20&Change: Facebook is like a Yearbook - It's full of old friends and no one reads the ads.
by Jimmy Marks
New article from eMarketer today shows social media ad spending increasing in the next five years, but not in a significant way. There seems to be some confusing information being passed, as the article states that social media was the way Barack Obama won the presidential election. Sure, Obama's aggressive approach to social media helped, but I don't think it made all the difference in the world. I think it made more of an impact AGAINST the McCain campaign, who had the Sisyphean task of pushing themselves up a hill against the force of Tina Fey videos and Canadian prank callers. But, I digress.
eMarketer seems to think there should be much more money poured into social media advertising. Personally, $1 billion is a lot. Anything more than that is...more than $1 billion dollars. Seems pretty obvious, really. I'm not so sure THAT money is being wisely spent.
Maybe I'm the one person in the world who sees it this way, but not every channel is a "marketing channel". Imagine going into the hospital to deliver your first child. Everything's a success, the baby's perfectly healthy. You're happy, your family is a little bit bigger, and the nurse hands you your bundle of joy...who happens to be wrapped in a diaper with an ad for "Mountain Dew" on the bottom. Are you thrilled? Probably not. You're maybe a little annoyed. It'd be the same way if your boss put a billboard in the middle of your office. Or if they sold coffins with thousands of NASCAR-esque decals on them. It doesn't work that way.
Naturally, I'm going to have to do some more research on this. The Groundswell awards give some indication of people/businesses that are actually using social media effectively (Twitter-buddy and fellow Blog-dude Tim McAlpine is still making waves with Y&F - click here to see the winners) . It seems that there is something to the idea that people bring into their lives what they want to bring in and ignore what displeases them. Why did this Motrin campaign fall flat? It was a string of videos that Motrin tried to make "viral", but ended up just being condescending. There's a story about it here.
But my theory is this: with more people spending more time online, there are spaces that are being created for work, for play, and for purchase. Let's say I want to join a network. I can join a work network (LinkedIn), a play network (Facebook), or a purchase network (Amazon). What about a blog service? I could view a business-type, work blog (TypePad), a fun, play-around type blog (Tumblr) or a blog that wants to sell me something (Millions of blogs do this). That's not to say there's no overlap (as in email, which is where more and more Americans go to get things done these days), but you get the idea.
If I get together an official report, I'll publish the results here. If it's REALLY good, I'll charge you for it.
We've got a post up over at cusoapbox.com (click here to jump over) that deals with the SIP, or System Investment Program. With this and other programs being generated to help keep the corporate credit unions afloat, people wonder if retail, or natural person, credit unions will be lumped in with corporates in the mind of the consumer.
This was a piece in Marketplace, from American Public Media. To listen, click on the play button below.[ Can't see it here? Visit their website (click here)]. It's a short story, but one that's indicative of what CU members are facing and what we, as an industry, need to take in mind in the months to come.
Things to keep in mind: Does the average member know why the corporates need the money? Does the average NON-member know? Does the average non-member know the difference between retail and corporate? Can you tell them the difference?
On Open Rates: If you get our blog posts by email, I'll bet you're reading this on Monday.
by Ron Daly
When I give presentations about the ARB, our super-powered email delivery system, I often include statistics about open rates. If the name didn't give it away, open rates refer to the number of emails sent as part of an email campaign that were opened by the recipients. Sometimes, people are stunned. Other times they're underwhelmed. The difference is in what you know about open rates.
According to the MarketingSherpa benchmark guide for 2008, your typical B-to-C email open rate is going to average at 27%. For B-to-B, expect that to be about 20%. Getting more specific, we look at breakdowns by industry, with banking/finance leading the pack at 28.1% open rate. I'm proud to say that our campaigns are hitting those numbers - and often times moreso. Our "Do you want fries with that" webinar shares details about a campaign that had a 35% open rate. Click here to sign up for our upcoming webinar dates.
Then there's when the messages are being opened. Does it matter? You'd better believe it. You're going to get more opens and a higher click-through rate (number of links in your email clicked) on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday than other days of the week. That's not to say that if your campaign flies out over the weekend that it won't get opened...it just won't be opened right away.
Hopefully this clears the fog a little bit for you. To learn more, contact us at info@digitalmailer.com
The History of SPAM: The Once and Future Pain-in-the-Neck
by Greg Crandell
DigitalMailer, in case you were wondering, provides services to companies that have a lot of email to send to a lot of people. We have to deal with SPAM issues all the time because what we're selling is NOT SPAM. We're selling the ability to communicate with the people that use your business every day through the service they use every day. We're NOT selling the ability to annoy people with offers of pills and tonics and cheap software and spyware and things that I don't even want to mention.
Picture a man selling apples from an apple cart. Everyone eats his apples - they're delicious, they're healthy, and they're not expensive. Then, one day, a second man parks his apple cart down the street and starts selling apples of his own. The difference? That guy's apples are full of worms. Thousands and millions of wiggly, terrible worms. Big, green, slimy worms that fall on the ground in loud *plops* when you cut into the apple. The second guy just laughs knowing everyone hates his wormy apples because he also knows he's ruined business for the first guy with the non-wormy apples. One bad apple ruins the bunch, and in the online services game there are about forty "wormy apples" for every "good apple".
Long story short: I HATE SPAM. So this story from the Washington Post was sweet, sweet music to my ears (click here to read). McColo, the web host that's been a mighty fortress to all kinds of companies selling cheap Canadian mood stabilizers, has been shut down for all kinds of violations. McColo was essentially the Web's "red light district", offering all kinds of unsavory mess to people who just wanted to read their email.
And when they got shut down, the article goes on to say, SPAM all over the world started to disappear. An excerpt from the article:
"Immediately after McColo was unplugged, security companies charted a precipitous drop in spam volumes worldwide. E-mail security firm IronPort said spam levels fell by roughly 66 percent as of Tuesday evening." - Brian Krebs for WaPo
Ahh, sweet victory.
Why a victory? Well, for one, people can breathe a little easier knowing that whatever mail they get they asked to get. Two, this makes email a place to communicate again, instead of just a chore to take care of at work. And doesn't it make you feel good when you open your mailbox and your SPAM folder says "0 messages"?
It's nice to know that, sometimes, people get what's coming to them. After polluting the web with message after message of nothing useful, McColo is out of the game.
Which is good for us. And bad for the future.
SPAM is like a horror movie villain...just ask Rich Koman at ZDnet (click here to read). Every time you think they're dead...BOO! Sequel. But in the sequel they kill it for good...BOO! Trilogy. Pretty soon it's "Nightmare on SPAM street XVII: This time it's about Botox!"
And for every McColo knocked down, there's someone new setting up. There's some new corner of the Internet yet to be uncovered. There's a place in Europe where nobody asks questions.
But we take a victory when we can get it. And how can you make SPAM history?
Let's walk through this in a simple way:
Know what's SPAM and what isn't - As we've said before, SPAM is email you get when you have no pre-existing relationship with the sender. If you gave your email address to a guy at GAP in the mall, you might get an email with GAP coupons. He's got a right to send you email because you have a relationship with him. If you don't want to get more emails, he has to provide a link on the email he sent you with unsubscribe information. Click that link and follow the steps. If he fails to hold up his end and provide you with a way to unsubscribe, THEN you can start the ruckus. But don't mark a business email as SPAM just because you've had a bad day. Going back to our apple analogy: If you want an apple, buy an apple. Learn the apple guy's name, fine, he's happy and your happy. But if he gives you an apple you don't want, feel free to hand it back to him and not spend any money. Don't just throw it in the street (i.e., trash folder) and CERTAINLY don't cry worm (SPAM) if there is none.
Protect yourself - More and more email clients are coming with spam catchers these days. Find one that has a working SPAM protocol and stick with it. See, too, if you can forward in your other emails from other accounts and make life easy.
If something is SPAM, report it...especially if it's illegal - One of the things that got McColo in trouble was the fact that they were hosting child pornography on their servers. If someone sends you something illegal, report them to the proper authorities. Your small act of outrage might shut down another company like McColo and put an end to vile criminal acts.
So, go forth and send your emails! Click on some info from your favorite business! Talk to your friends again! It's high time your email started being something you enjoy reading, not something you just have to deal with.
Gen-Y's using the Internet all the time (and handing ME the bill)!
by Greg Crandell
Read a little article from eMarketer (click here) about Gen-Y's affinity for the internet. I wondered if this was one of those "Duh of the Week" things Ron likes to talk about (I think their first award was just given away today over at CUSoapbox.com). And then I looked at the charts that the article showed that said Gen-Y kids are using mobile communication 30% more than folks my age.
I suppose that's just a difference in generations. They have technology now that we just didn't have/need/want when I was their age. And they have parents who, for whatever reason, set them up with it. Read this whitepaper for more information (click here for PDF). Don't get me wrong, iPhones are sweet little pieces of machinery. They can tell you songs you're listening to and find you a sushi restaurant and let you watch Gone with the Wind simultaneously, if you're into that sort of thing. But they're also pricey. So much so that some people use the iPhone as a replacement for home phones, internet service and personal computers (read the ComputerWorld article for more info). The fact that poverty is supporting 3G network growth is astonishing to me, but hey...stranger things have happened, I suppose.
But back to young people using the Internet between 80 and 90 percent of the time. What's to be said about that? Is it better for kids to be Twittering and Googling and Flickring and Tumblring and...anything-else-ing all day? Should they be made to pay for it on their lonesome? Is there any way to do it?
I welcome a solution in our "comments" section, if you've got one.
Oh, it's on! What you thought was happening was happening after all
by Ron Daly
I thought I was seeing double (or triple, actually) when I read through the major news websites this morning. New York Times, CNN, MSNBC - all three had stories labeled "It's Official", followed by a stinger about how a recession is actually happening (click here, here, and here for each of the respective news sources' stories on the issue).
So I guess my question is this: does it matter that it's been made "official" at this point? Will suddenly admitting the recession has set in make it better? Will it make it easier to deal with?
Black Friday sales were okay, according to this story from International Herald Tribune, albeit not as high as last year. But last year, at this point and time, people were still ignorant of a looming recession and the housing crisis. Credit cards were flowing and so were sub-prime mortgages. As the article above also points out, this year will have a shorter holiday buying season.
If you can figure out what happens next, feel free to leave a comment.
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Side note: Our last post was our 50th post! Here's to those and many more to come!
