Earlier this week, we took a look at what we termed the "positives" and the "challenges" to one local government social media initiative. We generated some good feedback from the readers of the post, and we were also contacted by the IT Manager for the City of Mansfield to chat some more about their foray into social media. A big virtual pat on the back to the IT Manager for listening! Wish more people would do that! We couldn't be happier that the City of Mansfield has taken on the task of engaging their community through social media. Our hope is that they're successful and that other municipalities develop their own presences.
The positives we mentioned are just that: positive. The challenges, however, could have extremely negative consequences for the future of the City of Mansfield's social media efforts. We want to offer three tips to the City of Mansfield for their social media campaign that could help them achieve the goals they set. For the sake of full disclosure. We've been contacted by, and will have a phone chat with, the IT Manager for the city, but are in no way affiliated with them.
- Give It Time - Unfortunately, social media isn't the "be all, end all" of communications. Unless you're Lebron James, Lady Gaga, or some other famous celebrity, you won't get 1,000 followers or fans in a short period of time. There's a saying that applies really well to social media. "Anything worth having is worth working for." Social media growth, and more importantly engagement by fans and followers, takes a great deal of time. It won't happen overnight. If there's one thing that plays into Mansfield's favor, it's emotion. Citizens of the city have an emotional attachment to what happens in their local government. Use that attachment, not in a bad way, to help you achieve your goals. Don't be afraid to throw a little gasoline on the fire every now and again just to make sure people are listening. But have the fire hose on standby to make sure the blaze doesn't get out of control!
- Bring It All Together - While we're not priviledged to the City of Mansfield's website traffic, our guess is that they have a fairly high volume. If you visit their website, you'll see that they have some really great video content in the form of a Video TourBook. One really easy thing for them to do is to provide links on EVERY SINGLE PAGE of their website to their Facebook Fan Page and Twitter account. Heck, why not create a separate landing page with widgets from Facebook and Twitter and invite people to "like" and follow. Ultimately, the city's website needs to be the central hub of all information, and the social media "outlets" are venues for driving more visitors to the website.
- Patience is A Virtue - We sort of touched on this in the first point, but it's so critically important that it's worth repeating. Success in social media requires a great level of patience. You're not always going to make the right moves or post the right content. Anyone who says they are a "guru" is crazy. Social media is still so young and still evolving. Don't be afraid to fall down, because you will. If your strategy is sound and your determination strong, you will succeed in social media.
What tips or ideas would you give to the City of Mansfield based on the newspaper article and their current efforts on Facebook and Twitter?
A story recently ran in the Mansfield News-Journal that highlighted the City of Mansfield's venture into the world of social media. The City has launched a Facebook Fan Page and a Twitter account. To say we're pleased by this development would be a massive understatement. Mansfield is about 25 minutes from our headquarters, and is the largest city within the North Central Ohio region. Their presence in the social mediasphere could have a positive effect on other entities, both private and public, and encourage these groups to take the "leap" into utilizing Facebook, Twitter and other social media tools.
Before we give too many more virtual high-fives or pats on the rear, we need to take a deeper look at Mansfield's social media efforts. The good and the bad. We'll start with the positives and then identify challenges Mansfield will need to overcome to achieve success.
The Positives
1.) In the Game - No matter what people say or think, positive or negative, about the social media efforts by Mansfield, the mayor and his staff are to be commended for taking the leap and getting in the game. Many of the city's contemporaries are still "scared" to make the jump because of fear of public criticism, among others.
2.). Goals Set - One of the biggest challenges of many organizations lies in goal setting. Social media is such a new venue that goals are difficult to set. According to the article, the Mayor's goal is to "inform citizens and area businesses of fun happenings in Mansfield, by showcasing the best of what Mansfield has to offer to the current residents, visitors and future residents." So the tone of the page has been set, and visitors have an expectation of what they're going to find. Excellent.
3.) Media Coverage - The only reason we found this story was that the News Journal ran it in their online edition. While the article didn't provide a direct link to Mansfield's Facebook Fan Page, it did cause us to open a new browser tab, log in to Facebook and do a search for "City of Mansfield". So, if for no other reason, the buzz that's been created from the article should help this local government social media initiative gain momentum.
The Challenges
1.) Timing - After finding the Page, we discovered it had actually been created at the end of May. The article ran at the beginning of July with the statement that "Mayor Don Culliver launched a campaign Thursday to use social media websites." So the Page was started over a month ago, but yet it is just now showing up in the media? A press release should have been sent the day the Page and Twitter account was launched. In an area like Mansfield, or North Central Ohio for that matter, organizations are still gun shy about using social media. Make a big deal about it.
2.) Expectations - This one is HUGE. In the course of the News Journal article, the city's IT manager (we'll get to that one next) was quoted as saying, "the campaign's future will depend on how well people respond. If the Facebook page hasn't attracted a certain number of friends by Aug. 1, the city won't put any more effort into it." First and foremost, how are you measuring "how well people respond?" Is it an arbitrary number of followers? Where are you getting those figures? Hopefully the IT manager didn't pull those numbers from his rear end. Another point is the length of time. The City is only going to give this initiative a month, really, to work. Story runs July 1, one and only measurement will be taken August 1. Final piece to this is that the IT manager only mentioned Facebook and didn't mention the Twitter account. He doesn't seem to have much faith in either channel.
3.) IT Manager - You waited for it, and here it is. Why the hell is an IT manager running a social media campaign? A great friend of our company is the IT Manager for a professional sports franchise in Columbus, and the last time we had drinks, he never mentioned running that franchise's social media efforts. If you read his initial comments in the article, which we quoted in the last point, it would seem he doesn't want this campaign to be successful. Why would he? It takes time away from his switches, ethernet cables, hard drives and spyware. Don't get us wrong, we love "propeller heads", but their job shouldn't be to manage communication channels with the general public. Nor should it be his place to comment publicly in the local newspaper.
Ok, so where do we see this going? Frankly, if Mansfield's presence on Facebook and Twitter still exist after August 1, we'll be shocked. There are too many challenges and roadblocks that the city's administration has put in front of this campaign for it to be successful. We want it to be a success, please don't misunderstand our statements. There are just too many factors and indicators that point to this campaign's demise before it even really gets started?
Read the entire Mansfield News Journal article, and then check out the City of Mansfield on Facebook and on Twitter. What do you think? Do you agree with our perspective? Are there other challenges to, or opportunities for, success? We'd love to get your feedback.
And if you're reading this and happen to be Mayor Culliver or the IT Manager for the City of Mansfield, feel free to give us shout. We'd love to chat more!
On the night of April 18th, 1775, the most important message of the United States was delivered on horseback under the cover of night by Paul Revere. His simple "1 if by land, 2 if by sea" system gave the American forces time to rally and eventually defeat the British Army.
Fast-forward to 103 years later...
In 1878 David Hughes noticed that sparks could be heard in a telephone receiver with a carbon microphone. Hughes developed his carbon-based detector further and eventually could detect signals over a few hundred yards. Radio later became the media outlet on which Adolf Hitler made his famous declaration of war.
Fast-forward again, this time 131 years...
On Tuesday, January 20th
2009, the world witnessed the inauguration of the first African-American President of the United States of America. Over 23 million people watched the inauguration... ON THE INTERNET!
Let's review. What have we learned from our brief history lesson that pertains to school district communication?
At first glance is doesn't look like much, but hear me out!
Imagine trying to explain to Paul Revere the concept of a computer. Or maybe you would like the task of telling Hitler that there would someday be an African-American President of the United States. In either case, both messages would have been met with tremendous uncertainty.
The message I am trying to convey is simple. If school districts are going to survive in the ever changing world of communication, THEY MUST LEARN TO ADAPT!!!
This is not a knock on any specific school district, or even any particular demographic of citizens. Instead, think of this as a request to all people in charge of school district communication. Our schools are too important to let their communication slip by the wayside. Students across the country are excelling in ways like never before, yet negative stories dominate the headlines concerning today's education system.
Today's traditional and social media outlets have spoiled audiences. People no longer rely on the Sunday paper to fill them in on what is happening in their community and around the world. Today's media audiences want their information on their terms, and they want it now.
One way cutting-edge districts are combating this problem is by infusing user generated content (UGC) into their communication efforts. (Look here for a great example www.hipointjourneys.com) With the demands of today's media audiences, user generated content allows students, staff and even alumni the chance to provide positive messages about their respective districts.
However, user generated content is not the "end all be all" for school communication, and that is exactly my point. Confused yet?
User generated content is not new to the communication world. Unfortunately, it is still relatively new to school districts across the country. This only further reinforces the significance of my previous request. Lagging behind most other organizations can't become a trend with school districts. Schools, especially public schools have an image problem. The only way to combat this problem is by becoming as transparent in communication efforts as possible.
To bring this post full-circle, nobody knows exactly what the future holds for school district communication. But then again, nobody knows what the future holds either. What we do know is that the most successful industries and companies are the ones who best communicate with their target audiences. Just imagine the fate of the United States if Paul Revere would have tried delivering his message on his own two feet. The results would have been catastrophic. A similar fate can't be shared by our schools, they are simply too important!
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Since the beginning of May, we've been working behind the scenes with a project called the Crawford: 20/20 Vision in Crawford County, Ohio. More specifically, we've been mentoring an intern that was hired by one of the major financial backers, the Bucyrus Area Community Foundation, of the Vision project. The Crawford: 20/20 Vision is "an unprecedented effort to bring together the people of our county to take charge of our challenges and turn them around. The initiative will develop and implement a Crawford Vision that will guide our county for the next decade."
Since March, the committee leading the Vision project has held a series of meetings throughout Crawford County. During each of these meetings, it became apparent that the demographics of the attendees was skewed very heavily to the age 50 & older crowd. This wasn't a huge surprise, considering that data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows that the county has an aging population and that this aging population (50+) will outnumber the younger population (50 & under) by 2018. The charts below show age demographics of meetings held May 17 & May 18, respectively.
May 17 Mtg
Age Demographics
| May 18 Mtg
Age Demographics
|
 |  |
Based on this data, Janet Pry, Executive Director for the Bucyrus Area Community Foundation, hired an intern to implement social media and permission-based email marketing to reach the under-represented under 40 age demographic. Janet recently shared some insights about social media and this project.
RSM - What were the initial challenges you faced in implementing social media with Crawford: 20/20 Vision?
Janet -
Skepticism. Most of the people on the (Crawford: 20/20 Vision) committee are over 45 years of age. They know of Facebook, Twitter, blogging - but they have not really used them in any sort of business capacity. I don't think they understood the power that could be unleashed by using the various media outlets. Even e-newsletters via organized, web-based programs were not something that they used. Social media has come into the business world with such speed that many people are intimidated by the technology.
RSM - How did you overcome those challenges?
Janet - By hiring a young, intelligent student to initiate its use and "forcing" the issue. The only way to truly overcome the challenges, fear and skepticism of social media is to start using it and see the power it brings to the table.
RSM - Since implementing social media as a part of the Crawford: 20/20 Vision community engagement efforts, what's been the response you've received from individuals in the community?
Janet - Very positive, I believe. It allows so many more people to participate in the discussions. Going into this process, we knew that one of the hardest aspects of the process would be communications. One thing that is obviously lacking in Crawford County is one or two powerful media outlets. The newspapers' readership is dropping and their coverage of local issues is meager. We could not rely on the print media to get the word out. Crawford County does not have a television station. The radio station has been very helpful in airing news of the events, but it is hard to know how many people listen and take in the dates, times and places of the meetings when they hear it on the radio. We told the consultants right at the beginning that communication would be difficult. The social media outlets really provide a powerful communication tool.
RSM - What role do you envision social media having as you continue moving forward with Crawford: 20/20 Vision?
Janet - I think it will be vital in the implementation process. Again, we have known from the start that the planning part of the process is just the beginning and in many ways the easiest part to accomplish. Implementing a plan takes ongoing energy and by-in from community members. I think the social media outlets will provide the forum for ongoing discussions. And, there is nothing better to "nudge" someone to action than to be reminder of things on Facebook!
Besides the Facebook Fan Page, they've also started a blog, a Twitter profile, and a YouTube channel. Plus, they started using e-newsletters to engage subscribers from their social media outlets and attendees at the community meeting. We strongly encourage you to check out at least one of their social media tools.
Has the effort to engage the under 45 population using social media in this rural Ohio county worked? We think so, especially given the Insights from the Crawford: 20/20 Vision Facebook Fan Page and age demographics of a recent online survey conducted through the Facebook Fan Page.
Facebook Fan Page
Insights
| Recent Survey
Age Demographics
|
 |  |
What other ways can the Vision project engage the under 45 demographic through social media? We would like to hear your thoughts, ideas and suggestions!
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Up until 3 years ago, I was an avid fisherman. So much so that I actually traveled around Kentucky and Ohio and fished tournaments on the weekend. I was even lucky enough to fish in 2 national tournaments; one in Louisiana and one in Kentucky. I even had sponsors to help me finance my passion. Some paid cash, while others provided products. Life changed after my last national tournament in Kentucky and I've since not fished a single tournament. But, I still fish. Not as often, but my 4 year old daughter likes to go fishing and so I take her to one of the local reservoirs.
Despite my absence from competitive fishing, I still keep up with what's happening on the professional tournament trail via BassFan.com. On this website, they keep a running tab of the Top 10 World Rankings in the sport. These point rankings are based on a "proprietary method" that isn't disclosed on BassFan.com. However, they do list several contributing factors that include pervious tournament performances, strength of the field, and various others for the top-level events in the BASS (Bass Anglers Sportsman Society) and FLW Outdoors tournament circuits. And yes, there are professional leagues for bass fishing.
Very few pro bass fishermen live off their tournament winnings, although one tournament win can have a profound effect on a pro's financial well-being. The majority of pros either finance their career from personal funds, or they have large sponsorship deals to finance their careers. With the current recession we're experiencing, many of these large sponsorship deals are becoming increasingly difficult to land. Companies involved in professional bass fishing sponsorships include fishing tackle companies (Lucky Craft, Berkley, G-Loomis, etc.), fishing boat manufacturers (Ranger, Triton, BassCat, etc.), boat engine manufacturers (Mercury, Evinrude, Yamaha, etc.) and main stream companies (Toyota, Wal-Mart, Land-O-Lakes, etc.). All these companies sponsor fishing pros because they want to increase brand awareness with the nearly 40 million people, according to the American Sportfishing Association, in the United States who fish. There are other reasons, but I need to get to the point.
Back to the BassFan World Rankings, and more specifically the Top 10. Given my affinity for fishing and the nature of my business, I decided to do a little non-scientific research to see how the pros in the Top 10 are using social media to help extend their brand beyond the boat launches, weigh-ins, highway mileage and traditional website presence. Below is a quick table that breaks it down by angler rank, website, Facebook Fan Page and Twitter profile.
| | Angler
| Website?
| Fan Page?
| Twitter?
|
1
| Skeet Reese
| Yes
| Yes-2
| No
|
2
| Brent Ehrler
| Yes
| No
| No
|
3
| Kevin Vandam
| Yes
| No
| No
|
4
| Tommy Biffle
| Yes
| No
| No
|
5
| Bryan Thrift
| Yes
| No
| No
|
6
| Mike Iaconelli | Yes
| Yes-multiple
| Yes
|
7
| Aaron Martens
| Yes
| No
| No
|
8
| Cliff Pace
| No
| No
| No
|
9
| Greg Hackney
| No
| No
| No
|
10
| Gary Klein | No
| No
| No
|
You Won't Catch a Thing if Your Line's not in the Water
The findings, while non-scientific, are very alarming. 7 of the top 10 have a website. I wonder why the 3 at the bottom are waiting to start with the most basic component of internet marketing. After all, it is 2010. Simply developing a static website with sponsor logos and links to sponsor websites can help build both the angler's brand and their sponsors' brands. Don't worry, initially, about developing new content. Just get with the times. Sort of sounds like some small businesses that are reluctant to develop a website. Most that I talk to cite cost as the primary reason for not having a website. Again, it's 2010 and phonebooks are on the verge of being extinct.
Find the Bait, You'll Find the Fish
As I dug deeper, I found that there are huge opportunities for these professional athletes. Only 2 of 10 are utilizing a Facebook Fan Page. Facebook is close to hitting 500 million users worldwide, with over 113 million in the US alone over the age of 18. Then, if you drill that down to the number of US users 18 and over whom either like, or have an interest in, fishing you get just over 2 million people. Not all of the 2 million people may like bass fishing, but it should give these pro fishermen (and women) some incentive to embrace social media. If 2 million isn't enough, Facebook also provides a great set of analytics tools called Insights. This is where a pro angler can start to really impress potential sponsors. They can show sponsors their fans' demographics, their fans' interactions with media, and the Page's growth over time just to name a few. The one thing sponsors want to know, at least in my experience, is what the angler's reach is. Now, at least with a Facebook Fan Page, a pro angler can provide these statistics with ease and accuracy. Plus, they can provide some really unique content that extends their sponsors' brands into the space. So, there are 2 million people in the US on Facebook that "like" fishing. How many do you think like coffee? How about cars? Flowers maybe? I think you get the point.
Don't Ignore What Others Use to Catch Fish
The other thing that raised an eyebrow was these anglers' use, or lack thereof, of Twitter. Only 1 of the top 10 is currently using Twitter. And, the one using Twitter, hasn't "Tweeted" in nearly a year. But, that's beside the point. At least he's created an account and "squatted" on his name. Twitter, while not providing the any level of reporting, still serves as a great tool to spread a message and build a following. Plus, it can help to extend an angler's reach to another group of people who share similar interests. It all comes back to one thing. Creating, building and maintaining a following on Twitter adds additional value to the angler's brand, thus providing additional value to the angler's sponsors' brand.
Lures are Great, but Understanding How They Work is Essential
A website, Facebook Fan Page and Twitter profile are all simply tools that when combined, can be powerful tools for small business marketing. These tools that can be used to ultimately strengthen an angler's brand and further strengthen the angler's sponsors' brand and the same can be applied to a small business. The only difference is that small businesses don't have sponsors. Instead, they have customers. And a small business' customers are the same as angler's sponsors. The real challenge that exists is deciding how you're going to be social, not why you're going to be social. How you engage with fans and followers can ultimately dictate the success of your social media marketing efforts. The best way to figure out how you're going to be social is experiment. But, before you engage you have to listen to understand what people are talking about and how you can engage in the conversation! It's a big pond, but don't be afraid to go fishing.
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When deciding to implement social media there are always challenges you'll have to overcome, regardless of the type of organization. While many for-profit businesses don't concern themselves with legal issues, school districts have strict laws they must follow when dealing with students. This challenge alone can be extremely daunting for any school district to overcome when evaluating social media for their communications.
On top of legal issues, school districts also have a rather intricate hierarchy. School boards, superintendents, treasurers, principals, assitant principals, teachers. There are many people that get involved in the decision-making processes that take place in public education. This dynamic can also lead to many people within a district doubting social media's effectiveness for reaching a specific population.
Shane Haggerty (follow Shane on Twitter), Marketing & Communications Director for Ohio Hi-Point Career Center, discusses the challenges he faced when initially implementing social media in his district, specifically how he overcame those challenges, and the response he's received from the social media "nay-sayers".
What challenges do you feel exist for school districts and social media? Are there some that Shane didn't address? We would like to hear your comments and questions. If we get enough, we'll take these questions to Shane and have him address them specifically in another interview!
The final part in our 3 part series will explore how other Ohio school districts are implementing social media, Shane's views on why more districts aren't using social media, and his advice for districts struggling to get started!
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Social media has witnessed a huge increase in popularity as the preferred channel of communications for many individuals, companies and organizations. Proof of this can be seen in the unprecedented growth in the number of users of social media. Facebook is quickly approaching 500 million users, and Twitter is growing just as rapidly (although the company doesn't release similar information as Facebook) based on unique site visitors.
However, one "industry" that still struggles to embrace this new form of communication is public education. School districts across the United States are realizing that social media can be a viable channel for communication with their stakeholders. But, school district social media usage continues to lag behind other "industries" for many reasons, least of which is legal ramifications.
One Ohio school district, Ohio Hi-Point Career Center, has not only embraced social media, but they've also blazed a trail for other school districts. Their award-winning "Hi-Point Journeys" campaign is a great example of how school districts can implement social media by utilizing one of their greatest assets; students.
Shane Haggerty (follow Shane on Twitter), Ohio Hi-Point's Marketing & Communications Director, sat down with Rock Solid Media to provide a behind-the-scenes look at their campaign. This is the first in a three-part series that gives you a deeper understanding of how Ohio Hi-Point is using social media to reach its current students, prospective students, parents and community.
Part 2 will explore the challenges Shane faced in utilizing social media for Ohio Hi-Point and how he overcame those challenges.
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There's been a ton of media attention, both mainstream and online, about the changes Facebook recently made to their privacy settings and policies. It seems that Mashable has at least one article about Facebook privacy almost every day. Time Magazine is bringing Facebook privacy to its readers as a front page story. The flurry of media attention seems to be mostly negative with no ray of hope anywhere in the near future for Facebook.
One topic that's been overshadowed by the larger privacy issues is a Wall Street Journal report that Facebook, along with other social networks, was caught sending user data to advertisers. According to the WSJ article, the information that Facebook, and other social networks, have been sending "could be used to find consumers' names and other personal details." While this practice has been defended by these companies, it should raise some serious concerns for the companies' subscribers. First, it strengthens the case for those consumers who are hesitant to embrace social networking sites because they don't want the entire world to have access to their personal information. Second, it opens subscribers' information to a larger group of companies and individuals who, while they may have the best of business intentions, could abuse the subscribers' information and flood them with irrelevant content. Finally, it could scare subscribers so much that they actually start a mass exodus from these social networking sites. In fact, this last point is highlighted further by several studies that show people are considering this option.
This practice, in our opinion, could spell the end of Facebook's Project Titan before it even launches. In February, TechCrunch ran an article that highlighted Facebook's Project Titan, which is being tabbed "a full featured webmail product." Subsequent articles related to this development focused on how this project COULD be the end of email marketing, as well as how to prepare for the potential of such a solution. The recent revelations brought to the forefront by the Wall Street Journal could doom Project Titan for 3 simple reasons.
- There are already multiple full featured webmail products available to consumers. Many of these consumers use multiple products to try and avoid the flurry of spam that is still received via email despite the Can-Spam Act. While Facebook would have an inside track to consumers' information, and ultimately greater control over who has access to that information, the practice of sending user names and ID numbers to third party advertisers could allow these outside parties the opportunity to sell pseudo Facebook email lists to list houses for a pretty penny.
- While Facebook, and other social networking sites, will defend the practice highlighted in the WSJ article; it still raises serious concerns about subscribers' privacy for Project Titan. If Facebook simply uses vanity URLs as the basis for creating email addresses as some have speculated, list houses and spammers could very easily build their own Facebook email databases and start sending spam email to Facebook users. By the way, my Facebook email if Project Titan launches could be chrissstone@facebook.com. If Facebook is sharing subscribers' user names and IDs, as is reported, what's to stop them from selling their email database to these same third-party advertisers?
- Despite users' love of Facebook, and other social networking sites, they still want to keep their personal information private. Hence, the recent backlash from mainstream and online media outlets. Users are generally willing to deal with advertisements because they can teach themselves to block out the messages, just as they have with traditional forms of advertising. If, and I stress if, Facebook continues the practice of sending user information to third parties, users could look at a Facebook email address as another source of spam email. If a Facebook email address is viewed as a "spam catcher", Project Titan could surely be irrelevant within a short period of time.
At the end of the day, no one knows exactly how Facebook will amend its recent privacy changes. As this post is written, Facebook is briefing Congressional staffers on the changes to the changes it's already made in light of the media attention and subsequent public outcry. Project Titan has probably been put on the very back burner until Facebook can overcome all the negative media attention. This is a good thing for an email marketing agency because it's one less potential opponent to the overall success of their email marketing efforts.
Statistics abound when discussing the impact of social media on websites and blogs. The whole premise of inbound marketing is to use social media to drive an increase in visitors to the great content you've created on your website. While inbound marketing methodology is obviously more complex and more involved than the very brief synopsis above, it stands to reason that the impact of social sharing on email marketing could be monumental, especially for small businesses that implement an inbound marketing strategy.
According to the "2010 Email Marketing Trends Survey" from GetResponse, only one of every 4 marketers (25%) was placing links to email campaigns and newsletters on social media pages, or including a "share" option in their online communications. Conversely, 90% of respondents in the same study said they planned to integrate social media into their email campaigns. 2010 is almost half over. There's a big gap between 25% actually implementing some aspect of social media in their email marketing, and 90% just making plans. What in the world are you waiting for? An invitation?
Well, consider this your invitation for 3 simple reasons.
- Social media/networking is growing. Facebook, despite their recent privacy mishaps, has breached the 400 million user threshold. According to comScore, Twitter had 75,000,000 unique visits in January 2010 alone, an increase of 1,105%. LinkedIn currently boasts a community of over 65 million professionals. Why would you not want to give your subscribers an opportunity to share your email with these networks?
- An opportunity to increase sales. Here's a scenario. Sally just received your email and is super excited about the big sale next week at your store. She has 500 friends on Facebook and 300 followers on Twitter. Sally decides she is going to share your email with her social network because she knows her friends & followers like the kind of products your business sells. Sally's social network of 800 people represents 800 potential customers for your business. Why would you not want Sally to share your email with her networks?
- An opportunity for list building. In the last scenario, Sally just shared your email with the 800 people in her social networks. Let's say, conservatively, that only 5% of her friends and followers share her interest in the products you sell. Offer a special discount, or other incentive, to viewers who are seeing the shared version of your email to get them to sign up for emails from your business. If 40 people sign up for your emails, that's a 5% increase in your email marketing list. Now, you'll say, "It's only 5%". Look at it this way. That's 40 new people in your email list. 40 new potential customers. And all you had to do was implement a social sharing feature in your email. Why would you not want to implement social sharing in your emails?
If you need more than 3 reasons to start implementing social sharing in your email marketing, you might need to rethink your overall marketing strategy. When implemented with a purpose, social sharing can have a tremendous impact on your email marketing efforts and your business.
Oh, and if you don't know how to implement social sharing in your current email marketing software, contact us and we'll show you how easy it is to implement with our software. Plus, we might just give you a few more ideas to make social sharing more impactful in your email marketing efforts!
Now, go forth and email social!
Image courtesy of SendLabs
We get it, the world is changing and nobody likes change. However, when you or your business stand in defiance of all the technological advances used in 2010, take this into consideration.
The first text message was sent in December of 1992, when a 22 year-old engineer named Neil Papworth used his personal computer to send the words "Merry Christmas" to the phone of Richard Jarvis. The message was sent via a single network provided by Vodafone. Fast forward 16 years later. With the most pioneering move in political history, presidential candidate Barack Obama first announced his vice-presidential candidate via text message to over 2.9 million people.
Similar stories of progress have been seen with the integration of new technology into almost every aspect of everyday life. Nowhere has this been more prevalent than with the explosion of the internet. In the United States alone, there are over 3,500 different internet service providers providing internet service to over 227 MILLION people across the country. That's over 74% of the US population!
According to a study published by The Nielsen Company (http://bit.ly/diUcmy) 1 in 2 Americans will have a smartphone by Christmas 2011.
What do all these numbers mean? They mean that as technology and trends change, so should your marketing efforts, regardless of your geographic location and marketing budget. We are not suggesting that you do a complete overhaul of your marketing efforts. However, we are suggesting that you stay abreast of the latest trends in small business internet marketing.
A recent survey (http://bit.ly/dzjUHv) conducted by Constant Contact has uncovered some staggering numbers that no business, big or small, can afford to ignore. The survey was conducted with the cooperation of the American Chamber of Commerce Executives, the Service Corps of Retired Executives and the Association of Small Business Development Centers.
Here is the "down n' dirty" if you will.
When asked the question "How important to your business is each of the following methods in finding new customers," here are their responses. (Pay particular attention to the email marketing and website rows)
In case you missed the most important stats on the chart, here they are.
-The most important marketing tool to small businesses is word of mouth with a 98% positive report.
-The most utilized channels to stimulate word of mouth are email marketing at 89%, and a company website at 93%
In another recent study conducted by The Nielsen Company, (http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/us-smartphone-growth.png) research showed that smartphones are poised to out-number feature phones by Christmas 2011.
So what does this mean to you and your business?
It's quite simple. While we understand you might have personal connections to the director of sales at your local radio station, but the time is now to start looking to bring your marketing efforts into 2010. With 90% of businesses across the country taking their marketing efforts viral, small businesses have two choices to make.
Change your ways and move forward with the 90% of other businesses that are doing the same. Or, become those 10% of businesses watching their businesses fall apart at the seams.
Take emotion out of the decision, the numbers don't lie.
Bryan Mulvany is the Chief Communications Specialist at Rock Solid Media LLC. Follow him @bryanmulvany