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Tips for Getting the Most Out of Your eBlasts

March 26, 2010 in B2B, Business, Communications, Design, Marketing, New Business, email, emarketing, internet marketing, prospecting by gtaylor | 1 comment

People still question the effectiveness of eBlasts even though they subscribe to receive coupons, blog and news updates via email. An eBlast may not be working for you because the design and content are simply missing the mark.

On a daily basis, my inbox is flooded with newsletters, webinar invites, LinkedIn invitations to connect and, of course, eBlasts. Some of the eBlasts look like they were thrown together in ten minutes or less, and nine times out of ten, they are deleted.

If you’re looking to get more out of your eBlasts, here are a few tips:

Don’t promote – provide value

The biggest mistake most companies make when sending an eBlast is too much promotion.  You should be more focused on providing information your target audience will find interesting, and hopefully, learn something from.  Open the door for questions and offer advice.  You can get a good idea of what people want to know from tweets and discussions on LinkedIn. Providing your recipients with value will keep them looking forward to receiving your eBlasts, and they’ll be more likely to share the information with others.

Include social media

In addition to having your social media profile links in your eBlast, include some notable tweets or discussion excerpts to show what you and others are saying about the topic at hand.

Link to other RELEVANT sources

Although you are sending the eBlast, it doesn’t have to be all about you. See “Don’t promote, provide value” above.  In case you haven’t realized it yet, you aren’t the only source of information. Post a link, and quick summary of some articles you’ve recently read.  It doesn’t hurt or cost any extra money.  Just make sure the links you are posting are relevant to the topic of the eBlast.

Frequency matters

I recently ran an eBlast campaign for a client that had a weekly internet radio show.  The eBlast went out the last Friday of the month.  The eBlast included all the episodes for the month, sound bites from highest rated shows and best comments from the audience chat room.  The eBlast acted as a monthly recap and informed the recipients of what was to come next month. Eighty percent of the emails were opened each month, and the traffic to the client’s website dramatically increased. If the eBlast would have been sent weekly, the audience response would have been completely different.

Hire help

Doctors aren’t marketing executives and marketing execs aren’t doctors.  Hiring a marketing agency to help create an eBlast campaign will get you the results you are looking for.  Determining how to get through the clutter and come up with a creative design and layout for your eBlast isn’t easy, so why not ask for an experts help?

Yes, social media is a great marketing tool to reach large and targeted audiences, but it isn’t the only option.  You still have to get your message to those prospects or customers who work at a company that blocks social media sites and eBlasts are a great way to do just that.

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Social Media Webinars and Workshops – Which One(s) Should I Attend?

March 9, 2010 in Communications, Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Technology, emarketing, social media, twitter by gtaylor | 1 comment

Regardless if you are just beginning your social media journey or have been blazing trails of your own, by now, you should have had the opportunity to participate in a webinar, or workshop, focusing on social media.  There are companies that present the basics to you, while others provide a more in depth explanation of specific ways social media can change the way you market to your customers.  For newbie’s, the information presented may be helpful, but how do you ensure you don’t waste your time?

As a social media strategist, I have attended my fair share of webinars and workshops, and have found only a few of them helpful and interesting.

Half of them are about the social media basics, defining social media, or using the big five (blogging, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube) for your business.  The other half may have a speaker that has been successful in using social media and want to share their success stories with everyone.

Here’s a few tips on choosing a webinar or workshop that will benefit you or your company:

Research the organizing company

You don’t buy a TV without shopping around.  If you’re going to invest your time into attending a ‘How to Use Social Media’ workshop, look to see how the presenting company uses social media.  It’s easy to find out how long a company has been using Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and creating blog content.  As Google continues to integrate social media into their search results, a company’s social media presence will be more noticeable.

Search for hashtags

Most organizer’s promote their event with a hashtag (#).  The hashtag makes it easy for not only the organizing company to see what people may be saying about their event, but also makes it easy for people to see what others may have thought about the webinar/workshop.

Crowdsource

If you don’t ask questions, you’ll always be in the dark. Maybe some of your followers on Twitter or connections on Facebook attended a previous webinar/workshop given by the same company.  Ask them what they though or if the information was useful. Usually, you’ll get an unbiased answer.  If you really know your followers, you’ll value their information.

Review previous transcripts or presentations

Most webinars are archived for viewing at a later time.  Quickly skim through the podcast or slideshow.  Skimming through podcast make take a little more time than looking at slides but spending ten minutes of your time to avoid wasting 90 minutes is understandable.

Follow your instinct

If you’ve researched the company’s social media efforts, crowdsourced information, searched for hashtags, listened to the podcast or reviewed slides and you’re still unsure, rely on your gut feeling. Your time is valuable.  Besides, you know your social media skill level better than anyone else.

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Will Social Media Eventually Overpower Email?

March 4, 2010 in Business, Communications, Facebook, Technology, email, emarketing, iPhone, internet marketing, social media by gtaylor | 2 comments

After coming back to the office after a lunch meeting, a tweet mentioning @SmileyHanchulak stated how the meeting went. Not only did I see that, but the 600+ followers the company has saw it too.  Even though business cards were exchanged, social media was the medium used to display their satisfaction and gratitude.

When email became the preferred method of communication, the US Postal Service cringed and the term ’snail mail’ was born.  Now, with social media quickly becoming the preferred method of communication, will the use of email eventually decrease?

Many may disagree, but social media increases the use of email.

Think about the contests on Twitter, Facebook and blogs.  Most of them require either an email address or want you to send them an email with a certain subject to register. Twitter allows you to send direct messages but they have the same 140 character limit as a regular tweet. Facebook direct messages allow unlimited typing, but who wants to login their Facebook account every time to read a long message?

Having the ability to receive email in the palm of your hand is why smartphones like the iPod, BlackBerry, and Android exist. Sure people love the apps, but the instant communication is what people really want.

Email is viewed as a formal way of communicating. Although your company has a Twitter account, the chance that you are going to send a proposal to a major corporation in 50 direct messages is slim.

Social media is similar to “water cooler” conversation.  The short, instant messages on social media are short, and have the potential to be “overheard” by someone else. and if anything needs to be discussed later email addresses will be exchanged.

Twitter may send 50 million tweets a day, but how many outgoing emails does Google, Yahoo or MSN process on a daily basis?

Social media is great for instant two-way communication, and sites like Twitter allows you to reach out and follow whoever you want.  Email is great for personal two-way communication and the only people able to contact you are those who you have shared your email address with.

Will social overpower email?  My sources say no, but social media will definitely reshape the way email is used.

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Will Social Media Exist Forever?

March 3, 2010 in Communications, Facebook, Marketing, Technology, blogging, emarketing, internet marketing, social media, twitter by gtaylor | No comments

In 1875, when Alexander Graham Bell introduced the telephone, people probably weren’t convinced that this new invention would even work.  Now, telephones may have evolved into pocket-size devices that do more things than Inspector Gadget could shake his hat at, but the initial concept is the same, two-way communication.

When polling if Twitter was going to be around forever, 45% of the respondents felt it would be around another two or three years, 23% felt either it will be around for another year, or outlast Facebook, and only 10% of poll respondents felt it will be around forever. With the multiple social media networks available to use, and as countless networks are being developed as I type, will social media be a means of communication forever?

Two-way communication fuels social media.  Twitter and Facebook have completely changed how consumers receive information.  We want real-time updates and the social media networks of today provide just that.

Individuals and businesses have included social media use in their daily routines, and some companies have made their Facebook page their main website or use social media as a part of their customer service department.

One key factor of social media’s immortality is the unlimitied opportunity for constant innovation since brand loyalty doesn’t exist.

Millions of MySpace users switched to Facebook due to increasing popularity and the itch to try something new.  Music artists held onto using MySpace as long they could but their fan base had moved onto something new. In less than two years, MySpace had been dethroned by Facebook as the top social media network in the U.S. and had to lay off 30% of their workforce.

Will social media last forever? It’s possible.

The only threat to social media’s existence is the FCC.  As of right now, the only guidelines on social media are the terms and conditions of each network. Realistically, social media is in an extensive beta phase.  What happens next is still up in the air.

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How Long Will Twitter Last?

February 24, 2010 in Business, Facebook, Marketing, Technology, emarketing, internet marketing, social media, twitter by gtaylor | 11 comments

In 1990, if you told CompuServe executives their 600 thousand subscribers would amount to less than 2% of daily messages sent on a social media network, they would have laughed in your face.  CompuServe dominated online service in the 1980’s and continued to be a major player in the 1990’s.  As technology continued to improve and companies merged and subsequently closed, CompuServe’s popularity eventually faded away.

Fast forward to 2010, where Twitter is one of the dominating social media networks.  The challenge of having your 140 character (or less) message retweeted by your favorite celebrity causes more anxiety than a deer dashing across the front of your vehicle. Adding ‘#’ to your one word tweet can become popular enough that millions of people type in the same thing and it becomes a trending topic.

People have never communicated in this type of fashion before.  In 2009 Twitter went mainstream, but how long will the popularity of the network last?

Some people predict Twitter will last forever.  But, weren’t those same predictions made about FriendFeed and MySpace? MySpace was the leading social networking website a few years ago.  The creators of Facebook dreamed of having the same success MySpace was experiencing.  Now, if Facebook was a country, it would be the third largest country in the world, while the MySpace craze dissipates.

If social media history repeats itself, Twitter will be struggling to compete with a social media powerhouse that is currently in development stage.  Once someone develops the right network that will connect people in a better, more entertaining way, the social media world will slowly migrate leaving Twitter just as they did Myspace.

Whitepapers and blog posts will be full of statistics and case studies proclaiming this new network is the best solution for your business and experts will pop up everywhere.

Twitter has changed the social media landscape in ways no one could have ever imagined, and Twitter is taking a huge risk on March 12th when they launch their ad network.  Will users become annoyed by advertisements splattered over what used to be a clean, user customized layout.

The imprint Twitter will leave on social media and social networking will be permanent, the fact is, something better is bound to come along and take it’s place.

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