioned on Shelf Awareness and I was able to look up the number before the interview), and interview hyperlink.
TOTAL book stories: 21
All Things Considered: 5
Day to Day: 1
Fresh Air: 4 (Maureen Corrigan reviewed three books in one piece)
Morning Edition: 2
NPR.org: 4
Talk of the Nation: 4
Tell Me More: 1
| All Things Considered | Three Books … / True Tales Of Piracy And Plunder | |||
| All Things Considered | Agitator’s Daughter, The | Sheryll | Cashin | History |
| All Things Considered | In Character / Auntie Mame | |||
| All Things Considered | Three Books … / Three Books That Rock | |||
| All Things Considered | Jackie Ormes | Nancy | Goldstein | Biography |
| Day to Day | A la Cart | Hillary | Carlip | Popular Culture |
| Fresh Air | Traffic | Tom | Vanderbilt | Popular Culture |
| Fresh Air | U.S. vs. Them | Peter | Scoblic | Politics |
| Fresh Air | Book Reviews / Power Stronger Than Itself, A | George | Lewis | Entertainment |
| Fresh Air | Lincolns, The | Daniel | Epstein | History |
| Fresh Air | Alfred & Emily | Doris | Lessing | Literary Fiction |
| Fresh Air | Furious Improvisation | Susan | Quinn | History |
| Morning Edition | Know Your Power | Nancy | Pelosi | Memoir |
| Morning Edition | Guernsey Literay, The … | Mary Ann | Shaffer | Literary Fiction |
| NPR.org | Books We Like / Senselessness | Horacio | Castellanos | Poetry |
| NPR.org | BluesMan | Rob | Vollmar | Graphic Novel |
| NPR.org | Books We Like / Broccoli and Other Tales … | Lara | Vapnyar | Literary Fiction |
| NPR.org | Books We Like / My Name Is Will | Jess | Winfield | Literary Fiction |
| Talk of the Nation | Likeness, The | Tana | French | Mystery |
| Talk of the Nation | Black Tower, The | Louis | Bayard | Mystery |
| Talk of the Nation | Unthinkable | Amanda | Ripley | Health |
| Talk of the Nation | Moose | Stephanie | Klein | Memoir |
| Tell Me More | In Character / Uncle Tom’s Cabin |
What to expect from online message boards
Message boards and discussion groups (which now include Twitter) are an excellent way to engage with people who have similar interests and for this reason, book publicists often encourage authors to explore and participate in appropriate online venues. But message board newbies would be wise to note that online companions don’t always play nice. Let me provide an example. (And no, this example does not involve a certain South by Southwest panel going, well, south.)
About a year ago, shortly after Katie Holmes finished the New York City marathon in just under five-and-a-half hours (putting her in the bottom 15 percent of women her age), I made an admittedly rude comment on a running message board about Suri probably being able to crawl that fast. I also found fault with the commonly-held notion that marathons are somehow the gold standard of fitness (I think being, well, fit is the gold standard of fitness — whatever “fit” means to an individual) and said I thought marathons — a supremely unnatural 26.2 miles of exertion — should be reserved for faster, fitter runners. In an all-that-matters-is-you-crossed-the-finish-line age, this did not go down well.
Let me share with you a few gems from the comment thread (but before I do, let me just say, sic, sic and sic):
“Thanks, sweety, for insulting all 5 hour marathoners.”
And file this one under Bang-Head-Against-Brick-Wall:
“You can attempt to explain yourself as much as you want, but you are still wrong.”
And the crowning glory:
“… you’re basically a d**k … you simply need to STFU!!!!! Anything else will make you look like a bigger idiot than you’re already coming off as.”
For those of you unschooled in the ways of online abbreviations and wondering what “STFU” means, let me just hint that the first and last words are “shut” and “up.” I think you can fill in the blanks. Of the 56 other comments, about 55 averaged somewhere between indignant and condescending.
Although message boards do attract people of similar interests, this online interaction provides a shield of anonymity, which some interpret as a license to be rude. In the most extreme cases, “trolls” incite ”flamewars.” (In this instance, I’m not sure I’d classify the commenters as trolls — who deliberately seek to be contrary or cruel — or simply as semi-literate.)
Another feature of message boards you should keep in mind is that only a fraction of people who read them ever comment. (Readers who never comment are known as “lurkers.”) So there might have been 59 comments to my Rude Comment About Katie Holmes, but the message thread garnered more than 17,000 views. Yes. 17. Thousand. Keep this in mind if you’re a blogging author who fears no one reads your posts. And if you’re someone who reads message boards but doesn’t comment, give it a whirl. You’re interested enough in the topic to visit the site — why not interact with others who share your views (or who don’t share your views)? Make yourself heard (preferably once you know the style and tone of the group).
For every wacky person out there, there are many who participate in ideological rather than personal debates, whose arguments are measured and sound and professional. Whose views are enlightening and from whom you can learn. These are the people with whom you should engage for informative and productive discourse. As for the others, ignore them. Then wait and make fun of them on your blog.
Have you had any particularly good (or atrocious) experiences with message boards? Do share.
March 31, 2009 Posted by Yen | Discussion Groups, Miscellaneous | commenting, message boards | 8 Comments