On Facebook: Is Random Relevant?

“Spent the morning making prank bird calls. The sparrows are not amused.”
See the numbers in the graphic? Those are the stats on that random Facebook wall post made by Skittles. And that’s not a fluke. Everyday, there’s an equally random and nonsensical post on the candy’s fan page and every post draws a similar number of “likes” and comments. Most companies would be thrilled to see those kinds of social media stats, but do those high numbers equal marketing success? Depends on who you ask.
AdvertisingAge contents that Facebook is going to redefine the term relevant when it comes to online marketing. In traditional terms, relevant means supplying consumers with copy that discusses the features and benefits of the product or service. Skittles taste fruity. Oreo is a quality cookie. This vacuum sucks better than that one. But those kinds of blurbs don’t spark conversation on Facebook and that’s a problem.
Says Adage;

“We’ve long known that inserting brands into social-media channels requires a conversational touch, but many are surprised by just how conversational. . .As it turns out, many people in social networks don’t want to talk about your product, they just want to talk.”

My own very unscientific studies bear this out. A post about improvements to a fashion game I promote ends in dead silence. A post asking how many times our fans have seen the new Harry Potter movie results in a flurry of comments and “likes.”
So why not just talk nonsense all the time like Skittles? Here’s why not. Because no one knows yet whether 1,200 comments translates into sales. How many of the 17,000 Facebook users who “liked” this post actually went out and bought a bag of Skittles or recommended them to a friend? And can you see convincing your boss that writing nothing but random statements on Facebook was doing your job and doing it well?
On the other hand, we often talk about Facebook and Twitter as brand awareness tools. McDonalds doesn’t always show a burger in their commercials. They don’t have to. They just need to put the name in your ear so it comes to mind when it’s time for lunch. If half the Skittles Facebook fans pass on today’s post because they think it’s funny, that’s worth something.
What do you think? Is it possible that traditional marketing axioms don’t apply to social media? Could random be the most relevant thing you can post on your Facebook wall? We’d like to hear about your experiences one way or the other.
This article is taken from- http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/2010/11/on-facebook-is-random-relevant.html

Email Deliverability Tips

by Tom Kulzer (AWeber CEO)

Ensuring requested opt-in email is delivered to subscriber inboxes is an increasingly difficult battle in the age of spam filtering. Open and click thru response rates can be dramatically affected by as much as 20-30% due to incorrect spam filter classification. 

 

Permission

Confirming that the people who ask for your information have actually requested to be on your list is the number one step in the battle for deliverability. You should be using a process called confirmed opt-in or verified opt-in to send a unique link to the attempted subscriber when they request information. Before adding the person to your list they must click that unique link verifying that they are indeed the same person that owns the email address and requested to subscribe.

Subscriber Addresses

When requesting website visitors to opt-in ask for their “real” or “primary” email address instead of a free email address like Yahoo or Hotmail. Free emails tend to be throw away accounts and typically have a shorter lifetime than a primary ISP address.

List Maintenance

Always promptly remove undeliverable addresses that bounce when sending email to them. An address that bounces with a permanent error 2-3 times in a 30 day period should be removed from the list. ISP’s track what percentage of your newsletters bounce and will block them if you attempt to continually deliver messages to closed subscriber mailboxes.

Message Format

Usage of HTML messages to allow for text formatting, multiple columns, images, and brand recognition is growing in popularity and is widely supported by most email client software. Most spam is also HTML formatted and thus differentiating between requested email and spam HTML messages can be difficult. A 2004 study by AWeber .com shows that plain text messages are undeliverable 1.15% of the time and HTML only messages were undeliverable 2.3%. If sending HTML it is important to always send a plain text alternative message, also called text/HTML multi-part mime format.

Content

Many ISP’s filter based on the content that appears within the message text.

Website URL:Research potential newsletter advertisers before allowing them to place ads in your newsletter issues. If they have used their website URL to send spam, just having their URL appear in your newsletter could cause the entire message to be filtered. Words/phrases: Choose your language carefully when crafting messages. Avoid hot button topics often found in spam such as medication, mortgages, making money, and pornography. If you do need to use words that might be filtered, don’t attempt to obfuscate words with extra characters or odd spelling, you’ll just make your messages appear more spam like. Images: Avoid creating messages that are entirely images. Use images sparingly, if at all. Commonly used open rate tracking technology uses images to calculate opens. You may choose to disable open rate tracking to avoid being filtered based on image content. Attachments: With viruses running rampant and spreading thru the usage of malicious email attachments many users are wary of attached documents. It’s often better to link to files via a website URL to reduce recipient fear of attachments and reduce the overall message size.

CAN-SPAM Compliance

The January 2004 Federal CAN-SPAM law introduced a number of rules regarding the delivery of email. It’s important you have your legal counsel review your practices and ensure you are in compliance. The two most important rules include having a valid postal mail address listed in all commercial messages and a working unsubscribe link that is promptly honored to remove the subscriber from future messages.

Reputation

Reputation services are often used by large ISP’s as a way to vet email senders regarding their email practices and policies. Businesses listed with these services are then given less stringent filtering or no filtering at all. Several reputation services are:

• http://www.isipp.com/iadb.php
• http://www.bondedsender.com
• http://www.habeas.com

Relationships & Whitelisting

Contact with major ISP’s and email providers is essential in letting them know about your requested subscriber email. Many large providers such as AOL and Yahoo have specific whitelisting programs and postmaster website areas to ensure your email is delivered as long as you meet their policies and procedures in handling your opt-in list.
Email deliverability is about ensuring requested opt-in email is delivered to the intended recipient. While no single tip will enable you to get 100% of your email delivered each one utilized as a group can go a long way to reaching that goal.
This article is taken from- http://www.aj2000.com/articles/email-deliverability-tips.php

5 Connected Marketing Tactics to Prepare for Facebook Messages

The new Facebook Messages offering unveiled this week brings true inbox message convergence and relevance control to consumers by prioritizing messages based on a user's individual relationships. Facebook Messages will allow consumers to get SMS/text, instant message/chat, e-mail and Facebook Messages all in one place, turning disparate touch-points into one threaded conversation. Consumers will see entire conversation histories with their friends in one thread regardless of channel. I discuss all of Facebook Messages features in detail here. Given the changes that Facebook will roll out in the coming weeks, I'll explore here the tactics that marketers should be addressing to prepare for the reality of message convergence.
1. Establish a Presence on Facebook Immediately
An April 2010 survey of 674 marketers in the U.S. and U.K. conducted by my company revealed that just 44 percent of e-mail marketers stated their company currently has a Facebook fan page. Another 32 percent said they were planning on doing this within the next 12 months; the remainder said they had no plans to do this. Marketers, the time is now to launch your Facebook fan page. Why is this important? Message disposition including if it is going to be accepted or bounced, as well as the folder placement inside the inbox, will be determined by a user's privacy setting. A person can select to receive messages only from friends, friends of friends, or everyone. This is the same scheme that currently exists in Facebook. Clearly if a user has fanned your brand, she will have access to your Facebook inbox. Marketers must push a dedicated e-mail campaign promoting their Facebook fan page. Make the "Like" button the call to action. The Facebook fan page should also allow individuals to opt in to your e-mail marketing campaigns and your e-mail subscription center should promote your Facebook fan page.
2. Make Your E-mail Content Shareable to Facebook
In the same survey, 42 percent of e-mail marketers said they are sharing their content on social networks, such as Facebook. Rather than allowing the subscriber to share the whole e-mail, allow the individual to share individual pieces of the e-mail, such as a specific offer. Consumers are fickle about which content elements that they share within their profile, or even which brands that they like as these actions define who the individual is to their friends. That is, this notion of brand badging or content posting is akin to a digital tattoo. While the subscriber may truly be a fan of your brand, typically only the most loyal subscribers will want it to be publicly known that they "Like" your brand. Nonetheless, make it easy for consumers to share content and become fans/likers of your brand.
3. Make It Easy For People to Change Their E-mail Address
It remains to be seen how many people may abandon their current e-mail address for a new @facebook.com address, but I'm sure we will begin to see at least 10 percent of the online population make that switch immediately. Ensure that your e-mail preference center allows subscribers not only to opt out, but to change their e-mail address. Even if Facebook e-mail adoption is slow, it could still represent subscribers churning off your list. Marketers should include links in their e-mail creative to make it easy for subscribers to update their e-mail addresses. My company currently is surveying consumers on these switching attitudes and behaviors, so stay tuned for that study in the coming weeks.
4. Watch For Subscriber E-mail Address Churn
Our survey found that just 38 percent of marketers segment subscribers by click-through behavior. Marketers must begin to look at e-mail click behavior and segment by it in order to spot trends of which addresses might be churning. From there, they should target that segment with win-back campaigns and a mechanism to update their e-mail address.
5. Create a Connected Marketing Strategy and Connected Company
Message convergence is clearly upon us, underscoring that consumers increasingly view an organization as one brand - regardless of channel. E-mail marketers must work across corporate silos to collaborate with their social marketing peers as well as front line call center and retail store employees. Now more than ever, organizations should be capturing and confirming e-mail addresses at every customer touch-point.
I don't think we'll see massive wholesale migration by consumers just yet. But it's important to recognize that this is just another way to reach your customers and be relevant to them. E-mail marketing complexity continues to increase, raising the table stakes on the knowledge that we as marketing professionals must possess.
This article is taken from- http://www.clickz.com/clickz/column/1898383/connected-marketing-tactics-prepare-facebook-messages