How to Keep on Top of Email

If you're like us, you've probably had more than one email address on the go. That is to say that as well as a personal account, you have several business accounts. Maybe you have one from your ISP for official stuff like bills, payments, banking etc, one that you give to your friends like "coolchick123@hotmail.com", one that you give to official people like your boss "j.smith@gmail.com", and finally a business email, like team@thegeekpanel.com.

Up until recently, our communications department had a few problems managing email. I had suggested that we use only 2 business email accounts (one mail one and one for each employee). That  dwas out of the question, until tonight when I decided to play around with Google and it's wonderful GMail features. Here is what I found...

I had planned to have only one email address; team@thegeekpanel.com, but as you know, we've all ready had various email addresses, all of which were active at the time. I decided to take the time to go through a list of all the online services we use including Twitter, Facebook and even Blogger. I edited the email address and we now have one address for all the blog/business side of things.

I also decided to set one email address for internal communications, which was easy enough using Google Apps for business.

Now there was only one thing left; to organize my personal email account. I have registered a domain name and have an email set up on that, which is now my primary email address, but only 2 months ago, I was using Google's free email service, which I know and love and have done for many years.

The email I had before (@gmail.com) was easy to set up forwarding to another email address; simple going to Mail Settings > Forwarding > Enter the Email > Confirm the Address > Enable the Forwarding and Done!

That was really simple. Now, all of my email goes to both accounts at the same time, making it a lot easier to manage.

Here are a few tips on email:

• Buy a custom domain and pay for email hosting if you are scared your email might go away over night...
• Use a desktop client if you deal with a lot of email per day. This can significantly increase productivity. I just can't do web mail. I use Thunderbird on the desktop to manage all my email.
• Send replies in bulk. If a lot of people are sending the same questions, reply to them all at once. Also consider setting up a template telling them to go to your forum/live chatroom or forward the email to someone else who has a better understanding of that query.
• Don't just select all and delete. This can be a complete waste. If you're note managing to keep on top of your email, consider employing a "Social Media Expert". Here at TheGeekPanel, we offer Social Media services free to any one of our followers. Contact us for info.

We hope that these tips make your life easier. As always, comments are welcome.