Social Marketing Issues

When people talk about the basic elements of a successful email marketing campaign, there are a lot of facets to consider—responsive design, relevant messaging, personalization, pertinent send time, and beyond. But one facet of a successful email campaign that many marketers regrettably overlook is deliverability. After all, no matter how great the email, if it doesn’t reach the inbox, it can’t be effective.

Which brings us to Sky Angel.

Sky Angel came to ExactTarget in 2007 after experiencing deliverability issues sending emails from their internal servers. As a faith and family television...

The human race has used storytelling to persuade, share our history, and convey information for the entire length of our existence—since before the written word came about.

When you consider the breadth of companies whose profits depend on storytelling, you see that this hasn’t changed in 2013: movies are more popular than ever. YouTube reached the one-billion-monthly-users milestone in March of this year. (By comparison, Twitter has 200 million monthly active users) And though digital formats are eating into the profits of traditional books, the reading industry as a whole is stronger...

Twitter is practically everywhere when it comes to entertainment--in music, on TV, in the film industry, and more. But how is social making an impact in the tourism industry? On a recent excursion to Las Vegas, I found myself checking into the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino, and staring at something that I've rarely seen in hotels and similar establishments. It was a giant-screen TV positioned behind the check-in desk that presented, in real-time, all interactions with the @MGMGrand Twitter handle. This does a couple different things for the hotel brand:

• Guests are immediately struck by the steps...

As the new senior marketing manager for ExactTarget’s mobile and social products, I tend to be doing a lot of things for the first time lately – like attending the South by Southwest Interactive Festival in Austin.

I don’t need to tell anyone reading this what an impressive gathering SXSW is, or how excited I am about going. The opportunity to meet other people in the industry and exchange ideas and best practices among them is very exciting. And the multitude of things to see and do is mindboggling for a rookie attendee! I have been studying maps, reviewing sessions, and trying to decide which...

When it comes to the job search, social media has almost become self-destructive. With younger and younger generations adapting to technology and social media faster and faster, digital footprints are being created at younger and younger ages.

Last weekend, ExactTarget had the opportunity to sponsor and attend the 2013 Doster Leadership Conference, a student-run event which connects 100 top student leaders from the Krannert School of Management (Purdue University) with corporate representatives for a weekend-long leadership conference in Indianapolis.

The event's hosts had the foresight to...

Do you remember every business that has a stand in your local food market? How about every conversation you had at a networking meeting? What about all of the restaurants on the last street you drove on?

The law of diminishing returns is one brands know very well. You have to work for your customers’ attention, and you have to work even harder to retain it. Retention is a key differentiator that can be built using social media.

"Most big brands are still using Twitter as a publishing channel rather than an engagement channel," says Saif Ajani, Sling Digital’s co-founder. Do you hear that? It’s...

"We record anything, anywhere, anytime.” - Sam Phillips

Way back when in the year of 1950, Sam Phillips created a platform for what would become the foundation of American rock and roll. Sam Phillips founded Sun Records, a recording studio in Memphis, Tennessee. Phillips not only discovered Elvis Presley, he also helped launched the career of many of the most important artists in music history: Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Howlin’ Wolf, just to name a few.

Back in 1950, there were far fewer channels to reach customers: television was a luxury that few could afford, only 10% of homes had a...

Millions of viewers to Sunday's NFL playoff broadcasts were given the rare treat of witnessing a revolution in the film industry's use of social media promotions. A 30-second spot for Broken City, the upcoming film starring Mark Wahlberg and Russell Crowe, used a tactic rarely seen by audiences up to that point. Instead of splicing intriguing one-liners and brief action scenes with quotes and ratings from industry critics, tweets from sneak preview audiences were used. Gone are the days of "Entertainment Weekly gives it 4 stars," and in is the era of "@emmadonnachie thinks Mark Wahlberg is...

In addition to writing here on the ExactTarget blog, the good folks over at MediaPost let me wax poetic about travel marketing on a monthly basis. This month, in an article called The Social Photo Wars and You, I tackled a subject that warrants a bit more analysis--especially after this week's hubbub over Instagram's revised terms of service. The subject at issue is the battle royale brewing between Facebook/Instagram and Twitter over digital photographs.

Why digital photographs? Why now? Well, to answer those questions, I give you the words of legendary Scottish rock n' roll philosopher, Rod...

In its “Online Holiday Shopping Forecast and Trends” issued in September, eMarketer predicted that 25 percent of e-commerce sales will happen during the 2012 holiday season.

Without question, retailers are using traditional advertising tactics including radio and television commercials, direct mail and print ads to drive customers to stores. And many will use social media, online video, and in-store promotions.  But the biggest catalyst for holiday sales this year will be mobile.

New research Prosper Mobile Insights reveals why mobile devices are fueling holiday retail sales:

• 66 percent of...

Did you know that there was a vote to address Facebook’s data usage policies? If this is news to you, you aren’t alone. Less than 1 percent of Facebook’s billion users actually voted on this hot issue, although Chief Privacy Officer of Policy, Erin Egan, argues that they did what they could to drive user participation through email notifications and posts on their governance page.

The bottom line? Indeed, changes were made and there are a few important items to note for both users and marketers:

1. Perhaps the most hotly contested, Facebook removed the privacy option to hide oneself from the...

This is the true story of seven marketers already living in Atlanta who work together on current marketing issues. Find out what happens when people stop sending messages and start having conversations! The Marketing World: Atlanta!

When the 3sixty Live Atlanta Community gets together, it is less of a social forum and more of a mini conference. The food, presentations, and networking are just on a smaller scale. The 3sixty Live Atlanta Community gains a competitive edge during their bi-monthly meetings when they discuss, share, and learn about each other's marketing challenges and...

One of the more common issues that we deal with when helping clients who have been hit with a Spamhaus SBL listing is getting rid of spam trap addresses. These addresses are email addresses that are not actually owned by a person (and in fact, may never have been owned by someone). Instead, they only exist to receive email that the owner (Spamhaus, in this case) considers to be spam.

The great problem of spam trap removal is that no one knows which addresses on a list are actually spam traps. Thus, it is impossible to say which addresses must be removed. The owners of the spam traps will not...

Mark Cuban has made a living innovating. His net worth is $2.3B and he is number 206 on Forbes 400 Richest Americans. The serial entrepreneur co-founded Broadcast.com which was sold to Yahoo! for $5.7B in 1999. Cuban parlayed that success into the ownership of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks.

Lately though, his social media marketing tactics have drawn a lot of attention within the sports industry.  

Cuban, among others, has an issue with Facebook’s EdgeRank algorithm. In more basic terms, he does not feel it is fair that Facebook charges the Dallas Mavericks money to better target and reach all of...

The NFL is struggling to entice the consumer. Hard to believe, right? More like impossible to believe. In fact, the NFL is actually more profitable and popular now than ever before.

According to USA Today and The Boston Globe, the NFL was responsible for 23 of the 25 most-watched telecasts in the fall of the 2011-12 season. Want more? How about the record-setting nine-year television deal with Fox, CBS, and NBC worth $3.1 billion annually that Roger Goodell and company signed last December.

Clearly the NFL is paying the bills.

However, consumption of the NFL has changed, and with this change...

We recently sat down with Adam Schoenfeld the CEO of Simply Measured, a measurement and reporting solution that aggregates social media data.

We believe social media engagement is crucial for brands - and just as important is listening and monitoring.   Elizabeth Morgan from Visible Technologies and I sat down for a quick chat. 

SM: So what exactly is Visible?
EM: Visible is the leader in social media monitoring, analytics, and services for enterprises globally. Visible’s technology and expertise helps businesses analyze social media conversations to better understand consumer preferences, market dynamics, competitive strengths and weaknesses, and other information critical to a company’s reputation and brands.
 

SM: We have a lot of...

Can you believe it? There are actually FAKE LIKES and spammers on Facebook? This is crazy town. I digress. I hope this isn't news to anyone in the marketing world. We have been dealing with this issues for years.

Let's setup some context. I happened across this story from BBC that reported "Facebook deleting fake "likes'; independent data suggests." The findings are based on research released by Pagedata, an independent Facebook page metrics and trends website. According to the site, many of Facebook's more "liked" pages suffered a major drop in number on Wednesday of last week. 

According to...

The email marketing scene is more competitive than ever, especially for retailers. So how do you cut through the clutter and make your messages stand out in the inbox? For many, this means blasting promotional content or coupons to their subscriber base—sometimes daily. The problem with this approach is that many marketers begin down this path only to later realize that their messages don’t align with their overall marketing goals, and lack relevance or personalization—generating subscriber fatigue, deliverability issues, and a general lack of ongoing engagement.

The success of a promotional...

I'm really pumped for Connections 2012!

I just returned from the Social Media Insider Summit in Tahoe and had the opportunity to get to know, I mean REALLY know more ExactTarget customers. Every time I attend an event, I learn more about how to make our products better and how to help our customers become more successful. Here are a few of the reasons I love our customers:

1. Love to Learn. By and large, the digital and interactive marketers I meet are juggling a lot, learning new stuff and always thinking of ways to make their jobs more enjoyable. We produce a lot of great data at ExactTarget...