Has everyone gotten these new "Member News" emails? I just got one today, and it seems to be a new thing for 2009. I'd like to say to USMS that this is great! I love it. Please keep it up.
No, and I think I would be happy not to have content "pushed."
That's what the Web site is for, especially one with member registration.
I have turned off all pushed content except Mount Washington Observatory, which has not, to date, worn out its welcome.
:coffee:
Definitely. The rate of new forum-ites registering has been at least 10x the normal rate the past 3 days. We got 122 new accounts yesterday alone. The most we got in any one day for the entire month prior to the newsletter going out was 9.
Keep 'em coming. :applaud::applaud::applaud:
Was it the picture of Pablo in his mankini that really drove membership increases?
I thought they did a good job. It's easy enough to unsubscribe.
Some members may not be aware of the web site. Perhaps a new wave of forum-ites awaits us all.
EXACTLY!
So many USMS members have no idea what is available to them through the USMS website and beyond.
Our team did not officially require USMS membership until last year and even then it was not enforced.
But this year we are on board from January 1st.
It helps a lot after requiring the membership, to know these benefits are finding their way into the hands of the members.
Most of you on the discussion group are veterans or have found out where to track swim information down. But this is not the norm out there in the masters swimming lanes...
I think the newsletter has great potential and I hope the swimmers contribute.
Thanks USMS!
I thought they did a good job. It's easy enough to unsubscribe.
Some members may not be aware of the web site. Perhaps a new wave of forum-ites awaits us all.
What email/newsletter?
They are being sent out in waves of about 10,000 each. I think there is a problem sending more than that at once, even if you can convince all of the AOLs, Yahoos, Googles, and others that we are not sending out spam. If you didn't get the first mailing, there will be one soon (unless you have not provided a valid email address).
I think a newsletter was a smart move. With e-mail newsletters it's always best to have an opt-in list, but we're all members so it's not like they just harvested random e-mails and spammed us. If you're not into it, unsubscribing isn't that hard.
If USMS has big plans for growth they need to communicate with and engage the current members on a regular basis. Not every day or anything like that, but an email once or twice a month is pretty unobtrusive. I would imagine moves like this would help retention and make it easier for people to recommend masters as being worth the $40 to their friends. Without some kind of internet outreach most swimmers only hear from USMS every 60 days via Swimmer Magazine, that's not going to cut it for a lot of people... especially people like me that train by ourselves. Plus there is a ton of great content on the usms.org site that most people would never see if you didn't tell them that it was there. You have people writing articles on a regular basis for the site that take 3 or 4 clicks to find, this content needs help from a newsletter to actually get read by more people.
Being registered in South Pacific Masters I get a regular e-mail from them that I find to be full of really valuable information. I welcome the idea of getting similar communications from USMS to keep me up on what's going on with masters. I think it creates a lot of value, especially for the folks out there that don't venture onto the forums or the USMS site.
It may just be a coincidence, but about the same time I recieved this newsletter I also started receiving sports related spam from sites and organizations I've never heard of. Anyone else have this problem?
