Social Media Technologist

Did Gmail just kill email marketing? Short answer: No. Longer answer: It's way too early to tell. Even longer answer: Keep reading. There's been a lot of chatter online ever since Google unveiled it's new "social," "promotions" and updates tabs for Gmail earlier this summer. Especially about the promotions tab. Emails that people often receive from businesses -- like promotions and special offers -- are now being filtered into the tab, which is separate from a user's primary email stream. Since then, the web has errupted with marketers crying foul. In an amount of several hours, for instance, I've received about a half dozen emails -- from newsletters that I've subscribed to -- providing instructions on how to ensure their emails land in my "primary" tab. Some of those emails are referencing this "How to Disable Gmail Tabs " video from Michael Stelzner of Social Media Examiner. Others are just providing some steps to "deal" with Gmail's new tabbed inbox. Of the change, Derek Halpern of Social Triggers wrote: "In a lot of cases, Gmail labels content-filled emails as 'Promotions.' That means, if you send content to your list (like I do), your content will be featured alongside spammy Promotional emails. Not only does this negatively affect your brand, but it also puts people are at risk of NOT getting your emails. The emails they signed up for. The emails they WANT." Related: Why Marketers Should Stop Worrying and Learn to Love the Unsubscribe Button While I agree that having your emails land next to "spammy Promotional emails" is not a good thing, I'd argue that if you have "spammy Promotional emails" in your inbox, you need to start unsubscribing or marking them as spam. There is no reason to be getting unwanted emails anymore. To be clear, I think it's smart to alert your loyal email subscribers about Gmail's changes. I've even considered doing the same for my audience. However, I think it's way too early to panic. No one yet understands the impact of Gmail's new tabbed inbox on their marketing campaigns. And before you get all fired up and lash out at Gmail, remember that its focus has always been and most likely always will be on the user experience. It's not about you, the email marketer. It's about you -- and your audience -- the consumer. If you are legitimately worried about the recent Gmail changes, here is what I recommend: 1. Don't panic. Take a deep breath. Chug some water. Walk around the block. 2. Create a segment of your email list showing only subscribers with a Gmail address. 3. Run some reports to see what the historic open, click, and (most importantly) conversion rate is of your Gmail subscribers. 4. Run that same report but change the start date to May 29th, when Gmail first announced these changes. Keep in mind that the May 29th date was when it was announced. Gmail has slowly been rolling it out ever since. It would seem quite a few folks are getting it this week. 5. Finally, compare your historic metrics for Gmail subscribers (No. 3) to the new report (No. 4). Related: How to Write Better Email Subject Lines My bet is that your open rates may be down. And that's okay. The open rate has always been a proxy for engagement, but for most marketers, clicks and conversions are the metrics that matter more. My other bet is that your click to open rates are up. And that's good. Click to open is the number of subscribers who click on at least one link after opening your email. Click to open tells you how compelling you email actually is, assuming you have calls to action that make people want to click. I predict this metric will increase as those people who have taken the time to "find" your email in the "promotions" or "updates" tab in Gmail or have proactively moved your email to the "primary" tab will now be more engaged with your emails and more likely to click. My final bet is that if you send timely, targeted, valuable, human emails to people who want them, the Gmail changes will have little impact. If you notice your conversions (webinar registrations, eBook or whitepaper downloads, sales and so on) for Gmail subscribers have decreased, then you can get upset. I'd be willing to bet this will not be the case. If I'm wrong, let me know in the comments section below.

The State of Content Marketing in 2013 [INFOGRAPHIC] http://goo.gl/ptmId

#DidYouKnow? Shrek was modeled after a real person named Maurice Tillet.

The actor who played the baby in the first Harry Potter film, played Albus Severus in the final film.

"Dyslexie" is a font designed to help those with dyslexia - It weighs down letters to prevent them switching around.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2012/may/17/papple-pear-marks-and-spencer

Over 665,000 Defacements Submitted to Zone-H.org in 2013 Here is the total number of defacements submitted each year. 2001 - 21.097 2002 - 77.766 2003 - 285.951 2004 - 392.459 2005 - 493.720 2006 - 752.039 2007 - 480.622 2008 - 517.406 2009 - 544.097 2010 - 1.419,388 2011 - 1.608,929 2012 - 1.192,326 2013 - 665.367 Total number so far: 8.456.434. http://news.softpedia.com/news/Over-665-000-Defacements-Submitted-to-Zone-H-org-in-2013-358614.shtml

Netcraft have provided a new estimate of how many websites there are in the world. Updated April 2013. It is impossible to be absolutely certain how many there are but UK research company Netcraft have released their latest April 2013 survey of web servers and concluded there are about 649 million websites in the world today – a decrease of 27 million (4%) in the last year. Interestingly, the number of active sites is only 187 million – so there are 462 million inactive sites. That suggests that 71% of all the websites in the world are not actually being used – but why not? We think it is because many of these will be domain names bought to cover every possible eventuality e.g. a large company like Apple might buy the Apple .info and .net and .org domain names (and many others) to prevent cyber-squatters misusing them to profit from the goodwill of the Apple trademark. Others could be speculative domain names registered by individuals e.g. you might register your-own-name.com just in case you ever become famous And the rest are likely to be domain names that have been pre-registered in bulk by domain companies to sell off later. As shown in the graph below, it’s astonishing that 5 years ago (Apr 2008) the total number of sites (hostnames) was only 165 million – just 25% of the current total. The rise of the internet is further shown by the fact that the total number of new sites added in the whole of 2008 was just 31m – nowadays that rate of increase can be achieved in just 1 month! In fact the total number of active sites has more than doubled in the last 2 years alone. No wonder that it’s almost impossible to find a good website name still available if you want to create a new online presence – so if you fancy having your own personal domain name (and email address – because having email sent to your own name is quite cool!) now might be the time to buy one! The full Netcraft report is here and it is updated each month.

A woman writes to the IT Technical support Guy... Dear Tech Support, Last year I upgraded from Boyfriend 5.0 to Husband 1.0 and I noticed a distinct slowdown in the overall system performance, particularly in the flower and jewellery applications, which operated flawlessly under Boyfriend 5.0. In addition, Husband 1.0 uninstalled many other valuable programs, such as Romance 9.5 and Personal Attention 6.5, and then installed undesirable programs such as NEWS 5.0,MONEY 3.0 and CRICKET 4.1 . Conversation 8.0 no longer runs, and Housecleaning 2.6 simply crashes the system. Please note that I have tried running Nagging 5.3 to fix these problems but it just doesn't seem to work. What can I do? Signed,........................ Awesome Reply..... DEAR Madam, First, keep in mind, Boyfriend 5.0 is an Entertainment Package, While Husband 1.0 is an operating system. Please enter command: ithoughtyoulovedme. html and try to download Tears 6.2 and do not forget to install the Guilt 3.0 update. If that application works as designed, Husband1.0 should then automatically run the applications Jewellery 2.0 and Flowers 3.5.. However, remember, overuse of the above application can cause Husband 1.0 to default to Beer 6.1 and loans 9.5. Whatever you do, DO NOT under any circumstances install Mother-In-Law 1.0 (it runs a virus in the background that will eventually seize control of all your system resources.) In addition, please do not attempt to reinstall the Boyfriend 5.0 program. These are unsupported applications and will crash Husband 1.0. To summarise - 1.0 is a great program You might consider buying additional software to improve memory and performance. We recommend: Cooking 3.0 and Hot Looks 7.7. Good Luck Madam! IT SUPPORT DESK....

The false Twitter announcement from the hacked Associated Press account that caused US shares to tumble. There is no denying the worth of social media in keeping us in touch and informed. In careless hands, though, it can cause panic, anguish, pain and suffering. The hacking of a news agency's Twitter account that led to a plunge in US stocks and the wrongful implication of a man in the Boston Marathon bombings put the problem sharply in focus. Users need to think twice about what they read, check where it comes from and be less compulsive about passing it on. Social media makes every user a journalist and detective. Professional training is not necessary; publishing can be done without the need for the checks and balances required by traditional media. Society's growing thirst for ever-more instant information means that whatever comes to hand first can easily be given insufficient critical scrutiny. Where it came from, how factual it is and its implications can get lost in the rush to share. That was troublesome for police investigating the Boston bombings. While social media helped with the rapid distribution of information, it also led to a flurry of rumours and false leads. The social bookmarking website Reddit was forced to apologise to a student after he was wrongly identified by amateur sleuths as a perpetrator. But even information from credible sources has to be verified; billions of dollars were momentarily wiped from the value of US shares after hackers broke into the Twitter account of the Associated Press news agency and posted an erroneous report that President Barack Obama had been injured in an explosion at the White house. It is not just investments and reputations that are at risk. Undue fear was caused by a microblogger on the mainland who claimed that last week's earthquake in Sichuan was a precursor to a substantially bigger tremor. In February, undue concern was stirred in Hong Kong by Facebook postings that there had been an outbreak in a hospital of an infectious disease more dangerous than Sars. The nature of online social media means that such reports can move unverified and unquestioned with lightning speed across networks to millions of people. Social media is a valuable addition to many lives. To some, it is indispensible. But those who rely on it for credible information have to be careful about the source and verify what they learn. Those who use it to disseminate news and other information have to ensure that security is sturdy so that users are protected.

#SocialBuzz

With the enduring popularity of entrepreneurial TV shows, a lot of attention is paid to finding a great business idea by the media. However, building a great business has very little to do with having a great idea, and everything to do with excellent execution. For many entrepreneurs and business owners, coming up with new business ideas is the least of their problems. Some people have ideas and spot new opportunities virtually every day. But in some way, constantly spotting new ways to do something is hugely disruptive. You end up starting a lot of things and never really seeing them through. Those people who make a big success of their business are the ones who understand how to analyse an idea for its potential, and then execute it in a way to generate maximum profit. To work out if your idea is brilliant or will bankrupt you, there are four key questions to ask before you get started. 1. Can you make a profit? That sounds like a ridiculous question to ask. But you’d be surprised how many people start businesses where there is no chance of them ever making a profit. For example, you might find that you can buy an item for 95p and sell it for £1. In theory you are making a profit. But once you take into account the costs of just being in business, never mind staff and premises, you can see that your profit margins will be squeezed pretty hard. You need to ensure that whatever you do either has good profit margins to start with; or will benefit from economies of scale in the future (such as the ability to buy items cheaper in bulk when you sell significant amounts of them). One other idea to consider is making profit through cross sells and up sells. For example many restaurants tend to make most of their profit on starters, deserts and drinks – yet no-one would want to eat there if they didn’t offer unprofitable main courses. By the way, if you plan to just get started in business and “worry about making a profit later”, rethink your plans now. Businesses started purely on passion rarely last. Running a business can be hard enough – when you’re working 70 hours a week and not making any money, you’ll soon find your passion slowly seeps away. 2. Will you make a profit? Almost as important as whether you can make a profit is whether you will make a profit. This is about examining your marketplace to see what potential revenue there is out there, what your competitors are doing, and whether there are enough opportunities for you to grab market share. Here’s an example of what we mean. You could look at, say, the market for selling toner cartridges for laser printers, and see that the profit margins per item are really high. But when you look at the number of retailers and internet businesses already selling them, you will see that the costs of acquiring a customer (out-marketing your competitors) are so high, that the profit margins are actually low. New businesses rarely do well trying to break into established mature markets. You’re better off looking at new markets where there is a proven demand for the product or service, but the market is still open for one business to dominate. That’s your opportunity. 3. Is it scalable? This is a particularly relevant question for anyone providing a service or selling themselves. Just because working on your own can turnover £50,000 a year, are you able to scale your business up as demand grows? If not you will have a problem generating significant profits in the years to come. You may be brilliant at what you do and find it easy to fill your day with client work, but you may struggle to find staff who have the same talent and drive as you. That means there will come a point where you either have to lower the overall quality of the work the business provides as you grow, or cap the amount of work you do. Beware of any business where you swap time for money. It will be hard – although not impossible – to scale it up and run it exactly as you would want it to operate. 4. Is it saleable? This is the one question few business owners ask when they start, but really it’s a vital one. Hard as it is to believe right now, there will come a point where you will have had enough of your business and will want to move on to something new. If you have invested ten years of your life into a venture, what will you have to show for it? Can your business survive without you? If not, it is unlikely that you will have anything worth selling. Businesses that can be sold tend not to be reliant on one person; rather they use solid systems and replaceable employees to make a good profit. As you examine your business idea, ask yourself if your business could ultimately be run by other people. Even if you never plan to sell it, you will at least build a profitable business that still allows you to take long holidays!

The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act of 2013, or CISPA, was passed by the House of Representatives Thursday and is making its way closer and closer to President Obama’s desk. The bill first needs to be passed by the Senate, who voted down un-revised version of the bill last spring. If passed, the bill — which was previously titled the Cybersecurity Act of 2012 — would allow companies to share information with the U.S. government in hopes of assisting the government in the investigations of cyber attacks on companies. One of the major concerns with the proposed bill is the issue of personal privacy. The bill would allow consumer’s personal information that was given to businesses to be shared with the government top-secret spy agencies. So what exactly does this bill mean for you? It means that you could possibly become more vulnerable to identity theft and other scams. The bill would allow companies to give your personal information to the government, giving more strangers access to your identity. The reality is that anyone — even government employees — can commit identity theft. It’s also important to remember that government agencies can also be hacked, so there is still a possibility that your personal information could be stolen by hackers and used. The bottom line is that the bill would allow more people access to your personal information, which is never a good idea. When will CISPA go into effect? The Senate is said to vote on the CISPA bill soon. If the bill is passed by the Senate, it will be passed along for the President’s signature before it becomes a law. The good news is that the Obama administration made a statement last Monday stating they would veto the CISPA bill if it reached the president’s desk, so there still is a chance for Americans to keep their privacy. Even if the CISPA bill isn’t passed, it might still be worth it to take steps to protect your identity because you never know if a revised CISPA bill would ever be passed in the future. What can you do to protect your information if CISPA is passed? Luckily there are some steps that you can take to make sure your identity is safe in the instance that CISPA is passed. Become an online ghost: The first, unpractical way is to completely remove your personal information from any company that you’ve ever done business with, such as banks, grocery stores, department stores, drug stores, cell phone companies and any other company that you have opened an account or membership. This option is unrealistic because throughout your life you’ve done business with countless companies and it would be nearly impossible to completely remove your personal information from all of their company databases. Keep your information under wraps: The second option is to keep your information personal going forward. This means that you choose not to sign up for any sort of membership rewards card, or anything that would allow a company to get any personal information about you — even if it is only your name and phone number. This choice to withhold information would be most effective if you also take extra steps to help protect your identity — such as regularly checking your bank accounts and credit cards statements for possible fraudulent transactions, monitoring your credit report for errors, shredding all documents containing any personal information as well as being aware of what private information you post online. Protect your identity: The final way to protect your identity if CISPA is passed is to sign up for an identity theft protection service. Although these services can’t remove any of your personal information from a company that you’ve previously done business with, they do monitor your bank accounts, credit reports and personal information on the Internet to make sure none of it is being used in a fraudulent manner. If the services notice any phishy activity, they immediately alert you via email to confirm that the incident is in fact fraudulent. These services also assist you with recovering your good name in the situation that your identity is stolen — which is where the most value lies in the service. Julie Myhre is a NextAdvisor.com Editor who covers identity theft, VoIP, virtual phone, online college, photo cards, parental controls and people search.

Ever wonder what it takes for a video to net millions of views? Well you can stop wondering. Advertising publication AdAge recently released its first ever Viral Video Awards, a contest looking for the biggest tear-jerker ad and the funniest video ad. The respective winners were Expedia's "Find Your Understanding," a video depicting a father traveling to his lesbian daughter's wedding and Liquid-Plumr's "Double Impact," a plumber video full of innuendos. While these are huge companies pouring resources into production, videos don't go viral based on budget but rather content. Take for example, the famous "Will it Blend?" videos, put on by blender company Blendtec. The videos show the strength of the appliance by blending items like iPads, golf balls and rake handles. The first video put out by Blendtec, one depicting marbles getting crushed, garnered more than 6 million hits, and it reportedly only cost $50 to create. The company has now produced a number of videos with the most successful one nabbing more than 15 million views. 1. Sharing is a two-way street. If you want others to share and talk about what you've produced, one of the best ways to get the ball rolling is by being a sharer yourself. Even big influencers want to see more people sharing their content, and if you share consistently, you're likely to get some reciprocal sharing in return. When you're sharing others' content, be creative and put some thought into it -- especially if you're hoping to get someone with a lot of followers to share yours. Don't just put a link to their video or upload it, add a little bit of context or tell how it was beneficial to you or will benefit your audience. You're much more likely to get noticed this way, and you might even develop a mentoring relationship with a seasoned entrepreneur. If, as a young entrepreneur, you're hoping to spread the word about your company, product or service through a video, check out these four sharing tips below. It may not produce a Gangnam style hit, but it can definitely help get your startup noticed. 2. Ask (nicely). As with everything, you can't expect to get what you want without asking for it. It's important to ask the right people in the right way though. A blanket, "Hey, share my post!" blasted out to your social networks probably won't see a lot of results. Instead, ask specific people, and tell them how it will benefit them. Does the video you shot contain information that's valuable to their audience? That's the kind of benefit that will convince someone to share it. 3. Create strategic alliances. Chances are good that there are other young entrepreneurs out there who share a target audience but don't compete with you. Build relationships with these people to get in front of their community, while introducing them to yours. It's a great way to help each other find success, and it just might result in a lasting friendship. 4. Reach out to the pros. Bloggers and journalists are always looking for intriguing content to share with their viewers. If your video would be a good fit for their core audience, reach out to them. Just keep in mind, these people get a lot of pitches a day, so keep things short, simple and relevant.

A monopoly is a company which, according to dictionary.com, has "exclusive control of a commodity or service in a particular market, or a control that makes possible the manipulation of prices." First, one must understand that Google made $5.7 billion dollars in net revenue in the fourth quarter of 2008, and $6.63 billion in profit for the entire year. Their primary business, for those uninitiated, is charging "per click" for those links on the right hand side of a search under the heading "Sponsored Links." Advertisers pay between $0.10 to $20 or more for a single "click" which represents a qualified web site visitor. Sources: http://www.helium.com/debates/198726-is-google-a-monopoly-or-a-near-monopoly/side_by_side