Category Archive: News
What we’re reading now
A roundup of articles for small business owners and Emma Agencies
If you’re anything like me, then your day consists of asking yourself this question countless times as you scroll through your Twitter app, Facebook feed, Flipboard and RSS reader: Is reading this article going to be worth my time?
Content marketing has afforded us more free resources, case studies and education than we could possibly have time for. In this roundup, I’m cutting through the noise and sharing some of my favorite recent reads.
Part one: for the small business owner
- 35 ways to make your business look bigger: While a small business has its advantages, be prepared to look just as professional as your bigger competitors.
- Your personal online reputation and your business: Even with privacy settings, your online life probably bleeds into your business, especially if you’re a solopreneur. This app scans your online activity and reports back any red flags.
- Look professional on video chat: Lighting, angle and technology matter; use these pointers to make sure your video chats with customers come across as polished as possible.
Part two: for the agency owner who’s managing multiple client accounts
- Email is not dead: All the stats you need (and more) when clients ask about the ROI and relevance of email in a social world.
- 25 questions to ask yourself about your email marketing: Use this checklist to put your email strategy through the ringer.
- Are you falling into the pricing trap? You’re not just pricing your services, you’re valuing them. Choose your rates wisely with this perspective in mind.
I’ll be back next month with more articles worth reading, tweeting and bookmarking. And please share your favorite reads with me in the comments section below.
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Calling all business developers in Austin!
Emma's hiring in our satellite city
Emma’s hiring a Business Development Specialist to join our office in Austin, TX, and that means we’re looking for someone who will be deeply involved in the local community of businesses, nonprofits and agencies in Austin, and who is ready to help bring Emma to Dallas and Houston, too.
So what does a Business Development Specialist do, you ask? I think it’s best described as part marketing, part networking and part selling key accounts. You’ll also spend time building solid relationships with some existing local accounts. However you describe it, it means this person has his or her finger on the pulse of what’s happening in each of those business communities.
Come work with us. We'll photo-bomb all of your best holiday pictures.
Sweet gig, right? A day in the life of an Emma Business Developer is fast-paced, and it’s challenging, rewarding and engaging. Since Emma brings a stylish, branded solution to customers who understand and value that approach to email marketing, the position lends itself to working with some of the coolest companies around the country.
While based in Austin and focused on our own community, you’ll begin efforts to introduce Emma to Houston and Dallas, and will spend time on the road in each of those markets monthly. You’ll be on a team with other business developers around the country in cities like Nashville, Portland, New York and Chicago.
You’ll need to bring experience from past sales, marketing or business development roles — but it’s a learn-as-you-go environment, where you’ll be part of Emma’s entrepreneurial culture. You’ll be able to test the waters on marketing and business development programs and ideas that you dream up. You’ll be measured on success both as an individual and as part of a team.
Ready? For more details on the Austin Business Development Specialist role, and to apply, click here.
Emma’s named a best employer and technology leader
Nashville Post names Emma a 2011 “Best Employer” and member of the “Tech 25”
We were delighted to find out last week that Nashville Post magazine named Emma one of Middle Tennessee’s 10 Best Employers for 2011.
We’ve always thought that working for Emma is pretty fantastic, and we’re honored to be recognized with nine other top-notch businesses, all of which are pros in what they do.
The other companies named Best Employers for 2011 were Aegis Sciences Corp., Centerre Healthcare Corp., Document Solutions Inc., Education Networks of America, iostudio, Medi-Copy Services Inc., Meridian Surgical Partners, Pinnacle Financial Partners and Vaco.
We were doubly delighted to find out that the Post included Emma as part of its inaugural Tech 25, a listing of Middle Tennessee’s most influential technology companies.
It’s almost like they knew that we’ve got big news to share on the product side of things at Emma in the next couple months. Stay tuned for a slew of new features that will help you communicate more stylishly, simply and quickly through more channels.
We would have been triply delighted to find out that we’d made their list of Top Companies Who Just Won a Year’s Supply of Funyuns, but hey, two outta three ain’t bad.
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We’re hiring! View current openings.
Google+ pages for business
Why it matters, or not ...
The launch of Google+ this summer was difficult to miss. It was a long-anticipated release and subject to all kinds of speculation about how it would change the landscape of social networks. Would it threaten Facebook’s dominance for personal networking? Would it replace Twitter as the de facto link sharing tool for millions? Would Google finally get social right or simply launch another mediocre product, destined for the scrap heap? While we’re a long way from knowing all of the answers, the last few months have given us a chance to get our hands dirty and start to understand how Google+ fits into the larger social picture.
With the latest news that Google+ has opened its doors for brand pages, marketers have a whole new set of questions to tackle. Is Google+ worth the time and resource investment? Can brands use Google+ to interact with customers in a new way?
To be sure, there are some considerations for integrating Google+ that don’t exist for Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter. I’ve picked out a few pros and cons that will hopefully help frame up the unique space that Google+ is trying to carve for its social product.
The good
More customizable page setup
Google realizes that there are all types of businesses and organizations out there that want to communicate and share with their audience, sometimes in unique ways. Google gives you the opportunity to categorize your page in the setup process, with each designation having some unique benefit. The categories are:
- Local business or place
- Product or brand
- Company, institution or organization
- Arts, entertainment or sports
- Other
This is especially helpful for local businesses, for instance, who want to tie in their Google Places account, which displays helpful info like maps, hours of operation, phone numbers, etc.
Better search results
Google has integrated brand pages into its search algorithm with something they call “Direct Connect.” Now, adding a “+” to a standard Google search will take you directly to that brand page, skipping the whole search results stuff. For example, try it by typing “+Anderson Cooper 360” into a Google search bar. You’ll see that it jumps straight to Anderson’s +Page. Again, this is a great benefit to local businesses who often struggle to make it to the first page of standard Google searches. And speaking of that first page, Google’s algorithm will now count how many of your followers have clicked the +1 button (Google’s version of liking) as a way to boost your overall page ranking. It’s leveling the playing field for brands, while adding a way for Google to improve the user experience for their main search product. After all, most users are more interesting in finding than searching,right?
More targeted sharing
As we try to get better at tailoring messages and content to the right people at the right time, the need to segment and understand your audience is more important than ever. That idea is baked into the Google+ platform in a fundamental way with its Circles feature. When it comes to sharing content, page managers will have a much easier time sharing links and content to one, some or all of their members with just a few clicks and some smart grouping of members into circles. Google+ also opens doors to easier direct engagement with hangouts — think of it as group Skyping. The combination of circles and hangouts means that a page can share and interact with only specific groups of followers really easily and all on one platform. Pretty powerful stuff for businesses who don’t have a full staff of marketing and customer service folks at the ready.
The not-so-good
No support for multiple users
At this time, pages can only have one manager who is allowed to own or post to the official page account. This will make it hard for social media or customer service teams to collaborate or divide up work among team members.
No contests, sweepstakes, offers or coupons
Perhaps the biggest difference between Facebook and Google+ will be the nature of the interaction between brand and follower. According to Nielsen, the number one reason folks “like” a brand on Facebook is to receive special discounts or offers. This will be fundamentally different on Google+, and depending on your strategy, could be a dealbreaker for you.
No vanity urls
I expect this feature will come shortly, but as of now it will be a tad cumbersome to tell folks how to navigate to your page. Vanity urls aren’t in play yet, so instead of something easy like plus.google.com/Emma, urls look more like plus.google.com/106168900754103197479/ – not the easiest thing to remember.
At the end of the day, we need to craft a mix of content and communication that meets our customers, fans and followers where they are, and one that delivers consistent value, regardless of delivery channel or network. I don’t think Google+ will be a natural fit for everyone, but I do think it offers some interesting and unique value to a great many businesses. If you’re time-strapped, a small team or a predominantly local business, Google+ may be a perfect fit for you, with benefits that extend beyond the direct engagement you create on your page. As with any new technology or tool, taking an inventory of your own strategy, your audience and how you engage is always a great starting point for determining where you should spend your time and energy. Who knows, a few weeks from now Google+ may be your new one stop social shop. Have a look for yourself, and come back to tell us about your experience.
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It’s Emma 25 time, folks
We're giving away 25 Emma accounts to small, local nonprofits. Encourage your favorite cause to apply today!
Fall is in the air, and that means it’s finally socially acceptable to eat candy corn and dress like Snooki, which is not really something you can pull off in, say, April unless you’re actually Snooki.
More importantly, fall marks the launch of our annual Emma 25 initiative. For seven years and counting, we’ve been awarding a lifetime of free Emma service to small, deserving nonprofits and hoping that our email marketing tools help these causes do even more good work in their communities.
Here’s how it works. Nonprofits can apply at myemma.com/emma25 from today through Monday, November 21. We welcome any 501c3 nonprofit with 10 or fewer employees, including current Emma customers. Emma staffers pore over the applications to select 25 (it’s unbelievably tough), and we announce the honorees in early December.
Of course, we rely on you to spread the word. Encourage the nonprofits in your community to apply, whether it’s a group you support, volunteer with or that’s made a difference in your life. And share the news and application page with your social networks, too, if you’re so inclined.
And thanks for teaming up with us to do some good!
Facebook launches a new dashboard, API, ad unit and more
How do you feel about the recent changes, and how do they affect the way you interact with brands?
Oh, Facebook, there you go again. Changing things up just as I was getting comfortable with the last batch of updates.
As the administrator of Emma’s Facebook page, I suppose it’s time to embrace the inevitable changes to Facebook. It’s a platform that just doesn’t stay static — and perhaps that’s a good thing. It requires those of us who manage business pages to adopt a practical strategy that’s sustainable even as the platform is in flux.
Curious how Facebook’s changes will affect the way you monitor your brand’s business page or how you interact with brands on Facebook? Let’s take a look at a few articles that provide insight:
- Facebook’s New Tools Give Marketers Insights, Help Measure Fans’ Word of Mouth on Fast Company. E.E. Boyd gives a comprehensive view of new features released to Facebook today, including a new dashboard (called Insights) to measure the reach of individual posts, an API to build tools on top of Facebook’s data and a new ad unit that enables brands to create ads out of posts. The new dashboard is likely to please page administrators — now we’ll know more about our fans’ interests and their engagement with our brand. But, I’m curious, if you’re on the flip side of this, is it as appealing?
- Is this the future of Facebook business pages? on The Social Path. Kammie Avant posits that the new Timeline on personal pages is likely to make its debut on business pages soon. Now, Timelines are akin to autobiographical scrapbooks. Will this change how you tell your brand’s story? Will it prompt you to fill in story gaps?
- Prepare Yourselves: Facebook to be Profoundly Changed on Mashable. As Ben Parr suggests, Facebook is undergoing a rebirth of sorts. If it’s lost its emotional resonance, it wants to bring it back in the form of revamped friend lists, subscribe buttons and more.
- For more information on all of these updates, visit The Facebook Blog.
We want to know what you think of these changes. If you’re an administrator of a business page, how do they affect the way you use Facebook? Which changes make you cheer? Which ones make you grumble? And if you’re an agency thinking through these changes on behalf of your clients, what are your biggest considerations?
If you’re on Facebook to generally connect with friends and businesses you support, how do the recent changes affect your use? Are you spending more time than ever on Facebook, or are you drifting to other platforms, like GooglePlus? Are you more likely to “like” your favorite businesses on Facebook, or do you prefer to interact with businesses in different ways?
Is Facebook a platform that you love to use or love to hate? Tell us in the comments below — we’re interested to know what you think of these changes.
A conversation with Emma’s CEO and co-founder
Clint Smith talks about leadership, Emma and, um, pecans with the Nashville Business Journal
Last month’s edition of the Nashville Business Journal featured an executive profile of our very own CEO, Clint Smith.
The Q&A covers a host of topics, including the leaders that inspire him, how he’s overcome challenges and the exciting stuff Emma has in the works for the next few months.
Unfortunately, it’s also publicized the incriminating information that our chief executive has no idea how to pronounce the word “pecan.”
What is the simplest thing you never learned to do?
The ability to accurately pronounce the word “pecan.”
Dubbed by pundits as “Pecangate,” the scandal has rocked us to the very center of our snack closet and calls into question Clint’s familiarity with the entire mixed nut landscape. Can he tell a pistachio from a Brazil nut? Does he even know that peanuts are technically a legume?!
All the pecan drama, as well as the other non-nut-related topics, is available here for your reading pleasure.
And the winner of the Last Word survey is … Stephen Colbert!
Can Tom Martin convince him to share his views on digital media?
Stephen Colbert captured 37% of the votes.
Each Monday since January, Tom has shared a new video interview with a leading digital thinker, asking them to answer the question, “What’s next {in digital media}?” He’s assembled an impressive list of folks, and as his last interview approaches in December, we wanted to help him kick it up a notch.
At the beginning of August, we drew up a dream list of possible interviewees for Tom’s 52nd — and final — interview, and after a month of voting by new and old friends alike, the winner is … Stephen Colbert.
Colbert received 37% of the votes on a list of folks that included Bill Gates, Arianna Huffington, Steve Jobs, Marissa Mayer, Kevin Rose, Chris Sacca and Sheryl Sandberg. Steve Jobs and Arianna Huffington came in second and third place, respectively. We also encouraged write-ins and saw suggestions such as Jon Stewart, Bill Clinton, Warren Buffett and J.K. Rowling. Even will.i.am got a vote.
“We handed the reins to you, the online community, to tell us who you’d like to hear talk about the future of digital media. And you picked a doozy,” says our CEO, Clint Smith. “But that’s part of the fun. The challenge now will be to reach out to Stephen Colbert exclusively through social media and convince him to be part of the video interview goodness.”
Yep, that’s right. Now it’s up to Tom to land an interview with Colbert via social networks alone. He can tweet at Colbert, send him a message on Facebook, try to join his LinkedIn network (A LinkedIn search reveals 256 results for Stephen Colbert – which one is the real Colbert?), make a video request and post it on YouTube, and, well, you get the idea. Think he can do it?
“To quote Yoda, ‘Do or do not. There is no try,’” says Tom. “It’s getting Colbert on camera or fail. I don’t expect it to be easy. I imagine I’ll need to spend a large portion of the rest of the year trying to Colbert to agree to give the last word.”
To follow Tom’s progress, subscribe to Talking with Tom here. And, while you’re there, check out the more than 30 interviews he’s already posted (they’re around two minutes each). Tom will also post periodic updates on his pursuit of Colbert on his blog. And stay in-the-know on Twitter by following @TomMartin and @emmaemail.
Oh, and it goes without saying, if you know Stephen Colbert or someone who knows Stephen Colbert … or someone who knows someone who knows Stephen Colbert, tweet at us. Let’s help make this happen, folks!
Insights about “what’s next”
Emma's market strategist weighs in on what's missing from Talking with Tom's digital predictions
Hopefully you are following along with Tom Martin’s Talking with Tom series. It’s an interesting experiment for many reasons, not the least of which is the amazing content Tom is collecting from some of today’s top thought leaders in marketing and technology. The premise is simple: Ask really smart people what they think is the next big thing. I’ve been a close follower of the series so I want to share a few thoughts on the trends that I’ve seen emerge and also talk about a few things that are missing from the conversation.
The trends
Tom is a social guy — professionally, yes, but also just an all-around good guy to hang out with — so he’s been able to collect a great mix of interviews from people with a wide variety of web-based businesses. And while there’s a nice variety of people, there are a few notable trends emerging:
- Mobile: Lots and lots of people say mobile is the next big thing. I can see why. Advances in technology make it easier than ever to market via mobile, either with location-based technology, with advertising served inside apps or by redeeming a coupon using your phone and QR or bar codes.
- Social analytics: We’ve moved beyond the question about whether social is a viable medium for brands. Now we want to know how we’ll measure our investments of time and energy there. We’re abuzz with talk about social ROI, engagement metrics, deeper data slices and influencer identification.
- More noise: Granted, this is my own takeaway, but I don’t hear anyone talking about less of anything. It’s more content, more ads, more traffic, more measurement, more channels, more devices.
What’s missing
The truth about what’s next is probably a complex combination of everything based on Tom’s interviews, plus even more. And while there’s already a lot to think about, I’d like to offer one more dimension to the conversation: how to match the DNA of our content to the the DNA of the channel we choose to use.
When we talk about each communication channel, there is a fundamental reason why it was created. There’s a DNA to the platform that was baked into its very concept, and, ultimately, that DNA is why the platforms is successful today. To illustrate this, let’s look at the DNA of a couple of platforms and think about how we can shape our content and engagement strategy to embrace their natural sweet spots.
- Facebook: The “make me feel something” platform. The DNA of Facebook is about real connection and the opportunity to maintain and grow personal relationships. It’s about sharing meaningful bits of our lives and engaging with others when what they share resonates. As marketers, if we take a step back and look at Facebook for what it was built to do, it helps clarify a content strategy that falls into the natural flow. One example: We see countless brands using Facebook to collect “likes.” The promise of a coupon, discount, VIP status or other incentive tactic can, indeed, bring you “likes,” but is that why Facebook users really use Facebook? Does a “like” translate into a memorable brand experience? To a connection? Is it similar to that person’s other interactions on Facebook, where they are sharing their stories, pictures and comments? I’d bet the answer is no. Since Facebook is all about stories and meaningful experiences, marketers need to share real stories, ask question that matter and start meaningful dialogue on Facebook.
- Twitter: The “keep me informed or make me smarter, and do it quick-like” platform. Twitter’s DNA is about short and timely updates on news, great content and significant events happening “right now.” It’s a fast-paced ticker tape of our personal interests, shared in near real-time. A great Twitter citizen understands that there is as much to gain by sharing other peoples’ content as your own, and when you embrace that part of Twitter’s DNA, you can expect all of those good things like trust, influence and engagement to grow. Develop a content strategy in which you are a regular contributor, sharing ongoing and multi-faceted content inside the Twitterverse. If you’re only tweeting about yourself and your brand, you’re limiting the potential for growth and influence which probably brought you (and others) to Twitter in the first place
- Email: The one-to-one, personal communication platform. Email is by far the most personal channel and its DNA is built on a totally different paradigm. It wasn’t built to be social; its promise is that it’s a secure and personal space. That’s why we value our email address more than our Facebook page’s URL or our Twitter handle. In its most simple form, email is: from me to you. As marketers, how can we embrace that simple notion and create content truly feels personal and one-to-one? Relevant, targeted messaging and list segmentation become even more vital when you think about how they’ll help you embrace the natural grain of the email channel.
So, what’s next again?
Lots, clearly. With all the new tools, channels, devices and analytics to choose from, I hope you’ll take the time think strategically, and remember that every channel has its own special DNA. Crafting a content strategy that acknowledges and embraces that flow will help you create new levels of resonance and engagement with your audience, no matter where they may find your brand.
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Get involved in Tom’s social media experiment. Help decide who will get the last word. Vote here!
Add an Emma signup screen to your Facebook page
New updates to Facebook make it easier than ever to collect email subscribers
Stroller Strides' Facebook page hosts a lovely Emma signup screen
But, are you also posting an email signup form on your Facebook page to capture new subscribers?
For a long time, Facebook’s tricky, ever-changing code standards made it difficult to get an email signup form to “stick” on your company’s page. Facebook recently made some changes, and now it’s much easier to post a signup form on your company page — and you can use the Emma signup form found right in your account.
We’ve put together step-by-step instructions in our Help Guide, and here’s the rundown: After installing a Facebook app called “Static HTML,” you can build an HTML-friendly section of your Facebook page. Luckily, the code will stay put even as the rest of the application shifts and changes.
Our friends at Stroller Strides are doing it, and they’re giving their Facebook followers the opportunity to self-select the kinds of email messages they’d like to receive. It’s a terrific way for Stroller Strides to gain more subscribers and for fans to receive the type of content they’re interested in.
If you have any questions along the way, don’t hesitate to contact our support team. And if you come across effective signup forms on Facebook, please share them with us here.
Emma is a member of the Email Sender & Provider Coalition and the Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group.
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