Sharing Deep, Sharing Wide
One of my clients called last week to say, “I love your newsletter but I want your blog delivered to my email too.”
No need. Every blog post for the preceding month is referenced in my monthly newsletter (along with some original content). Why do I do this? My readers have lives of their own and I need to make it easy for them to access my information (duh).
The good people at ShareThis have a little application that can be inserted into blogs and websites. It enables readers to share what they’re reading via email and social media platforms in a couple of clicks/keystrokes. This gives ShareThis a unique vantage point from which to watch sharing behavior.
And what do they know? 46% of shared information reaches its new destination via email, in spite of social networking sites in the aggregate edging email out.
Tweets and Retweets
I owe a great deal of my traffic flow to Twitter, where I actively participate in financial, economic and marketing conversations and share what I’ve written as it’s appropriate. At least a third of my blog traffic is Twitter generated, so I was surprised to read ShareThis stats on this beloved service:
We found that Twitter is the least engaging share platform with users visiting an average of 1.66 pages when they click through to a site, while users coming in off e-mail were the most engaged, visiting 2.95 pages (emphasis mine), and Facebook trailing closely behind 2.76 page views. Of course this varies by vertical and site, but if you think about your own habits, it makes sense. Getting an emailed link from a friend may cause you to pay more attention than the more random discovery that you get on Twitter as you consume quick opinions. We think there is tremendous potential for Twitter to increase its engagement when and if better filters are applied – the type of filters that Facebook has built in from the start.
My best recommendation, even if you devote time to build your presence on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and other sites, re-distribute your messages with a regular e-newsletter. A belt & suspenders approach to being heard.
SPAM Tweetup
Looking forward to seeing anyone who wants to talk about SPAM in Charlotte Weds, November 11 at 11:30 :
- Who decides when spam is officially SPAM
- Making sure you’re not mistaken for a spammer
- Best practices for email marketing (including newsletters)
- How to handle spammers
By nature, a tweetup is informal, so drop in at Mama Ricotta’s and meet some great tweeple. Not tweeting yet? This group might convince you to give it a twhirl.
End of Email?
Interesting article in WSJ about email’s younger, prettier communication sister: social media.
For those not using Twitter, Facebook and other means of connecting with the outside world, this WSJ quote explains the difference between them and ye olde email: “We all still use email, of course. But email was better suited to the way we used to use the Internet—logging off and on, checking our messages in bursts. Now, we are always connected, whether we are sitting at a desk or on a mobile phone. The always-on connection, in turn, has created a host of new ways to communicate that are much faster than email, and more fun.”
The story quoted Alex Bochannek, curator at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA: “The whole idea of this email service isn’t really quite as significant anymore when you can have many, many different types of messages and files and when you have this all on the same type of networks.”
What’s this bode for email newsletters?
The article doesn’t make my point explicitly, but sets it up well. Email newsletters and all THOUGHTFUL communications have a place OUTSIDE social media. Said another way, to communicate thoroughly, thoughtfully and confidentially, if you can’t meet in person, start with email.
This mirrors my own experience, as a fairly active Twitter(er) who averages 30 daily updates. For those of you not yet using Twitter, don’t take the impression that I have that much to say about myself — my tweets are usually in response to news items posted by other users or part of a conversation with my “followers” (feels a bit Jim Jones-ish calling them that, but oh well…that’s what they’re officially called).
Sure, I occasionally tweet out the odd “gonna clear my head by taking the dog for a walk” message, but the fun thing about social media is how people find you on the basis of these throwaway tweets. I now have a number of followers who send me pet food coupons and even Cesar Millan aka The Dog Whisperer follows me!
Belt & suspenders approach
Back to the topic at hand. For THOUGHTFUL, well-written communications, there is no substitute for email. The only thing that comes close is what you syndicate through your RSS feed. However, people get busy and forget to check their readers. An occasional email poke to check the RSS feed will probably always be in order.
Here’s my belt & suspenders approach to being heard:
- My website is home base. It’s the hub of external communications
- Primary communications spokes
- Blog and its RSS feed
- Newsletter
- Email
- When I post to my blog ( my website is actually a blogsite), it automatically sends a tweet with the title and a link for all the world to see. It also sends out an excerpt of the post through my RSS feed for those who’ve subscribed and to those directories like Alltop, that carry my content. Those who are linked to me via LinkedIn can see this excerpt on my profile page. Anywhere that anyone sees an excerpt of my blog posts, they can click to read the whole thing on my blog.
- I use Twitter to entice the Twitterverse to read my blog posts. With 140 characters per tweet, I use the url shortening service bitly to get the links down to 16 characters, then use what’s left to tease with leads like “Why Email Isn’t Dead.”
- I also use Twitter to ask specific people to read or comment on posts, according to their inclination and expertise. I know who wants to read my posts about SPAM and who wants a financial blog writing prompt and who’s the best expert to comment on one of my posts. If I’m fortunate, some of my followers will “reTweet” what I’ve sent so their network of followers will have the opportunity to read something they would not have otherwise known existed.
- When I get comments on the blog I Tweet that out to keep the conversation going. This helps those who’ve commented get their ideas in front of a wider audience, too. The least I can do.
- My newsletter promises three things every month: something on whole-brain communications, a bit on brevity and updates on topics related to email marketing and newsletters. Eventually everything from the newsletter shows up in the blog. For those who don’t want to read every blog post or remind themselves to check my RSS feed in a reader, they can read my monthly newsletter and click through to anything else that might interest them in the blog. The newsletter is an efficient portal to all the information I offer.
- I reserve email for my most formal and private correspondence. It’s also how I communicate with those not on social media. As the WSJ article says, some things require attachments and confidentiality and email is the next-best thing to a tête-à-tête
OK, that’s my communications methodology. What am I missing that works for you? Do tell (if you comment, I’ll tweet it out)!
Advice for those who need a ghostwriter
As a writer with some tech savvy and a general tendency to extroversion, social media works very well for me and and I’ve found a way to bind all my efforts together strategically. My experience is that those who invest the time in social media will benefit, but not everyone will want to make that investment. Fine.
If you’re a professional of any stripe, start with a custom newsletter written by yourself or a ghostwriter — not something you stick your logo on and call “customized.” No idea what to write? I offer news-driven writing prompts, if that helps.
Keep a consistent publishing schedule and maintain a searchable repository of your articles (not just prior newsletter editions, the individual articles) on your website. One of my clients does this so that we can eventually compile his newsletter articles into feature articles for professional journals. Another client’s newsletter articles go into his blog and will eventually become a book. Re-purpose your material.
My observation is that people are often reluctant to start small when they have big aspirations, but every desert is composed of tiny grains of sand. They add up.
ADDED 10-19-09
Further evidence of the power of Twitter: this morning one one of my tweeps, @derekhernquist, brought this video to my attention:
High Frequency Trading in Jobless Recovery
I follow an outstanding lineup of financial professionals and traders on Twitter. I learned about some of them through Stocktwits, which describes itself as “a social, stock microblogging service.” Stocktwits now offers a free desktop with more functionality than TweetDeck.
StockTwits is an open, community-powered idea and information service for investments. Users can eavesdrop on traders and investors, or contribute to the conversation and build their reputation as savvy market wizards. The service takes financial related data – using Twitter as the content production platform – and structures it by stock, user, reputation, etc.
While I’m not a trader or active investor, I enjoy the intelligent conversation of Stocktwits gurus like @aiki14 @Dasan @iron100 @ekanters @gregormacdonald @nelderini and others from around the world. They’re quick to extrapolate from a world event to its effects on global economies, individual sectors and stocks. (Note: follow Charlotte hometown favorite @kevinmhughes as he gains national notoriety).
Truckers and retirees now stock jockeys?
I thought my world view was skewed by my Stocktwits exposure to trading, where lots of folks new to trading and investing subscribe to the charts and advice of experts. But then I saw an article on un-employed and un-retired people going into trading for the lack of other employment opportunities. The next day The Daily Show ran a segment on the topic. Hmmm, something’s afoot.
I appreciate that there’s money to be made trading. But all the trading in the world doesn’t feed people, clean the environment or find a cure for cancer. And, as Samantha Bee points out in this piece, it’s not as easy as promoters would have us believe.
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Cash Cow – High-Frequency Trading | ||||
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Writing prompts for financial professionals
- What tax considerations to high frequency traders & rookies overlook?
- If you’re a financial advisor, how do you advise would-be traders to allocate their overall portfolio in consideration of high frequency trade risks and returns?
- Review the different software products needed to pursue a career as a trader.
- How long does it take and how much do you need to lose before you figure out whether this career is a good fit for you? What’s the total investment, considering hardware, software and mentoring services?
Spamhaus: Cyber Crime Fighter
In September I had the pleasure of being a Twitter panelist on how to avoid the spam filters when emailing. This is the third time I’ve spoken formally on the subject (if you consider tweeting “formal”). By this third presentation, it struck me that spam is like porn, everyone thinks they know it when they see it, but few can define it in their own words.*
Looking for the most succinct explanation, I turned to the Spamhaus Project, an international non-profit organization whose mission is to track the Internet’s spam operations, to provide dependable realtime anti-spam protection for internet networks, to work with law enforcement agencies to identify and pursue spammers worldwide, and to lobby governments for effective anti-spam legislation.
The word “spam” as applied to email means “unsolicited bulk email”
The two most important words there are UNSOLICITED and BULK.
Unsolicited means that the Recipient has not granted verifiable permission for the message to be sent.
Bulk means that the message is sent as part of a larger collection of messages, all having substantively identical content.
A message is Spam only if it is both Unsolicited and Bulk.
Unsolicited email is normal email, for example first contact inquiries, job inquiries and sales inquiries.
Bulk email is normal email, for example, subscriber newsletters, customer communications, discussion lists.
Point of clarification: The CAN-SPAM Act goes beyond the technical definition of spam; it applies to commercial email sent to recipients in the US and originated in the States. Download this CAN-SPAM Quick Guide.
*Wow your friends with your command of factoids
Justice Stewart
I’m not the first to use the phrase ” everyone thinks they know it when they see it.” The origin is in a US Supreme Court case that helped define the legal standards for determining obscenity. Here’s a bit about the case.
In 1964, movie theater manager Nico Jacobellis was convicted of exhibiting an obscene movie, Louis Malle’s Les Amants, “The Lovers.” The ads were hyperbolic.
“When all conventions explode . . . in the most daring love story ever filmed!”
“As close to authentic amour as is possible on the screen.”
“The frankest love scenes yet seen on film.” “Contains one of the longest and most sensuous love scenes to be seen in this country.”
In the words of the Supreme Court decision: “‘The Lovers’ involves a woman bored with her life and marriage who abandons her husband and family for a young archaeologist with whom she has suddenly fallen in love. There is an explicit love scene in the last reel of the film, and the State’s objections are based almost entirely upon that scene. The film was favorably reviewed in a number of national publications, although disparaged in others, and was rated by at least two critics of national stature among the best films of the year in which it was produced.”
Although the film was shown in some 100 U.S. cities, including Columbus and Toledo, Ohio, Jacobellis was prosecuted for showing it in Cleveland Heights, a middle-class suburb of Cleveland. In a 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court decided that Jacobellis had been wrongly convicted.
The most famous opinion in the case came from Justice Potter Stewart, who said that the only unprotected material in his opinion was “hard-core pornography.” Stewart expressed his concern that such material was impossible to define. “But I know it when I see it.”
| The word “Spam” as applied to Email means Unsolicited Bulk Email (”UBE”).
Unsolicited means that the Recipient has not granted verifiable permission for the message to be sent. Bulk means that the |
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A message is Spam only if it is both Unsolicited and Bulk.
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Me, the Twitter Panelist
I find Twitter to be an efficient and effective way to grow professionally and personally.
My friends at Understanding Marketing facilitate a weekly discussion on marketing and PR topics of interest to small business owners on TweetGrid and asked me to be the expert on call Tuesday 9/22/09 8-9om EST.
We’ll be discussing CAN-SPAM and how to write email marketing campaigns and e-newsletters so they won’t be scraped into the “junk” or “bulk” or “spam” filters of recipient mailboxes.
Since it’s a Twitter-based discussion, anyone can chime in with questions and answers — and it’s free.
If you have anything specific to ask and can’t attend next week, leave me a comment below and I’ll get it in. Have a study or resource on the topic you’d like to share? Again, leave a note below.
e-Newsletters: Track Them, You Must
The first week of the month is popular for publishing newsletters. I publish the first week. So with the June flurry largely passed, here’s food for thought before firing off your July edition.
"Do it, you must!"
In a study reported on MediaPost on email marketing (which isn’t exactly newsletter campaigns, but sufficiently related), roughly 18% of marketers admitted they were NOT tracking campaign performance. Stunning.
Marketers that do not track normal site conversions
- Don’t know how 42.86%
- Don’t have budget 4.76
- Don’t have time 14.29
- Other 38.08
Newsletter metrics
Of course I wish you were using my service, since it provides exquisitely detailed reporting, but no matter. If you’re using an off-the-shelf provider, start with what you can track and pay attention.
How’s your open rate over time? What about subscriber base?
Do specific topics generate a higher click-through rate? A higher unsubscribe or forward rate?
Clients ask, I answer
Yesterday a client called for my input. She wants to move her ad-sponsored printed newsletter clients over to an ad-sponsored blog and wanted to check her logic with me. She asked why I bother to publish both a blog and a newsletter.
Answer: I want to make it easy for clients and prospects to hear from me. My audience ranges from the tech-savvy to the tech-impaired, so whether they stream my blog to a reader or hit a blog post I’ve tweeted or look at the monthly newsletter in their inbox (and click through to the blog, or not) I’m doing the hard work so that they can skim what they need and move on with their lives.
This works for me because I’m *good enough* with technology, I have a sales and marketing background, and I love writing, a lucky combination. Few people, including my client, have the same mix of strengths and preferences, so my advice to her and anyone else is to go with your strengths and minimize your weaknesses.
This might mean hiring a ghostwriter, but should never mean publishing an off-the-shelf newsletter. Realtors can get away with recycled articles like carpet cleaning tips and how to stage a house for showings, but I can’t think of a profession besides theirs that should even consider it.
Goal-driven newsletters
From time to time I have tactical goals, like drumming up attendance for a speaking engagement, but my overall publishing goal (blog and newsletter) is client acquisition and retention. I want to keep my services and expertise top of mind. Someday, someone will remember I’m a Business Person who writes like an English Major and engage me.
Staying top of mind is also why I publish free blog/newsletter topics for clients and prospects in the industries I know best: financial services, consulting, services and environmental. I exercise the “give to get” philosophy that feeding professionals ideas for their publishing endeavors will someday yield a harvest for me.
Whether your goal is converting readers to a seminar series or a sit-down session, you need to start with that goal, figure out how to make it happen, and how to track what’s happening along the way. With rare exception you’ll need to make corrections to your current path that will bring you to your goal. But if you don’t know you’re off course, you can’t get back on track.
Unless you’re a statistician, analysis isn’t the sexiest thing you’ll do with your day. But to quote Yoda, “Do it, you must.” Feel free to reach out if you want my feedback.
Royal Whitepaper
When people take the time to read my b-card they’ll sometimes ask “What’s a whitepaper?” I quote the verbiage on my site, which turns on the lights for about 2% of people.
With Google-driven marketing everyone should know what a white paper is and how they can use one.
Follow treebanker on Twitter
I had an “aha moment” this morning. I decided to build a repository of white papers I like in different categories for general perusal. First up, The Prince’s Rainforests Project Report, which I thank my Twitter follower, Dan Tefft for bringing to my attention.
Three-purpose post
This post suggests changes to the paper that would make it more engaging, discusses its core idea of Rainforest Bonds, and then offers writing prompts for professionals in environmental and financial services.
Reading like an editor
Professionally, I prefer minimizing passive voice and maximizing design to help the reader navigate a dense document such as this (52 pages). Certain professions prefer passive voice (government and academia top the list) so I suppose a report on behalf of a Cambridge-educated Royal conforms to expectations.
The summary as written: “Reducing tropical deforestation will be vital if the world is to avoid catastrophic climate change and preserve important ecosystem functions. An Emergency Package is needed to provide substantial funding to Rainforest Nations to help them address the drivers of deforestation and embark on alternative economic development paths. Rainforests cool the planet, regulate the water cycle and provide a home to countless species; it is right and essential that the world pays for these services.”
I’d rewrite: Rainforests cool the planet, regulate the water cycle and provide a home to countless species. To preserve the world’s ecosystem functions and avoid catastrophic climate change, we must reduce tropical deforestation. The world should provide funding to Rainforest nations to help them address the drivers of deforestation and embark on alternative economic development paths. Since the rainforests provide “services” essential to planetary life, justice dictates that those services be compensated.
Writing Prompts for Environmental, Financial Services
The Prince’s Report outlines a plan for “Rainforest Bonds,” a fixed-income security, issued in private capital markets. Such bonds typically offer investors a fixed rate of return, normally an annual coupon, together with the repayment of the principal on maturity. Over US$400 billion of Sovereign, Supranational and Agency Bonds were issued in 2008. The Project has held discussions with pension funds and the insurance sector (through The Prince of Wales’ P8 and ClimateWise initiatives) which indicate that there would be significant demand for AAA-rated bonds with long-term maturities.
“Rainforest Bonds could be issued by the World Bank, or by an independent entity with support from the World Bank. The bonds would be guaranteed by developed country governments, which would be responsible for payment of the coupon and repayment of the principal.
“However, it may be possible to mitigate the financial calls on these governments, for example by channelling some of the money into green investments that would generate financial returns – this would have the added benefit of supporting broader clean development goals. Private sector bonds provide a way to raise large amounts of finance for tropical forests in the nearterm, while allowing underwriting governments the time to generate revenues for repayment from clean development investments, domestic carbon permit auctions or other schemes. The Prince’s Rainforests Project is working with the World Bank to develop this bond concept further.”
- Is the World Bank the right entity? Or the only entity?
- In light of current global financial priorities, how would these bonds perform financially?
- Environmentally, are these bonds a powerful incentive to change economic development and human behavior?
- Any better options on the table?
SPAM “Arms Race”
Confession: I’m an NPR junkie. I get a real return on my taxpayer dollar (for once).
Ukraine, World Spam Capitol?
Yesterday they ran All Tech Considered focused on SPAM, which is mushrooming across all media, including mobile phones.
In this segment, Omar Gallaga of the Austin American-Statesman said most email (in volume) is SPAM, but the American ISPs have gotten pretty good at scrubbing it before it hits our inboxes.
But the bad news is that the spammers have set up camps abroad, notably Ukraine, where risk of prosecution is about nil. Spammers constantly adapt to anti-spam efforts. All Tech Considered ran a story-within-the-story interviewing a computer security expert who said “From my perspective, it seems … kind of like the arms race of the Cold War era. We built more bombs. They built more bombs. We built bigger bombs. They build bigger bombs.”
Why this matters to emailers like YOU
Corporate web servers are starting to use “reputation scoring,” which looks at sender, time it’s sent, whether it’s a trusted source aligned with a real person, and other indicators of wholesomeness. This is why it’s so important to send e-newsletters and other digital media ONLY to people who signed up for it.
Mr Gallaga also discussed “Bacn” which is email that might be useful to you but that is not generated by a real person.
Bacn bests Spam
An e-newsletter or social network notification, like who’s following you on Twitter, are examples of Bacn.
The rise in Bacn led to the development of a service called “other inbox“ which separates Bacn from real-people email. With other inbox you can open that notice from your bank when it suits YOU, instead of having it glare from your inbox while you’re trying to do the work that generates the check that pays the overdraft.
I want to know who’s using other inbox, which is apparently included with gmail right now. In your case, does it intuit the Bacn from the real-people-email? Tell me a funny story about what went into your other inbox.
Laryngitis, LinkedIn and Me
I spoke at a networking event last week on one of my favorite topics: email marketing and the scourge of SPAM.
Savvy Jackie
More correctly put, I whispered my way through it. Laryngitis. It helped that people wanted to know about CAN-SPAM compliance — audience members shushed each other so they could hear me croak away. Afterward, someone told me that Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis spoke in a whisper to make people pay attention. Savvy, Jackie.
The topic was well received, so I went to LinkedIn and in-mailed it to selected contacts. Within three hours a friend asked if I would present it to his company at a Friday lunch-n-learn and another asked if she could link to it in her blog.
Later, I offered it to a LinkedIn group. Within 24 hours I learned that it had been Tweeted around the world and one group member wanted to post my guide on her website and use my presentation for a Chamber of Commerce event! This social networking thing is amazing, eh?
About 40% of my new web traffic comes from LinkedIn and newsletter efforts. My subscriptions include people from around the world. Worthwhile CONTENT on your website can drive eyeballs.
If you want to see what the buzz is about visit http://tamelarich.com/food-for-thought/canspam-download/
