A couple years ago most people stopped emailing chain letters and jokes. The people I’d fallen out of touch with never sent job listings. But now social networking has brought us a whole new generation of spam.

A word to the wise: just because I accept your friend invitation doesn’t mean that you should bug me with junk you’d never have emailed. Networks may make it easier to message people, but please show a little restraint.

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The only thing that bothers me more than unprofessional email is the junk that people write in them when they’re reaching out to me. So I’m going to address how to write a professional email to someone you have little or no relationship with.

Those who follow half these rules will get a prompt personal response from me–and they’ve always worked for me. So read on, give it a shot, and maybe you’ll land that new client/job/hottie you’ve had your eye on.

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Keeping in touch isn’t good enough.  Social media improves the quantity of connections but not necessarily the quality of relationships.  So how do you build a real friendship with people you don’t see regularly?

You create presence.  This concept has long helped me in romantic relationships but it’s equally relevant with friends and colleagues.  I want to address this for three reasons:

1. I see people using social media as a replacement for other forms of relationship building.  It is a vehicle for keeping in touch, not a destination
2. Keeping in touch is different than presence–both easier and more difficult
3. I’ve just returned from the School of Blogging Conference and I want to hold onto some of those folks (#sobcon08)

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This weekend’s School of Blogging Conference in Chicago will be very productive; after all, there’ll be many there who write about personal growth and productivity.  I’m anxious to see how everyone does at practicing what they preach.

Below are some great articles by each of these excellent writers (so if you’re not attending, check them out!), an open invitation to get together with them and others in Chicago, and a nifty map for those who are attending.

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Social media rockstar Chris Brogan suggested that we spend more time today reading and commenting online.  I sometimes feel like I don’t link enough to other sites I enjoy, so I’m going to combine those two ideas and let you know about some great posts I’ve come across and commented on lately.  They range from productivity to self-growth, and from social media to springtime…

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Social networking and blogging can feel like a high school cafeteria, full of cliques and at-times silly symbols of popularity.  But unlike high school, there are always more people to win over and stages to advance.

Take a step away from the contests and consider applying the lessons you’ve learned in the real world to build deeper relationships online.

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Actually it’s curiosity that prevented him from ever becoming one. There are formulas, many formulas for spreading your message or building a personal brand online. These formulas actually work, but not if you let curiosity be the death of you first. Here you’ll find advice on spending your time a little more wisely on the internet so that you find your formula and stick with it.

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I recently switched applications for my personal email, and have since been on a filtering rampage to improve the quality of the stuff that makes it to my inbox.  My motivation was a change in email tools, but after just a couple weeks of creating filters (taking a grand total of 15 minutes over that time), my inbox is much better than before.  Now’s your chance to do the same thing.  I’m going to talk first about Gmail and then about Outlook–the principles are the same, and the result is a lot of saved time and easier focus.

The Problem: Email that doesn’t require action

When you get lots of email, it can be daunting to make it through it all.  But you don’t need to act on a lot of that email, or at least not right now.  Much of that email just clutters your inbox, distracts your attention, and takes time from your day.  I’m not referring to spam–that’s a whole different topic (best solved through server-based solutions like Gmail, Postini, or MX Logic).  I’m referring to newsletters, shipment notifications, friend requests, event invitations–anything that you might want to look at, but that you most likely can wait a few days for.  Read on for how to keep this from your inbox…

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This post is for the people who aren’t reading it: those who aren’t active Twitterers or bloggers, and who don’t have a product or service that revolves around technology or new media PR. Those who aren’t like us (yet) can benefit the most from social media.

Elizabeth has led me to write this post–she’s a law student, former Teach for America teacher, and far from technical. She has more to gain from social media than most of us as she offers something unique. (Do you know too many lawyers on Twitter? People in the education policy space?) And if there’s one community to be attached to, it’s the bloggers and Twitterers who can spread the word faster than you can drink a bottle of wine.

Case in point: Gary Vaynerchuk. Continue reading…

In the last few months, Gmail has offered two (free) features that everyone interested in maintaining their brand (i.e., @yourdomain.com) and controlling their data (locally, not just in the cloud) should take advantage of. Though I’ve used Gmail for years, I had been hesitant to make it a primary email account, but now I’m on-board and excited.

Note: I’m making the assumption here that using Gmail to manage your domain-branded email is better than using the basic POP or IMAP provided by your ISP. The main reason I switched to Gmail is its superior server-based spam filtering and server-based rules–which means crap doesn’t ever make it to me, especially on my mobile devices.

The first feature is what’s known as Google Apps. While it’s ostensibly an online productivity suite, it includes the ability to use your own domain through Google’s Gmail system. “But wait, Jared, I’ve always been using my domain-branded email through Gmail.” No, you haven’t quite. In the past Gmail emails for your domain have looked like this (though many people don’t even bother and just used their main gmail address for replies): Continue reading…