A couple weeks ago, I'm pretty sure I said something about bad communication and writing a blog post about it next week (which obviously didn't happen), but it turns out I was just saving the idea for this week! One of the wonderful challenges that comes with being a student leader here at ISU is sending and receiving hundreds of emails every week. It doesn't sound to bad - just emails, right? - but you have to realize that every other student gets spammed with emails constantly. The challenge lies in making your email something that they want to read. I have discovered three tried-and-true methods of doing this, which will be presented in order from most professional to most fun!
1) Make your email sound very important. This can be achieved in a few different ways. You can be a very important person yourself. If you get an email from President Leath or Craig Zywicki, you're obviously going to read it because these are important people who wield power on campus. If you're not inherently important, you can put "URGENT" in front of your message or just write the subject in ALL CAPS! Either of these things will usually make your email sound important and therefore other students will read it!
2) Incessantly email small bits of information until all details have been given. This method is not so much effective at communicating accurate information and should not be used if the information is important (see above). However, it can be used if you are trying to keep students engaged in a club or organization. They will have to read each and every email in order to assure they are getting all the information! (As I look back at this one, it seems like less and less of a good idea. Not recommended...)
3) Add humor to your email! This method is best used for communication with students that you know well. I would not advise using it for a mass email to the entire university, but within the board of an organization (privately) or among the members of a social organization, it can be very effective and fun! Personally, I just joined a sorority, and this is where I have gotten the idea for this method. An email I received recently had the following subject line: "Being literate is a privilege so please read!" After seeing that, I laughed a little and promptly opened the email to exercise my privilege. I used this method in a sarcastic email reminding board members to fill out a Doodle poll so we could schedule our next meeting. It worked! However, this method must be used with caution in order to ensure the members read into sarcasm and don't think you are just a jerk!
Wow, that was a long blog post! If you got this far, you get a prize! It's probably not a very good one (maybe some expired coupons) ((but really, I've given those out as a prize before)). *Note the use of humor here.* It seems I have the third method down, and as the second isn't very effective I should work on the first method next! Time to become an important person!
#platypus
I think you hit it right on the head Natalie. Emailing is so vital to most communication we do now but most people don't take the time to read them seriously. It is interesting going to your first point because I know people that if they say URGENT!!! in the title actually won't read it as reverse psychology and to spite the writer of the email. It is a tricky subject because as a student leader you assume everyone uses email and uses it well because you do however other ways of communication are still extremely vital to get your message across. Especially if this involving publicity for some sort of an event. I might have to work on the humor thing more though... my emails are pretty straight and to the point maybe that will spice them up a bit.
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