The Science of Communicating & Marketing Your Business

• The response to the invitation to The NextStage Irregular was an order of magnitude beyond what I expected (expected 3%, got 29%).
• You can find out what's in a BCC email field if you're the recipient of such an email.

The next item deals with people's assumptions. Knowing and understanding people's assumptions -- those things we just know and have no cognitive basis for -- is what NextStage does lots of.

The person who wrote "...the guy managing the optin list (as it didn't seem likely you were doing it)." assumed I wouldn't take direct responsibility for something I was about to do. I can't tell you how many things I've taught myself to do before I gave control over to someone else.

Sorry, not my style. Some have called me a control freak and over time I give up quite a bit of control of things. I always start in control of things, though. That's true. That way, should things foul up, I can assist or at least offer suggestions.

Further, handing over control is not equated to giving up responsibility. Not in my book, anyway.

Several people wrote me suggesting I make use of some service that handles sending out newsletters and such. Maybe someday, yes. Right now, no. Not until I believe I understand how such things work. And don't.

For example, what if something like this (people inaccurately sending emails back and forth for whatever reason) happened and I couldn't pull the plug? Far more pain and suffering than I care to inflict upon people, and I really hate causing people pain and suffering.

This person also wrote "Seeing your name in the "From" field meant I had stopped paying attn to the actual email address following it:..."

Fascinating, that. To stop paying attention. I'll have to teach myself how to do that.

And lastly, "The reason I, and probably all the other idiots, hit reply-all (deliberately - no confusion), is because fhein-mhor@nextstagevolution.com showed up as a recipient..."

This one, I'll admit, has me completely baffled. The individual hit deliberately. Because an unrecognized name was in the recipient field?

Even with the all the training I've had, the vagaries of the human mind still escape me.

And just so we're clear on the concept; I don't think the person who wrote the above or anyone else is an idiot. That's a technical term used in general and educational psychology and I use it sparingly and only in clinical settings.

Nor do I think the person made a mistake because what I think is irrelevant (another aspect of my training). The individual did what they meant to do therefore no mistake was made. When I think something someone did was a mistake and they don't, it's an opportunity for mutual education, nothing more.

Back to adventures in newslettering...

There were some people who emailed me quite outraged. I obviously had it in for them, blasting them with all those emails.

All those emails? There were less than twenty that went hurtling through the internet. However, I also know that "all" is a matter of perspective. NextStage even does a training that involves learning to understand what "all" means to different people.

I won't mention the number of people who emailed wanting to know how I got their address (regardless of their interest in receiving The NextStage Irregular). I mentioned this phenomena in Social media & consumer preference.

Regardless, the people who were upset were upset with me. Didn't matter if I didn't originate the extra emails (as clearly marked in the "From:" field in their emails. I've lived long enough to know that it's often easier to point at the obvious than to explore and learn the cause. History is filled with such and, quite honestly, it sickens me how often Occam is in error.

What else did I learn? A great deal about The Village and my place in it.

There were individuals who emailed everyone with "Hit Reply, not Reply All". There were individuals who emailed everyone defending me, as in "I know Joseph and trust him. I don't know fhein-mhor@nextstagevolution.com and that may be an alias for the list, therefore, I am not including it in this message because I do not want to garbage up anyone's mailbox if I can avoid it." (I explained that fhein-mhor is Gaelic and a rough translation might be "everybody" or "all people", as in "I'm sending this to everybody").

There were people who sat back and observed, sending me their observations ("...it is interesting to see the folks signing up" and "I liked that thread of whose in and not." and "...this is so much like one of my technical atrocities unless of course you wanted your subscribers to bond, which case I take it back -:) " are examples).

There was the individual who called to let me know she was keeping the email addresses for me in case I needed them and the person who called to let me know things were going a little oddly, did I know?

There were people who suggested my lists@ email was pointing to everyone. Nope, just pointing to me and thanks for your thoughts on solutions. A special thanks to the independent consultant who -- with no prompting from me -- tested the situation to determine what had happened and why.

And I keep on coming back to 29% response. This doesn't count the people who responded no to the newsletter but please keep them posted on what I publish and our research (umm...I think that's what the newsletter was for).

Thank you. Really. The first issue will deal with how to create an optimal newsletter. Can't wait to read it myself.

Please contact NextStage for information regarding presentations and trainings on this and other topics.

Upcoming Conferences:

• New Communications Forum 2008 22-25 April 08 in Sonoma Valley, CA

Sign up for the NextStage Irregular, our very irregular, definitely frequency-wise and probably topic-wise newsletter.