11
SHAWENON COMMUNICATIONS
Effective Messaging
No. 91
October, 2013


I always think of autumn as a time of new life. There's back to school and the Jewish New Year and winter upcoming. You can see I'm dressed in my winter Web Words clothes. Also, I'll soon have a new life as a published author. I'm writing for Berkshire Magazine. I'll have two articles in the Winter issue--out late in November. I'll remind you to check it out next month.

There's new life in this issue, too. The first article is a success story about a new client. Her offering is a laboratory designed to find your way to a larger life. And the second article talks about a new life experience--as a mobile-phone walker in New York City.

Last month's issue with the final five iPhone tips was a big hit. And I'm still offering free consulting for new Constant Contact customers. Details here.

Finally, if you're in the Albany area, please join me at the Consulting Alliance's annual Roadmap to Results interactive symposium on October 29. It's on one of my favorite topics--innovation and creativity.

I'm on Facebook and Twitter. Follow me.


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In This Issue
Best Case - A success story
Cell City - New York with phones
Web Tips - Photo editing
Save Time
Best Case
It all began with a casual conversation at a social gathering on a Sunday. We met the next day and a week later, Phoebe Williams of Berkshire Life Coaching had sent out her first mailing. A staggering 51% of the recipients opened the communication. Less than two weeks later, she announced the beginning of her workshop series.

Everything came together perfectly. Phoebe had a need--she wanted to invite people to intros for her new workshop series "Finding Your Way--A Six-week Experiential Workshop." I need new Constant Contact customers and am offering free consulting for the first mailing. Since Phoebe had already designed a flyer for the events, the time-consuming creative work was done.

Support

"I felt like I had a supportive team working with me," Phoebe says of the experience. "Susanna knows the lay of the land. I trusted everything she advised me to do. She is confident, direct, calm and highly capable.

"I had Constant Contact's amazingly available phone support to help me with the mechanics. They worked with me until I was totally satisfied aesthetically. Each person I spoke to was patient, generous and polite. They clearly enjoy their work."

Phoebe called Constant Contact for help at least once for every mailing. Their support personnel are available by phone from 7 AM until 11 PM Mon. to Thurs., Fri. 7 AM to 9 PM and from 10 AM to 8 PM on weekends.

"With the anxiety removed about technical difficulties, Susanna and I could focus on getting my message out. Because there was a commitment to seeing me through the first mailing, I was relaxed about the process. It was a gracious way to work," Phoebe adds.

I had fun, too. Truth is--I love doing this work.

Offer Extended

I'm extending the offer for another month, so it now expires on November 13 OR when I get six new customers. The spaces are filling fast so if you're interested, be in touch now.

Cell City 

I was in New York in September. It was one of those sparkly blue-sky days we've been having this fall. I had just come from an especially challenging meeting and felt I had done a very good job. It was a little early for champagne, so I toasted with a latte at a trendy coffee bar not far from Grand Central.

My next event was in the seventies, and I decided to do the New York thing and walk.

Mobiles on the Move

I landed on Madison Avenue in a sea of walking talking bodies. Everyone was on their cell phone. I decided to join them since I wanted to give a full report of the meeting to a colleague on the project. At first I found a quiet place to sit and talk. But then I decided to keep walking and found myself one with the others moving up the street. I was in my conversation and even though others could overhear what I was saying, no one was listening, or so I thought. I was careful at intersections where distracted people were facing off against impatient car drivers.

Then I said something particularly colorful and an impeccably suited young man turned to look at me. I made eye contact with him and mouthed a little more information. He smiled broadly and we both went on our way.

It was a rather heady experience for a country mouse like me. But then I remembered a similar day many, many years ago when I lived in New York and I was walking on another heavily populated street overhearing bits and pieces of conversations. But it wasn't the same thing. Those were conversations among people present. These are half conversations with people mostly not present.

Much has been written about how our attachment to our cell phones is changing not only our interactions with others, but even our introspections. In quiet times, we used to contemplate. Now we look at our email, send a text or check Facebook. Not long ago I saw some friends at a restaurant with their adult offspring. Everyone at the table was engaged with their cell phone.

Solutions

I like the following strategies. Our family in Marietta, GA has a no cells at meals rule that works even with teenagers in the family. And here's the best, from Craig Crawford, someone two generations younger than I. When he and his friends go out to dinner, they all put their cell phones on the table. The first person to pick up the phone during the meal gets to pay the entire check. He says it works.
Web Tips

Tips2

If you are using your iPhone or iPad to take photos, you need Snapseed to edit your pictures. Developed by Nik Software, which Google acquired a year ago, the app is free.

Snapseed comes with a sample photo that you can play with to learn how it works. Besides the obvious cropping and rotating, the product allows for very sophisticated changes of contrast and saturation. You can even select one section of your photo to enhance.

Snapseed lets you compare your changes and all the work is done on a copy of your photo, so you don't have to fear that you'll endanger the original. The interface takes a little getting used to, but there are a plethora of tutorials online to help you learn how it works.   

And Finally . . .

Shawenon Communications collaborates with small businesses, solopreneurs, professionals and not-for-profits to get their messages across in the written word.


We specialize in electronic communications, including e-zines and other forms of email marketing, Web sites and social media.  We also ghostwrite articles and other business communications. As a solution provider, we resell www.shawenon.com

 

 

Sincerely,
First name
Susanna Opper
Shawenon Communications
413-528-6494


Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.
Save Time 
SO turtleneck cropped
People often ask me, "Should I have a blog or a newsletter?" My answer is, "Yes, you should have both." But then how do they work together?

Check out Flashissue, a blog and content curating application. It's a free content manager that lets you summarize and link to your blog in your newsletter. Their promo says it's "Perfect for someone strapped for time."

Let me know how I can help you with Constant Contact.


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