This post isn't about bashing email. We've been seeing some great results in the last few months with email. Specifically, better open rates, better click throughs, and better conversions into sales (although this isn't always trackable for every situation - we have been tracking it with some projects). One clear take away is that email works best when it is integrated with social and mobile. While the year of mobile hasn't arrived yet, and I doubt that 2010 is the year either, including mobile works well with the early adopter demographic for work that we've done recently.

When I look at these numbers, it isn't hard to see the truth - even in the behavior of people I know. I can connect with some people much more easily via Facebook direct messages or chats than I can via email, phone or text message. Social does offer so many platforms, lots of content, and it has an organic feel that email never came close to.

We're not ditching email. In fact, we're doing more. But it makes budgeting more for social easier. ;)

Duncan Alney is the President of Firebelly Marketing.

birdbathBUZZ works with businesses to develop solid marketing, social media marketing and online lead generation campaigns. Email founder and "buzz creator" Chris Isaac for more information.

In just one day, we’ll all be sitting in front of Ev Williams and Biz Stone as they announce Twitter’s new Facebook Connect competitor, @anywhere.  

This is Twitter’s big statement in the developer ecosystem, stating that they are shifting from a script and backend-focused model of developer integration, to a very front-end, javascript-centered focus that centers around any brand or developer’s own site.  However, I’m worried that Twitter may actually be focusing too much on developers, considering their audience of large brands.

I wondered, just after @anywhere was announced at South-by-Soutwest in Austin, TX, how similar @anywhere would be to Facebook Connect.  Facebook Connect, a Javascript-focused set of libraries that sits on top of any website, enables just about any brand manager, marketer, or even developer from the new to the very advanced to simply copy and paste a piece of code and have it immediately create widgets that integrate tightly with the Facebook environment.  With Facebook Connect also comes a tag language, called FBML (I wrote the book for O’Reilly about it), which enables HTML-like tags to be placed anywhere on a website and also get similar functionality.  So basically, no Javascript knowledge is required.  Know how to write a little HTML?  You can integrate Facebook Connect into your website.  At least that’s the message Facebook wants to send to Marketers and Brand Managers (and it’s true how simple it is).

Twitter seems to have the same audience in mind for their @anywhere platform.  After just launching an Ad platform, you can bet more Enterprise features are about to be announced very likely at Twitter’s Chirp conference along with developer tie-ins to those features.  Twitter wants the brands just as bad as Facebook does.  Running a site that targets Brands, I know first hands that the Brands are where the money is.  Enterprise, and contractual relationships with big companies and brands is big money in this industry.  Twitter wants to be on each and every one of these major websites – that’s why they’re launching @anywhere.

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birdbathBUZZ works with businesses to develop solid marketing, social media marketing and online lead generation campaigns. Email founder and "buzz creator" Chris Isaac for more information.

It’s the the perennial quest. How can you get more traffic to your site?

After all, without a steady stream of traffic to your blog, there’s little opportunity to engage your audience and convert readers to raving fans.

Methods change and evolve over time. When I wrote my first “how to drive traffic” post about five years ago, the list looked a lot different. There was no Twitter, no Facebook, no social sharing buttons, and no retweet button.

Yet some methods I advocated back in 2005 still work, so think of this as a refresher if you’re already employing all the social tactics for driving traffic.  You would be surprised at how many people don’t actually take the time to implement a variety of tactics. Maybe you can pick up a few new ideas or implement some old ideas you may have overlooked.

This list is in no way complete. I invite you to add your favorite tips in the comment section. First, the tried and true:

#1: Publish as frequently as possible

The more frequently you post, the more traffic you get because the search engines are indexing your content more frequently. Of course your content has to be compelling as well, but that goes without saying, right?

#2: Pay attention to the headlines (blog post titles)

Using numbers (see title of this blog post!) usually generates good traffic. Titles with “how to” also attract a lot of traffic.

#3: Send an email broadcast

Send email to your list when you have a great blog post you want to share. Ask for comments to encourage engagement and interaction.

#4: Add a link in your email signature

If you use web-based email like Gmail, add WiseStamp to your email signature so you can include links to your blog. Add your blog’s RSS feed so your recent posts are always featured in your emails. WiseStamp works with web-based email services including Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo mail and AOL. WiseStamp adds all your links to your email signature and is simple to install and edit.

#5: Include multiple subscription options on your blog

Most blog platforms have RSS feeds built in, but don’t forget to add an email subscription option as well. Email is ubiquitous and if you only offer RSS, you lose a huge opportunity for people to get your content and become regular readers. Email subscription services include Feedburner, Feedblitz and AWeber, to name a few.

Give your readers multiple options for getting your blog updates.

#6: Try article marketing

Article marketing is a powerful way to attract traffic. Post your articles at EzineArticles.com and include a link to your blog in your author resource box. Also set up your author account to automatically send a tweet when you post new articles. That drives traffic to your article which drives traffic back to your blog.

#7: Comment on blogs in your industry

This is all about outreach and boosting your visibility on complementary blogs. Target influential blogs, read them on a regular basis and then contribute to the conversation as appropriate. When you comment, you have the option to include the URL to your blog.

#8. Do some guest posting

Writing on other people’s blogs can introduce you to a new audience and create a surge of new traffic to your blog. You can find more information and a great resource for getting guest posting gigs here.

#9: Conduct surveys and polls

People love to give their opinion. Use Polldaddy or SurveyMonkey to ask your readers what they want or get their opinion. More often than not, those who respond will help spread the word, especially if you ask and/or offer a gift in exchange.

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birdbathBUZZ works with businesses to develop solid marketing, social media marketing and online lead generation campaigns. Email founder and "buzz creator" Chris Isaac for more information.

By now, you have probably heard the success stories of companies like Dell and Starbucks, which have created hugely successful social media presences that serve millions of fans and generate millions of dollars of revenue.  The only problem is, your small business doesn’t have 1/1000^th of the brand recognition these companies have.  You run a solid small business that is well known in your niche or your region, but not beyond.
How can social networks become useful marketing and operations tools for smaller businesses that don’t have a large customer base?

This question has kept many small businesses from interacting on social networks, as a recent study showed that only 24 percent of small businesses had begun social media marketing.

Here are five tips to optimize your small business’ social networks to attract more customers online.  Small business owners and marketers do not have the luxury of lots of free time to monitor social networks, so these tips are intended to help you be as efficient as possible.

#1: Make Your Profiles About More Than Just Your Industry

While you should be demonstrating expertise on your Facebook fan page and your blog, you should also be adding local context to this information.  What does the information you are providing mean for your specific region?

If you are selling homes, provide information and links about the local area, as well as the real estate you are offering.  As a small business, you are competing against large national news sources, so provide something the big guys can’t afford to give—local perspective.  The Wydler Brothers Realty Team does just that, offering insights on the Washington, D.C. market as well as homes they are offering in the area.



On their blog, Wydler Brothers Realty offers advice on the general DC area, in addition to their expertise in the real estate industry.

#2: Offer Value

By far the most important tip to getting value from social media for your business is offering value to the customers you want to interact with.  First, make sure your social media presences contain all the information a customer needs to find you on and offline, and provide a clear idea of what your business offers.

Second, define what you’ll be offering your potential customers in return for their attention and time.  You can offer promotions or discounts specifically for fans of your Facebook page, for instance. 

If you do not have the budget for special offers, make sure the content you are offering is valuable to the potential customers you are trying to reach.  Envision the need you are filling for the target customer and serve the customer with useful information related to your business or industry.

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birdbathBUZZ works with businesses to develop solid marketing, social media marketing and online lead generation campaigns. Email founder and "buzz creator" Chris Isaac for more information.

It’s no secret that social media marketing is the most powerful business-building tool on the planet.  Now any business can directly reach customers, anytime and anyplace.

To take your social media marketing to the max, here are hot social media tips direct from 12 of the top industry masters. You’re going to want to model their priceless advice:

#1: Engage Your Facebook Fans With Questions

“Discussions are the currency of Facebook.  When your fans engage, your fan page comes up in their feed regularly.  A great way to get your fans active is to end each status update with a question.  You can add your own comments to get the ball rolling.  Do your best to respond to fan questions as promptly as possible to keep the discussion alive.” Mari Smith, author of Facebook Marketing


Asking engaging questions gets your fans involved, as seen on this fan page.

#2: ‘Listen’ to Know What to ‘Say’

“The way to make a connection is to talk about what people want to hear.  No-cost and low-cost listening tools help you ‘grow bigger ears’ and then apply what you’ve learned from listening to improve your sales, your service or your future products.  That’s the single most important thing you can do with social media tools.  Free tools: blogsearch.google.com and icerocket.com.  Fee-based tools: radian6.com and scoutlabs.com.” Chris Brogan, author of Social Media 101
IceRocket allows you to track blogs, Twitter and other social media sites for activity based on any date range.

#3: Use Video to Turn Company Mistakes Into Gold

“Even customer service errors present a powerful relationship opportunity.  Create a 2-minute video apology, post it on Viddler and tweet about it as a real-time response.  Give thanks, admit the mistake, apologize, and then WOW your customer to turn the situation around.” Ramon De Leon, Operating partner of a six-store Domino’s Pizza franchise.
Watch as Ramon De Leon uses video to turn a company error into a golden customer opportunity.

#4: Leverage YouTube’s Keyword Power

“In February 2010, Americans conducted 9.9 billion ‘expanded search queries’ on Google, 3.6 billion on YouTube, and 2.5 billion on Yahoo! But YouTube users are searching for video content, so they’re less likely to look for something to buy on YouTube than they are on Google.  That’s why I use YouTube keyword tool to get new keyword ideas instead of the Google AdWords keyword tool.  Use your keyword discoveries to optimize your video pages for YouTube users.” Greg Jarboe, author of YouTube and Video Marketing: An Hour a Day The YouTube keyword tool allows you to capture YouTube users with popular search terms.

#5: Promote SMS Campaigns on Facebook and Twitter

“One hundred million users access Facebook from their mobile phones.  So you want to be promoting your text campaigns there and on Twitter.  Send messages that encourage people to text your keyword and sign up for your mobile coupon or get on your alert list.  Example: ‘For weekly mobile marketing tips Text KIMDUSHINSKI to 95495.  Message & Data Rates May Apply.’” Kim Dushinski, author of Mobile Marketing Handbook

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birdbathBUZZ works with businesses to develop solid marketing, social media marketing and online lead generation campaigns. Email founder and "buzz creator" Chris Isaac for more information.

Plenty has been written about the pros and cons of employees engaging in social media at work, officially or unofficially. Plenty of people have gained and lost jobs through the judicious or indiscrete usage of social media and new media, but by and large, most corporations haven’t truly accepted full employee participation in new media. Here’s a slightly different perspective on personal brand, personal blogs, and corporate success:

Personal brand is absolutely essential to future corporate success, at least from a marketing perspective.

Here’s why. If you have employees who are already engaged in new media – blogging, podcasting, social channels – then they likely already have and belong to other communities. Some of their interests overlap with their coworkers, but not many. If we drew a Venn diagram (you remember these from school, yes? Logic class?) of the various personal networks and interests of your employees, you’d get something that looks like this:

That tiny little wedge in the middle is the intersection of personal and corporate networks. Companies that force their employees to rigorously keep personal and professional separate or even require employees not to participate in personal media creation outside of work create and get access to only that tiny little wedge in the middle, and nothing else.

Now imagine that a company, instead of discouraging or trivializing employees’ personal brands, encouraged them to actively grow their own networks, to use and leverage social media and new media to the best of their abilities. Imagine a company so forward-thinking that each employee had their own powerful personal brand and the freedom to express it (as long as said employees weren’t doing anything materially harmful in public).

What would that company’s reach be? Well, instead of the tiny intersection in the middle of those three networks in the chart above, the company’s effective reach would be the sum, the union of all the networks. Each employee’s personal network would contribute to the effective reach of the whole network.

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birdbathBUZZ works with businesses to develop solid marketing, social media marketing and online lead generation campaigns. Email founder and "buzz creator" Chris Isaac for more information.

There's always a lot going on in the social marketing space. I've scoured my favorite tweets from this week to present you with 5 news items or blog posts that I wouldn't want you to miss: 1. How To Salvage Your Brand On Facebook: Lessons For Nestle By Rohit Bhargava If you haven't seen it by now, the Nestle brand* has run into a bit of a brand crisis on Facebook thanks to a combination of a coordinated attack from Greenpeace and missteps from the brand in communicating with consumers through the social media environment. This is another great example of the type of crisis that we have seen in many companies that ultimately helps to awaken their entire teams to the power of social media and how it may require a different type of thinking. Firebelly Memo: It's always a good idea to develop and include both a "proactive" and "reactive" response program as part of your social marketing strategy. 2. Facebook To Release A “Like” Button For the Whole Darn Internet By Michael Arrington One of the new features we’ve been hearing about is the extension of Facebook Connect and the Facebook API to allow publishers to add a “Like” button to any piece of content on their site. Sound trivial? It isn’t. This is likely part of Facebook’s Open Graph API project that will incentivize third party sites to interact deeply with Facebook by sharing content and associated metadata. Read the rest of the article at Firebelly. birdbathBUZZ works with businesses to develop solid social media marketing and online lead generation concepts, strategies and tactics. Please email founder and "buzz creator" Chris Isaac for more information.

Do you have any type of insurance?  Medical, dental, home, and car perhaps?  Why?  You own insurance so that in case anything bad happens, you’ll be protected.  At its worst, social media is an insurance policy for your brand online.  At its best, social media is a way to evolve how your organization does business.  However, is it worth to invest money in social media “just in case?”

• Just in case someone starts trashing your brand online or saying something that isn’t true
• Just in case one of your customers has a great new idea that your company can implement
• Just in case you can increase your brand awareness and get your company message out
• Just in case you can solve a customer support issue in a few minutes instead of a few hours

There are plenty of other “just in case” scenarios but it all comes down to whether or not it makes sense to invest in social media as your insurance policy for your brand.  I would definitely say so.  One of my favorite questions to ask companies is, “if you knew you would never make a penny (directly) while investing in social media, would you still do it?”  I ask this question just to understand how some people view social media.  You would be surprised to find out that  so far every time I have asked this question, the answer has still been “yes, we would.” Social media is much more than a “just in case” strategy.  It’s an evolution of how your organization as a whole is going to operate and interact with customers.  However, if you’re just considering social media it might make sense to, at least, look at it in terms of an insurance policy for your brand – just in case that fire starts and you need to protect yourself.

Why Businesses Should Create a Partnership with Social Media

You are not alone if you are confused by the overwhelming social media take over. Many businesses feel like they are being held hostage by the variety of networks that are integrated into their news, spoken word and old-fashioned inbox. It being 2010, it is time to jump aboard the Social Media train and collaborate with the communication revolution. Social media has become an important key player in the way we live our lives. For most, it is about Tweeting in the morning instead of reading the comic section in the newspaper, or about updating their Facebook status to ask their friends what they should even have to eat. It is a constant stream of input, crowd sourcing and connectivity that is unlike anything before its time. Read the rest of the article on Soshable.com If your business needs assistance understanding the benefits of Social Media and implementing solid Social Media Marketing and Optimization concepts, strategies and tactics, contact Chris Isaac at birdbathBUZZ - cisaac@birdbathbuzz.com Cheers!