Email frequency

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The surprising data about how often to send promotional emails - Campaign Monitor

Before you send an email, ask yourself, “what value does my subscriber gain from receiving this message?” and “How can I provide the most value to the subscriber by making this relevant to them?”

Montana / Yellowstone 2015

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Took Ethan to Montana and Yellowstone - I was at Big Sky, MT for the National Extension Technology Conference (#netc2015). I managed to give a few presentations and attend a bunch more...when I wasn't playing!

Toolbox too big???

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I'm working on a project looking at the integration of Qualtrics survey software with our Salesforce CRM platform. One of the questions that keeps coming to mind, is what problem will it solve that I can't solve with tools we already have, like Form Assembly. I was hoping it would enable offline data collection, but that feature appears to be incompatible with the Salesforce integration. I like that Qualtrics allows our end users to collect information, but I'm not sure they will be comfortable with connecting to Salesforce - several hoops to jump through.

This got me thinking about how various technologies have given us multiple ways to solve each problem. Finding the right solution is highly dependent on the particular use case, the comfort level of the user, cost, etc. 

I think folks get irritated when I offer multiple ways to address an issue, they want one blanket recommendation or "best practice." Too bad there isn't one...

Crisis?

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Is student loan debt really a crisis?

Research by the New York Federal Reserve Bank found that 35% of students with less than $5,000 in debt defaulted within six years, twice the rate of students with more than $100,000 in debt.

Additionally, these students with low debt amounts and low earnings are disproportionately likely to be dropouts. Sixty-three percent of students who started college in 2003-04 and defaulted on their loans by 2009 were college dropouts, while students with a bachelor’s or associate degree were only 4% of defaults.

Battling “permanent receptivity”

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The value of unplugging in the Age of Distraction

There is also something sadder at work. The constant messaging, emailing and cellphoning, especially in public places, may be less about communicating with the people on the other end as about signaling to those around that you are so busy or so important, so connected, that you exist in more than just the here and now, clearly a diminished state of just being.

There’s greater status in being highly connected and constantly communicating. This may explain why many people speak so loudly on their cellphones in public places.

Sometimes it seems that our use of devices and social media is about chasing after something, distant from us, that will alter the spot where we are. Disconnecting for periods of time may be a bit Zen - simply being in the moment, where we are, and who we are. I find myself struggling to do this myself.