VerticalResponse Email Marketing Blog for Small Business

Blogosphere Facts – Can You Handle the Truth?

Did you know that the earth isn’t just comprised of four hemispheres, but there’s actually a fifth we’re living in? It’s called (cue dramatic music) …the Blogosphere! Did you also know that “blogosphere” is a real term? I’m not even making it up! The term was coined in 1999, as a joke initially, but is now used, in all seriousness, to describe blogs as a connected community or collection of communities.

The blogosphere is an ever-changing and evolving hub and Technorati, a blog search engine directory, has been examining the growth and trends within the blogosphere since 2004. Since then, they’ve been reporting and releasing their findings, which they collect through a series of surveys. The findings may surprise, interest, please or appall you. They reveal who bloggers actually are; what, where, when, why & how successfully they blog, and for the second year, the findings also discuss consumers. To get to the heart of the good stuff, here's a breakdown of interesting facts to note from 2011’s State of the Blogosphere findings:

BLOGGER DEMOGRAPHICS

• 65% of bloggers are ages 18-44; 1/3rd are over 44.

• 59% of bloggers are men (down from 64% in 2010).

• The annual household income of a blogger: $50,000+.
  

• Majority of bloggers are married and half of all bloggers have children.

• 1/4 of bloggers are self-employed, and just less than half are employed full time.

• 1/3 of bloggers have worked for traditional media, with a monthly magazine being the most common form (41%).

• Of the 14% of bloggers who earn a salary for blogging, the average annual amount is $24,086.

• States with highest concentrations of bloggers: California 15%, New York 7% and Texas 6%.

BLOGGER TYPES
 
1. Hobbyists – 61% of bloggers within the blogosphere are blogging “for fun,” and don’t report any income from blogging.
2-3. Professional Part and Full-timers – This group makes up 18% of the blogosphere and are independent bloggers. Most of these bloggers don’t consider blogging their primary source of income and tend to blog about personal musings and technology.
4. Corporate – 8% of the blogosphere. They blog as part of their full-time job, or blog full-time for a company they work for. They primarily talk about technology or business.
5. Entrepreneurs – 13% are entrepreneurs or individuals blogging for a company they own. 



BLOGGER HABITS - WHAT, WHERE, WHEN, WHY & HOW?

• 70% of bloggers write to share expertise, 61% blog to gain professional recognition/personal satisfaction and 52% blog to attract new clients.

• 60% of bloggers blog up to 3 hours a week and 40% blog more than 3 hours a week. Professional full-time bloggers (26%) update their blog at least 3 times per day. Majority of bloggers update their blog 2-3 a week.

• 80% of bloggers have been blogging for at least 2 years.

• 79% describe their blogging style as "sincere," 67% describe their style as "conversational." Professional, Corporates, and Entrepreneurs also describe their style as "expert."

• Wordpress is the most popular blog hosting service among all respondents, used by 51% of them, followed by Blogger (21%) and Blogspot (14%).

BLOGGER MOTIVATON & SUCCESS

• What's the leading metric of success? Among Professionals, Corporates, and Entrepreneurs, they gauge success according to the number of unique visitors they receive. 69% of Hobbyists say that personal satisfaction is a way they measure the success of their blog.

• 54% of bloggers say they’ve made friends through their blog, and have become more involved with their passion areas as a result of blogging.

• More than 60% of Corporate and Entrepreneur bloggers have gained greater visibility in their industry through blogging.

SOCIAL MEDIA

• 82% of bloggers use Twitter, 89% use Facebook.

TRAFFIC & REVENUE

• Across bloggers, Google Analytics is by far the most popular service used to follow blog traffic.
  

• 50% of Professional bloggers receive more than 10,000 views per month.

• Display ads, affiliate marketing links, and search ads are the most common ways bloggers generate revenue from their blogs.

• 60% of Corporate bloggers said they do not have any advertising on their blog.

• Overall traffic drivers to blogs: Twitter, Facebook, and blog tags.

BLOGGER INFLUENCES 

• Number one influence for bloggers regarding the topics they blog about: Other blogs (68%). Second and third most influential for blog topics: Conversations with friends and social media.

CONSUMERS
 
Blogs continue to outpace other social and traditional media in terms of gaining consumers' trust and generating their recommendations/purchases. Almost 40% of consumers now believe blogs are being taken more seriously as a source of information. "Facebook remains somewhat influential, but less so than blogs, and Twitter has seen a drop in influence over the past year."

TAKEAWAY

Now that we know the depths and demographics that make up the blogosphere (if you’d like to dive in further, you can find the full report here), does anything surprise you? One of the most important aspects to note is that 60% of Corporate & Entrepreneur bloggers have gained greater visibility purely from blogging. This means, if you don’t currently have a blog, it’s probably an excellent time to jump on that blog bandwagon (plus, it's pretty fun too!). And, while most of us won’t be living purely off a blogger’s salary alone, the blogosphere as a whole is still strong and striving. Blogs also continuously climb the ranks as a trustworthy reference for consumers.

If blogging charters unfamiliar territory for you, have no fear, there’s a webinar for that! Join us on Wed, January 25^th at 1pm (PST) for Getting Started with Blogging, and soon, you'll be a blogging fool, too (in a good way, promise!).

Related articles:

BlogWorld Expo: Optimize Your Way to Business Blogging Success,

Top 11 Blog Posts of 2011

Posted by: Colleen Corkery

Colleen Corkery is the Lifecycle Marketing Coordinator at VerticalResponse. She writes and reaps about all email-related things. Connect with her on Twitter at @youcollme.

How ModCloth Takes the Social Media Cake

What's wildly successful, unbelievably adorable, and huge on social media? If you said, "cat videos," or "Ryan Gosling," you're absolutely correct, but I'm also talking about ModCloth. I've given kudos to the San Francisco-based indie online retailer before for their catchy promotions, (can we say obsessed?), however, their success doesn't stop there. For the last two consecutive years, ModCloth has experienced an annual growth rate of 600%, and they credit this rapid growth to their customer engagement and interactivity via the ModCloth blog and social networks. With more than 400,000 Facebook 'likes', 64,500 followers on Twitter, and a stream of guest bloggers galore (including Zooey Deschanel), Modcloth is obviously doing something right. So how exactly does ModCloth take the social media cake? Let's dig in…

Playing Games
Everyone loves a contest and ModCloth is queen when it comes to giving things away, especially just for the sake of engagement. A slew of different contests pop up on a regular basis via ModCloth's Facebook page, blog or Twitter account. My personal favorite, which I've mentioned before, is called: "Name it & Win it,” where customers get three chances to name a new featured product. If your 'quirky' product name is chosen, you win said product, and get a feel-good creative kick for being one with the 'punny' ModCloth writers.

Twitter fans also get treated each week with ModCloth's Twitter-specific contest called "I Spy Thursday," in which a close-up photo of a product from the site is posted on Twitter. The 5th tweet to name the product correctly, wins a $25 gift card. There's also a "Book of the Month" giveaway simply for participating in a blog discussion, giveaways for creating a ModCloth wish list, submitting a photo, and the list goes on.

Most recently, ModCloth held a "Make the Cut" contest, in which they asked customers to submit their own fashion designs. The seven winners, decided by Facebook fans, receive $500 in cash; a sample of their design, and their product will then be sold on ModCloth's site. If that isn't customer engagement (and awesome!), I don't know what is!

 

Why it works: People love to play games, win free things and get involved. If you give your fans a chance to do all three, they'll be loyal, loving, and (hopefully) purchasing customers. Creating contests that bring people back to your site, encourage participation in multiple ways on multiple platforms, also opens up the chance to market to potential customers from a variety of playing fields.

That's What I Want
With a core demographic of 18-30 year-old fashion-forward women, ModCloth does a stellar job of involving their customers in the retail-buying scheme of things. One of ModCloth's most engaging campaigns, "Be the Buyer," allows customers to rate clothing they'd like to see sold on the site, make commentary as to why they like/dislike the product, and if their product is chosen, they get an email notifying them that it's available for purchase. ModCloth also takes "Be the Buyer" commentary into consideration and makes improvements to the products based off of the feedback.

Getting to know your customers provides you with invaluable information that not only hones in on the core of your customer, but also allows you to understand how to actually approach/market to them. So, how do you get to know your customers? By asking! And what better place to do so than on social media. ModCloth's 'Social Butterflies' are a social media team entirely dedicated to sending out enticing tweets, asking engaging questions on Facebook, and simply sharing their favorite finds with fans.

Why it works: Listening to your customers is one of, if not, the most important thing a company can do. Customers will tell you what they want, and giving them the opportunity to do so, as well as implementing their feedback into foreseeable action, will resonate with them.  

Now I admit, this may seem like one big ModCloth love-fest (did I mention they also have a pug mascot named Winston? Squeal!), but you have to give props to the started-in-a-dorm-room, rapidly growing company for knowing its audience so well, and how to properly engage them. With all of ModCloth's stunning success, they not only take the social media cake, they get to eat it ... in cute dresses, too.

Related posts:

• It's Not Too Late! Five Ways to Make This a Social Holiday Season
• 9 Ways to Delight Your Facebook Fans Without Giving Away the Farm
• BlogWorld Expo: Want to Resonate with Your Audience? 'Get Real'
• BlogWorld Expo: 10 Steps to Engaging Online Influencers

Posted by: Colleen Corkery

Colleen Corkery is the Lifecycle Marketing Coordinator at VerticalResponse. She writes and reaps about all email-related things. Connect with her on Twitter at @youcollme.

Promos So Fine, They Blow Our Minds

"Oh promos, you’re so fine, you’re so fine, you blow our minds! Hey promos!" - Like a catchy tune, a good promotion has the opportunity to successfully stick in the eyes, ears and mind of an eager or potential customer. In an effort to stand out amongst promotions-gone-wild this season, the holidays pose an excellent opportunity to hone in on our ‘let’s get viral’ skills. Below is a compilation of holiday promotions (and take aways), so catchy and fine, they blew my mind:

1. GapKids: I Want Candy

Do you like shopping? I know you do. Do you have a sweet tooth? Me too! What better way to feed both of these needs than with clothes and candy. This year, GapKids has a sensationally sweet holiday promotion and clothing line appropriately titled “I Want Candy.” Better yet, they’ve brought on Maria Aragon (You know, the little girl who became a YouTube star for covering Lady Gaga’s ‘Born this Way’) to sing and promote the line. Not only am I a sucker for sweets, but Aragon’s cover and all-girl rocker video for the song, “I Want Candy” is too cute to boot. Granted, I don’t even have children, but the promo hit a sweet spot, so I walked into Gap and headed to the kids section to check out the goods. And guess what? Not only were they selling cute clothes, but actual candy! You can bet your candy canes I bought a bag and it was delicious – Impressive! Way to go GapKids, I’m buying your products and I don’t even have a kid!

GapKids "I Want Candy" Video feat. Maria Aragon:

Take-away: Shine the spotlight on someone else. Featuring or repurposing content from others, whether it be a local star, someone unknown, or even a competitor, not only develops and displays professional camaraderie, but also gives you the opportunity to be exposed to new audiences brought in from your guest stars. Always make sure, however, to give credit where it’s due.

 

2. ModCloth: Name it & Win it 

Speaking of sugar and spice and promos that're oh-so nice, ModCloth, a retro online clothing retailer, has a cult fan following, and for a reason. Not only do they provide a constant stream of desirable products, they do an excellent job of engaging their customers in just about every promo they put on. One of my favorite’s featured on ModCloth’s blog is a contest called “Name it & Win it.” Every product sold on MothCloth’s website has a cheeky, ‘punny’ or cheesy name to it. In this ‘Cyber Monday’ edition of "Name it & Win it," Modcloth leaves it up to their customers to come up with a name for a featured product...in this case, a dress. The winner gets bragging rights for naming a permanent product on the site AND they get the dress! That’s not only interactive, but also engaging, and it promotes multiple site viewership. That's winning x2. Yahoo!

Take-away: Find ways to engage and interact with your audience. This may be through contests, giveaways, surveys, or even simple questions posed to your customers via blog/Facebook/Twitter, etc. Interaction with your customers encourages repeat visits and will most likely attract new customers to join in on the fun. Check out this recorded webinar, Social Media Listening and Engaging for more ideas.

   

3. Amazon.com: 25 Days of Free

“Free” and “music” are two of my all-time favorite words. When both of these words/worlds collide, I swear I hear angels singing, for free, of course. With the rise of music streaming services like Spotify, that encourage “borrowing” music vs. downloading it illegally (you know who you are), we’re all getting into the honest & sharing spirit. Amazon.com takes it one step further with their promotion, "25 Days of Free" where they're just giving music to you, for free! Going on now, and every day through Christmas, Amazon will unveil a holiday song to download for free for a limited time. It’s like a zero calorie advent calendar that goes straight to your ears!

Take away: Giving gifts to your customers for free, without any hidden catches, is not only appreciated, but will be remembered. And, when a customer does want to purchase a product, they’ll most certainly come back to you.

 

4. Starbucks.com: 12 Daily Offers

Starbucks fans are hardcore, and I can see why. Not only does Starbucks brew up some of the strongest coffee in the industry, but they put a lot of thought and effort into their promotions, even if they only last 12 days. From December 1-12th, Starbucks puts a new gift idea on sale for one day, in their "12 Daily Offers" promotion. It’s a gift guide & sale in one! There’s an animated site made specifically for the promotion displaying a lit up tree, falling snowflakes and carolers that transport me into a winter wonderland of coffee and hot deals. Starbucks run anyone?

Take-away: Offer a gift guide, a sale, and a sense of urgency. Some people need all the help they can get when it comes to buying gifts. Providing your customers with friendly ideas via gift guide along with a deal will ease their sense of gift-giving panic. Providing a limited time on your sale also urges customers to purchase sooner than later. The amount of effort you put into something, such as a sale, will also resonate with your audience, no matter how big or small the deal.

 

5. Kate Spade New York: Give Colorfully

Kate Spade is living in color. The 2011 Holiday campaign and collection “Give Colorfully” displays handbags, jewelry, clothing and more in splashes of color galore. To promote the campaign, their blog explodes with color and colorful topics, short, sweet and visually appealing videos, and more. There’s even an interactive gift guide on the site that allows you to virtually ‘unwrap’ goodies by scrolling your mouse over colorfully wrapped packages. The campaign, colors, design, videos, creativity and interactivity on the site are not only aesthetically pleasing, but fun to get lost in, more so than I should probably admit, but it was for research right?!

Take-away: Never underestimate the power of a clean, simple, colorful design. This concept doesn’t just apply to websites, but to your email campaigns as well. Eliminate clutter, keep it simple, and consider white space.

6. UrbanOutfitters.com: Take it Off

When you hear the phrase “take it off” are you thinking of savings? Sure, me too. Well, whatever your mind may be making up, UrbanOutfitters.com sure did a great job of grabbing my attention. In a ‘quickie’ of an email, I received the promo code: TAKEITOFF for an additional 20% off a $100 purchase. They placed the promo code in the preheader, and sure enough, I opened it up in a split second to check out the…er, savings.

Take-away: Attention-grabbing copy (when done tastefully and truthfully) is key, so take some risks! If you’re worried about performance, conduct a split test and send the catchy attention-grabber to half your audience. Make sure to track and measure your results – you might be pleasantly surprised! Here are some slides on holiday copywriting and content to get you in the catchy copywriting mood.  

That 'wraps' it up! Hopefully this compilation of promos got your own creative brain geared up and ready to take on some catchy promo action, so fine, it’ll blow your customers’ minds!

Posted by: Colleen Corkery

Colleen Corkery is the Lifecycle Marketing Coordinator at VerticalResponse. She writes and reaps about all email-related things. Connect with her on Twitter at @youcollme

The Scoop on Google's +1

You've heard of the term "my +1" right? Well, Google recently introduced a new function with the same idea. According to Google, +1 is shorthand for "this is pretty cool" or "you should check this out." It's a new way to publicly give your seal of approval to things on the web (similar to the "Like" button on Facebook). The big difference with +1 is that you and your +1s can help your friends, contacts, and others locate stuff that's great when you search the web. Think of it as your own personal endorsement of content, a service or a place.

How do I +1?

Our friends at Google tell us the following: In order to +1 things, you'll first need a public Google profile. This helps people see who recommended that romantic B&B or that easy-to-use ESP (wink, wink). When you create a profile, it's visible to anyone, and connections with your email address can easily find it. I played a bit with +1 then did two Google searches while I was logged into my Google profile. First, I searched email marketing because of course, that search term is near and dear to my heart.

I could see that I had given it a +1 and so had one other person I know. Sweet!

Next, I searched Pet Camp, a local VR customer where we take our pup, Dwight, when we travel. Here's what I saw:

There was a nice little +1 symbol right next to their search ranking done by yours truly. Pretty cool eh? But now you may be wondering how you can place a +1 button on your website. blog, etc. The Google peeps made that easy too. Check out their helpful page here.

For more answers about +1 check out the +1 webmaster site.

The Ultimate Direct Mail Lead-Generation Piece!

Let's face it, we all get a lot of mail. Some we read and others get the circular file treatment, IF it even makes it to our desks. Hey, in my opinion there is still a place for direct mail - for some businesses it just make sense, especially business-to-business where you have to generate leads for your sales teams.

Last week I got the CRAZIEST (and by crazy I mean BEST) piece of direct mail I EVER received in my life. It even tops the $50 bill I got from a company that "teaches managers how to manage" (and I sent back, read the story here), and the win-back piece I got from ADP with a lovely coffee cup and coffee grounds. It also tops the two piece mailer from American Express, one was the remote control helicopter and you got the actual remote control if you signed up for a credit card.

On this particular Monday morning there was a box sitting on my desk. Not a big box. The box was wrapped in tape (that was  pretty hard to get off by the way, I had to work it). So I started to talk to a colleague at work while I got the scissors out to open in.

The entire time I'm thinking "Why am I working so hard to open a box from someone I don't even know?" Maybe it was because this company went the extra mile to send something to me in a "box". Am I that shallow?

Finally I get the thing unwrapped to find a plain grey, nondescript box from a company called "EaGiL." I've never heard of them, but now since I've worked so hard I'm intrigued to see what I've almost cut myself 3 times over.

I take off the top and find a letter with a business card on top, and something underneath wrapped with a sticker. (Pen shown for size and an attempt to show the VerticalResponse logo.)

The simple letter talked about how this company specialized in creating "Tax Free Dollars" and that enclosed were 100 examples of their work. At this point I'm still not quite sure what they do exactly. The gentleman who authored this letter also wrote that he'd be calling me in a few days to set up an appointment, which frankly I always think is a bit presumptuous. But OK, I'll bite.

I unwrapped the contents underneath the letter and I saw a wrapped dollar bill. Huh? "Real freaking money," I don't think so. I pulled this dollar bill out to find it wasn't a dollar bill, it was a STACK of dollar bills with a personalized wrap on it. The first thing I thought, "Are these really real?" So I smelled them and fanned them to find out they were!

I showed this piece to EVERYONE I knew and they were as equally as astonished as I was! One of our Customer Service leads Topher even noticed that not only were these brand-spanking new bills, they were sequential!

Impressive? Yes. And what a way to start off a Monday! Here are the questions everyone here at VR had:

• Is it real money?
• I wonder how many went out?
• What's the hook?
• Are they crazy?
• How many of those do they have to turn into customers before it pays off?
• How can I get on that list?
• What are you going to do with the money?
• What about the mailrooms that chuck all "junk mail" before it gets to your desk? And if they do is that a federal offense?
• Are you going to take the appointment?
• What mailhouse did they trust to put this together?

Do you think that EaGiL is crazy? I dunno. I've just exposed them to about 30 people, then I wrote this blog about them exposing them to even more. And who knows, when they call I just might take the appointment, if nothing else, to get to the bottom of some of these questions.

Love to hear your thoughts!

Related posts:

We Want You Back! Winning Back Customers Who Have Left You
Interesting Lead Generation Idea; The Good, Bad & Ugly

The Laughing Cow Does Cause Marketing, Building Email Lists, & Social Media in One Great Promotion

I was watching TV the other day (as I do) and saw this great commercial for The Laughing Cow cheese. First of all, I eat the stuff. It's a great low calorie snack. Love that. But this commercial had a twist: for each Laughing Cow or Babybel cheese wheel you buy, you can go to their site, input the UPC code, and they'll donate $1 for each to the Life Well Laughed project.

They're trying to get to $500,000 for the donations, but reading between the lines, they're trying to sell 500,000 items. Great story.

I thought it was a clever idea so I had to try it out. Here's what happened.

I went to the Laughing Cow site and their offer was pretty prominent, front and center. 

I clicked through to input my UPC code and there was a nice explanation of what they're trying to do, along with a counter of how much they've received so far. They've got a long way to go but I think this might be a pretty new promotion. Let's hope.

I entered the UPC code on the back of the packaging and got the following screen.

Great idea for building an email list. They ask for this information so that the next time you want to do this after you buy more, you can easily sign in. They also ask if you want to sign up for the newsletter. Of course I did! I'm awaiting my first Laughing Cow email marketing campaign any minute now.

After I donated, I got the following screen thanking me.

The great thing about this screen is it's asking me to either email my friends, post it to Facebook or post it to Twitter. For this I chose Facebook.

When I went back a few minutes later the ticker had changed to 2951. Nice move.

My only riff on this? There was a limit to one per day per customer, they don't have it on their packaging (yet) and I could only choose one social media outlet to put it on. I'd love to have done all three!

So the net of this experience is that your business can do this and it doesn't have to be that involved. Here's how:

• Figure out what cause you'd like to donate to for every purchase made and how much of the purchase.
• Put it on your packaging (if applicable) and on your website.
• Promote it on Facebook, Twitter and to your email marketing lists.
• Promote how much you've donated weekly.
• Ask your customers to promote it for you on their social networks.

Are you doing cause marketing? We'd love to hear how it's working for you!

Related posts:

4 Quick Ways to Give Back and Prosper
Cause Marketing: Giving Profits to Charity
Include a Link In Your Email for a Good Cause

Why Telling Stories is Important & Other Learnings from the Power of eMarketing Conference

Earlier this week VR marketing team members Amber Ricchetti and Ellery Long attended the Power of eMarketing Conference in San Francisco. There was an overarching theme at the conference which can be summed up as "connect, converse, create content, communicate and tell compelling stories." Oh, and how to use the power of eMarketing to do it.

The "Making It Social" presentation was kicked-off with the question, "How do we better position ourselves to deliver our content to the right audience, in the right way, at the right time?" That's a hefty question, and a riddle every small business and marketer tries to solve. The following ideas are some pieces to that puzzle which you can use for your business and make your own.

Tell a Compelling Story: It is all about the story isn't it? One definition of "social" is "characterized by friendly companionship." Friendly companionship can be facilitated by storytelling. Sometimes all you need to do is tell your customers a story as if you were talking to a friend. What story can you tell?

Build Your Email List: You might think I talk a lot about list building, and that's because I do! The truth of the matter is you're never done building your list. During the "Acquiring and Maintaining Email Addresses" presentation, the presenter used a brilliant list building technique. He collected attendee business cards and entered them in a drawing to win $100. The presenter made it clear that you'd be opted-in for his email newsletter, and fulfilled his promise by holding the drawing at the end of his presentation. Neither Amber nor Ellery won, but they sure enjoyed the technique! What type of drawing can you conduct to incentivize people to sign up for your mailing list?

Verify Email Addresses: Did you know that last year 50 million people changed their email address? That's a lot of email addresses gone bad. You can head-off bad email addresses by sending a postcard to your recipients who bounced and ask them to verify or update their email address. Easy. That way when you want to send an email it's easy for you to mobilize your list.  

Facilitate Sharing: Another talented email marketer presented "Email's Role in a World  Gone Mocial," and talked about the idea of shareworthy content. So think about what content is shareworthy. This is especially important because while only 14% of people trust what ads say, 78% trust what their friends tell them (according to a 2009 study from Nielson). So get your customers to share your content with their friends!

One way to do this is to create a designated email campaign with the point of going viral. You'll need to come up with some pretty compelling content, but you can get a head start by targeting the people who click your share and forward to a friend links. This will help you define your most valuable sharers. You can also run a specific campaign to promote your social sites and educate people about why they should find you on other channels. Email marketing is still the best way to get your message heard, and social media is the best way to get your message spread.

Start a Social Revolution: The "Making It Social" presentation defined social revolution as "the ability to target people who will be best served by you telling them your story." Where can you find these people? On social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc. Your business should be where your customers are. And go to platforms where they aren't so you can acquire new ones!

Get Human: Just because you're not seeing your customers face-to-face doesn't mean they're not people. Here are some ideas to bring the human element into your email marketing and social media; create content that educates and solves problems, include consumer testimonials since having your customers sell for you is powerful, include a picture and quote from a real employee in your emails, and make your content "shareworthy."

Converse and Connect: Another of our colleagues presented how email and social go hand in hand. He explained that technology has changed the way consumers connect with brands, as well as the way information is discovered and shared. Makes sense, right? This is most obvious when it comes to what he called "earned media" or media you can't buy. This is where your customer does the marketing for you and it includes customer tweets, likes, shares, Facebook posts, testimonials, word of mouth and even survey responses. So, it's important to take part in these conversations via social media and build quality relationships with these folks in order to amplify your earned media.

Do you use any of these tactics in your eMarketing, or do you plan to? What works best for your business? I'd love to hear about it!

Related posts:

• Rockstar Takeaways from the 2011 Email Summit in Sin City
• Q&A from the SF Take Action User Seminar
• Live Blogging: MarketingSherpa Email Summit - List Building
• Day 2 - MarketingSherpa Email Summit - Offers

Top 10 Social Media Blog Posts

VR is turning 10 this month and in honor of our birthday, I have compiled a list of 
the top 10 blog posts about social media for your business. Stay tuned for more birthday top tens and fun festivities to celebrate the occasion.

1. 3 Ways to Make Your Email More Social 
2. Oh No You Didn't! How to Avoid Twitter Regret
3. How #Hashtags Can Work For You!
4. Top 10 Reasons Why You Should Use Twitter For Your Business!
5. Newbie to Advanced: How to Track What People Are Saying About Your Business Online
6. Restaurants & Bars: 5 Ways to Use Twitter & Facebook
7. Non-Profits: How You Can Use Twitter and Facebook
8. Q&A: How To Make Social Media & Email Work Together
9. How to Make the Best Use of An Email Signature
10. 8 Places to Find Advocates For Your Business

How long has your business been around, and do you celebrate big milestones? Tell us about it in the comments, or even share it on social media by tweeting and posting on Facebook.

5 Ways to Ignite Advocates for Your Business

We’ve talked about the 8 Places to Find Advocates for Your Business, and that's really  important. We found that a HUGE number of our customers come to us through word of mouth referrals and I'm sure you're getting a bunch too. So once we do find these people how do we get them talking more about us? We've concocted a nice list of 5 things to do now to help those advocates help your business.

1. Create a Fan Club – Formalize an official fan club where you send your fan club "Fans Only" offers or even send them gifts. As frequent customers of Expedia, we once got a great folio  that we can keep our tickets, passports and travel information in, and it's a big yellow format so we’ll always be able to find it in our clutter.

2. Bring them to Your Shop or Place of Business – Get to know them! Why not have a mixer where you invite them to your work to meet employees that work for you. People want to get to know who they are advocating so it’s important to put faces with names.

3. Early Deals – If you know you will be having a huge sale, why not reach out to your advocates a week or two earlier and give your deals to your VIP’s? I’m told that swanky retailer Gucci puts a sticker with a number on their merchandise. If you are in the “know”, you add a zero to the number which is the discounted price (of course, Gucci right?) and tell the sales associate you’d like to buy it. They sell it to you and keep it in their shop until the real sale is announced. Then you can pick it up.

4. Give them Schwag – Your advocates are going to likely use or better yet wear things with your logo that you give them. So if you got it, send it.

5. Thank Them – When an advocate has said something nice about you, why not send them an email marketing campaign thanking them for what they said. You can even personalize the exact words they published right in your email so that they remember. Sometimes a simple thank you goes a long way.

So once you've collected your list of people who are you best supporters, let's treat them with the respect they deserve for talking favorably about you. Are you doing anything with your advocates?

Word of Mouth Supergenius Show in July - Get the VerticalResponse Discount!

Our buddy Andy Sernovitz puts on the fantastic show "Word of Mouth Supergenius Show" each year. We've gone to it, and we love it so we're using a word of mouth tactic and telling the world! This year it's in New York City on July 20th. One great day packed with incredible information.

Andy has given us our own code and I'm sharing it with you: VERTICALRESPSENTME will take $155 off registration.

Andy's promise: You'll use what you learn to get more business the very next day, without spending money. He'll deliver on that promise, I'm sure.

Get simple, hands-on advice from people who've really done it. This is a practical, you-can-do-it, blow-your-mind-with-results kind of day.

Make it work for you with real-world case studies from companies just like yours. Make it work with no budget -- just brains, vision, energy, and a compelling reason for people to talk about you.

You're going to learn how love and happiness bring in more customers. And I guarantee you'll feel lovelier and happier when you get more sales while spending much less on marketing.

You'll learn the 12 essential word of mouth skills to run an effective word of mouth marketing program.

1. How to be Awesome on Twitter and Facebook
2. How to Respond to Feedback, Posts, Comments, and Tweets
3. How to Stay Ethical and Out of Trouble
4. How to Create Offline Word of Mouth
5. How to Create and Promote Your Blog
6. How to Work with Online Reviews
7. How to Create Buzzworthy Topics
8. How to Create Word of Mouth on Zero Budget
9. How to Inspire WOM with Customer Service
10. How to Work with Bloggers and Influencers
11. How to Measure Word of Mouth
12. How to Create a Fan Community 

We've talked about so many of these topics, but at this show you'll hear real-world examples of how it worked for real-world businesses. See you there!