Never a Lack of Ideas

Let's spice up some things that are traditionally boring: LinkedIn requests and out-of-office emails. Why? Because doing so surprises and delights people, and it raises your cool factor (trust me, I'm an expert in cool factor...). LinkedIn Requests   Every time you request to connect with someone on LinkedIn, the same default email will be sent on your behalf if you don't change it: "I'd like to add you to my professional network." Boring! Why not spend five seconds and change it up? Here are three that I've sent recently to friends of mine: "Oh please, oh please, oh please!" "Let's be frienemies" — I sent this to a friend who is going to work at Yahoo. "Pretty pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeease!!!!" Each one of these emails elicited a response email to me, with a little joke in return. When was the last time someone replied to your default LinkedIn email? Out-of-Office Emails "I'm currently out of the office an...

Have We Met Before? The quick-service sandwich and salad restaurant near my office launched two new salads several weeks ago. I have ordered both new salads via the restaurant's online ordering system several times since the salads debuted. So why did I receive an email just yesterday that introduced me to their new salads? I've already met them — many times — and I like them a lot. The store should know this since my online ordering account uses my email address as my username and stores all of my previous orders. I know exactly how this happened: The marketing team at this restaurant decided that it would be a good idea to announce to their customers the arrival of their new salads. So, they whipped up a nice email, gathered all of their email addresses, and clicked "send." Nobody stopped for a minute and asked, "but what if someone regularly orders our new salads? Shouldn't we send that person a different email?" This restaurant should have sent me an...