{"id":16,"date":"2026-09-30T16:10:21","date_gmt":"2026-09-30T16:10:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/odu.org\/?page_id=16"},"modified":"2026-09-30T16:10:21","modified_gmt":"2026-09-30T16:10:21","slug":"better-first-messages","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/odu.org\/index.php\/better-first-messages\/","title":{"rendered":"Better First Messages"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>Better First Messages<\/h1>\n<p class=\"lead\">The job of a first message is not to be dazzling. It is to make replying feel natural.<\/p>\n<h2>Notice something specific<\/h2>\n<p>Use a detail from the person&#8217;s profile: a trip, hobby, food, book, dog, ridiculous prompt answer, or anything that gives you an authentic opening.<\/p>\n<h2>Ask answerable questions<\/h2>\n<p>Questions with some personality are easier to respond to than \u201cHow are you?\u201d and less intense than asking for someone&#8217;s life story.<\/p>\n<h2>Add something of your own<\/h2>\n<p>A conversation is easier when your message offers information as well as requesting it. Give the other person something they can ask you about too.<\/p>\n<h2>Do not overengineer it<\/h2>\n<p>A thoughtful two-sentence opener often works better than a carefully constructed paragraph designed to impress.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Better First Messages The job of a first message is not to be dazzling. It is to make replying feel natural. Notice something specific Use a detail from the person&#8217;s profile: a trip, hobby, food, book, dog, ridiculous prompt answer, or anything that gives you an authentic opening. Ask answerable questions Questions with some personality [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"hero_heading":"","hero_subheading":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-16","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/odu.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/16","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/odu.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/odu.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/odu.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/odu.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/odu.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/16\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32,"href":"https:\/\/odu.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/16\/revisions\/32"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/odu.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}