Background
In early 2006, SPH had… One biweekly internal newsletter for all
students, faculty, and staff (SPH News) An all-school listserv (manually
updated) [email protected] A communications problem
Background
AHC and SPH focus groups learned that students didn’t know if SPH News (and AHC News Capsules) was intended for them; these newsletters didn’t seem relevant
E-mail list was spammed by people within the school and by people outside the school
Background
This was typical:“Attention SPH students, faculty and staff:In the interest of promoting wellness and
togetherness I would like to start an informal tradition of a morning group run/jog for anyone interested. … Lets meet Tuesday and Thursday (April 3rd and 5th) at 7:45 am at the gopher statue outside the rec center.”
Background
Two days later…“Attention SPH students, faculty and staff,I am sorry if anyone came to the run thursday
morning and didn't find me there. I was not feeling well that morning and could not make it. I will be at the gopher statue this Tuesday and Thursday at 7:45 for those who would like to run. See you there!”
Solutions
Develop e-mail policy
Develop targeted e-newsletters
Implement Lyris
Create opt-out student-to-student listserv
E-mail Policy
Modeled after other colleges/universities
Intended to reduce the volume of e-mail Intended to promote more planning
when communicating with internal audiences
E-mail Policy
Types of E-mail, Approval and Delivery:
Urgent messages Important messages (messages of
school-wide importance) Informational messages
www.sph.umn.edu/about/policies/email.html
E-mail Policy
Lists affected: All School All Faculty All Students All Staff
Approvers: Dean Associate and Assistant Deans Student Services Director
Delivery Process/Guidelines
Lyris must be used to deliver messages Lists must be managed in Lyris Divisions urged to use Lyris Guidelines provided regarding
subject/body of message, attachments (none), sender info, etc.
SPH e-newsletters
Internal: SPH News (faculty/staff) biweekly The Weekly SPHere (students)
External: SPH Alumni News (quarterly) Research Brief (monthly) Welcome ‘U’ News (monthly) SPH Mentor Connection (monthly) CPHEO News MHA alumni info
GIL Segments
All internal mailings (newsletters and other mailings) use the appropriate GIL segment:
Advantages
Central record of all mass e-mailings GIL segment is updated automatically
prior to each mailing Tracking of opens, clickthroughs More control over formatting of e-
newsletters (text version is link to web)
Disadvantages
More of my time spent managing manual lists and sending e-mails: For the Dean Associate Deans HR Director Etc…..
Some Numbers
Opens average 34% Clickthroughs average 22.5% 20,203 pageviews and 4,157 visitors for
online Weekly SPHere in 2007-08 school year
Other e-mail Tools
Deliver blogs, podcasts via e-mail to subscribers using: Feedburner (www.feedburner.com) Feed Blitz (www.feedblitz.com)
Feedburner
Feedburner’s “BuzzBoost” provides a snippet of JavaScript to paste into your pages so you can republish feeds.
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