The Caffeinated Blog

More Must-Read Books: Email Marketing

After I posted 31 Must-Read Online Marketing and Social Media Books, which was cultivated from recommendations made to me through LinkedIn groups, I kept receiving more recommendations.  I couldn't not write about those, because there are so many different books out there that work for different folks.

Today I have 4 more books about email marketing that were recommended to me - and perhaps they'll work for you:

Permission Based Email Marketing that Works by Kim MacPherson

Email Marketing By the Numbers: How to Use the World's Greatest Marketing Tool to Take Any Organization to the Next Level by Chris Baggott

The Complete Guide to E-mail Marketing: How to Create Successful, Spam-free Campaigns to Reach Your Target Audience and Increase Sales by Bruce Brown

The Practical Guide to Email Marketing: Strategies and Tactics for Inbox Success by Jordan Ayan

What email marketing books do you recommend?

 

31 Must-Read Online Marketing and Social Media Books

One of my resolutions for 2009 was to read more.  Not that I don't read enough online, with my 40+ blog subscriptions; but I wanted to start reading more interesting books and then sharing the information I learned with all of you.  So, I've recently started reading Get Content. Get Customers by Newt Barrett and Joe Pulizzi, and I added the Reading List app to my LinkedIn profile in order to start the sharing my reading list with my network.

This got me to thinking about books that other online marketers, PR/communications specialists, and business owners have read and would recommend - so I asked them.  I posted the following question in various marketing and social media groups of which I'm a member on LinkedIn:

What marketing, communications, and social media books are you reading or do you recommend?

I've seen lots of books come out about online marketing and communications in a web 2.0 world, and I just wanted to get your recommendations. What books about this subject are you currently reading, or what would you recommend (for new or experienced marketers, or small business owners)?

The response was great - we're not talking hundreds of responses; but there were about 30 different people who recommended a total of 31 books that they deem must-read for marketers.

So, in no particular order (and grouped for your convenience), here are those 31 books:

General Online Marketing and Communications

Tribes by Seth Godin
Tuned In by Craig Stull, Phil Myers and David Meerman Scott
Rules to Break and Laws to Follow by Don Peppers and Martha Rogers
Join the Conversation by Joseph Jaffe
How to Say It: Marketing with New Media by Lena Claxton and Alison Woo
Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath
Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
Crossing the Chasm by Geoffrey A. Moore
Click Here to Order by Joel Comm
Web 2.0 and beyond: Understanding the new online business models, trends, and technologies by Tom Funk
Word of Mouth Marketing by Andy Sernovitz
Landing Page Optimization: The Definitive Guide to Testing and Tuning for Conversions by Tim Ash
Web Analytics: An Hour a Day by Avinash Kaushik
Radically Transparent: Monitoring and Managing Reputations Online by Andy Beal and Judy Strauss
BUY-OLOGY by Martin Lindstrom

Email Marketing

Sign Me Up: A Marketer's Guide to Email Newlsetters that Build Relationships and Boost Sales by by Matt Blumberg, Tami Forman, and Stephanie A. Miller
Email Marketing: An Hour a Day by Jeanniey Mullen, David Daniels, and David Gilmour
Permission Marketing: Turning Strangers Into Friends And Friends Into Customers by Seth Godin

Social Media

The New Rules of Marketing and PR by David Meerman Scott (this one was a particularly popular recommendation)
Groundswell by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff
Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing without Organizations by Clay Shirky
Click: What Millions of People are Doing Online and Why it Matters by Bill Tancer
Web 2.0: A Strategy Guide by Amy Shuen
The New Influencers: A Marketer's Guide to the New Social Media by Paul Gillin
Naked Conversations: How Blogs are Changing the Way Businesses Talk with Customers by Robert Scoble and Shel Israel
Crowdsourcing: Why the Power of the Crowd Is Driving the Future of Business by Jeff Howe
Marketing to the Social Web by Larry Weber
Wikinomics by Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams
Social Media Marketing: An Hour A Day by Dave Evans

Content Marketing

Killer Web Content: Make the Sale, Deliver the Service, Build the Brand by Gerry McGovern
Get Content. Get Customers. by Newt Barrett and Joe Pulizzi

What books are on your must-read list?

Are You Cross-Promoting Your Social Media Pages?

So, you've started posting on your blog (or have been posting for some time), and you've set up the Twitter account, the Facebook profile (and fan page), the LinkedIn profile, the Slideshare page, and even started a Squidoo lens.  Time to start watching the reader, followers, and connections start rolling in.

Not quite.  Do people even know you're on all of these sites?  Further more, do your various network friends know you have a blog?

A social media strategy consisting of all these pages set up on all of these sites is a fragmented strategy - and cross-promotion is the glue with which you can put all the pieces together. 

Cross-promotion in social media is not difficult at all.  Many social media sites have developed easy ways for you to promote your presence on other sites through links, apps, and plugins.  They've provided you with the tools - all you have to do is use them.

Here are a few social media cross-promotion ideas to help you get started:

• Promotion on your blog.  This should be a no-brainer.  Make it easy for your blog readers to connect with you on other social media sites by providing visible links directly to your various profiles (Follow Me on Twitter, Connect With Me on LinkedIn, etc.).  Many sites have ready-made badges you can use for this purpose.
• Promotion on Facebook.  Facebook has a variety of apps so you can plug in your blog feed, Twitter stream, Slideshare presentations, and Flickr photos to your profile or business page.  Even easier than that, you can add a Posted Items box to your profile page with links to your blog and other social media pages (like your Twitter page and your Squidoo lens).
• Promotion on LinkedIn.  Again, apps save the day!  Add your blog feed, Twitter feed, and Slideshare presentations to your LinkedIn profile using LinkedIn applications.
• Promotion on Squidoo.  If you have a Squidoo lens, there are endless ways you can add links to your website, blog, and other social media profiles.  You can also add modules for your videos, photos, and Slideshare presentations.  Soon (according to Squidoo), you'll be able to connect your lens with your Facebook page via Facebook Connect.

I'm sure there are a hundred different ways to cross-promote your social media pages, especially from other sites not mentioned here (FriendFeed, Plaxo, Ning communities).  These ideas are just the tip of the iceberg - and I'm sure you'll come up with way more!

All I Want for Christmas: Cool Books for the Online Marketer in Your Life

Do you have an online marketer or "web 2.0-head" in your life, and no clue what to get that person for Christmas?  Have you been sitting up nights agonizing over what to buy for your favorite blogger (who may or may not be me...hey, just sayin')? 

Have no fear, Caffeinated readers, I've done the wishlisting for you!  Here are 7 books on my holiday wishlist, guaranteed to be perfect gifts for your social media geek, blogger, or online marketer.  And all are under $20 too!

Whole Lotta Link Love Friday, October 24

Lots of great stuff to post in this week's edition of Whole Lotta Link Love, so I'll get right to it:

• First and foremost, today is my mom's birthday (happy birthday, Mom!).  My parents run an antique business selling a variety of unique collectibles. If you love antiques, check out their store on Ruby Lane called The Antique Chasers (and tell 'em Kari sent you - I don't know if you'll get a discount, but they'll get a kick out of you mentioning that!).
• When developing content, too many companies focus solely on higher search rankings without looking at the bigger customer engagement picture.  The result: unreadable, "ground chuck" copy.  Kim Cornwall Malseed at MarCom Ink talks about how ground chuck cannot be made into filet mignon when it comes to content.
• How would you teach someone about social media and how to use it?  Shannon Paul offers some great ideas.
• Matt Ambrose at The Copywriter's Crucible asks the important question: Are you a copywriter, PR writer or brand journalist?
• I read this blog post at Micro Persuasion about how RSS adoption is at 11%. It discussed how the key to RSS adoption is education - and I agree wholeheartedly.  Then I read this post at Jim's Marketing Blog that did just that - provide education about the benefits of RSS for companies to pass on to customers.
• Check out this great list of Twitter PR tools, courtesy of Brian Solis.
• Blog "ghosting" - not just a Halloween trick.  Mayra Ruiz-McPherson discusses the trend where companies hire "ghost bloggers" to write their blog posts.  What's your opinion on this phenomenon?
• Finally, AC/DC is distributing their latest music video embedded in an Excel spreadsheet to get past corporate firewalls.  Very clever from both a technical and viral marketing standpoint.

Dealing with Negative Feedback in a Positive Way

Photo credit: kortini

You know that saying "You can please all of the people some of the time and some of the people all of the time, but not all of the people all of the time"?  It couldn't be truer than when it comes to your business.  It's pretty much an inevitability that someone out there in the social webosphere will post negative feedback about your products or brand on a blog, review site, or online forum. 

It's challenging (to say the least) to read that negative stuff about the business you've worked so hard to grow; but that doesn't mean there aren't positive ways to deal with it.  If you've found yourself in this situation, here are some steps to take:

• Acknowledge the issues and decide to tackle them:  Ignoring the feedback will not make it disappear.  You have to realize that there will be detractors of your products or brand, and even negativity can present you with the best opportunity to change and improve.  
• Listen to the feedback: It can be all too easy to read negative feedback and just dismiss it as wrong or irrelevant.  You have to really listen to what is being said in an objective fashion.  Look at it from all sides and get a feel for what the customer wants.
• Don’t go on the offensive/defensive:  Of course you want to defend your company against negative allegations; but getting defensive is not the way to go.  If a customer has a problem with a product or policy, defending it is not going to solve their problem.  Going on the offensive and launching attacks at the customer is not going to work either – that will only make things worse.
• Present solutions:  This is what the customer wants – a solution to their problem.  Once you have listened to what they have to say, think of ways that you can actually help them – whether it’s to give them a refund, discount, or simply escalate their issue so they can get a quicker resolution.  They just want to know that you’re trying to help them.
• Ask for suggestions:  I once got a call from a customer service director at Constant Contact after I posted a question in LinkedIn Answers.  In the question, I was basically asking for recommendations for email marketing vendors because I was having an issue with Constant Contact.  The customer service director found the question, called me, and asked me for suggestions on what I would change to make Constant Contact better.  By taking a similar approach with customers, you're involving them and gaining valuable insight into how you can improve. 

I recommend regularly monitoring your online reputation and scoping out negative feedback.  Many companies have dedicated "brand ambassadors" on staff to manage this task; but most small business owners do not have the resources for this.  While you or your marketing manager could handle this, there are reputation monitoring services you could enlist as well, such as Trackur.

Facebook Offers New "Action Links" for Feed Stories

On the heels of a case study I'm writing about a small business that uses Facebook as a major component of its marketing strategy (which I hope to post tomorrow), Facebook has announced that it's now offering a new feature called "action links". 

Action links are just like they sound: links added to feed stories posted on a profile that call the reader to some kind of action.

This has huge developer potential, as action links can be used for external site promotion.  Imagine if you had a coffee business, and you posted a review of a new varietal your store is carrying along with an action link to buy the coffee on your site.

One question though: will all of these new advertising opportunities Facebook is offering ultimately turn off Facebook users?  Will these action links simply be ignored, or will they actually receive clicks based on the context of the link (a feed story rather than an ad)? 

Business Blogging Strategy Part 3: Sources for Blog Topics

Previously, I posted about forming your business blogging strategy - first about forming a strategy for starting a blog, then about your writing strategy as it relates to getting traffic.  I think what I should have done in between those posts is written about how to find topics to write about.  After all, you can't implement a traffic strategy if you don't know what you're going to write about!

Creativity is extremely important when it comes to writing blog posts.  What you have to realize when you're writing for a blog is that the content needs to have an authoritative edge, as well as a certain tone and style, in order to effectively engage readers.  I think this gives bloggers a lot of latitude for the types of posts they can write - news pieces, opinion pieces and reviews, lists, advice and tips...the list goes on and on.

This means that you have a wealth of sources available for generating topics related to your niche.  Here's a list of sources that I use:

• Blog search engines - search on sites like Technorati, Bloglines, and Google Blog Search to find the latest topics other bloggers in your niche are talking about.  Search using a broader keyword (like "social media" or "digital photography") so you can sift through the results for more specific topics.  Don't limit your results to what was blogged about recently either - if you can find topics that were written about several months (or years) ago, you have the opportunity to write a fresh take on the subject.
• Press releases - search through PRNewswire or PRWeb to find the latest press releases in your industry, then write either a straight news piece or an opinion piece.  Here's an example of a post I wrote in response to a recently released report.
• Twitter - what's the Twitterverse tweeting about?  The people you follow can offer fodder for topics, or you can check out conversations across the Twitterverse using Twitter Search.
• Social bookmarking sites - search sites like StumbleUpon, Digg, Delicious, or niche bookmarking sites to find popular blogs and topics that are being bookmarked.  Take a look at the comments and reviews that are posted as well - these provide valuable insight into the topic or individual post that can play a part as you write your own post.
• Your RSS feed subscriptions - what feeds are you subscribed to?  Check out your favorite feeds for possible topics.
• Online forums and Q&A sites - if someone is asking a question or looking for advice, then you have the opportunity to address that issue through your blog.  This can be especially effective if your business website already has its own online community forum - you can use your blog to answer questions from visitors on a personal level.  Otherwise, look for forums (using a forum search engine like Omgili) in your industry or niche and scope out the questions that seem to be asked often.  Check out Q&A sites like Yedda, Wikianswers, Yahoo! Answers, and LinkedIn Answers as well - you can write a blog post to address the issue, then answer the question on the site with a reference back to the post.
• Newspapers and/or industry pubs - possible topics aren't just found online.  Write your take on an interesting article you read in the paper that morning, or in a favorite magazine or trade pub.
• Life experiences - remember what I said about creativity being important?  Here's where it plays a major part.  Take a look at what is going on around you - at work, at home, on planes, trains, or in automobiles - and think of ways you can relate those experiences to something happening in your business, industry, or niche.  Metaphor can go a long way in blogging.

Do you have a blog?  What are your favorite sources for generating blog post topics?

Whole Lotta Link Love Special Edition: Social Media for the People

The reason I'm calling this week's Whole Lotta Link Love a "Special Edition" is because I've been reading a lot this week about what social media is supposed to be.  As the so-called "experts" in this space, we talk amongst ourselves about the latest tools, apps, and platforms - but what does all that mean to those who use social media just to be...well, social?  It doesn't mean anything unless we relate it all back to them in a way that interests them.  After all, that's why we do what we do.

Photo by temp13rec.

This week's links are all about what I call "Social Media for the People":

1. Chris Brogan wrote this must-read post about how social media experts should "be the bridge" between technology and the real world.
2. You may have read the recent report about how half of social media campaigns will fail.  This post from Jason Baer outlines some reasons why (hint: companies are not spending enough time conversing with their customers)
3. To be successful in social media, it's important to understand why people contribute to it.  This post on Social Media Today offers a more scientific approach to this question.
4. For those who need to translate real world ("traditional") terms into Internet terms, Julie Roads at Writing Roads posted this Internet-Reality Dictionary.
5. Lastly, here's an excellent video that puts social media into a whole new context that everyone loves: 

Add Today's Best Tools to your page

Selling Cookies with Social Media

I love a good challenge, and Chris Brogan tweeted a good one:

"If Oreo cookies wanted a social media engagement to sell more cookies, what would you sell them? Feel free to blog the answer. All for fun."

OK, let's see...how can Oreo sell more cookies using social media?  First of all, here are some great ideas from the Twitterverse:

• @planetrelations: oreo campaign should include a Remember the Milk widget that sets a recurring task about adding cookies to the shopping list.
• @bradatpharma: Oreo avatars. I'd have an opportunity for people to offer new flavours, I'd have a feedback loop for taste testers...
• @NextInstinct: A blog, away from mothership Nabisco, named 'We got milk!' cute pics, dessert recipes, "where'd you dunk?" pic contest, etc

Here are a few of my own ideas:

• Online community competition where photos or videos of Oreo structures can be posted and voted on for great Oreo prizes.
• Oreo recipe exchange community - recipes can be voted on in a Digg-like manner (Dunked?), and community members can share posted recipes via social bookmarking sites.
• Oreo recipe widget with ability to create a grocery list and send to email or a cell phone.
• Christmas: kids can write a letter to Santa and send virtual Oreos and milk to him via Oreo community page (and they could get a "response" from him with a printable coupon for free Oreos).

Any more ideas?  I'm off to buy some Oreos... ;-)