Here are my suggestions on how email marketing (groan) can be used effectively.My suggestions for effective email marketing:

1. Frequency: Only publish when you have relevant content or important info.
   There is a tendency to over-publish with email marketing and most electronic media because the publication cost is free or close to it.  Many old-school, out-bound, marketeers still practice interruption marketing where the principle is that you need to be in front of your audience as often as possible.  This still holds true for broadcast media and print, but not for social media.  It is better to publish great content less frequently than to send up spammy dribble every week.
2. Content:  Great content will get you subscribers, fans, friends, followers, and blog traffic.
   Save your advertising for your paid advertising.  If you want to connect with customers in social media stop yelling and selling and provide them with some interesting and useful content.
3. Less is More: Keep it short, to the point, and the content focused.
   Since with email marketing  space is virtually unlimited there is a tendency or a desire to fill the page and then some.  I’ve read several blogs on blogs that the optimum blog length is 400 to 800 words.  Ditto for e-newseltters, if it is too long it won’t get read. (btw, this blog is 681 words)
4. Graphics & pics: Add some graphics, keep it clean and classy, don’t go crazy with it and no cheesy stuff (unless that fits your style and theme).
5. Blog & RSS: Provide a link for easy subscription to your blog and RSS feed.
6. Opt-in: ONLY send to people that have subscribed and opted in to your publication or existing customers if it is a notification.  How do you get subscribers, well that is another blog, but your blog and website are the starting point.

Applications where email marketing works well:

• Newsletters: Ok, there are some good email newsletters out there and it appears that some people still don’t think their inbox has enough email in it so they still subscribe to them.
• Follow up: email newsletters/marketing is great for follow after an event or webinar.  I don’t consider this traditional “marketing” since they have already expressed interest and opted in.  Hubspot does a great and tactful job of this.  They send a confirmation email when you sign up for something and then a follow up email afterwards.  That’s it, they won’t bug you again and don’t send you anything unless you ask for it.  Nice!
• Notifications & Important info: Important notifications to your customers or subscribers about changes in service, terms, new products, significant new developments, etc.  It is often tempting to apply these terms liberally to create a reason to send something out.  Don’t do it.  Be honest about it and only send truly important info.
• Confirmations of orders, reciepts, etc.: Again, this isn’t really “marketing”, more like customer service, BUT a tasteful marketing message is a good idea if done well and if it isn’t obnoxious.

I still think RSS is the future pipe that will feed us our information and news content and as pages like iGoogle and MyYahoo improve their interface it will increase in use and popularity.  I have now unsubscribed from ALL of my email subscriptions and now get my content via RSS and I love it!

As always I wish you the best and brightest future

Bill Grunau, @own_your_future

My opinion… No!  At least not in today’s present form.  I’m sure I will get comments on this post too, just like my post “Time to Euthanize Email Marketing” had some interesting comments here and on one of the LinkedIn groups.

Twitter just isn’t a fit for every business, nor does it work for every business owner or corporate culture.  I’ve seen every business imaginable flocking to Twitter in a desperate attempt to be cool and relevant.  They start tweeting away, babbling on and on, with billboard tweets about their retail store, dog walking service, hair salon, get rich quick scheme, MLM, or their latest widget…

The problem is they only see the “media” part of social media and are ignoring the social aspect of it.  They treat Twitter like free infomercial channel.  In doing this they effectively destroy any chance of Twitter working for their company and pretty much ensure they will be ignored, regardless of how many mindless Tweeps automatically follow them back.

Twitter can be absolutely amazing for businesses that are willing to be sincere and authentic about social media and truly engage the public.  In doing so they will reap the benefits of viral marketing and social media, and occasionally get called out for a misstep or screw up.  Even getting called out on a screw up is a good thing.  Better to find out quickly and fix it quickly, than to continue on blindly thinking your “brillant plan” is working just fine.  Twitter and Facebook are both very cool for keeping you close to your customers (assuming you are willing to listen).

So which businesses does Twitter make sense for?  My opinion, social media is a fit for any business where there can be a dialog with the public at large AND if you are willing to have a dialog.  I suspect many will say that is every business, but not really.  As cool as Twitter is, it just is not for every business nor is it for everybody.

I cited retail as an example of a business that may not be suited for twitter.  It actually depends on how the owner/management engages the public and uses Twitter or Facebook for that matter.  If they intend to use Twitter or Facebook for a one way electronic billboard, then they should stick to traditional media like radio, TV, and print where that belongs.  If they intend to actively interact with the public then social media, including Twitter and Facebook, are a great fit for them.

I also think there are businesses that just won’t get that much of a benefit from Twitter or social media.  I have a hard time seeing how a backhoe business, or a Port-a-Potty, business would have a huge benefit from Twitter – unless, they really focused on the social part of the media, in a networking fashion, and the business that they happen to be in is that.  Used as a networking medium social media does work for any business.

So there you have it.  Is Twitter, Facebook, and Social Media for every business?  No, but it could be if you are willing to do it right.

As always I wish you the best and brightest future,

Bill Grunau, @own_your_future

In the California Governors race Meg Whitman crushed Jerry Brown on Facebook and lost big in the election.  Ditto for Sharon Angle, she had 108,740 fans to Harry Reid’s paltry 15,462 and she lost.  Even stranger, Lisa Murkowski, who lost in the primary, was a write in candidate (which is traditionally a guaranteed loss), appears to have won and she had half the number of Facebook fans.  Go figure on that one.  Facebook fan figures would have indicated landslides in all of these races.

There were other hot races where Facebook was a good predictor such as Scott v Sink in Florida, Rubio v Crist v Meek in Florida, and Boxer v Fiorina in California.

Twitter and Youtube views had similar patterns.  In “normal” races the followers and views seem to be a good predictor of the results.  But if the race has unusual candidates or if it is very close, toss that formula out the window.

One reason I suspect the stats may fall apart is that fans are fans and many will stay loyal no matter what happens.  In many of these races some of the candidates exhibit outright bizarre behavior.  I suspect many stayed loyal and others may not have bothered to “un-follow” on Twitter or “”un-like” on Facebook which would explain the numbers.  Once someone “likes” a page it is a pain to go back and “un-like” it because it is in tiny print at the bottom of the Page and you have to find it first – part of the Facebook Zuckering strategy, change is hard.

So here’s my take on this.  In a “normal” race (if there is such a thing in today’s politics) Facebook and social media trends are a good predictor.  The big take away here is that a candidate can screw up a great social media campaign with missteps in the traditional media.   Also a great social media campaign can be beat by a highly effective old school grass roots campaign.

Facebook post by US Politics on Facebook – 74% of House candidates with the most Facebook fans won their race and 81% of Senate Candidates with most Facebook fans won their race.

Here’s some interesting data on some of the hot races.

It is interesting how it is all over the map.  Also note how some were behind on Facebook and way ahead on YouTube or Twitter.

]]> http://selfseo.me/blog/smo-social-media-optimization/social-media-prediction-election-results/feed/ 1 http://selfseo.me/blog/smo-social-media-optimization/death-of-email-marketing/ http://selfseo.me/blog/smo-social-media-optimization/death-of-email-marketing/#comments Sun, 31 Oct 2010 13:26:23 +0000 Bill Grunau http://selfseo.me/?p=371 The death of email has been a hot debate over the past few years (see links below) with many predicting the demise of email marketing.  A few years ago I passively agreed with them, but thought there was still a place for email marketing, and I thought it was useful for in some instances.  I’ve finally had it with email marketing!  I am now on the side for calling for the death of email marketing and think it is time to peacefully euthanize this outdated marketing tool that has become a complete nuisance and is effectively Spam.  Let’s pull the plug and let it die peacefully (as Ben & Jerry’s did, see link at bottom) while there is still a fond memory of when it was actually useful.  At the bottom of this post I have my list of why I hate email marketing and what I still like about it.

So if I am now calling for the death of email marketing what do I propose to replace it?  Ahhh grasshopper, that is a very good question…

We have been well into Web 2.0 immersion for some time now (at least most of us) and Web 2.0 is the age of social media, social networks, permission marketing, and inbound marketing.  Email marketing is outbound marketing no matter how you dress it up, now matter how cool you try to make the headline and this makes it Web 1.0 end of story. It is a dinosaur in Internet terms.

As Web 2.0 and social media/networks have evolved, blogs and RSS feeds (Really Simple Syndication) have really taken off.  While both have been around for years, even decades, social networks provided a means to more effectively share this content.  I really think Twitter has been amazing for blogs, ditto for Facebook and especially the RSS feed features on My Yahoo, Google alerts and iGoogle – I really love the My Yahoo feed and iGoogle and use both every day!

So why are companies still using email marketing so much?

• email marketing companies like Constant Contact do an amazing job of self promotion and make a great case for their continued existence – and they should, they are fighting for their very existence!
• Habit – let’s face it, we all get into habits and keep doing the same thing that worked a long time ago, even when it is not working as well as it once was.
• No one wants to tell the boss it doesn’t work because he still thinks it is cool.
• It looks good for the marketing department to have a “list” of thousands or hundreds of thousands of subscribers.

Why I now hate email marketing:  Yep, I am the email Grinch, I hate it, hate it, hate it!

• Overused and abused by ALL – even the best email newsletters have become Spam.  They come out too often and just clog my inbox that is already out of control.
• Invisible Unsubscribe button – have you ever noticed how the unsubscribe button is hidden in a nearly invisible location in a tiny font.  That annoys me to no end!
• Zuckering – lots of email newsletters and email marketing campaigns trick you into subscribing when you download that cool whitepaper or PowerPoint that you think is free (the price you pay is getting their Spam) and then you have to go through the hassle of un-subscribing.
• Weak content – much of it just is not all that interesting or relevant.
• Too much content – for some reason these marketing geniuses think more = better  and feel an obligation to turn their newsletter into a book.

Why I still like some email marketing:
Actually I couldn’t think of any reasons I still like email marketing, sorry, I just couldn’t, but I still see good use for email systems like Constant Contact and iContact for…

• Event notifications – local and regional emails about upcoming concerts or event etc.  OK, I give the email crowd this one, a blog would not likely replace this although Facebook pages and events may impact it.
• Employee Newsletters – good argument for this to be outbound since many employees may not go to a company blog or website and would miss important info.  Likewise if the company newsletter is Spammy or comes out too often they won’t read that either.
• Corporate communications – different from outbound email marketing, I am talking about communications directly to clients or customers that is VERY specific, content rich, NOT overly frequent, and not selling them something (even in a subtle way).
• Special communications – e.g. an important (and I mean really important) product update or notification.

Links to past blogs posts on the Death of email Marketing:

Ben & Jerry’s Scraps Monthly email Newsletter in favor of Social Media

Social Media now more Popular than email

The Death of email marketing?  It already died and we missed it! from 2007

By 2014, social networking services will replace e-mail as the primary vehicle for interpersonal communications

Of course this is just my opinion and I am sure there are many that still think email marketing is very cool and working well.  I just hope I can find the unsubscribe button when it hits my inbox.

As always I wish you the best and brightest future

Bill Grunau, aka @own_you_future

While writing this blog post I realized the likely sources of this mindless and unending corporate psycho babble.  I remembered the Bullshit Generator from a few years ago and suspected they were are the bottom of this.  A quick search and I found the Web 2.0 Bullshit Generator and WTF is My Social Media Strategy .  In fact, I suspect they may well be covert ghost writers for several blogs and social media luminaries.  Hah!  You guys are outted and busted, the truth is out now.

Don’t believe me…   Try it and let’s see how long till these terms turn up in a blog or book.  Here’s a sample of a few I did:

• share social synergies
• incentivize A-list blogospheres
• enable blogging folksonomies
• capture undefined undefined
• remix podcasting blogospheres
• disintermediate long-tail mashups

With a little more investigative work I have also found the root source for social media strategies.  Yep, it’s like the Matrix, there is a root program running the whole thing secretly controlling our lives.  I believe the source of social media strategies is coming from “WTF is My Social Media Strategy”.

Here are some samples I ran from WTF is My Social Media Strategy.  What is hilarious is that you really could cut and paste this into many corporate strategies or blogs from the anointed social media luminaries and I suspect many would nod their head in agreement while saying how brilliant and novel the strategy is.

• Identify relevant and compelling hooks for the audience, create content around the hooks and integrate it into their social repertoires
• Provide brand ambassadors with compelling conversation hooks to enter into communities and fuel advocacy
• Amplify word of mouth by motivating influencers
• Utilise social currency to amplify experiences and drive conversations

My list of worn out and over used Social Media Babble…

• Engage
• Authentic or Authenticity – is it authentic if you are ripping off an old idea? or use a ghost writer for your blog?
• Brand or Branding – everything is “branding” and is now the cure for everything and applied to everything
• Trust (yeah Chris, I am officially tired of hearing this now)
• Crowd Sourcing – I actually like the real deal, problem is now everything is “crowd sourced” because it is cool
• Flash Mob or Mob – cool the first few times, now officially boring and ripped off too often
• Aggregate - tired of this in any use
• Influence and influencers
• and especially Social Media Ninjas, Gurus, Experts, Gorillas, etc – Alex Blom has the perfect solution for this, in his blog he said “ Social Media Experts, Ninjas, & Gurus should be trampled by elephants
• post your comments on others, I could go on and on…

Because I like to make all of my blogs useful here’s the practical application for this post.  If you are in a pointless meeting that is droning on and on and someone asks you for input just click on the Bullshit Generator or the WTF is My Social Media Strategy for your answer.  No one will have a clue what you are talking about, and will surely be too embarrassed to admit it, you will be crowned the new social media genius and can go back to Google Talk or Facebook Chat with your friends.

Seriously though.  I don’t really have a problem with the specific terms or even the overused phrases.  My real issue is when I read a blog, article, even some of the books that drone on and on laden with social media babble and at the end of it there was no real point.  Nothing new, no original thought, just babble.  I seriously think that if Captain Kirk read some of these blogs he would call up to Scotty and say, “beam me up Scotty, no intelligent life here”.

As always I wish you the best and brightest future

Bill Grunau

What I have noticed from all the SEO companies at this conference is that more and more, people are taking the holistic approach to SEO. In my opinion, this is very good, as it shows that there is more of a solid structure for SEO. The tricks and hacks from the past don’t really work anymore, and if you are trying to build any sort of brand, those tricks and hacks (blackhat tactics) can actually hurt your future growth.

here’s what else I found and learned at SMX East…

From link building companies, to display ads, its all here. I was fortunate to win a free Search Engine Land Year Premium Subscription!! Will go nice with my SEOMoz subscription. If you are at all interested in search engine marketing at an advanced level, I would highly recommend you follow these companies, their blogs, etc. Become a member if you can afford it as they are an invaluable resource – SEOMoz, Search Engine Land, and if you can, check out Raven Tools, which can help you figure out what the heck is going on with your website. Of course, don’t forget to check out the Google Blogs!!

SMO seems to be extremely popular now. The conference is abuzz with social media tactics and services. People are turning to Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, etc. to display ads, find customers and even find recruits! Now is prime time to start working on SelfSEO, get yourself known and found and start networking online. There are many companies here looking for new recruits. From individuals with their own consulting firms, to big wigs like iProspect, they all need help! Get the skills to get the job, keep researching, commenting, asking questions! Do not be shy!

Time for the next session, more later!

What is a URL? URL means Universal Resource Locator, its just another way of saying, what the heck am I looking for on this website/server?  There are SO many plugins for various different Content Management Systems (aka CMS) that focus on redirecting a database query into a friendy URL.  What does this mean for you?  Just that programs like WordPress and Joomla! can rewrite their pages into friendly forms that you can edit easily.  If your not using one of these programs, make sure your pages that are .htm and .php are saved in a search engine friendly fashion.

Here’s a short list of standards and tips…

Standards and Tips:

• Dashes between words
• All Lowercase
• Not too many!
• Not too few!
• Keyword Rich, think…what do people search in regards to my document?
• Folders do matter.

Example:

Take a look at this page’s URL.

http://selfseo.me/blog/seo-search-engine-optimization/importance-of-sef-search-engine-friendly-urls/

Look how many keywords are there!  The important ones are repeated once, and near each other.  The category SEO, search engine optimization has two major keywords already. Sef, search engine friendly is another, blog with seo and sef is also there.  You get the idea, right?

This URL tells a story, I know its a blog about SEO and that it talks about the importance of SEF URL’s in regards to SEO. Great!

Now it just needs a Title and a Description to match.  Keep in mind this one word…relevancy.  It is key to your SEO success, apply it everywhere and you can do wonders.

Keep at it!

I’m actually somewhere in the middle of those two camps.  I follow back most people, with some exceptions.  So here’s my “who to follow on Twitter guidelines”.  This is like the Pirate Code, it’s “guidelines” and there is a lot of flexibility and interpretation on a case by case basis.

As you are going through your recent followers and deciding who to follow here’s what I look for and some cool tools I use for managing followers…

Who to Follow Back (what I look for)

1. Profile –  The profile is first thing I look at.  Are they a real person (eg not a bot, MLM, or selling me ForEx, etc)?  Profiles aren’t always reliable, Spammers are getting smart and posting profiles that look like real people – see next step.
2. Real people - I take a look at their posts and look for real tweets and some RTs – evidence that someone is there, participating, and interacting.  By the way, I follow a wide range of Tweeps, not just people that think like me.  My opinion is that diversity is what makes Social Media interesting, so I follow a wide range of Tweeps and I find it more interesting this way.
3. Tweeps that Follow Back – If I follow someone I generally expect them to reciprocate, common courtesy, and what is the point if they don’t.  The obvious exceptions (for me) are Social Media rock stars or celebrities.  For example I follow @rickwarren, @kaywarren1 and @maxlucado because I love them and their Tweets.  I don’t really expect them to follow me back and I find real value and inspiration from their Tweets.  There are a handful of others that I follow that do not follow me, but in general I expect someone to follow me back.
4. Follow Back Ratio – This is related to the above, but is a quick way to tell if someone is a Spammer and also if they will likely follow you back.  If someone is following 1,500 people and has 90 followers, odds are this is Spam.  If someone is following 30 people and has 500 Followers they are not likely going to follow you back either, so follow them ONLY if you love their content and do not expect to get followed back.
5. Number of Tweets – I look at how many tweets they have posted.  Granted some are genuinely new Tweeps, and it is easy to tell if they are, but some will have literally thousands of followers with 1 or only a few Tweets.  I guess it is list gathering, but obviously not someone you want to follow.  The most outrageous example I have seen, actually a couple of times, is a Tweep with zero tweets and thousands of followers (again, list gathering) – Spam works if people just automatically follow back.

Who I Don’t Follow and Red Flags (at least for me)…

1. Spammers &  Bots - Tweeps that use APIs (Automatic Program Interfaces) to post ALL of their Tweets.  Most are selling something, others just blindly send Twitterfeeds off into the Twitterverse.  Why follow someone that will NEVER interact with you, NEVER read your posts, and NEVER post anything worth reading.  I do follow a couple of good ones that have good quotes, but in general I skip these.
2. MLMs – sorry MLM folks for me I’m just not interested in your product or how to work from home in my Pjs and make millions.  Actually do follow a few MLM Tweeps that are interesting, actually interact, and have real conversations.  My real objection to most MLM Tweeps is that they are just selling stuff and really don’t interact, so what is the point in following them?  Actually many of the MLM Tweeps fall into #1 above, they use APIs and bots alot, which is funny because it is supposed to be “network” marketing which would imply actually connecting with people.  (same reason I don’t follow most retail Tweeps and many MLM Tweeps use APIs).
3. Retail – I don’t follow most retail Tweeps since most of them just go on and on about their carpet store, coffee, bagels, or clothes.  With that said, there are some exceptional retail Tweeps that are worth following like @starbucks,  barefootwine and a few others, but in general most just post stuff about their store and NEVER interact.  I will follow a retail Tweep IF they are interacting and having a conversation.  If they are just selling stuff what’s the point.
4. Mean Spirited Tweeps,  Haters, Angry and Pissed Off Tweeps – I don’t follow them.  While I like and respect diversity, I just don’t care for this and choose to pass on these kinds of Tweeps.  Just my opinion.

As always, there is much more to talk about, and you can actually develop a Twitter strategy to accomplish your Social Media goals.  And there are tools available to help you manage Twitter and your Social Media presence – see my previous blog on My Favorite Twitter Tools for Managing Followers.  I’ll talk about developing a social media strategy  in future blogs and in the ebook Alex and I are writing.

As always, I wish you the best and brightest future

Bill Grunau

The guys at Hubspot, probably Darmesh, came up with Twitter Grader and it is a very cool tool to see how you rank and where you stand in the Twitterverse.  A sample of mine is below and I am happy to report that as of today, and for the time being, I am ahead of Florida’s Sexy Models!  I consider this quite and accomplishment based on their content and attraction vs mine.  So for now I am the #1 Tweep in Miami (probably short lived and I am going to soak it up while I can).

Twitter Grader is a snap to use, just follow the link, enter your Twitter name and wait a minute or two for the results.  Grader.com has other grader tools including Website Grader which I used to use frequently and unfortunately they recently dumbed it down so it is not as useful as it once was

Thought I would share this very cool tool with you, hope you enjoy it.

As always I wish you the best and brightest future

Bill Grunau

See my sample report below…

Twitter Grader Results Own_Your_Future Bill Grunau

One of the most time consuming tasks once you get more than a few dozen followers is managing your followers.  Deciding who to follow, who to unfollow if they unfollowed you, for that matter even knowing that they did unfollow you!

Here are three tools I use nearly every day that makes my life much easier, and here’s the most important part, they are FREE and work great!

My Favorite Tools for Managing Followers

• SocialOomph.com – I really like this tool because it is FREE and it really works well.  You can set it up to automatically follow people based on criteria you set, but frankly I don’t like to automatically follow anyone.
  • Vet Followers:  This is why I like SocialOomph.  It has an option on the auto-follow to “vet” your followers where you have 72 hours to confirm each one and either follow or not.  If you do nothing it will go with the default criteria you set (which actually works pretty well most of the time).
  • Summary of New Followers:  I also like the format of the list of followers, it is very easy to breeze through quickly and decide who to follow and who is likely a Spammer.  The list of  new follower screen also shows stats for what percentage of people followed, ignored or blocked.  This is very cool because if 100% have ignored you immediately know this is a Spammer and if say 30% have ignored you know you should check them out before following them back.  This is a great feature!
• Tweepi.com -
  • Flush:  Yep, just like it sounds, this flushes people that have not followed you back.  I like the Flush feature on Tweepi because you can quickly un-follow people that are not following you back and I have found that it is a very efficient tool for this.  One word of caution on this.  I recently got overly proactive on this and ran the Flush program too soon and accidentally un- followed some people only to end up following them back a few days later. Oops!  A bit embarrassing, especially when one guy asked me why I did that (btw, told him the truth).  My suggestion, run Flush about once a week, no more, and give people at least 3 days to follow you back.
  • Clean Up:  Clean up is very cool too.  You can use this to review your list of follower and clean out Spammers or inactive Tweeps.  My view on Spammers is to unfollow them, but on inactive Tweeps or infrequent tweeters I don’t see the harm in having them as followers and I personally have no problem with that, although I have read a number of blogs that complain about it, I just don’t see the problem.
• FriendorFollow.com – I have used FriendorFollow.com for un-following Tweeps too, it works well, I have found Tweepi works faster for me.

By the way, speaking of Spammers, if you missed my previous blog on How to Spot a Spammer in Seconds or Bill’s Gallery of Spam check them out I think you will find that interesting too.

I hope this helps and saves you some time.  This is working well for me.  I welcome your comments and I know there are many other tools out there, feel free to post your comments and suggestions too.

As always, I wish you the best and brightest future

Bill Grunau