Did you know it’s the holidays? There’s some sort of holiday coming up soon. I forget which one specifically.
Oh, right. This email I got from YouSendIt helped a lot in reminding me, which, in part read:
"My change to the file will be synced", says the boy.
"So Santa will see that I want a different toy".
Dad turns to Mom and says with eyes lit
"Looks like our son is as smart as YouSendIt."
I can’t tell you how many emails like this I have gotten from every random company I’ve written about, that’s pitched me or whose services I have actually used personally in the last few weeks. But YouSendIt’s actually made me chuckle, and probably not for the intended reasons.
It’s not my intent to tease YouSendIt, but instead to point out that this is the time of year when we are all easing off the gas and pumping the brakes. We’re all going to be doing it together, and while I don’t know personally whether a holiday email blast is all that advisable or has much of an impact — although I can tell you on Thursday a publicist who will remain nameless accidentally CC’ed instead of BCC’ed about 500 writers on one such message. (The result of that was a peeing contest to see what writer’s gripe was the most clever. Nobody won and everybody’s inbox subsequently got more and more clogged.)
Anyway, you might be sending an email to officially put this year’s rocket into orbit, but even if you aren’t, if you’re taking time off you’re going to be setting an auto-responder up.
Well, the folks over at PR Daily have a bite-sized post with suggestions on how to make your auto-responder more memorable and less disposable. Obviously, it’s not something you need to expend a ton of mental energy on in the first place — and irrelevant if you have corporate guidelines to follow here — but if you want some good pointers, by all means have at it!
David Wolinsky is a freelance writer and a lifelong Chicagoan. In addition to currently serving as an interviewer-writer for Adult Swim, he's also a comedy-writing instructor for Second City. He was the Chicago city editor for The Onion A.V. Club where he provided in-depth daily coverage of this city's bustling arts/entertainment scene for half a decade. When not playing video games for work he's thinking of dashing out to Chicago Diner, Pizano's, or Yummy Yummy. His first career aspirations were to be a game-show host.
