Alert Blog Reviews

The online space is certainly trying hard to cut the apron strings associated with traditional media techniques and practices. It can be hard though, to completely separate from something that may still have value. Think about how nice it was (or still is) to go back “home” and get that meal that you just can’t make on your own. While you never want to be back there 24 / 7 again there are certain things that are part of our past that will always have great value and we get to take the best of those things with us. The same concept may apply to the Internet marketing world as well. As much as we try to break away and create our own identity separate from the traditional world of content generation, advertising, PR and every other piece of the overall marketing mosaic, there may be some things that will always have a place. One of them might even be snail mail. An article in the Wall Street Journal talks about how there may be certain aspects of snail mail that carry importance even in the rush to digitize everything in our business lives. While not right for every business, part of the relationship building that we talk of as the most important aspect of the social web can be cemented with a good old fashioned handwritten note. For instance: Looking to cut costs amid the recession, Alicia Settle initially thought it would be a good idea to eliminate her company’s annual direct mailing. Spending about $20,000 on the personally signed letters, which offered customers a discount on early orders, seemed indulgent for Per Annum Inc., which sells city diaries, albums, and planners in the struggling corporate gift market. But after swapping snail mail for email last year, Ms. Settle saw a 25% drop in early orders compared with the same period the previous year. “We realized we had made a huge mistake,” says Ms. Settle, president of the New York firm. This is one of the dangers of taking established businesses and preaching that since online is the wave of the future that you need to go there. Damn the torpedoes and full steam ahead into the future! Sure businesses do need to evolve but to what extent is completely dependent on what kind of business it is, what their existing customers are used to and how new customers can be attracted to the offerings. As a result, you don’t want to throw the baby out with the bathwater so there may be room to get rid of some traditional marketing that is certainly unproductive in the new world order while keeping others. These “old school” activities like handwritten thank you notes and other techniques now are part of the whole social marketing fabric that can serve to benefit the new and the old customers. They are actually part of social media. The idea is to send something that’s more appealing than “junk” mail and potentially more noticeable than an email message, says Eric Anderson, a professor of marketing at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. That allows business owners “to offer a personal touch the larger firms may not be able to have,” he says. Prof. Anderson says other business owners are trying to figure out how to integrate Web marketing—such as email campaigns, banner ads and social-networking sites—with direct mail. “The introduction of new media has forced [business owners] to go back and revisit the whole playbook on what’s the best way to communicate with customers,” Mr. Anderson says. Ms. Settle, for instance, plans to use e-marketing to complement the hand-signed direct-mail piece, not replace it. So how do you incorporate the best of the old and the new in your business? Have you made a “pendulum swing” adjustment and taken away too much of what was once effective? Did you then find that part of the old way of doing things could still serve you well? Where is the happy medium and what might it look like moving forward?

Go here to see the original:
Can Snail Mail Be Part of Social Media?

As marketing professionals, we usually have to justify ourselves to our bosses, our clients and everyone in between—especially in the less-tested, sometimes-hit-or-miss arena of social media. But now Ad Age wants accountability, too, as they ask “if you’re getting enough out of all the volunteer work you do for Biz & Ev and Mark,” or, more specifically, “Are we all just toiling mightily to make a bunch of rich nerds (Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and his employees and investors, Twitter’s Biz Stone and Evan Williams and their employees and investors) richer, while we impoverish ourselves?” That’s both a literal and a figurative question, since using those social networks is exactly what makes their founders and investors money (well, sort of), and, as the argument goes, we’re essentially a volunteer labor force creating content for these sites—an interesting point. Meanwhile, using social networks (at all, as the argument here seems to go) means sacrificing time (true), actual interactions (possibly true but not always)—and our very souls and identities. They mean this to be a discussion on a personal level, since a central thrust of the argument is that these social networks have sacrificed so much of our privacy that we’re allowing them to steal (don’t we call that “giving” in English?) “the sole ownership of our own thoughts, emotions, personal expressions, etc.” from us (yes, if I post “I’m sad” on a social network, that means that they also own my emotion…. right….). Of course, if you’re using Twitter and Facebook as a marketer, you’re there looking for business ROI from publicity—being public. Ad Age (you know, “Advertising” Age? About . . . could it be . . . advertising ?) does acknowledge that social networks might work for these purposes, if they’re worth the sacrifice: If you’re a brand marketer, chances are good that you’re extracting real value from investing time and energy in social media (and you’re happy to have consumers volunteering their time to be your “brand ambassadors” or whatever you want to call them); good for you. (And if you’re a consumer who gets off on connecting with big brands — or just wants to interface with customer service in a forum, like Twitter, where certain marketers seem to be hyper-responsive — well, good for you too.) In general, if you’re soft-selling something — like content or an idea — that can benefit from free publicity, Facebook and Twitter are your friends. Even if, well, they’re the two-faced sort who think nothing of riffling through your handbag or backpack when you get up to go the bathroom — you know, glad-handing “friends” (those are air quotes) who are obviously using you for something, only it’s not always entirely clear what. Um . . . I hate to bring this up, but aren’t we as marketers just using our social networks as those same kind of “friends” (and possibly even the friends and fans we acquire on those social networks)—we’re just using them as the means to an end? I do agree, of course, that on a personal level, excessive use of social media can rob us of time and valuable interaction with the people we care about most. It’s good to examine our relationship with the Internet and social media on a personal level and decide whether it’s really worth the time and effort we put into it, or if we might put that time to better use. While that’s the brief summary of the argument at the conclusion of the article, the main thrust is that using social networks is such a great sacrifice of ourselves (even without a time investment) that it’s not worth it. What do you think? Do you demand ROI from personal social network use? Or are you glad that most people don’t ?

View post:
Are You Getting Enough out of Twitter & Facebook?

Image by luc legay via Flickr How we interact with others can either cause joy, pain or leave no impression at all. What impression are you leaving behind you on Twitter and other social networks ? Pain is caused on Twitter when… – Spam and hacking occurs and we feel our safety and privacy is compromised. – An opinion we make is “flamed” by others or they fail to get what we are saying – We use Twitter to be negative about others. Think about high profile cases this year where it has been a case of “tweet in haste, repent at leisure” (or not leisure, in a world where reaction is global and swift!) To avoid causing the pain on Twitter: – Review your account often and report any spam appropriately – Make your posts meaningful and value laden – Don’t spam others, ratio your tweets about your biz with conversations and helping out others – Don’t get involved in an argument – Treat others as you wish to be treated yourself Joy of Twitter… Twitter can be a joy. It is a way to reach out to people, to build new relationships online, and to gain valuable feedback. Some tips to help keep your use of Twitter Joyful are: – Tweet about what you are interested in rather than what you think you should be tweeting about – Be mindful in your tweeting. Tweet from the heart. – Treat Twitter as one of your social media and other marketing activities and don’t get sucked in to feeling you have to be there every single minute – have some fun!! – Connect with other like minded people and use the @reply and RT to start great conversations – Reach out to connect and grow your relationship with your most regular twitter contacts The anonymity of neutrality… Sometimes on Twitter I think it is easy to get sucked into posting “for the sake of it” and this is where neutrality can sneak in. Think value, think connection, think first. And have a joyful time connecting using Twitter. © 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips . The Joy of Tweeting

Read the original:
The Joy of Tweeting

There’s no question that social media has reshaped the way we do business online. I’ve posted a couple of times about using Facebook with clients ; however, the real power of social media lies within Twitter. Used correctly, Twitter can become an integral part of your projects from client screening to web site integration to ongoing client education and interaction. In this post I will step through some ideas on integrating Twitter with your projects and clients before, during and after the project process. Before the Project Think of Twitter as a powerful set of ears. You can listen broadly to the chatter going on or you can hone in on specific conversations. This gives you insight into what prospects are talking about, and it enables you to interact with them in a resource capacity. Connect with potential clients How can you use Twitter to seek out new clients? The first thing you need to do is banish any thought of Twitter as a sales tool. It’s nothing of the sorts. Twitter is a resource tool. You help people, follow them and converse with them, and in return they interact with you. You can ignite this relationship with prospects by searching out keywords related to web design, your geographic area or even your competitors. Some people may be explicitly looking for web design services while others may just be a connection to an organization you want to do business with. You should also look up your offline prospects on Twitter to see if you can interact with them at a new level. The key is to be there as a resource. Talk to these people. Engage them. You may never do business with them, but Twitter is a public forum and the more actively involved you are, the more visible you become. Conduct due diligence Social media has ushered in a huge amount of transparency into the online world. Employers can see what their employees are up to on Facebook, your name is at the mercy of Google’s index and you can easily be tagged on photo sharing sites. Use this to your advantage. If you’re trying to complete a deal with a prospect that actually has a Twitter presence, see what they’re up to. Dig into their past tweets to see what they post about. It may help you to learn more about their needs or it may send warning flags up. Be prepared For prospects that are not on Twitter, it may be in their best interest to join. This is where your expertise comes into play and where you need to convince the prospect that Twitter should be incorporated into their online presence. Be prepared for negative reactions. These reactions are typically easy to foresee. For example, the biggest argument against Twitter I’ve seen is that it’s just a bunch of people talking about the nonsensical stuff they’re doing throughout the day. Granted that this is a part of Twitter, it’s not an important part. The important part is where people come together to act as a resource to each other or to respond to customer complaints (or praises). By excluding yourself from Twitter, you’re excluding yourself from the conversation. That’s just one counterargument. The most effective way to convince a prospect to get on Twitter is to prepare real life examples of Twitter in use for business purposes. I constantly find myself referring to ComcastCares , a tired but usable example. Go local Tweet-ups are excellent reasons to network. In a typical tweet-up, several local Twitter users will gather in a restaurant or coffee shop to get to know each other. You never know exactly who is going to show up which makes it a great way to network with new people outside your usual social circles. The cool thing is that there are many people on Twitter who have a number of connections. Malcolm Gladwell, author of The Tipping Point , would call them connectors, and one of them may just show up to the tweet-up. Make sure they know who you are. During the Project You have the client and now the fun begins. Twitter has taken on a very active role in web projects that can help your client to extend their presence even further online. Your job is to help them accomplish this. Introduce Twitter So you’ve convinced the prospect to give Twitter a shot. Don’t stop there. Keep educating them by introducing core concepts and functionalities of Twitter. You can show them desktop and iPhone applications such as TweetDeck , and explain the features of Twitter such as the newly unveiled retweet and list functions. Go from theory to hands-on Most clients can grasp the basics of Twitter but after that it becomes a blur. How exactly can they use Twitter for their web presence? You can’t just setup a Twitter account, show them a few things and then send them on their way. You have to show them hands-on how to use Twitter. Help the client form some initial ideas on what to tweet about. Chances are they’ll want to tweet about their newest sales promotion. Discourage them from posting this kind of content. The best way to get clients thinking is by helping them identify some people to follow. Once the client can see what other effective people post to Twitter, the ideas should start flowing more easily. Web site integration Integrating a client’s most recent tweets into their web presence is a piece of cake. You can use Twitter’s widget or you can deploy one of the countless third party tools that exist. Content management systems such as Wordpress offer numerous Twitter plugins as well. You need to be careful when advising the client whether or not integrating Twitter with the web site is a good idea. Is the client using a personal Twitter account or is it a company branded account? If it’s personal and they’re posting questionable content, that’s when you need to think about either establishing a secondary account or excluding Twitter altogether from the web site. Status updates One unique way to think about Twitter for projects is on the status update side of things. If you establish a private account that only your client can access, you can share quick updates on the project progress. This might only work if the client already loves Twitter, but it may be worth giving a shot if you have a lot of little things you need to communicate in a timely fashion. Bare bones At the very least, if the client has an RSS feed for their blog, events, press releases or other timely content, setup a twitterfeed account . Twitterfeed will post each new RSS update as a new tweet. Even if the client isn’t interested in Twitter, then they’ll at least have somewhat of a presence. After the Project The project’s done, the site’s been launched and the client’s happy – congratulations – you’re not done. Twitter is one of those things that you need to constantly stick to in order to succeed with it. This can be hard on the client and where your expertise can continue to come into play. Continue the education Keep the client engaged with Twitter by sending them useful tips and notes on how to use it. Send them new people to follow, answer their questions and advise them on best practices. Even if you’re not being paid a consulting fee any longer, it’s still a great way to continue building a bond with a client without investing too much time. Interact You’re on Twitter and your client is on Twitter. The only natural thing to do is interact with them. Retweet or reply to anything interesting they post, and make sure you drop them a direct message every so often. Twitter is just another platform to help you communicate with clients in a new way. See how you’re doing Most small companies don’t need to worry about this, but make sure you always have a pulse on what people are saying about your organization on Twitter. Just search for your name or your company’s name. It’s not hard and you can unearth complaints, praises or other mentions worth reacting to. And if you work for a large organization, take the initiative to start engaging with clients. Maybe they’re complaining about something you never would have known about. Respond to their needs and repair the relationship. Get everyone in a room If you have multiple clients you’re educating about Twitter, take the opportunity to consider organizing a half-day seminar. You can use the seminar to cover Twitter basics, dip into advanced topics and field questions. I’ve done this before and it’s very effective. You can even charge for the seminar and turn it into a really worthwhile event. The best part is that you’re interacting with your clients in a face-to-face manner, which is very powerful. One final thought In closing this post, it’s worth mentioning one big Twitter no-no of mine. Never, ever post negative stuff about a client on Twitter. It doesn’t matter if you’re vague or careful, just don’t do it. It’s needlessly risky and unprofessional. What if the client stumbles onto your Twitter profile and sees the update? What if they figure out it’s them you’re throwing under the bus? This can lead to an awkward and precarious relationship with your client. My recommendation: Keep it safe and positive if you tweet about clients. And with that said, I’m always interested in learning about how other people use Twitter with clients and projects. Speak up! Leave a comment and share your insight. © 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips . How to Use Twitter with Prospects and Clients Before, During and After Web Design Projects

See the article here:
How to Use Twitter with Prospects and Clients Before, During and After Web Design Projects

This is part two of Secret to Getting Rich on the Internet , series. If you haven’t read part one, you probably should do that first. So if you are reading this you probably read last week’s post, where I promised that I would reveal a secret tactic that can make you rich on the internet. Before i do that, I want to talk about secrets in general for a moment. Quite honestly, most “secrets”on the internet are BS. This is because oftentimes they are bits of knowledge and advice that seem obvious to many, but practiced by few. This is generally because the best tactics are the ones that don’t show their true value until you have years of experience trying them out. Many of the most valuable “secret” tactics (including the one below) are things that many of us do everyday but are not aware of it. And the secret is… Building strong relationships with the people that matter most . Building strong relationships has historically been the cornerstone of success. Sometimes the internet and social media fools us into thinking that we can do anything we want without anyone’s help. If you think that, you are dead wrong. No one lives on an island–we all work and play in the same cyberspace. Building strong relationships can be a powerful tactic in advancing your personal and professional life because it enables other people to feel empowered when you succeed. The only downside to this tactic is, to do it effectively, you have to focus on the people that matter most. People that matter most?? Don’t all people matter? Unfortunately if you are going to use relationship building as a tactic you have to segment people effectively in order to get the most out of your effort. In short, you can’t be friends with everyone! So who matters and who doesn’t? For each person this may be different, but I like to break people down into two groups. People that are excited about what you are doing should be your first target for building relationships. When people are excited about something they generally tend to talk about it early on, and then as their interest passes they find something else. If you can effectively build a solid relationship with that person then you will be at the forefront of their thoughts as long as you keep the relationship alive. They will then turn into your strongest brand advocates because they want to see you succeed. People that you want to be excited about what you are doing should be your second target. These are the folks that are maybe influential in your industry. They are the ones that can help spread your vision into other networks that you aren’t a part of yet. Or they might just be the person that you know would truly benefit in what you are doing. So now we know which types of folks to target, the real question is how do we actually build these strong relationships? Well, I think that’s a topic for another post, but one way to start learning how to develop strong relationships is to follow a few folks, that I saw in Vegas, that are amazing relationship builders. Relationship Building Gurus: Dana Lookadoo Joanna Lord Jon Henshaw Dave Snyder

Original post:
Cup of Joe: The Secret to Getting Rich on the Internet, is in Las Vegas – Part 2

Earlier this month, StumbleUpon started showcasing their new homepage design, when they touted their “Google + Twitter” social search . Now they’ve gone through the rest of the site to make it more consistent (less customizable), easy to understand and streamlined. Read Write Web reports: The new interface is streamlined and more social with an updated relationship system. A focus on consistency (e.g., limiting user control of visual elements) and removal of clutter (e.g., presenting tags in a drop-down menu rather than a cloud) characterize the design changes made. Also, a few tweaks to group sharing were made to help reduce share-spam. The most significant UX changes have occur[r]ed in the way friendships and subscriptions work on the site. Now, your friends are you “Mutual Subscribers,” which makes the relationship a little clearer. They’re the people users can share pages with directly from the toolbar. However, the redesign is largely changes like those—clarifying various site functions, streamlining the design, making things easier for users. The homepage, same as the beta featured earlier this month, highlights recent activity from Mutual Subscribers—but doesn’t place a big emphasis on the social search aspect they were talking about earlier this month. So is StumbleUpon shying away from that? Or are they worried that their core user base was confused? I know I was a little worried when I first hear the social search news—even though I’m now an infrequent Stumbler, I didn’t want to lose that original “discovery engine,” even if it would be for a working social search model. However, the actual stumbling part of the service would remain—and maybe this is just to remind and reassure their users of that. But it still seems like they haven’t really played up the social search aspect enough. While I remain highly skeptical of social search, it’s one of those brass rings for mainstream search engines—like Google, which announced Social Search in Labs , using sites that your Google contacts have viewed, as well as sites you’ve seen before in your Web History, Google Reader and associated Google services. However, with StumbleUpon’s more targeted “Mutual Subscribers” option, you have the ability to control what friends you’re getting information from, instead of results from everyone you’ve ever emailed. What do you think? Does StumbleUpon have a better chance of getting social search right? Is it shying away from that—and should it, now that Google’s officially thrown its hat into the ring?

More here:
StumbleUpon Updates Design Again (Abandoning Social Search?)