Tonight was the 52nd Annual Grammy Awards and for the most part it was pretty good- in fact, I’m still watching it while I’m writing this post. In the middle of the broadcast, they decided to honor legendary King of Pop Michael Jackson for his outstanding work with a stunning tribute by Celine Dion, Jennifer Hudson, Smokey Robinson, Usher and many others. But while this happened and was meant to be something more like a memorial and pay honor to the fallen celebrity/entertainer, one thing that seemed to distract from this conversation was something simple: who told the public that this performance would be in 3D?

In doing a search using Bing, I found out that apparently there was some effort to tell the public that part of the Grammy’s, specifically the Michael Jackson tribute, was going to be in 3D, but probably for most of the people watching it around the world, we didn’t get the memo. And while it was only the portion of the performance that was video, one thing that you would notice is that the picture wasn’t sharp when the cameras panned on the entertainers themselves. I think it was great to see some contribution by Avatar director James Cameron, but frankly, your effort was buried under the conversation which has become a big fail on behalf of CBS and the Grammys.

Just look at the different conversations happening just by looking at Twitter tonight after the performance. In fact, here’s one that I found quite appropriate for this moment:

Don’t get me wrong, I think the tribute was fitting, but when you’re going to have something unique in a performance or product, then please tell your audience ahead of time. It was great to see the stars and musicians at the Grammy’s wearing their own 3D glasses, but did you know that they were available at Target stores for a price?

This is something that companies should account for when they’re launching a product or new opportunity. The message itself has been lost to the people that you’re trying to attract. On point, you’re promoting environmental awareness with an all-star group of performers and even bring out Michael Jackson’s kids to accept the award. It should be a heart-felt touching moment, yes? But unfortunately, the people online are not talking about your product/objective/goal. We’re talking about your flaws.

Did you watch the Grammy’s? What did you think about the Michael Jackson tribute? How was your experience with the 3D glasses?

This is a cross-blog post from Network Solution’s Solutions Are Power website that I guest wrote. Originally posted on SolutionsArePower.com on January 4, 2010.

I’ve now spent a whole year here on the West Coast and have made a lot of new friends and connections…but there are some that really stand out and I’d like to share with you these individuals who either blog, tweet, vlog, podcast, lecture, etc online and can teach us all a good valuable lesson on how to succeed in doing business online. These are all people here on the West Coast – some that you may know or some that you don’t. I suppose it’s something more like Twitter’s #FollowFriday, but I’d like to think that there is more meaning behind this selection because you’re not following them because of interesting tweets, but they’ve done something remarkable for business.

Brian Solis

We start off the list with someone who I’ve come to really admire: Brian Solis. He’s the principal at one of Silicon Valley’s premiere PR agencies, FutureWorks PR, and is the co-author of Now Is Gone and Putting the Public Back in Public Relations which I think has been a great book as it relates to using social media to reach out to your audience and community. A sought-after speaker, Solis has contributed to Twitter’s #prchat and also has appeared on panels at Blogworld, the Society of New Communication Research’s NewComm Forum, South by Southwest, and many others. You can find Solis usually at any of the major conferences and is very personable and approachable. His work is beyond reproach and his insights on his blog – note that he doesn’t talk all the time about Twitter or Facebook, but much more conceptual topics relating to communications and social media, have landed him on the AdAge Power 150 rankings.

Ben Parr

Ben Parr is probably better known as an editor of one of the Internet’s most popular blog, Mashable. He’s covered many of the latest news and was the only reporter on Facebook’s campus during the highly-desired Facebook vanity URL “land grab”. As one of the editors of Mashable, Parr’s job is to report on some of the latest developments happening out of the social media scene – whether that’s a Blackberry outage, Twitter getting hacked, RockYou being compromised, or perhaps the Muppet’s singing “Bohemian Rhapsody”. As a self-described entrepreneur, Parr is usually on the scene of most major events and reports back some of the cool things that have the potential to take the social media world by storm – or maybe some that are just duds.

Jeremy Toeman

I work for Jeremy Toeman (disclosure). But he knows what he’s talking about. As the founder of Stage Two, Toeman has worked with companies to help them figure out the right strategy to launch their product and understands the right approach towards reaching influencers across a variety of media. He puts an emphasis on the relationship over blind pitching – it’s never a random message or “spray and pray” mentality. Instead, he encourages his team and others to build connections and friendships that make it easier to have that important conversation. Toeman is also an experienced speaker talking about technology and social media, having spoken at Dealmaker Media’s Under The Radar conference multiple times, 140tc Twitter conference, at the fbFund, CommunityNext, and many others.

Tony Hsieh

I first met Tony Hsieh at South by Southwest when he gave his keynote that really captivated me. As the CEO of Zappos.com, Hsieh has instilled a new sense of customer service on the community – putting customers first and their satisfaction is paramount. He has been the subject of news broadcasts, blogs, and probably interviewed countless times. His influence on customer service is probably a really good model to follow. But don’t just take my word for it…here’s an interview that Hsieh did with the UK’s Channel 9 Business Sunday program:

Stefan Weitz

Earlier this year, a surprise new search engine emerged from the ashes to take on the industry’s global giant, Google. That “phoenix” turned out to be Bing and was created by Microsoft. Leading that charge was Stefan Weitz and his Bing team helped change the way that we look at search engines. The premise here was that when people searched for things online, they wanted to avoid the noise and get to what they really wanted – often needing help in making a decision. So Weitz and his team went to work in changing the way business was done and Bing now is more contextual than its predecessor Live Search and shows much more relevancy. As it relates to social media, Weitz has led his team to force Google to change the way they view the real-time stream. Bing was the first major search engine to display Twitter results right in the results page and is continually growing by releasing mobile applications for all major platforms like the Blackberry, iPhone and Android phones. Granted that there’s still a long way to go before Bing can topple Google, but they are slowing increasing their reach. But Weitz is leading the way.

Krystyl Baldwin

Krystyl Baldwin has done a lot for the community and is a big influencer, both with a large network of followers and people she knows, but also a big heart. As one of the organizers of the 2009 San Francisco Twestival, she has worked to gather sponsors, secure a venue and do so much to help raise money to benefit Operation: Smile. But aside from that, she has helped to promote other events like the San Francisco Music Tech Summit, SNAP Summit and is also a consultant helping to promote startups like Zannel.

Chris Heuer/Kristie Wells

When you say social media, you would be remiss to not talk about these two people: Chris Heuer & Kristie Wells. As the founders of Social Media Club, both Heuer and Wells are in the trenches of social media. They are constantly putting together events relating to the issues plaguing the industry, whether it’s the FTC’s new policy on disclosure or case studies on successful startups, and if you want to know who to reach in social media or find a major champion, then these are your people.

Drew Olanoff

This year is probably bittersweet for some people. I think it might be really bad for Drew Olanoff…or was it? You see, earlier this year, Olanoff was diagnosed with cancer, but the thing is that he didn’t take it lying down. Instead, he created a movement called “Blame Drew’s Cancer” where you could use any means to blame things on his cancer. Whether it was Twitter, Facebook or any social network, it all got back to Drew and he drew (no pun intended) strength from that to withstand this terrible disease and fight back. Now in the closing of 2009, he is now cancer-free. But that hasn’t stopped him in his pursuit to “kick cancer’s ass”. He’s teamed up with the Livestrong team to help raise money for cancer research and has auctioned off his Twitter name (@drew) to the highest bidder – with the money going to Livestrong. That winner was TV’s Drew Carey who has recently upped his ante by saying that if the combined number of followers for Livestrong and Drew Carey reach 1 million, he will personally donate $1 million towards fighting cancer. So when you talk about social media for social good…you tell me who has done better in 2009 in fighting the war against this disease?

Jeremiah Owyang

Jeremiah Owyang has been at the forefront of social media for then past few years. An accomplished speaker, he has been a major resource for information long before his days as a research analyst at famed Forrester Research. Now as one of the partners at Altimeter Group, Owyang travels around the country talking about the next innovations in social media and also works to help clients execute their strategy. And let’s be honest here, it’s probably not all about Twitter and Facebook, but maybe more deep-rooted into other applications. Owyang has also used his blog to help promote and share information with others – both as a job resource and to highlight those that are changing jobs or advancing in their career.

There you have it…a list of people that you should get to know and follow. I’ve had the chance to meet all these people in 2009 and think that they are just a small number of people that really have influence in the industry. Who are some people you think have influenced the social media & marketing industries in 2009?

The last part of a three-part series of email marketing tips that you can do to help improve your direct marketing efficiency. These tips were sent once a week in 2009 by Blue Sky Factory and I’ve chosen to aggregate it here.

1. If your organization sends a monthly newsletter, consider using anchor tags. Anchor tags are links at the top of an email that allow recipients to click through to the desired content within the email.  When a newsletter is full of information, every article is not necessarily relevant to every subscriber.  Using anchor tags will not only save your subscribers time, but can also increase your click-through rate as they eliminate the hassle of having to search the email for articles of interest to your subscribers.
2. Mistakes are bound to happen. They tend to occur more often when you’re rushing.  Whether it’s a misspelled word, an invalid link, or an image that does not render properly, email marketers are human.  This is why it’s critical to plan and schedule your emails ahead of time.  Leave plenty of time to edit, test, and receive feedback from others.  By alleviating last-minute changes, you are more likely to send a flawless email and receive the desired results from your campaign!
3. API stands for “Application Programming Interface”, and is a way for two separate applications to share information (data) across a network.  While it’s meant to be used by programmers, email marketers still need to be familiar with APIs and how they can help your email program. APIs allow you to share information with your email marketing application (for Blue Sky Factory clients that would be Publicaster) in order to streamline any business processes that might have to do with your email program.
4. Promote your email program through social networks. By including an opt-in form on Facebook, alerting Twitter followers of your email communications, and adding opt-in options on your blog posts (like we have at the bottom of this post), you’ll gain more subscribers.  The bonus here is that these people are already interested in what you have to say.  Don’t limit yourself to Twitter, Facebook, and blogging – also try creating a fun video or communicating with your LinkedIn contacts.  Whatever you do, keep your audience in mind, and don’t forget to have a little fun with it!
5. Plan, create, and execute your email newsletter campaign(s) with your audience in mind. The content should be about them, not about you.  It’s important to use your email newsletters to connect with your audience, become a resource for them, and ultimately generate loyalty, retention, and mindshare.  By asking subscribers what they want (try a poll, survey, or simply asking for comments), you’re not only showing them you care, but you’re also gaining valuable feedback.  Use this information to further engage with your audience and build a relationship with them.  Whether your newsletter is weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly, take the opportunity to send timely, targeted, relevant content with your subscribers in mind.
6. A successful email campaign starts from the very beginning (and we mean the very beginning). In order to create a legit email campaign from the start, make sure your opt-in form not only gathers your subscriber’s information, but also: Prompts the subscriber to show affirmative consent to opt-in for future email communication.  Note that a pre-checked box does not meet this standard as it is not asking the subscriber to take any action, thus making it a passive opt-in;  Informs them of the types of email communications you will be sending.  Tell them what they should expect to receive from you; Discloses how their email address will be used.  This is generally explained in a Privacy Policy or Terms & Conditions statement; and Gives different options as to what communications they can opt-in to receive.
7. The email marketing resources out there are endless! From Twitter to LinkedIn groups to in-person events, there are many people just like you talking about email marketing.  So what exactly is this week’s tip?  Dig in!  Not only are other email marketers discussing timely, relevant topics, but so are email service providers and industry groups like the Email Experience Council and the Email Marketers Club.  Keep reading, researching, learning, and most of all, don’t be shy!  Start conversations, ask questions, get involved.  Collaborating with others will make you a better email marketer; you never know what tips you’ll pick up from a blog, newsletter, or conference.  We hope you’re hungry!  Grab your email marketing appetite and dig in.
8. While you need to take the CAN-SPAM Act and your audience seriously, remember that it’s okay to have a little fun with your email campaigns too! Test subject lines or creative with your email service provider’s A/B split test feature, shake up your email copy, and/or experiment with new ways to use email and social media as complementary tools.  There are so many elements to an email marketing campaign, so don’t be afraid to try new things, spice up your campaigns, and take advantage of all that email has to offer your organization!
9. A preheader (also known as snippet text) is the first line of text in your email that is displayed after the subject line. Why is this usually small bit of text at the top of your email so important?  The preheader plays a major role in whether or not someone opens your email.  According to this post from Lisa Harmon in the Email Experience Council blog, a preheader is meant to inform recipients of: who an email is from, what the email is about and what to do with it, and how to view it with images.  While some marketers make their preheader a call-to-action, it’s important for you to test and find out what works best for your campaigns.  Just be sure to make your preheaders eye-catching, interesting, and relevant.  After all, you never have a second chance to make a first impression!
10. Send timely, targeted, relevant emails to subscribers who have asked for them. Email by this mantra and you will have a legit, successful email marketing program.
11. You wouldn’t eat stale bread or drink stale milk, so why send stale email creative? Whether you’ve been sending the same template to your recipients for over a year, your subscriber list is getting smaller or at a standstill, or your call-to-actions aren’t getting any action, your email design may be to blame.  The arrangement of content and the overall aesthetic appeal play a major role in capturing the interest of your recipients.   Have another look at your design, or even better, have a professional look and provide you with feedback.
12. Sign up to receive more tips from Blue Sky Factory.

This is part two of a three-part series where I’m going to be listing part of the 52 tips on what you could do to make sure your email marketing strategy is an effective one. These tips were provided by Blue Sky Factory throughout 2009 when they sent out an email marketing tip once a week. This series is the cultivation of those weekly emails and I thought they might be useful to you.

So now I provide you with some additional tips on email marketing:

1. Use the segmentation tool your email service provider offers. Segmentation allows you to send an email to subscribers who meet certain criteria.  You can target subscribers by a variety of global conditions (e.g. contacts added after a specific date), database conditions (e.g. contacts with the zip code 11111), or even behavioral conditions (e.g. contacts who opened email “Newsletter #1″ and clicked on “Link #2″).  The list can be endless! Collect this information through subscriber preferences, transactional data, subscriber profiles, and opt-in forms, and also listen to your customers and study their responses to build value in the campaigns you send. Campaigns that are personalized and targeted to subscribers are proven to build stronger and longer-lasting relationships with customers.
2. When creating your email’s subject line, try to keep it less than 60 characters. Shorter subject lines tend to garner the best open rates.  If your subject line is on the longer side, make sure the important information is first, as longer subject lines will be truncated by some email clients.  You know your subscribers and what works for them; therefore, the subject line you use will depend on the nature of your company, your audience, and the email you’re sending.   No matter how long your subject line is, don’t forget to test!  Try different options, and use the A/B Split Testing tool your ESP provides.  It may help determine what length is best for your audience.
3. Take advantage of the auto response feature in your email marketing application. The auto response tool allows you to set up an ongoing email campaign based on time or behavior-specific intervals. By automating your email campaigns, you can easily stay in constant communication with your subscribers.  Also, you can ensure that your emails are sent to specific subscribers based on their behavior (i.e. if they already received “Email 1″ they will receive “Email 2″ X days later as a follow up) or based on time (i.e. a news service can send a news update to subscribers at the same time every morning).
4. Send birthday and/or anniversary wishes your subscribers. Be sure to ask for their special dates when collecting information in your opt-in form or subscriber profiles, then you can easily send birthday and anniversary wishes through your ESP’s auto-response feature.  The personalized note will go a long way, and you can always go an extra step and include a coupon or other special offer!
5. “Above the Fold” is commonly defined as the part of an email that is visible to subscribers without them having to scroll to see more. This is also often referred to as the “Preview Pane” area.  It’s important to keep key elements of your email above the fold.  These key elements should include your call-to-action, primary subject matter, logo, pre-header, and if you’re sending a newsletter, your table of contents.  Having your call-to-action above the fold gives your email a higher chance of click-throughs.  If someone has to scroll and search for the call-to-action they may end up closing your email before taking any action at all!
6. It is important to set up and actively monitor role accounts for your email marketing program(s). A role account is an “abuse@” and “postmaster@” email account for the domain you use in your “from” email addresses.  If a subscriber has the need to voice a complaint, they will typically use these role accounts to speak with an authority for that domain.  By monitoring these accounts and being responsive to your subscribers, you should be able to work with them to fix or avoid any future problems.  If this email bounces or is not responded to, you run the risk of your subscribers escalating their complaints to a higher authority.
7. Alt tags are HTML tags that should be added to images in every email. These text-based descriptions will show up in the place of any images that are turned off or not working.  In HTML code, an alt tag looks like this: <img src=”image path” alt=”your alt tag message goes here” />.  Alt tag descriptions should be relevant to the images they are associated with, allowing the recipient to see the purpose of every image, including the links to click through to your website.  By taking a few extra, easy steps in the design process, you will still be able to get your message across – even if recipients can’t see your images!
8. Give subscribers the option to share your email with their social networks like Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook. By including a simple code snippet in your email with your ESP’s “Share With Your Network” (SWYN) tool, subscribers can easily share your email, giving your message the potential to reach thousands more people beyond your database!  After sending your email, reporting metrics will allow you to pinpoint influential subscribers and plan for future campaigns based on this data.  Before using, be sure to test this feature and see what works best for your email campaigns.  Ask yourself, “Is this email share-worthy?  Will subscribers see value in passing it on?” If so, go for it!  Feel free to test out Blue Sky Factory’s SWYN feature on this tip and see how it works!
9. Get to know and fully understand the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003. It is vital to your company’s success that you build and maintain a trust-based relationship with your audience.  One way to protect your reputation and continue to grow relationships through email marketing is to remain fully compliant with the CAN-SPAM Act.  Key requirements include (but aren’t limited to) honoring all “opt-out” requests within 10 days and avoiding misleading subject lines.  By knowing and complying with the Act’s key requirements, you can ensure you’re following email marketing laws and best practices, which will strengthen your marketing campaigns and ultimately benefit your company’s bottom line.
10. The “reply-to” address for your email campaigns should be closely monitored by a member of your team. It is important that email remain a two-way street, and by having a valid reply-to address that is monitored and acted upon, your customers will know you are listening to them.  Don’t make the mistake of allowing the replies to pile up in the inbox and never look at them.  By reading each one and responding to those that need a response, you are showing your subscribers that you value their opinion.  They will appreciate your effort, and it shows a high level of customer service.  Also remember that some recipients will use the reply-to address to unsubscribe from your emails, making it even more important for those messages to be received and acted upon. By not replying to these unsubscribe requests you may be in violation of the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003.
11. For those “emotionally unsubscribed” recipients who have simply started deleting your emails instead of opting out, send a re-engagement email to remind them who you are and why they are receiving your emails. (You can easily create a segmentation to find out who these non-responsive subscribers are.)   It is important to include the benefits of being on your mailing list (what’s in it for them) in the re-engagement email, and be sure to give subscribers the option of re-opting in to receive your emails.  If they have not re-opted in within a predetermined timeframe, they should be removed from the list or moved to a less frequently mailed list, helping you avoid wasted money, time, and effort.
12. Sign up for your competitors’ emails. It will give you insight into what types of emails they send and what they are offering to their subscribers.  This can help you with promotional ideas as well as improvements to your own email campaigns.  By reviewing what your peers are sending, you may also be inspired for an entirely new campaign.  You can borrow and reface their basic ideas while adding your own flair to the emails.  You don’t always need to reinvent the wheel when it comes to sending emails, but please – no plagiarizing!
13. As the old saying goes, “Keep It Simple, Stupid” or K.I.S.S. This often applies to email design.  The more complex your design, the more issues you risk running into when your email renders across multiple platforms.  Email design affects deliverability, so it’s important to build emails for the inbox.  If you’re unsure as to whether your email is optimally designed for deliverability, let a professional review your creative.  They can give you tips that will improve your recipient response rate, deliverability, and the overall effectiveness of your email.  So remember, don’t sacrifice good design, but don’t go overboard either.  Build your emails to be delivered!
14. Well, timing isn’t everything when it comes to your email campaigns, but it’s definitely important. Plan your email deployment around when you expect your target audience to be checking their email.  Many B2C organizations send in the evenings or on the weekends, while B2B organizations typically send on weekday mornings (depending on Eastern or Pacific Time).  Remember, if your emails are sent at an off hour they can get buried in your subscribers’ inboxes, which can cause them to lose relevance and impact due to competing emails.  Don’t know when your target audience is online?  Conduct an A/B split test using several different launch times to see which send time gets the best results.
15. Your email campaign isn’t over once you hit the send button. Take advantage of the reporting tools your ESP provides.  By knowing stats like your email’s unique open rate, which links were clicked, who opened your email, who shared your email with their social networks, and so on, you can make the most of future campaigns.  Learn from what worked and what didn’t work, and use these stats to plan for your next email.  Maybe the time of day you sent your email affected your open rate, or perhaps a certain aspect of your email caused too many subscribers to opt-out.  It’s important to continue to test your email campaigns for the best results, and reporting is a great way to determine what works and what doesn’t, as well as the overall effectiveness of your campaigns.
16. Protect your email list! Question the source of each new addition to your list, and never, ever purchase a list (as most are not permission-based).  Even a small group of “bad” email addresses can ruin your reputation and be detrimental to your email marketing program.  If you are offered a mailing list, imagine how many others it has been offered to as well.  In order to have a successful email program you need to remain in good standing with the ISPs and your subscribers.  Building your list organically, and then protecting it, will benefit your email program tremendously, helping you garner the best results.
17. Relationships are built on trust. Use your email marketing program to create and enhance this trust with your subscribers.  Setting realistic expectations, listening to their wants and needs, and honoring their requests are just a few ways to help further the relationship between you and your subscribers. Try sending an email campaign that doesn’t include a hard sell.  Provide useful content, say happy birthday, or send a “Happy Holidays” email.  This will show your subscribers that you value your relationship and aren’t just looking at the dollar signs.
18. Try incorporating video into your email campaigns! According to Forrester Research’s “As Seen in the Inbox“, adding video to email can be a powerful way to double or triple the clicks on your call-to-action.  You don’t need to get fancy with production – a simple camera and a YouTube/Vimeo/Blip.tv, etc account might be all that you need.  Just be sure your video contributes to your overall campaign objectives, has a true purpose, and benefits your recipients.
19. Have you ever received an email totally customized to your preferences or past purchases and wondered how the sending company did that?  Enter dynamic content. Dynamic content is used to automatically rewrite your email content for each recipient based on the information you have gathered from your subscribers.  This feature is accomplished via specialized HTML code, but most email marketing applications include features that make it easy to do with your emails. Use dynamic content to customize various elements within your email. Taking the extra time to personalize is a great way to avoid coming across as generic, and will help build the relationship between you and your subscribers as they’ll appreciate the personal touch.
20. SMS (short message service), or text messaging, is ideal for communicating with your audience while on the move because it’s immediate, direct, and two-way. When used together, SMS and your existing email marketing campaigns can prove to be a powerful combination.  Use text messaging to promote email opt-in, and use email to create awareness about your new SMS channel.  Other ways SMS can complement your email marketing efforts are by creating brand awareness, generating leads, and serving as a new communication channel.