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What is a mailinglist and what do you do with it? |
| It is a piece of software, running on an internet-server,
enabling a group of people to communicate per email and build up
a community. Every member can address all of the members with a simple email at any time. To give a few ideas about the range of subjects, discussed in mailinglists, I checked a directory and picked a few: |
 A
discussion list for current and future English teachers in Poland. A discussion
list for employee's of the casino business A discussion
of issues relating to sales and marketing in the worldwide online
marketplace A discussion
of Judaism and psychology A forum
for discussing Australian/Jewish issues and events. A forum
for fostering better communication between different English speaking
cultures. A forum
to discuss customer service ... both good and bad. A friendly
place for fans and players of Lowden guitars. A list
for college students studying to be Teachers. A mailing
list community of depressed adults. A Mailing
List for Discussing Anything Involving Rottweilers! A place
for people to discuss all aspects of the Kansas City Chiefs football
team. A place
for those who love to garden, but have postage-stamp sized yards. About
Fieldwork in Market Research and Social Research |
| This list is just meant to outline the range of themes and matters 100,000 groups worldwide discuss in mailinglists. |
| What actually happens is exchange of information, recommendations, request for assistance und answers, discussion. The technique is used within companies for the interaction of teams spread about different buildings, regions, time-zones too. |
So how does this really work - an example: |
| Person A is doing webdesign und the customer
wants the site burn on a CD. Person A want the CD to start by itself,
does not know how to do this und posts an e-mail to an appropriate
list (380 self-employed members, many of those working intensely
with and by internet). All of the members receive the message within
a few minutes. After 8 minutes everybody gets the first answer to
the question. But this answer is just presenting a non-professional
work-around. 22 minutes after the first posting the next answer arrives, giving hints that there is definitely a smart solution available, but the author is not sure about the right software and gives suitable keywords to look at www.google.com, 27 Minutes after the original posting the answer is send out to everybody: This time suitable software is named plus the internet-link, where to get it (the software is free) plus Details about the approximate downloading-time. The discussion could have stopped here, but in the world of internet this is the point where it really starts to get interesting: |
| A further member of the list gives hints, nobody
asked for: When you have to hand over your product without having
received money yet, be careful and protect your product, so that
everybody can see it, but not change and publish ist under his own
authorship. A link to suitable software was given in this context
too. 80 Minutes after the original posting another professional makes a remark, that all of the software named so far runs on Macs only. Who knows, if the customer is a PC- or a Mac-user, be careful, what you are doing. Mac-users tend to be forgotten. |
| This is just a small example, other run with dozens of mails for days. |
| Being member of a mailinglist in your field of interest, serves you with a lot of ideas and further-education, you did not know it was available and you did not expect it to be important. |
| So in daily life, receiving a lot of emails out of a list, you will definitely just cancel a lot of messages, because the matter does not meet your interests. But you will find a lot of other messages which are interesting to you and you have the free chance to exchange ideas to these. |
| Usually these communities establish an atmosphere of helpfulness and fun, which usually turns out to be very inspiring. |
Technique and requirements |
| Concerning the members, there is not much technical
knowledge required. Simple handling of email is sufficient plus getting
used to the usual rules of such a project. An administrator is necessary and this is the person to handle the technical setup, give members some assistance how to handle the list and keep some control on the content people send to each other and control membership. |
Rules for a mailinglist |
| Successful projects are based on a set of rules,
every member has to stick to. Those are: Use a
clear title for your mails to the list, so everybody can decide right
away, if this is interesting to him or just delete it. Do not
send advertisements. When everybody keeps using the list for advertising
his offers, everybody will be bored soon. Send
messages matching the common interest of the list only. |
Prospects |
| Mailinglists belong to the field of ‘social
software’, enabling people to communicate any matter out of
their daily business from any location at any time. Active membership (asking questions and offering support to other members) will enhance your marketing, because you act in public. Running a list oneself makes you the host for an inspiring community in your field of business. You can make your customers discuss (the handling of) your products in your list. Membership is usually free of charge, the costs of hosting depend on traffic (number and size of emails per month) and the number of members. |
| I have been involved in web-networking for about 5 years. Membership at i-worker (1,000 internet-professionals), webgrrls (500 women in new media), my own mailinglist mediacoaching (380 self employed women all over germany), de.etc.beruf.selbstaendig (business consultants) and a few more gave me assistance in all the ups and downs of building up my own business. |
| If you are interested in setting up a mailinglist for your business or in enhancing your marketing by active membership in lists, do not hesitate to contact me. |
Do not hesitate
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