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Consider the following scenarios: Fran is director of
communications at a New York City bank and is struggling with the right
components for an internal customer services program. If only she could
brainstorm with others who have implemented similar programs, she would
be able to design a more appropriate training. Peter manages sales
for a division of a Fortune 100 chemical company and has been inundated
with sales brochures since announcing his intention to standardize on a
contact management system for his post-sales support group. If only he
could gather a sampling of actual customer experiences, it would help
him sort out the decisions he needs to make from the marketing hype. Nancy left her Wall
Street job to become CIO at a dotcom start-up in Cupertino, CA. The
technical aspects of the job are going well, but she could sure use some
perspective and support dealing with the culture shift
make that shock that
she's encountered. When every web site
you click seems designed to sell you software, a watch, a book, toys for
your children, or wants your resume posted, where can you turn to find
peers to exchange information, learn new perspectives, ask advice, and
read about what's new? Web sites aren't the only tools in the savvy
business professional's Internet toolkit. Sure, you use e-mail as well,
but your options are limited if you only send mail to people you know. Listservers work
better than managing lists yourself if the duration of your
communications with the group is longer than a week, the group is larger
than a dozen, or if more than one person needs to share information with
the group. Those are typical metrics used to select Internet mailing
lists over group addresses, no matter what size organization or e-mail
client software you happen to be using. Another benefit of
taking a few minutes to learn a new tool is that you can use listservers
for professional growth. You can exchange e-mail messages and expand
your circle of knowledge and acquaintances through Internet mailing
lists. But first, you've got to know what the buzzwords mean. Know the Lingo A listserver
(sometimes called a listserv for short back in the days that mainframe
program names could accommodate a maximum of 8 characters) is software
that manages Internet mailing lists. A listserver refers to both the
software and service provided by the software to avoid uttering awkward
sentences such as, "Hey, I can't wait to tell you about this new
listserver listserv!" Listservers
are essentially mailing lists, so where do the names and addresses come
from? Either individuals register via a web site, postcard reply form,
or e-mail, thereby opting-in to be on a list by choice. The alternative
is for an individual or organization to purchase a list of e-mail
addresses and provide the list victims or list members with the ability
to opt-out of further messages. SPAM
is unsolicited commercial e-mail, usually a pitch for a product sent to
a one-time opt-out list. Spam is easy to identify two ways: 1)
when the return address is to a bogus address, especially of a
"free mail" domain, such as hotmail.com; and 2) when the
subject line pitches instant riches, weight loss, or pornography. Typically, when you
opt-in to a list, you are sent a confirmation message that acknowledges
your membership on the list and contains other important information.
Hang onto this help file! By convention, it let's you know how cancel
your membership automatically, along with any other commands that are
available, such as changing to a digest version
a daily summary of messages from a single-message version (very
common) to seeing the list of other members (rare). Warning: Avoid
railing against spam, and that includes trying to unsubscribe from the
annoying lists. A better strategy is to simply delete the offending
message. One well-known technique spammers use is to send to random
e-mail addresses and wait for the naive to attempt to unsubscribe either
through the proscribed channel or via a polite (or not so polite) note
to the sender. All that this accomplishes is that the spammer now has a
confirmed address, which he or she can now sell to other spammers at a
higher value than an unconfirmed address. These are some of the shady
and dangerous neighborhoods of Cyberspace that these folks operate in. The person who has
ownership responsibilities of a listserver is officially referred to as
the list administrator, or listmaster (akin to webmaster). Colloquially,
however, "List Mom" and "List Dad" terms are quite
commonly used, and affectionately so. In nearly all cases, it is a
voluntary position, and done with passion for the topic, fairness to the
variety of perspectives presented, and with firmness to insure the
ongoing viability of the list. The list mom's responsibilities span the
list of administrative and content-moderation issues, including nudging
discussions back on track to keep a high signal to noise ratio. On
business-related topics, especially, participants have little tolerance
for indulging those who flout the group's standards. Often, it's safer to simply be a lurker - one who joins lists, and listens/reads for a long time before contributing. Broaden Your Horizons Listservers are
efficient for sending messages to large groups of people who have a
common interest, such as an interest in advertising campaigns, Italian
shoes, what's on sale at Nordstrom's, or the weekend supersaver fares on
United Airlines. You may already be on a listserver and not even know
it! _ How can you tell if a message is coming from a listserver? Check the reply to
line. If you find any of the following words, you've got a very good
chance that the message was transmitted through a listserver rather than
directly from an individual's e-mail: list, announce, news, enews, talk,
discussion, list(s), listserv, listserver, listmail, or digest. Advanced
tip: If the To line of the e-mail contains "subscribers, list,
group," or obvious synonyms, you're also likely looking a
listserver e-mail. We cannot say with absolute certainty that these
words in those places indicate a list serve origin because some
individual correspondent may use one of the words in an e-mail address.
Conversely, a professionally run e-mail listserver manager may either
not follow the convention or employ more sophisticated software to send
messages to each subscriber by his or her name to give the publication a
more personalized appearance, similar to a letter mail merged with a
list of addresses. _ What types of listservers are there? Just two fundamental
types of listservers exist, really: announcement (also known as
broadcast) and discussion. Announcement listservers broadcast messages
that are written or edited by a single source. A magazine, author, news
source, event manager, or professional association might take advantage
of an announcement listserver to inform, educate, and update interested
parties. Discussion
listservers allow participants to voice their own opinions and have a
self-enforcing understanding. For instance, if a particular list is
designated to discuss the Amazon business best seller of the month and a
member asks for help from the list for a volunteer willing to read their
latest business plan, then it is fair game for anyone on the list to
suggest politely (then more bluntly) that the query is off topic and to
either get back on topic or go someplace else. _ Is it better to join an existing listserver or start my own? If a list exists,
you'll have greater resources (in both number and depth) to interact
with initially. Support lists for computer tips, investment bulletins,
vacation bargain announcements sponsored by travel agencies and
airlines, and book fans abound. It is far
better to join an existing one for general knowledge and news,
since the hard work is already taken care of. The advantage of starting
your own is for specific closed-group discussions, such as your own
customers. Getting Started and Getting Better Here are the three fastest ways to get started with a listserver, in order of simplicity. 1. Ask a friend or work associate what lists he/she reads regularly and why. If a list sounds interesting to you, ask your friend to forward you one of the messages to read. In that message, you will likely find either instructions for joining, or a web site to visit to learn more about the list. 2. Get a book from your local bookstore. Go browse the aisles of Borders, Barnes & Noble, or the reviews on Amazon.com. A good starting point is the Internet Yellow Pages, which I've used in my seminars for years. 3. Visit Yahoo.com and enter the phrase "listserv" in the search field. You'll do better at
Yahoo than the other directory/search engine sites as a first step. For
more choices, also search for the term "listserver"; to narrow
your search, enter another word or phrase related to your area of
interest, such as "financial management" or "human
resources." Be sure to select one
that's relevant to your interests. Like so many other areas of business
research, it's better to find a few lists that you enjoy and participate
in and a few that you skim, than to overextend yourself and subscribe to
more lists than you could possibly read. Do's and Don'ts
for participation in professional listservers:
I've worked with enough business leaders to recommend, without qualification, that listservers are a critical way that companies in size from 1 to 100,000 can take better care of their internal and external customers. Consider this twist on the business maxim of "you're only as strong as your weakest link." Ringle's reframe says that a business is only as strong as its communications network. Challenge this
assertion with organizations you work for and belong to. Does it hold
water? Do you ever find yourself asking, "What have they done for
me lately?" Is there any excuse to not communicate when the tools
are so accessible, affordable, and widely accepted? So take the plunge. Use a listserver to enrich your knowledge, circle of influence, and business relationships. Doing so will help you connect with more valuable sources, and will be a welcome alternative from wasteful web sites and spam. |
