Posted in E-mail marketing, Marketing, Social media, Social media marketing on 10. May, 2010
Research and Markets: Maximizing the E-Mail/ Social Media Connection … Business Wire (press release) Marketers must now integrate their e-mail marketing and social media marketing efforts. To maximize effectiveness, they should use these four strategies: … and more
Posted in E-mail marketing, Marketing, SEO, Social media, Social media marketing, Technology, Twitter, World on 04. May, 2010
Raj Kadam is the CEO and Co-founder of Viralheat Inc. , a social media analytics firm focused on delivering detailed social media analytics to major brands and agencies world-wide. Today, you would be hard-pressed to find a marketer who’s not buried in a mountain of data. The average marketing pro’s data sources include the usual web variety –- inbound analytics, e-mail marketing, open rates, SEO, and more. And then there is the ever-expanding social media universe, where standbys like Facebook and YouTube generate an ever-increasing volume of data. And just to make it a bit more fun, there is a constant barrage of new categories and services that generate even more information, and on grand scales — Google Buzz being only the latest example. But just because there’s a raging river of marketing data available doesn’t mean it’s worthwhile to track it all. Here are a few tips for honing in on what’s relevant to your marketing strategy. The Challenge of Extracting the Most Value Marketers have gotten wiser during the turbulent economy. They know that they need to demonstrate their value the same way that the sales department does, or else their budgets, and possibly their jobs, will be far less secure. The CMO position has been known to have the shortest expected tenure of any in the C-suite. The first crucial steps in demonstrating that value were to acquire the data and set the necessary systems in place. Now they’re struggling to find a way to harness that data — to use the scientific and the empirical in service of what matters even more: Actionability. That is, knowing how and when to engage with the right people and what the value of each interaction is. The challenge is no longer merely acquiring the data from that raging river; it’s understanding the data, bending the data to your will, taking action on it and, above all, making data come alive in the boardroom. Taking the Right Measurements We can talk all day about the importance of analytics and measurement, but the real question is whether or not you’re measuring the right things for the right reasons. The best measurement efforts start with clear goals. You need to have a framework that identifies exactly what you’re trying to measure. Here are a few questions you should ask yourself to help focus in on what you should really be measuring: Why do you have a social media function at your company? Customer Service? Marketing/PR? SEO? Product development/support? Grassroots marketing? Sales? What social sites/platforms are most relevant to your community/customers? Who are you trying to reach with your program? Customers? Influencers? Once you are clear on why you’re doing this in the first place, you can start thinking about what metrics and analytics matter most to you. You don’t want to spend your time looking at metrics that indicate how well an influencer relations program is going when your focus is all about customer service. Tie Your Analytics to Your Intent Here are some examples of readily available analytics that tie back to specific intents of a social media program. Some of them apply to many different types of programs, but the point is to start thinking about which ones are most relevant to your specific goals. Engagement: If you are using social media to drive sales, and your product requires true engagement, multiple conversations and a strong relationship to get someone to a purchasing decision, then you should be paying attention to data that indicates high engagement. Track your ratio of organic conversation versus mentions that are just links or simple participation like retweets on Twitter . Traffic: If you’re a big brand and creating a lot of chatter across the web, do you know the traffic levels of the sites where you are engaging? Your efforts should be focused on finding the stuff that drives the most results for your business. If you’re a major brand, chances are there is more ROI when you focus your efforts on higher-traffic sites. Sentiment: How do people feel about your product or service? For some brands, social media is a lot like a real-time focus group. Sentiment should be incredibly important to you if you have chosen to strategically use social media as a way to inform your product development priorities. If people are generally positive or negative about a product or new feature, there should be a feedback loop to the development team. Viral Analysis: What is going viral for your product or brand and why? You want to see what kinds of trends are emerging for your product or service in real-time, and you should have a good sense of why they managed to go spread so far, so fast. This should be a measurement priority for businesses that know word-of-mouth and grassroots marketing is a big driver of sales for their products. Influencer Tracking: Are you a relatively new company, or an entirely new type of product? If you’re targeting early adopters and influencers for credibility, then you should know at any given moment who your biggest influencers are, what they’re saying and where they are talking about you. As I mentioned, many of these metrics will apply to several types of social media programs. But the trick is to have the discipline to determine which analytics are critical to your social media program, and use them accordingly to take action. Conclusion The goal of social marketing analytics is to be able to track the impact of your efforts and optimize your campaigns based on social data for maximum effect. That means you need analytics, insights and, ultimately, action. Knowing what the data means –- in real-time — is the next important step. If you don’t have that, you really don’t have anything. And if you don’t turn those insights into action, you may as well stop measuring. For more business coverage, follow Mashable Business on Twitter or become a fan on Facebook More business resources from Mashable: – How Data Will Impact the Way We Do Business – 4 Ways Foursquare Can Improve Your Workplace – Growing Your Business: 5 Tips From the Founder of Foursquare – 5 Simple Tools for a Paperless Office – How One Small Biz Turned Their Company Retreat Into Social Media Success Images courtesy of iStockphoto , Daft_Lion_Studio , duckycards Tags: business , data , MARKETING , small business , social media , social media marketing
Posted in Dutch, E-mail marketing, Marketing, Mobile, Social media, Technology, World on 23. Apr, 2010
Onlangs is de 2e oplage van het succesvolle Handboek Online Marketing (HOM) uitgebracht. Naast onderwerpen als social media, content strategie, webvertising, e-mail marketing en zoekmachine marketing, komt mobile marketing ruimschoots aan bod….
Posted in E-mail marketing, Marketing, Social media, Social media marketing on 16. Apr, 2010
Net Atlantic adds social media to e-mail marketing suite BtoB Magazine E-mail service provider Net Atlantic has upgraded its suite of e-mail marketing solutions to include social media marketing tools. …
Posted in B2B, E-mail marketing, Marketing, Mobile, SEO, Social media, Social media marketing, Technology, Twitter, World on 14. Apr, 2010
If you’re seeking a job in social media, we’d like to help out. For starters, Mashable’s Job Lists section gathers together all of our resource lists, how-tos and expert guides to help you get hired. In particular, you might want to see our articles on How to Leverage Social Media for Career Success and How to Find a Job on Twitter . But we’d like to help in a more direct way, too. Mashable’s job boards are a place for socially-savvy companies to find people like you. This week and every week, Mashable features its coveted job board listings for a variety of positions in the web, social media space, and beyond. Have a look at what’s good and new on our job boards: Mashable Job Board Listings Company Blogger and Social Media Editor at Gameloft in San Francisco, CA. Gameloft, a leading international publisher and developer of video games for mobile phones and console, is seeking a Company Blogger & Social Media Editor to join its existing talent pool located in San Francisco. Read more about this opportunity here . Drupal Developer at Capitol News Connection in Washington DC. CNC seeks an experienced Drupal developer, with proven capability in Drupal 6 modules CCK, Views, Panels, Pathauto, and Imagecache, as well as Drupal theming, PHP, MySQL, and standards-compliant XHTML and CSS. Read more about this opportunity here . Social Media Coordinator at MTV in New York, NY. The MTV News & Movies Social Media Coordinator will be the ombudsman through which our relationship with the audience will continue to grow, as well as a major force in our continued numerical growth. Read more about this opportunity here . Client Service Manager at PainePR in Los Angeles, CA. Seeking a seasoned social media/social engagement client service and project manager with at least 7 years experience to join the agency’s social engagement team. Read more about this opportunity here . Social Platforms Community Manager at Draftfcb in San Francisco, CA. What’s a Social Platforms Community Manager? Someone whom, through the understanding of social platforms, conversation and content can create and maintain meaningful relationships with consumers. Read more about this opportunity here . Marketing Manager at WhitePages in Seattle, WA. This is a one-of-a-kind position for a passionate self-starter who is ready to take WhitePages’ online marketing strategy to the next level through social media, public relations and integrated marketing campaigns. Read more about this opportunity here . Digital Program Director at Clear Channel Los Angeles in Burbank, CA. The Clear Channel Los Angeles Integrated Media department is looking for a Digital Program Director for our Los Angeles FM stations – 102.7 KIIS-FM, 987-FM, KOST 103.5, 104.3 MYfm and Hot 92.3. Read more about this opportunity here . Social Media Marketing Assistant at Los Angeles Jewish Home in Los Angeles, CA. In this exciting role, you will assist in the growth and management of an online social media presence for a leading nonprofit healthcare organization Read more about this opportunity here . Director of Technical Operations at Synacor in Buffalo, NY. We are seeking a Director of Technical Operations that will be leading a 24 x 7 x 365 Operations team that is responsible for managing large number of high-transaction, web-based applications. Read more about this opportunity here . Community Manager at MocoSpace in Boston, MA. MocoSpace is seeking a high-energy, self-motivated, organized Community Manager to join a fast-moving, growing team. Read more about this opportunity here . Social Media Program Manager at Found Animals Foundation in Los Angeles, CA. Found Animals is seeking a qualified, highly motivated creative innovator to develop and implement a successful and impactful social media program. Read more about this opportunity here . Director, Media Relations at Cablevision in Bethpage, NY. The Director, Media Relations is responsible for the development and implementation of media, and public relations activities in support of Cablevision’s consumer phone, cable and high-speed Internet services and related company programs and initiatives. Read more about this opportunity here . Sr. Interactive Producer at Odopod in San Francisco. Producers are responsible for maintaining project budgets and schedules. Read more about this opportunity here . Sr. Art Director at Odopod in San Francisco. Odopod designers are responsible for creative vision, user experience, visual and motion design, and asset production. Read more about this opportunity here . Sr. Designer at Odopod in San Francisco. Odopod designers are responsible for creative vision, user experience, visual and motion design, and asset production Read more about this opportunity here . Director of Marketing: World Languages and Social Studies at McGraw-Hill in Chicago, IL. This position is responsible for marketing activities for the School Education Group’s Social Studies and World Language product lines. Read more about this opportunity here . Digital and Social Media Manager at a confidential company in Hawthorne, NY. Dynamic Westchester based Marketing and Consumer Products Company has an immediate need for a Digital and Social Media Manager in the Marketing Department. Read more about this opportunity here . Interactive Producer at Mr. Youth LLC in New York, NY. Mr Youth, an interactive hot shop, is looking for a Producer to join our team in our flagship New York office located in Chelsea Market. Read more about this opportunity here . Senior Director, Digital at e5 Global Media in New York, NY. This position has full responsibility for managing Adweek Media online. Read more about this opportunity here . Senior Director of Digital Strategy at Nexus Management Group in New York, NY. You’d be responsible for planning and executing high-level global digital and mobile strategy for high-profile entertainer / brand. Read more about this opportunity here . Director of Engineering at Synacor in Buffalo, NY. We are seeking a Director of Engineering who will be responsible for leading a team of Internet developers and architects in a fast-paced and quickly growing company. Read more about this opportunity here . Community Manager Coordinator at O’Reilly Media in San Francisco, CA. The Community Manager strengthens the O’Reilly brand by growing the user group (UG) program through community outreach and personal relationships. Read more about this opportunity here . Web Developer at Safari Books Online in San Francisco, CA. We are looking for two experienced web developers to work on experimental projects within our R&D group. Read more about this opportunity here . Webmaster at Services for the UnderServed in New York, NY. The Webmaster’s areas of focus will be in: maintaining and improving our internal and external web sites; playing a key role in marketing by generating web site traffic and increasing our email database; supporting web-based and interactive media strategies including social networking. Read more about this opportunity here . Interactive Project Manager at TIG Global in Chevy Chase, MD. As a result of continued growth and expansion, we are currently seeking an Interactive Website Project Manager – a highly organized individual that can manage multiple efforts in a fast-paced ever-changing environment. Read more about this opportunity here . Online Community Organizer at Netcentric Campaigns in Washington DC. The Online Community Organizer will develop strategies and projects to build a strong online community across a national network of organizations working to prevent childhood obesity. Read more about this opportunity here . Digital Strategy Manager at Launch Creative Marketing in Chicago, IL. The Digital Strategy Manager is responsible for the successful planning and implementation of agency digital communication strategies for client brands (CPG, food, beverage, office supplies, home). Read more about this opportunity here . Project Manager/SEO at PromediaCorp LLC in New York, NY. We’re looking to expand our team with an experienced Project Manager – someone who can organize our time and whip us into shape while still fitting in with our laid-back company culture. Read more about this opportunity here . Community Strategist at Mr. Youth LLC in New York, NY. A stealth startup within Mr. Youth, Mashable’s Social Media Agency of the Year, is looking for a rising star to join this tech startup at the ground level. Read more about this opportunity here . Web Developer at Discovery Communications in Silver Spring, MD. This position will write and maintain software to meet requirements that are specified in technical specification documents and in keeping with the coding and architectural standards as set by the company. Read more about this opportunity here . Program Speclialist at AutoZone, Inc. in Memphis, TN. Program Specialist will be responsible for marketing-related B2C and B2B ECommerce activities, including affiliate program, Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization and e-mail marketing. Read more about this opportunity here . Social Media/Public Relations Professional at Development Counsellors International in New York, NY. Professional with 3-5 years of PR/Marketing experience, as well as strong social media skills, to service our growing roster of international and domestic clients. Read more about this opportunity here . Mashable has a variety of web 2.0, application development, business development, and social networking job opportunities available. Check them out at Mashable’s Job Board . Got a job posting to share with our readers? Post a job to Mashable today ($99 for a 30 day listing) and get it highlighted every week on Mashable.com (in addition to exposure all day every day in the Mashable marketplace). For more social media coverage, follow Mashable Social Media on Twitter or become a fan on Facebook Reviews: Drupal , Facebook , Mashable , PHP , Twitter , social media
Posted in E-mail marketing, Marketing, Social media, Social media marketing on 03. Apr, 2010
Amplify eCommerce Marketing by Combining Social Media with eMail Drop Ship (press release) (blog) Marketers must now integrate their e-mail marketing and social media marketing efforts. To maximize effectiveness, they should use these four strategies: … and more
Posted in E-mail marketing, Marketing, Social media, Technology, USA, World on 24. Mar, 2010
In ‘09, e-mail marketers started to get social, but 2010 will be the year social media makes e-mail marketing more powerful.
Posted in Computer, E-mail marketing, Marketing, Social media, Technology, Twitter, UK, USA, World on 23. Mar, 2010
This series is supported by Wix.com , an online design tool that enables you to create your own Flash websites, social network layouts, and more, for free. Learn more about Wix here . Good design is a critical part of any web or social media presence. Like the clothes you wear to a job interview or a business meeting, a sharp looking social profile or website is the first step toward being taken seriously online. Whether you’re a professional designer or an armchair artiste , tools abound that you can use to snazz up your web presence, and give it that polish that professionals, potential customers, and online friends have come to expect from a social media maven. We’ve talked to the experts about what they use for inspiration, collaboration, and getting down to the business of design in a social media world. Here are some of the suggestions they offered up. 1. Core Application Alternatives In days of old, the software powerful enough to create and edit high quality graphics was expensive — and it still is, if you must have the name-brand products. But if you’re open to experimentation and perhaps a bit of digital quirkiness, there are free, open source alternatives to some of the staples of the digital design tool set. “I use Photoshop for any image editing I need to do, but it comes at a price,” says Alex Mathers , a freelance designer and illustrator who writes about design and social media promotion at Red Lemon Club . “I would recommend Gimp for those requiring similar functions, and Inkscape as an alternative for creating vector illustrations over Adobe Illustrator … All of these programs are excellent.” We’ve mentioned Gimp before as a powerful free alternative to Photoshop, and Inkscape has a similar mission in the realm of scalable vector graphic (SVG) creation. Unlike bitmapped images (JPEGs, PNGs, which are the final products viewed on a website), vector graphics are mathematical representations of images, and can be scaled up indefinitely to meet any size requirement. This means that one file can be used in any medium (web, print, etc.) at any size. They are indispensable to the illustrating designer. 2. Design Communities If you’re a creative person, there’s no better way to improve your craft than by getting social. You can start by following designers and design blogs on the major social networks, but if you’re looking to really explore others’ work and share your own, design communities are key. “ Society6 is an online community that allows artists to showcase their work, sell prints and find others to collaborate with,” says Mathers. “ Behance , This is Central Station , Creattica and Design Taxi are some other great creative communities that I have used that help designers connect and promote their work.” Like any social network, the value is in sharing. “I upload any recent work I have to Society6 and Behance and use both platforms to interact with other creatives, find people to collaborate with, send and receive feedback, and generally communicate with others in similar industries,” says Mathers. “Both sites, particularly Behance, received a healthy amount of traffic … [they] are an excellent way to gain exposure in front of the right people.” 3. Design Element Resources If you’re not an illustrator or digital artist by trade, but you love “putting it all together” for blogs, social media profiles, and websites, you’ll need a good resource base to draw from. There are many great blogs and sites that compile textures, fonts, vector illustrations, and other graphic elements that you can incorporate right into your projects for free. “ Dezignus is a good resource for free vector illustrations and textures, and they have a large selection of downloads that is constantly expanding,” says Mathers. “ Colourlovers.com is a fascinating resource for designers looking for color scheme inspiration and help. ” Mathers added that for his typographical requirements, he regularly visits Dafont.com “for a huge selection of free fonts that are easily accessible and downloadable.” Jacob Gube , founder and chief editor of the design blog Six Revisions , adds that deviantART is also “a great resource for sharing and getting design assets (Photoshop brushes, textures, icons, and more).” It can also be a source of design inspiration. “One of the first things I do to get a quick burst of creativity is to click around deviantArt. Seeing what your colleagues are doing can serve as a good motivational factor for getting your own work done,” says Gube. 4. IconFinder Linking out to social networks is a core element of social web design. Having a Twitter or Facebook icon front and center gives visitors a recognizable channel through which they can connect. Wonderfully creative social media icon sets abound on the web, and many of them are free for commercial use. But finding the one that perfectly compliments your design (or perhaps inspires a theme in its own right) can be a tiresome process of searching and browsing resource blogs. IconFinder makes the process a bit easier. It’s a search engine for icons submitted by users, with detailed information on their graphic formats and licenses — nearly all of which are free and available for commercial use. The interface provides a convenient way to download icons right from the search results. “I’m constantly going back to this site every time I need icons for a site that I’m working on,” says Jad Limoco , professional designer and editor of Design Informer . “Instead of bookmarking every site that offers free icons, Icon Finder does the work for you … It makes life a lot easier.” If you’re not hunting for something specific, the site also offers a browsable catalog of icon sets. 5. MockFlow Building a socially-minded website from scratch requires quite a bit of planning. “One step in the design process I rarely skip is wireframing,” says Grace Smith , owner of Postscript5 , a micro-design studio based in Northern Ireland. “It’s perhaps one of the most important stages as it helps give an overview of usability, information architecture, layout, and site content.” For larger projects and applications, Smith uses Mockflow for this stage. She says the process is “an intermediary phase between initial sketches and the actual design phase.” MockFlow is a versatile tool that enables you to quickly render functional website prototypes without a big time investment. There are also real-time collaboration and note taking features built into the platform. “[It] may sound like a waste of time when you can just move on to a full color comp, but it allows you to spot potential problems early, make adjustments quickly, and cuts down dramatically on revisions later in the design treatment stage.” A similar tool recommended by other designers is Mockingbird . 6. Notable If you find yourself collaborating on a design project, whether with a colleague or client, the feedback process can get cumbersome via e-mail. It helps to be able to take visual notes on a visual product. “I use Notable for feedback on projects,” says Smith. “Notable is superb and is ultimately built to allow quick and easy collaboration. It’s helped me streamline my feedback process and keeps all parts of a project organized using sets and workspaces.” Notable works on the web, so you can capture and notate web pages from any computer, as well as your iPhone . Image captures and their respective notes stay organized on your notable account dashboard, and can easily be shared out to your collaborators or team. 7. Campaign Monitor Believe it or not, e-mail marketing is still very much a part of successful social media campaigns. Whether you’re looking to up the design ante for your business’s newsletter, or reach out creatively in search of new freelance projects, a design-focused e-mail marketing tool is worth investigating. “Campaign Monitor is an intuitive e-mail marketing application created for designers. It has excellent tools for designing professional HTML e-mails, creating and managing e-mail campaigns, useful e-mail analytics, and more,” says Jacob Gube. In addition to the valuable features Gube notes above, Campaign Monitor can also be a viable source of income in itself. “For designers looking to expand their service offerings, you can re-brand, customize, and resell Campaign Monitor to your clients,” says Gube. 8. Proposable As part of a small team or as a lone freelancer, a designer must wear many hats. Because of the competitive market right now, Gube stresses the importance of salesmanship. “Designers can [have] great success by using online proposals to win over a project bid.” He recommends Proposable, an online tool that allows you to build highly customized, branded presentations. A Proposable account incorporates an asset library (which can include rich media like video), a variety of templates, and a comment management system for real-time feedback. “Proposable makes generating professional-level proposals a cinch,” says Gube, “and it has reporting features to analyze the performance of your proposals. It was created for salespeople, but as a designer, being a salesperson is a huge part of the gig, whether you’re freelancing or pitching a design idea to your managers.” 9. Freshbooks Staying on the business side for a moment, getting paid can often be a struggle for freelancers. For the social web-minded designer, the idea of a cloud-based invoice management system is likely appealing. Enter Freshbooks, “an all-in-one web app for invoicing, tracking expenses, time-tracking, and more,” according to Gube. “I use it to keep track of my expenses, manage payments, and to generate professional invoices quickly and effortlessly,” he adds. “There are many billing tools out there, but this one stands out because it caters to freelancers, is aimed towards creatives (designers, developers, writers, artists), and is one of the few web app start-ups that still values customer support.” And the fact that it’s all on the web allows you to “send someone a bill from your favorite WiFi-enabled coffee house.” 10. 960 Grid System Creatively, the sky’s the limit when it comes to web design. But the interfaces of the social web generally follow certain patterns that users are accustomed to. If you’re building blog templates or other interactive websites, the 960 Grid System is a good way to map out your page elements so they can achieve alignment harmony. Many of the designers we spoke to stressed the importance of good old fashioned pen-and-paper sketching in their creative process. “Sketching enables me to break down ideas and fully explore UI options. I find putting it down on paper tends to raise questions and ideas and leads to changes,” says Smith. “I use the Sketch Sheets supplied with the 960 Grid System which display a browser frame and grid lines.” 960 Grid provides examples of how the system works with a number of sites, and also offers a wealth of other code-related resources for web designers. What other tools and resources do you use to make your social web designs really pop? Share them in the comments below. Series supported by Wix.com Wix.com offers you a simple, powerful, drag & drop editing platform to create stunning Flash websites, social network layouts, and more, for free. You can choose from 100’s of high quality, professionally designed templates that are completely unique and customizable. Or, create your own design from scratch. Upload image files, videos and mp3’s. Add Twitter, Facebook, and blog links with ease. Use a Wix domain or connect to your own. The options are practically limitless. With added e-commerce features, search engine visibility and other professional tools, Wix is the ultimate solution for creating and publishing spectacular web content for free. Start Creating ! Image courtesy of iStockphoto , DNY59 Tags: BLOGS , design , icons , List , Lists , social media , web design , Web Development
