All- apologies if this isn't useful to anyone, but I'd like to share my last broadcast message. Perhaps this will give you ideas you can use.
First, I create my broadcast message and post it to my own forums. This gives me a link to the message.
Second, I send the message to everyone, including a link at the bottom to the version posted in the forums so people can comment on the message.
And, here's the message. I hope this gives you some ideas you can use for yourself.
(Note that my site is targeted towards technical writers: technicalwritingworld.com)
Subject: Over 300 members in the first four weeks!
Hello
In our last message, we celebrated over one hundred new members in the first two weeks and announced new features. Highlights included:
- The launch of the Techdoc Superfeed
- A live Twitter stream that updates continuously
- Forums optionally organized by categories
- Twitter and Facebook integration
- RSS feeds for everything
- The ability to "Like" blogs, events, discussions, pages, and profiles
Less than four weeks after launching, we now have over 300 members! We added new features since the last message:
- Leaderboards are now live. Track top content and members.
- TWW now has enhanced integration with Facebook.
- All connection requests to TWW are routed through CloudFlare, which should help improve performance and protect against spammers.
Interact
Check out some excellent posts and discussions:
- Shweta Hardikar asked about the value of professional courses in technical writing.
- Jerry Franklin asked if anyone used a help monitoring system.
- Matt Hodges posted helpful advice about using a wiki to create technical documentation.
- Ute Klingelhofer asked about showing companies the value of investing in technical writers.
- Sarah Maddox posted about specializing in creating indexes.
- Melissa Dhillon asked about creating content for two audiences simultaneously.
- Adam Jasper asked about the best methods for keeping your portfolio current.
- ...and many more.
Celebrate
There has been some very positive buzz about TWW:
- Tom Johnson was kind enough to let me introduce Technical Writing World at I'd Rather Be Writing.
- Kieran Sullivan helped spread the word about the Techdoc Superfeed and mentioned us in article about social media vs. mass media at Pure Prose.
- John Melendez wrote a glowing article about social networking for technical writers at Gather Technology News Channel.
Participate
As a reminder, please stop by and participate whenever you can. You can start your own blog, post a discussion topic, or add an event. You can also share your knowledge, ask a question, post a status update, update your profile, comment on something interesting, read a few tweets, check out upcoming events, get connected, and make new friends.
Need help getting started? Craig Haiss provides some useful tips. And don't forget to update your profile. It makes our "social" network that much more social. Tell us about yourself, and say hello to our featured members.
Promote
Please let others know about TWW. We have an invite system, but feel free to use Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, blog posts, etc.
Thank you for helping us grow!
-Arnold Burian and Craig Haiss
(You can comment on this email here.)
Replies
I must be sincere, the mails sent out from the broadcast tool doesn't look neat especially as the lines just stretch out long to the end.
It would be nice if ning could provide a tool that will make them look neater by cutting them at a particular point...say after 50/80 characters.
Any help on this will be appreciated.
I think broadcast messages actually look really good...much better than how the same text appears in a blog or forums. Here's what mine look like (the same message a posted above):