COMMUNICATION & How to Write Email Subject Lines that Get a Response: If you want action, you need to tell your reader what you want.

Commentary by Dr. Whitesel: More and more communication is taking place online. The weekly or monthly printed bulletin mailed to congregants has become more expensive, too time-consuming and less effective. But in this new hybrid church world, people are increasingly bombarded with more communication due to the ease of email. Therefore, here are insights for helping congregants open your email amid today’s cluttered communication channels.

“How to Write Email Subject Lines that Get a ResponseIf you want action, you need to tell your reader what you want,” by Elizabeth Danzinger, Inc. Magazine, 5/16/22

… Here are three elements to include in your subject line to trigger a response from reluctant readers.

1. Tell the reader what to do.

⁃ Tell the Reader What to Do. By writing “Please Respond” or “Action Required” at the beginning of a subject line, clients tell me that their response rates soared.  In your subject line, write phrases like:

• Please Respond

• Response Required

• Immediate Action Required

• Please Approve

• Please Confirm

• Please Respond: Closing your file.

2. Tell the reader when you need it.  

People respond to deadlines. When everything seems urgent, how do people decide whom to respond to first? Often, the message with a credible deadline moves to the top of the pile.

So your subject line might say:

• Friday Approval Needed: Purchase of new scanner

• Respond by 5:00: Audit report review

• Please Confirm Now: Lunch Today at 1:00?

3. Tell the reader why it matters to them.

Adding a “hot button” spin to the subject line will generate more responses.  How will your reader benefit by opening your email? What will it cost him to ignore you? Don’t be manipulative or salesy when you touch hot buttons. For example, you wouldn’t write Act now while supplies last! because that sounds like spam. But you could write Send docs today to avoid late fee.

If you met a person and exchanged email addresses, remind them briefly in the subject line to remind them that you are a person they want to know.

Read more at … https://www.inc.com/elizabeth-danziger/how-to-write-email-subject-lines-that-get-a-response.html

HUMOR & Young Person Is Clueless About How People Lived Before E-Mail, And His Texts With An Older Person Go Viral

by Mindaugas Balčiauskas and
Rokas Laurinavičius , BoredPanda, 10/7/20.

Kathy Torrence, 52, learned that her son, 21, is no different. Recently, he texted Kathy, asking, “How did any of college work before email?”

Read more at … https://www.boredpanda.com/college-life-before-internet-email-son-mom-exchange-kathy-torrence/

COMMUNICATION & What Email Would Look Like if We Were Face-to-face #Tripp&Tyler

Commentary by Dr. Whitesel:  Here is another humorous, but satirically poignant video by Christian humorists Tripp & Tyler.  Their short video points out how email can become bloated, cumbersome and inefficient.  It brought a smile to my face (as I think it will yours 😉

COMMUNICATION & Your Late-Night Emails Are Hurting Your Team #HarvardBusinessReview

Read more at … https://hbr.org/2015/03/your-late-night-emails-are-hurting-your-team

EMAIL & After-Hours Work Email & Texts Bug Employees

By Janice Wood Associate News Editor, PsycCentral.com, reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on March 1, 2015.

Employees who receive work-related emails and texts after hours become angry more often than not, which can interfere with their personal lives, according to a new study.

For their study, researchers surveyed 341 working adults over a seven-day period to track their feelings when they opened a work email away from the office. The researchers used Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter contacts to build their sample pool.

“People who were part of the study reported they became angry when they received a work email or text after they had gone home and that communication was negatively worded or required a lot of the person’s time,” said Marcus Butts, Ph.D., an associate professor in the College of Business at the University of Texas at Arlington and lead author of the study.

“Also, the people who tried to separate work from their personal life experienced more work-life interference. The after-hours emails really affected those workers’ personal lives.”

The researchers identified two major categories of workers: The segmentors and the integrators.

The segmentors want to keep their personal and work lives separate. Not surprisingly, workers in this category were most negatively impacted when facing after-hours work-related communications, Butt said.

The integrators want to know what is going on at work, even after-hours. They still got angry when receiving those communications, but it didn’t interfere with their personal lives, Butts reports.

The study is important because electronic communications have become a fabric of everyone’s life, noted Dr. Rachel Croson, dean of the university’s College of Business…

Some of the recommendations the researchers make include training for what to say and what not to say in an email or text, setting boundaries for when to send electronic correspondence, guidelines for proper communication style, and topics best discussed face-to-face rather than electronically.

“This is the new world of work communication, and these recommendations might work in one department of a company but not in another area of the business,” Butts said. “The key is to develop your own appropriate communications rhythm within your department.”

Butts noted that one of the most surprising findings of the study was that people who received positive electronic communications after hours were happy. However, that happiness wasn’t long-lasting…

The study was published in the Academy of Management Journal.

Source: The University of Texas at Arlington

APA Reference
Wood, J. (2015). After-Hours Work Email & Texts Bug Employees. Psych Central. Retrieved on March 8, 2015, from http://psychcentral.com/news/2015/03/01/after-hours-work-email-and-texts-anger-employees/81766.html

SOCIAL MEDIA & Checking email outside of office hours risks relationships, psychologists find

Commentary by Dr. Whitesel: “Do you find yourself checking your email after office hours? I used to, but then came upon research that shows doing so is detrimental to your family relationships and your relaxation. Read this important article and shut down the email app after business hours.”

Read more at … http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/11331293/Switching-on-outside-office-risks-relationships-psychologists-find.html

SOCIAL MEDIA & a Guide to Best Times to Tweet, Post, Blog & Email #InfoGraphic

by Belle Beth Cooper, BufferSocial, 8/28/13

…We really need more time and more studies to get definitive answers about what works best, and the fact that our audience members are constantly changing their own activity patterns makes it even harder to work out for sure… So my suggestion would be to use this guide as just that—a guide…

FACEBOOK: The following infographic from KISSmetrics and Dan Zarrella describes it well (the best time to post on Facebook):

TWITTER: Twitter engagement for brands is 17% higher on weekends according to Dan Zarrella’s research.

When we look at the time of day, retweets have been shown to be highest around 5pm.

EMAIL: In a different study by MailChimp open rates were shown to be noticeably lower on weekends.

They also found that open rates increased after 12pm, and were highest between 2pm and 5pm.

GetResponse found that Thursday is the best day for both open rates and click-throughs.

BLOG POSTS: Dan Zarrella has some more great stats on this topic…

Social Fresh suggests posting on a Thursday for more social shares across the web. Here are also more ideas to find the best time to publish blogposts.

Read more at … https://blog.bufferapp.com/best-time-to-tweet-post-to-facebook-send-emails-publish-blogposts

SOCIAL MEDIA & 10 Surprising Social Media Strategies

By Belle Beth Cooper, BufferSocial, 7/16/14

1. The fastest growing demographic on Twitter is the 55–64 year age bracket.

… Rethink it: Keep older users in mind when using social media, particularly on these three platforms. Our age makes a difference to our taste and interests, so if you’re focusing on younger users with the content you post, you could be missing an important demographic.

2. 189 million of Facebook’s users are ‘mobile only’

… Rethink it: There are probably more users accessing Facebook from mobile devices than you thought. It’s worth considering how your content displays on mobile devices and smaller screens before posting it, particularly if your target market is full of mobile users.

3. YouTube reaches more U.S. adults aged 18–34 than any cable network

… Rethink it: If you’ve been putting off adding video to your strategy, now’s the time to give it a go. You could start small with simple five minutes videos explaining what your company does or introducing your team. Source: jeffbullas.com

4. Every second 2 new members join LinkedIn

… Rethink it: LinkedIn is definitely worth paying attention to. In particular, this is a place where you may want to focus more on new users. Making your group or community a great source of information and a newbie-friendly space can help you to make the most out of the growing user base.

5. Social Media has overtaken porn as the #1 activity on the web

… Rethink it: Putting time and effort into your social media strategy clearly makes sense in light of these stats. If you weren’t already serious about social media, you might want to give it a bit more of your time now.

6. LinkedIn has a lower percentage of active users than Pinterest, Google+, Twitter and Facebook

… Rethink it: If you’re hoping to get people involved, think about which platforms are best for that. Looking at the latest Twitter statistics and Facebook statistics, these platforms might be a better place for your contest or survey, while passive content like blog posts or slide decks might be just right for your LinkedIn audience. Source: jeffbullas.com

7. 93% of marketers use social media for business

… Rethink it: If you’re struggling to make your strategy work, or you just want some advice, you don’t have to go it alone. If 93% of marketers are using social media for business, you can probably find someone to give you a hand. Source: Social Media Video 2013

8. 25% of smartphone owners ages 18–44 say they can’t recall the last time their smartphone wasn’t next to them

… Rethink it: While you can reach people almost anytime, since they have their smartphones with them almost always, this also means you can interrupt pretty much any part of their lives. Don’t forget that having a phone in your pocket all the time isn’t the same as being available all the time. Source: marketingprofs.com

9. Even though 62% of marketers blog or plan to blog in 2013, only 9% of US marketing companies employ a full-time blogger

… Rethink it: If you don’t have (or can’t afford) a full-time blogger for your business, be aware that having a content strategy that requires consistently posting on your blog will mean a lot of work for your marketing team and/or other team members in your company to keep up that volume. Source: factbrowser.com 1 and 2

10. 25% of Facebook users don’t bother with privacy settings

… Rethink it: Assuming that all of your customers are thinking along the same lines could be a big mistake. Especially if you’re basing that on what you’ve heard or read in the tech news. Remember that your customers might have very different priorities than what you expect. Source: velocitydigital.co.uk

Read more here … https://blog.bufferapp.com/10-surprising-social-media-statistics-that-will-make-you-rethink-your-strategy