While walking around campus to hand deliver invitations to our second Annual Inventors Dinner, either along the way or upon arrival to my destination, the response was “what a nice touch, personal delivery, I get to actually meet you face to face”.  Most days I spend a lot of time communicating via email, voice mail, web posts, Google alerts and when brave, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and texting.  It’s amazing how much can be transacted with these technology-based devices.

In fact, I am stunned the way my office mates (not my chronological peers, mind you) are able to be plugged-in to at least three of these things simultaneously and they don’t seem to be distracted.  In fact, they are able to respond quickly and almost simultaneously to an issue or topic that then easily cascades into other social media outlets.

The power of spawned communication can have worldwide impact illustrated by a recent YouTube video that has created upheaval in the Middle East this past week.  Once committed “in writing” i.e.: digitally, the message becomes just that, committed.  At work, we learn the importance of being professionally responsible in the timing, the frequency and the tone of our communications.  And we work to use the most effective tools available for communicating.

Our office has started using MailChimp, a tool for email marketing and email list management to announce our Catalyst Seminars, our workshops for writing proposals for federal grants with small businesses (SBIR’s) and to announce the request for proposals (RFP) from NH companies who partner with academic researchers in New Hampshire.  The response to the events has been high, but the response to the RFP has been lower than in the past when I would send an email from me to a list of people.  It makes me wonder if people are quicker to delete a message that comes from an individual through a service such as MailChimp rather than one that comes directly from an individual.  If the message raises questions, are people more reluctant to respond?  So today I am experimenting.  I will go back to my old way of getting the message out and see if I get more responses and more inquiries, not as a scientific study but on a hunch.  If it makes a difference, I’ll let you know.

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Image Credit: COURTESY MARK BORGHI FINE ART INC. "Untitled No. 3," is among the 32 recently discovered works initially attributed to Jackson Pollock.