Check Your Email Please
As part of my social media advisory business I send out a monthly newsletter. This month I noticed something as I reviewed my mailing list. I was surprised to find dozens of people on my list that still have old school mailing addresses. We are talking AOL, Hotmail and others. Not only do some of these people possess these addresses, but they publicly display them on professional social networking sites, such as LinkedIn, as well as their business websites.
First impressions matter, and often people’s first impression of you is via Email, or a display of your email address. The first impression these folks are giving is that I am older and not very technologically savvy. In a business world where digital is everything, and ageism is rampant, this is the last impression you should give.
The movie “You’ve Got Mail” came out in 1998, near the peak of AOL’s business, which steadily declined in the new millennium. Ten years later, articles started appearing about how old-fashioned AOL users were. Now, 20 years later, why are folks still using these outdated addresses? I asked a few of my subscribers, and here is a sampling of their response.
“I didn’t think it really mattered.” I wish it didn’t, but it does! Another common response included “inertia.” One person told me “Warren Buffett doesn’t even have an Email address!” Yes, but Warren Buffett became one of the richest men in the world BEFORE email was even invented.
Lastly, some said “my current AOL (or Hotmail) account is established with my friends, family and business associates. I don’t want to lose those contacts.” This is a fair, but manageable concern. No-one wants to disrupt connections unnecessarily. But you can keep the same address for current contacts while presenting a contemporary one for new ones.
AOL users can set up a Gmail account that forwards messages from your AOL address to your new Gmail account. Old friends and colleagues don’t have to change addresses, while you look contemporary to new people. Hotmail users can do something similar with more contemporary Outlook addresses.
If you have an AOL or Hotmail Email address, it is time to come into the 21st century. A contemporary e-mail address will improve the impression that you make with new friends and colleagues.
Now, can we talk about that MySpace account?
With a decades-long career in marketing at brands like Bank of America, Taco Bell and Popeyes Chicken, Tim has been involved in social media for more than a decade. When social media consisted only of blogging, he started the social media function at Wells Fargo, which was the first bank to blog and the first bank on Twitter. He and his team coached senior executives on the impact and use of the then new medium as the bank weathered the reputation challenges of the financial crisis.
At Grisdale Advisors, Tim takes a customized, collaborative, research-based approach to coach C-Suite Executives on the safe and effective use of social media to grow their professional brands and further their careers. He helps Executives develop and implement an appropriate social media plan based their objectives. Finally, he works to identify and manage roadblocks to participation, such as time, knowledge and risk.
Tim's client engagements typically take around six weeks. They are designed to get the Executive up and running on social media. Based on the Executive's objectives, this includes a content plan, platform recommendations, set up and training. After six weeks, you will have the strategy, resources and knowledge to be a social media rock star.|With a decades-long career in marketing at brands like Bank of America, Taco Bell and Popeyes Chicken, Tim has been involved in social media for more than a decade. When social media consisted only of blogging, he started the social media function at Wells Fargo, which was the first bank to blog and the first bank on Twitter. He and his team coached senior executives on the impact and use of the then new medium as the bank weathered the reputation challenges of the financial crisis.
At Grisdale Advisors, Tim takes a customized, collaborative, research-based approach to coach C-Suite Executives on the safe and effective use of social media to grow their professional brands and further their careers. He helps Executives develop and implement an appropriate social media plan based their objectives. Finally, he works to identify and manage roadblocks to participation, such as time, knowledge and risk.
Tim's client engagements typically take around six weeks. They are designed to get the Executive up and running on social media. Based on the Executive's objectives, this includes a content plan, platform recommendations, set up and training. After six weeks, you will have the strategy, resources and knowledge to be a social media rock star.|With a decades-long career in marketing at brands like Bank of America, Taco Bell and Popeyes Chicken, Tim has been involved in social media for more than a decade. When social media consisted only of blogging, he started the social media function at Wells Fargo, which was the first bank to blog and the first bank on Twitter. He and his team coached senior executives on the impact and use of the then new medium as the bank weathered the reputation challenges of the financial crisis.
At Grisdale Advisors, Tim takes a customized, collaborative, research-based approach to coach C-Suite Executives on the safe and effective use of social media to grow their professional brands and further their careers. He helps Executives develop and implement an appropriate social media plan based their objectives. Finally, he works to identify and manage roadblocks to participation, such as time, knowledge and risk.
Tim's client engagements typically take around six weeks. They are designed to get the Executive up and running on social media. Based on the Executive's objectives, this includes a content plan, platform recommendations, set up and training. After six weeks, you will have the strategy, resources and knowledge to be a social media rock star.
At Grisdale Advisors, Tim takes a customized, collaborative, research-based approach to coach C-Suite Executives on the safe and effective use of social media to grow their professional brands and further their careers. He helps Executives develop and implement an appropriate social media plan based their objectives. Finally, he works to identify and manage roadblocks to participation, such as time, knowledge and risk.
Tim's client engagements typically take around six weeks. They are designed to get the Executive up and running on social media. Based on the Executive's objectives, this includes a content plan, platform recommendations, set up and training. After six weeks, you will have the strategy, resources and knowledge to be a social media rock star.|With a decades-long career in marketing at brands like Bank of America, Taco Bell and Popeyes Chicken, Tim has been involved in social media for more than a decade. When social media consisted only of blogging, he started the social media function at Wells Fargo, which was the first bank to blog and the first bank on Twitter. He and his team coached senior executives on the impact and use of the then new medium as the bank weathered the reputation challenges of the financial crisis.
At Grisdale Advisors, Tim takes a customized, collaborative, research-based approach to coach C-Suite Executives on the safe and effective use of social media to grow their professional brands and further their careers. He helps Executives develop and implement an appropriate social media plan based their objectives. Finally, he works to identify and manage roadblocks to participation, such as time, knowledge and risk.
Tim's client engagements typically take around six weeks. They are designed to get the Executive up and running on social media. Based on the Executive's objectives, this includes a content plan, platform recommendations, set up and training. After six weeks, you will have the strategy, resources and knowledge to be a social media rock star.|With a decades-long career in marketing at brands like Bank of America, Taco Bell and Popeyes Chicken, Tim has been involved in social media for more than a decade. When social media consisted only of blogging, he started the social media function at Wells Fargo, which was the first bank to blog and the first bank on Twitter. He and his team coached senior executives on the impact and use of the then new medium as the bank weathered the reputation challenges of the financial crisis.
At Grisdale Advisors, Tim takes a customized, collaborative, research-based approach to coach C-Suite Executives on the safe and effective use of social media to grow their professional brands and further their careers. He helps Executives develop and implement an appropriate social media plan based their objectives. Finally, he works to identify and manage roadblocks to participation, such as time, knowledge and risk.
Tim's client engagements typically take around six weeks. They are designed to get the Executive up and running on social media. Based on the Executive's objectives, this includes a content plan, platform recommendations, set up and training. After six weeks, you will have the strategy, resources and knowledge to be a social media rock star.
Latest posts by Tim Collins (see all)
- Your Privacy in the Wake of the Facebook Cambridge Analytica Scandal - April 29, 2018
- Social Media Is Dead! Long Live Blockchain Social Media! - April 9, 2018
- Do You Know What Your Reputation Is? - February 27, 2018
