Tag Archives: Email
Computer skill level
Posted on 10. Jan, 2011 by Kenny.
Here’s a hilarious look at what your email tells about you. So true… I laughed like crazy when a friend sent this to me. This comic comes courtesy of the oatmeal.
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Embed video in your email
Posted on 15. Dec, 2010 by Kenny.
“How do you embed a video into an email?” I had someone on my staff ask me that the other day. I’m not an expert on these things, so correct me if I’m wrong. I told them “You can’t, but you can trick the reader into thinking a video is embedded.” I explained my strategy for “fake video embedding” and they thought it was clever. I don’t think I came up with it… I’m pretty sure I’ve seen it in other places. Then yesterday, I got an email using the very strategy I had just talked about.
Like I said before, I’m not sure it’s possible to embed video in email, but you can embed pictures in web viewed email. You can even make the pictures links to other pages. So, simply set up the video you want played in vimeo or youtube. Take a screenshot of the video, especially if it has that “play” triangle front and center. You want the picture of the video to look really clickable… where it’s screaming, “CLICK ME!” Then insert that picture in your email and link it to the youtube or vimeo page where it is hosted. So, the video isn’t really embedded, but when the email viewer clicks it because they think it is, it quickly takes them to the video page and quickly begins playing. Ideally, we want the video to be embedded, but more importantly we just want them to watch the video. So, this tactic works. Check out the video “fake” embedded in the email I got yesterday.
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Catching up!
Posted on 20. Sep, 2010 by Kenny.
Okay, I’m a little behind on my email. I have three inboxes. One for work, one for personal and one for childrensministryonline.com. As far as priority goes, chidlrensministryonline.com is at the bottom of the stack. I’ve been amazed though how busy my CMO inbox has gotten. It’s a blessing really, I love the networking and interaction.
I’m saying all this though to let you know that I’m catching up this week and next. I have 37 unread emails in my CMO inbox right now, some of them from back when this crazy summer started. I’ll be responding to all my email, so if you’ve been waiting to hear back from me, I’m coming, I promise!
Thank you so much for this community though, I’m better for it and hope you are too!
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Email yourself… in the future!
Posted on 14. Nov, 2009 by Kenny.
Several years I came across this interesting site. Just type yourself an email and mark when you want to receive it. I decided to give it a try. I wrote myself an encouraging email set to be delivered one year into the future. I quickly forgot about the site and service. Then a year later, I was grateful to get such an encouraging email from myself. What a cool little site.
There are all kinds of applications here:
- Need to remind yourself of something to do in the future. Send yourself an email… in the future.
Okay, that’s about all I could come up with. The site is more about fun than productivity. However, I did think of one other use. When setting goal for the future, type out all the goals and have them emailed to you in 3 months, 6 months and in one year. The email might serve as a great reminder to keep yourself on track.
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The day I quit Entourage
Posted on 13. Oct, 2009 by Kenny.
Yesterday I stopped using Entourage. Done. For good.
I switched to a Mac over a year ago. There was a lot of things to get used to. Some of them good, some of them bad. Email was one of the bad.
I’ve been an Outlook user for years and for the most part, it was a great product. It did most things I needed pretty well. The problem has always been syncing. Getting my calendar to sync with my wife’s calendar is MONUMENTAL. Almost two years ago, Google created a program that would sync my outlook calendar with my google calendar. It was an answer to prayer and all was happy in the Conley household. Then I switched to a Mac.
Entourage is just stupid. It’s a watered down version of Outlook that doesn’t have all the functionality. There are plenty of things that I hate about Entourage, but the one that hurt the most is that it won’t sync with my Google calendar. There are several other 3rd party apps that do (or claim to do this). Most of them involve you syncing your Entourage with your iCal account and then syncing your iCal with Google Calendar. I’ve been unsuccessful at doing this. The last time I attempted this, it broke Entourage completely.
So, I finally said “no more.” I emailed the IT department and asked them to forward my email to my Gmail account. I love Gmail. Now I can have the same experience with my work mail that I do with my personal mail. Best of all, my personal calendar and work calendar are now one. Now my wife can see what I’m up to at any time or add things to my calendar. No more calendar meetings. The only downside is that most of my co-workers are on Outlook/Entourage, so I can’t really see their availability unless I open up Entourage.
Gateway is talking about moving to Google Apps. I hope we do. If that happens, then calendar sharing and seeing co-worker availability will be so easy! So, if you hate your email, you might want to consider switching to Gmail too.
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Google Wave: A new tool for innovation
Posted on 08. Jun, 2009 by Kenny.
Several weeks ago I began hearing stuff about the new Google Wave. I heard a few explanations but didn’t quite get it. I missed the press conference. However, last week I leaned all about Google Wave on the podcast I listen to on an almost daily basis. Several of the hosts have had the opportunity to play with Google Wave and they’ve shared what they’ve experienced.
Essentially, Google Wave is an attempt to innovate email. Although we typically think of email, the internet and all things web as cutting edge and innovative. However, many parts of the internet, including email are old and outdated, based on systems and technologies that are far outdated. Google Wave is a new approach to email, IM and other stuff as well. In many ways, Google Wave is a new platform for collaboration. I’m very excited about this. Collaboration is very important to me and I’m always looking for ways to do it better.
Below is a five minute excerpt from Buzz Out Loud about Google Wave.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Also, here is the official Google video about Wave.
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Be careful… these guys are tricky
Posted on 19. Apr, 2009 by Kenny.
This one almost got me the other day. I got an email from the US Postal Service.
I immediately started to wonder about when the last time I went to the Post Office. Then I realized, I don’t use this email address for this kind of stuff. Come to think of it, the Post Office doesn’t have any of my email addresses. For futher investigation, I clicked on the “from” part and it displayed a gmail address. Tricky, tricky, tricky! I’m not opening that attachment.
So, be careful people. These tactics are getting more and more creative. Don’t open attachments from people you don’t know… ever.
Here’s where you say, “Now I know.” Then I say, “And knowing is half the battle!”
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First six months: Automated communication
Posted on 14. Nov, 2008 by Kenny.
I didn’t forget about stage three for my communication process. I’m including it last because I’m not done developing it here at Gateway.
The weekly email and blog posts are separate forms of communication I have to write every week. However, there is a substantial amount of communication that does (and needs) to happen every week that I really don’t need to be involved with. Every week we get questions about infant baptism, questions about our programs and opportunities to serve. In addition, we get many visitors who may come back if we follow-up with them. A lot of times, these are the communication pieces that fall through the cracks. If done well, our parents will feel valued and informed.
We have several pre-written emails to respond to our most popular questions. My admin can field these questions by cutting and pasting the pre-written response. If they have further questions, I or my staff can follow up. Otherwise I’ll be explaining why we don’t baptized infants three times a week. In addition you can automate follow-up communication to visitors. We can run reports on Monday that will track first, second and third time attendance on that weekend and print out labels for us to attach to postcards. The more simple things you can automate like this, the better your scope for communication.
Well, that’s it for my series on communication. Again, I’m not expert, but this really worked for me. Hopefully there will be a few people other there that might find this information helpful.
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First Six Months: Email
Posted on 11. Nov, 2008 by Kenny.
This week I’m writing about the one thing I’ve done in my first six months at Gateway that has paid of BIG TIME! It’s all about communication. No one should be left in the dark.
Once I realized that I needed to start communicating consistently, I moved pretty quickly. I ran a report that gave me the email addresses of all moms, dads and household of any kid who attended Gateway in the last four months. We sorted the list, eliminated the duplicates and simply cut and pasted them into my Outlook email. I crafted an email (it was a little longer than I wanted it to be, but it was divided into heading for differnt age groups or events). that I would send out every Wednesday afternoon.
TIP: If you ever have to email a lot of your parents from your personal email, I’d HIGHLY suggest you BCC (Blind Carbon Copy) everyone rather than put them all in the “To” box. You’ll quickly irritate your parents by not hiding their email from the dozens (or hundreds) who might add them to email chains.
I was pretty straightforward at the beginning of the email explaining that we had many changes on the horizon with many special events with information parents would want to know. I explained that we would be launching a new tool for communication within a few weeks that would help inform parents. I also told them that they would be getting emails from me every week through the end of the summer. So, everyone knew what to expect.
TIP: Oh, and being new I knew that I needed to make sure my email didn’t get ignored. I knew that many parents wouldn’t have any idea who I was and they were likely to delete the email before reading it. To be honest, even after being at a church for a very long time, we shouldn’t allow ourselves to things we’re a well known as we might think we are. So, my emails always have the subject line of “Gateway Church:” in the front. I know that “Gateway Church” carries more weight than Kids Quest or something else. So, be sure to be very clear in the subject so your paretns know exactly what the email is and will want to open it.
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First Six Months: Communication
Posted on 10. Nov, 2008 by Kenny.
I’d like to say I came in with this plan that reaped huge payoffs, but I didn’t. Don’t get me wrong, I had plans and we’ve implemented many of them. However, this communication thing came more as a reaction than something intentional.
After just a week or two of getting to Gateway, I was picking up the vibe that many people didn’t know what was going one. Actually, people were telling me that they didn’t know what was going on. 
It wasn’t really with anything huge, just the little stuff. When do kids promote? When is the next child dedication? When is camp? How can I volunteer? I remember getting bombarded with all kinds of questions, questions, questions. Unfortunately, I also started responding to emails and phone messages of people who had been seeking answers to questions for weeks or even months. No one really to blame, just questions that had fallen through the cracks.
It didn’t take me long to realize that these people needed answers. They needed communication. They needed to be connected to an information outlet. Within a few weeks I implemented a three stage plan to nail this communication thing. I’d say that of all the positive feedback I’ve gotten since being at Gateway, the most is about how we’re communicating now. Many described it as a breath of fresh air. Tomorrow I’ll tell you about stage one.
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