Category: ideas

IAOCblog’s fall season under way

It seems kind of weird to be writing about a “fall season” for a blog. That sounds more fitting for television programming. But David Reich, the interim executive director of the International Association of Online Communicators (IAOC), wrote to tell me about some online programming that might be of interest to my fellow higher ed marketers, so I’m helping to spread the word.

Reich’s organization sponsors This Week on IAOCblog, a series of weekly online discussions about the “hot topics and trends in Internet marketing communications.” The fall season kicked off on Sept. 24 with a guest-blog appearance by Peter A. Gloor of MIT’s Sloan School of Management, who blogged about analyzing workplace communications. The season continues next week with the lineup of guest-bloggers posted below.

“The program is free and open for PR, marketing and online communications professionals, educators and students as well as anyone interested in discussing hot topics and trends in Internet marketing communications,” Reich writes.

So here’s the lineup.

October 15-19, 2007
GUEST: Dave Taylor, Blogsmart, Ask Dave Taylor
TOPIC: Is It Okay to Get Paid to Blog?

October 22-26, 2007
GUEST: Ted Demopoulos, Blogging for Business
TOPIC: Should CEOs Blog?

October 29-November 2, 2007
GUEST: Dianna Huff, Marcom Writer Blog
TOPIC: Writing Search Engine Friendly Copy

November 5-9, 2007
GUEST: Lois Kelly, Foghound [Applause-ed.]
TOPIC: Conversational Marketing: Mood over Matter?

November 13-16, 2007
(Monday, Nov. 12 is Veteran’s Day)
GUEST: Shel Horowitz, Ethical Marketing Expert
TOPIC: Blogger’s Code of Ethics: News or Ruse?

Dealing with information overload: email-free Fridays

As I get ready to face the coming work week, and the inevitable crush of email notes, calendar scheduling and round-robin electronic Q&A, I’m thinking that the suggestion of “email-free Fridays,” as described in this USA Today report about email overload (link via AdPulp), looks pretty good.

email_surge.gifToday about 150 engineers at chipmaker Intel (INTC) will kick off “Zero E-mail Fridays.” E-mail isn’t forbidden, but everyone is encouraged to phone or meet face-to-face. The goal is more direct, free-flowing communication and better exchange of ideas, Intel principal engineer Nathan Zeldes says in a company blog post.

E-mail-free Fridays already are the norm at cell carrier U.S. Cellular (UZG) and at order-processing company PBD Worldwide Fulfillment Services in Alpharetta, Ga.

I’ve been trying to fight email bloat by keeping the inbox closed for most of the day and checking email just twice a day, as suggested by The low-information diet (PDF). But it doesn’t always work out. It’s too easy to slip into the old habit of leaving Outlook open and checking for messages every 10 minutes or so.

How do you fight the email monster? Do any of you have a campuswide or departmental policy to shut down email from time to time? If so, I’d love to hear how it’s working.