The math of an Email chain letter
Posted: December 10, 2011 Filed under: economy, email, networking, social responsibility, spam, writing | Tags: chain letters, email, spam 1 Comment »It’s been entirely too long since we posted here (sort of the issue of the cobbler’s kids, I know…). Something occurred this evening that I just had to address.
You’ve seen them before: the email chain letters that are full of wonderful intentions, loving messages, prayers… and a request to forward it THIS MINUTE to at least eight people.
I receive an insane volume of email every day, and messages like this that (however well intentioned) amount to chain letters, represent a drain on both the recipients’ time and the email services through which these messages flow.
As a long-time IT professional, I have seen firsthand what an impact this can have on the technology infrastructure, as well as its impact on people’s time and productivity.
Do the math for a moment: if every person on a list of only seven people sent out eight copies as exhorted in one such message, that’s 56 copies just in the first pass. If in turn each of those people send out eight copies, that’s 448. Eight again, and it’s 3584. Another eight, and you have 28,672. Eight each of those makes 229,376. And when those people send out eight copies, you’ve got 1,835,008. So in only six generations of emails, you have over a million being sent…within only minutes if everyone on those lists responds quickly as directed. That’s a million sets of eyeballs reading a message that they have probably received before (I’ve seen this particular example circulating for years). The original sender probably means well, but this is an enormous burden both technically and personally.
Technically, in a “perfect storm” of such responses, it could actually result in an email sending service being overwhelmed. Perhaps less dramatically, but possibly more damaging over a longer period of time, you could actually be dinged by your email provider for sending out SPAM. Yep, it’s true. You could be blacklisted if enough people report it as unsolicited bulk email–the rules are strict and getting more strict by the year.
Frankly, I’d rather hear REAL news, from YOU to ME, telling me how you are (and you are well, I hope!).
It took me five minutes to write this. If all 1,835,008 people spent five minutes, that would be 9,175,040 minutes, or 152,917 hours, or 6,371 days, or 17.45 years spent away from family, community efforts, rest, meditation, music, art, etc.
I’d rather sing or cook. 
Thanks, and be well. Really!
Rebekkah
marketing in tough times
Posted: July 16, 2009 Filed under: blogging, community, economy, marketing, networking, social media Leave a comment »
Social Networking can be a great marketing tool!
We hear it over and over again, and see expanding proof of its truth: times are tough, and it looks like they will be for a while. A few months ago, I was pooh-pooing this fact (and for a while we got reports that “everything’s getting better right now!”), but the evidence is striking closer and closer to home, most recently in the form of massive layoffs in my home town (it was a few months ago, and the effects are dramatically evident now in the form of house foreclosures, empty storefronts, and so on). What do you do when you’re trying to stay afloat? How do you market your business and stand apart from your competition, who might be doing what you do, but at a discount?
the power of community
Posted: March 19, 2009 Filed under: clients, design, economy | Tags: AIG, AIG scandal, bailout, business ethics, Cafe Femenino, coffee, community, compassion, economy, ethic, ethics, Haven House, local economy, obama, president, trickle-down economics, Vienna Coffee Company 1 Comment »
Haven House web site relaunched 18 March
Today we re-launched Haven House‘s web site (http://www.havenhousetn.org) with an upgraded version of the Joomla! content management system. We’re particularly excited about this launch!
The design of the site is mostly the same as the previous version, with a few minor enhancements, but that’s not what gets us so excited.
What really has us going is that we added a shopping cart.
What does an online shopping cart have to do with domestic violence?
For the first time, Haven House has an online platform to raise money for the shelter and raise awareness in the community in one fell swoop. We’ve started with a few items: an upcoming benefit ride, a car magnet, and awareness bracelets. Best of all, Haven House is offering Café Femenino coffee, with the help of another SheTech and Company client, Vienna Coffee Company.
Coffee?
Yes, coffee.
Every once in a while, a project or idea comes along that truly represents the “everyone wins” model. Café Femenino is one such project, and in this case, benefits the community here at home and the global community.
Let’s start at home
A portion of the proceeds from the sale of Café Femenino either through the Haven House web site or through Vienna Coffee Company, directly benefits Haven House. This helps pay operating expenses and other costs associated with both maintaining the shelter and building awareness in the community.
Also, given that Vienna Coffee Company is a local business, the sale of the coffee helps maintain our own economy here at home.
Now let’s expand our view
Women now make up nearly 30% of the coffee growers in the world, while still having far fewer rights than men in their local communities. In response to this inequity, Café Femenino was formed as a coalition to help women growers gain the same rights as their male counterparts. The coalition, which started in Peru, now represents women coffee growers around the world. It has helped build social programs and support networks, aiding these women in their struggles against poverty and abuse.
Now take an even longer view
The coffee grown by Café Femenino producers is not only certified Fair Trade coffee, it is organic. So the communities in which the coffee is grown benefit as economic inequalities are remedied, and organic growing practices help ensure that the environment is cared for, promising a cleaner future for the green earth and its people and–let’s bring it back home–buyers get coffee that is free of damaging and dangerous chemicals.
See? Everybody wins.
The common good
In light of all the news about the economy, the shocking AIG bonuses in particular, we need to remember that ethical decisions are those made with the common good at their center. In his reaction to the AIG scandal, President Obama used the word “ethic”, which very few reporters seem to be picking up. “Ethic” does have a place in economic policy–or it should! It’s the lack of ethic that has gotten us into this pickle.
On a daily basis, in our normal, everyday lives, our community should be at the heart of our decisions. There’s nothing at all wrong with monetary gain; however, “Does it serve the greater good?” should be the question we always pose to ourselves. At top levels, for decades (centuries? millenia?) failed policies have been rationalized with a failed model (sometimes called the “trickle-down” theory). It doesn’t work. It hasn’t worked for a long time, and now it’s falling apart before our eyes. Greed begets greed.
And compassion begets compassion.
Let’s keep compassion at the heart of our decisions.
Learn more
Buy Café Femenino at Haven House’s web site: http://www.havenhousetn.org.
Learn more about the Café Femenino project at their web site: http://www.cafefemenino.com
the power of hope
Posted: January 5, 2009 Filed under: blogging, economy, election, marketing, networking, social media | Tags: BNI, business, Business Networking International, economy, Glenstone Galleries, Glenstone Galleries & Gifts, holiday shopping, hope, marketing Leave a comment »It’s Monday. Do you feel as though it’s a rather more extraordinary Monday than most? I do, mostly because 2009 seems to hold so much promise! There’s the same usual doomsayer news out there in the world, and yet at the same time, we are poised on the brink of a new era. The world will be watching us on January 20th.
I find myself looking around for positive signs, and they’re everywhere! One of my friends, Jack Wood–owner of Glenstone Galleries & Gifts in Maryville Tennessee–tells me that although the previous months had been frighteningly slow, December was as good as any previous December, and even better than some. He was almost too busy!
This is hopeful news.
When I was doing the miniscule bit of shopping I did for the holidays (I waited until the crowds cleared), I asked checkers how the atmosphere was at their stores, and to a person they told me that people were nicer and far more calm this year (what happened at that WalMart was a bizarre and tragic exception, it seems). Most shoppers bought fewer things and took more time to consider carefully what they were buying.
For most of my friends, it was the same: less of the shopping frenzy and more care and consideration. Hand-made gifts made something of a comeback this year, and at least in the people I know, so did a real sense of the season: giving not just for the sake of giving, but for the sake of love and a sense of the miraculous.
This, too, is hopeful news.
Now as we begin the New Year in earnest (though many of us worked, it still felt like a holiday), there is a sense that things are going to get better–and perhaps already are.
BNI button: "I refuse to participate in a recession"
In our region of BNI (Business Networking International) here in East Tennessee–and probably elsewhere–we have been wearing buttons declaring I refuse to participate in a recession and you know what? I think it’s working! Really. Think about it: does all the bad news about the global economy affect how you do your business on a daily basis? When you stop worrying about the news, do you treat your clients/customers any differently? I would hope not. Or perhaps you treated them even better because you recognize how valuable every one of them is to your business.
And perhaps you got smarter about your marketing, cutting programs that did not work in favor of those that did. Perhaps you tried something new, whether a marketing program or a product line. Did it work? I’ll bet it did more often than not, because your creativity was put to the test.
Let’s all try something: instead of focusing on all the bad news, let’s look around and find evidence of good news. It’s everywhere. Businesses doing well, babies being born, friends recovering from illness. The more we believe there is good news, the more likely we are to participate in it ourselves.
So go out there, believe that your business is doing well, your friends are doing well, your life is going well. Believe it. Make it happen.
Happy New Year.
the trickle-down theory and why it will not work
Posted: December 18, 2008 Filed under: economy | Tags: asher edelman, bailout, economy, obama, trickle-down economics Leave a comment »Once again, our friend Asher Edelman has come out with a response to the current bailout plan. In no uncertain terms, he refutes the idea that the trickle-down economic policy will work in this case (or in any case in this country’s economic history). We are inclined to agree. Read on… Read the rest of this entry »
the power of a bailout?!
Posted: November 24, 2008 Filed under: economy | Tags: asher edelman, economy Leave a comment »This is a repost from a friend, Asher Edelman, who has particular insight into the economy. We agree with him that the economy will not be helped by propping up failing financial institutions without making them responsible for their failings, and without helping the people who are being harmed. A strong economy is dependent on a vibrant middle class — and that middle class is the group most beset by the current financial crisis. Please feel free to pass along Mr. Edelman’s insights to whomever expresses an interest, and to those who may actually have some influence over the current flailing going on at the high levels where these decisions are being made
the power of the economy
Posted: October 7, 2008 Filed under: economy, marketing | Tags: economy, marketing Leave a comment »With all the fearmongering going on right now about how awful the economy is, one thing that a lot of people forget is that it comes and goes. Like everything in our existence, the economy goes in cycles, pendulum swings if you will. Read the rest of this entry »
Rebekkah Hilgraves
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Peter Mancini
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the power of yes
Posted: January 11, 2009 | Author: Rebekkah Hilgraves | Filed under: blogging, design, economy, election, marketing, networking, search engine friendly, social media, writing | Tags: customer service, customer support, economy, good news, language, news, positive attitude, social commentary, social media, social network | 2 Comments »Why are we so fond of bad news? It’s like that morbid compulsion to crane your neck at an auto accident to see if–heaven forbid!–anyone was seriously injured, and then breathe a sigh of relief that it wasn’t you (though if you crane your neck far enough, it might be!). We watch the headlines with the same morbid fascination, shaking our heads and clucking our tongues at some stranger’s (or strangers’) misfortunes.
We watch and drool…until the bad news finds its way to our doorstep.
Read the rest of this entry »