Doing “letter to the editor” campaigns can be an effective way of getting group messages heard. For example, if the local Chamber of Commerce wanted to send a message to local city representatives about a bill that would affect local businesses, they might engage their members to each write a letter to the editor, in hope that some of the letters would get published at the same time, or over a period of time.

Likewise, if the local Tea Party wanted the city to hear a message about local taxes and spending, they could engage their members to write letters to the editors targeting a specific date, like Tax Day (April 18th this year, by the way).

STEP 1: Choose a local publication to target. In Lynchburg, VA, it would be the News & Advance. Read other letters to the editor to gauge the kind of letters the editor likes to publish: http://www2.newsadvance.com/news/2011/apr/11/letters-editor-monday-april-11-2011-ar-964980/

STEP 2: Narrow a Topic. Without clear direction for your letter it will get lost in a sea of other letters. Remember that only a small percentage of letters get published each week. Focus on only ONE talking point, or aspect of your topic. For example, here are some talking points for the Tax Day protest the tea party is putting on April 18th:

• High taxes
• Wasteful spending
• Inability to cut spending
• Inability to balance the budget even WITH high taxes
• The absurdity of spending $58 B while cutting $36 B and calling it progress
• The ridiculousness of reading the Constitution but not following it

STEP 3: Keep it short and sweet, 4-6 sentences at most. Newspapers only have so much space that they can use for copy (words), so if your letter is too long it will either A) not get published, or B) get cut down in size – and trust me, you won’t like what words or sentences they choose to cut out for you.

STEP 4: Make your point with facts, or real life scenarios. E.G.: “I have to pay 11.5% taxes at restaurants in the city, while I could just pay half that at restaurants outside the city limits.” OR “My child’s classroom doubled in size this year because of the city’s inability to balance the budget.” Remember that if you use antidotes or emotional appeals your letter will be more effective to newspaper readers.

STEP 5: Make it a “point sandwich.” State your position once in the beginning of your letter, follow it up with some facts and reasoning, and finish it off by reiterating your main point.

STEP 6: Follow the newspaper guidelines. http://www2.newsadvance.com/forms/letters-editor/

Check back throughout the week to see if your letter was published. If not, try and try again until your voice is heard.

Have you had a recently published letter? Tell us about it here:

If you are a blog owner and want people to be able to subscribe to new updates on your blog via email, you can use feedburner to set that up. But you may be interested in learning about who subscribes to your RSS account. Here are detailed instructions on logging in and finding your feedburner subscribers!

1. Login at http://feedburner.google.com
2. Click on the name of your blog
3. Click on the "publicize" tab at the top
4. Under "Email Subscriptions" on the left, click "Subscription Management:
5. Scroll all the way to the bottom and click "View Subscriber Details"
6. You can search addresses or export them as a CSV file

Good luck!

Happy Independence weekend, everyone!

In lieu of our weekly Friday 2.0 meeting which was canceled due to vacationing, I have compiled a list of news items I would have normally presented this AM.

Facebook can now recognize facial features. Google has offered this feature on Picassa already, but now Facebook has integrated facial recognition into tagging. Scary, right? Read more >

Happy… social media…day? Apparently June 30 is now noted as the official global “social media day” (recognized by British Columbia and… Vancouver). The funny thing is, the day connected thousands of people… face to face. Read more >

Study shows consumers view companies who microblog as more trustworthy. Hear that? You need to use twitter and Facebook. Read more >

Don’t miss these social media resources. A list of 35 social media resources “you may have missed.” Read more >

And a shameless plug for my new product: In the month of July you can get 5% off Website Workbox! Check it out and use coupon code “SUMMERSAVINGS” >

After a biased review of all of the most prominent email marketing memberships out there, I had hoped that MailChimp would win the battle.

MailChimp is a fairly new email list manager that integrates with the best website building software out there (Expression Engine) and the best invoicing software out there (Freshbooks).

Unfortunately, MailChimp lost – not only the battle – but also my support. Although MailChimp rated among the top 10 best email management services out there, it was still missing some of the most basic and important features, like Plain Text emails and Auto Responders.

But enough about MailChimp, let’s talk about what DOES work.

According to Email Marketing Services Review 2010, iContact was rated #1 all around, for feature set, ease of use, campaign creation & reporting, and help and support.

Some of the runner ups were Benchmark, and one we all have heard of, Constant Contact.

Since my review I have gone gung-ho for iContact and am now helping them to give away free trials. Get yours today!

Email Communication Experts – Email Marketing, RSS, Surveys, and Autoresponders. Free Trial of iContact

We had a huge discussion at Friday 2.0 this morning (a social media networking group) about Chris Brogan’s recent article “Stop Adding Me to Your Email Newsletter.”

In sum, Chris defines SPAM not just as “email that illegally comes from people you have never met or done business with before” but also “people you know who add your name to their email list without permission.”

OK, point taken. It can be annoying to get unsolicited emails – even from people you know – trying to sell you their product.

But are there situations when it is OK to send people unsolicited emails?

After discussing Chris’ post, reading some of the comments, and sharing our own stories, this is the conclusion we came to:

• Trust and Relationships are what matter. Period. So whatever decision you make should be based on this.
• There are many different types of businesses, targets, geographies and goals. So there may be some cases or businesses when it is perfectly legitimate to add people to your email mailing list. I live in a small city, for example, and everyone pretty much knows everyone… so in this case it might be OK to add people to your newsletter list.
• Getting email newsletters or email marketing is no different than getting a piece of junk in the mail… sometimes you read it, sometimes you don’t. Either way, you have the opportunity to throw it out.
• The kind of people who don’t want your information might be the kind of people you don’t need to know, anyway!
• If you aren’t sure, it doesn’t hurt to just ASK PERMISSION! Most email programs allow you to “double” opt in people, meaning that once someone subscribes, they have to confirm their subscription. SO, if you subscribe someone from a business card they gave you, they will have the opportunity to confirm their subscription.

Some other tips we came up with:

1. Make it easy to unsubscribe
2. Put a disclaimer on the top
3. Put the words “save money by_______” to catch someone’s attention

Thoughts?

Unlike a “social” network, LinkedIn is a “business network” that I like to refer to as an online resume.

LinkedIn is an interconnected network of experienced professionals from around the world, representing 170 industries and 200 countries. You can find, be introduced to, and collaborate with qualified professionals that you need to work with to accomplish your goals.

LinkedIn is just like any other marketing tool – you have to have a goal and a strategy to get there. It can be used to make new business connections and potential leads, to apply for job positions and to build business relationships in your target geography. 

Here are some tips on using LinkedIn effectively:

1. Create a strong profile. Make sure you fill in all the fields. 

2. Make connections to people you already know. The more connections you have, the more credible you look. 

3. Get References (give referrals to get referrals!).

2. Set a goal for your LinkedIn. What do you want to accomplish from using it? What types of people would you like to make connections with and what do you want from those connections? Maybe you need to make 5 new sales in the next 30 days from small business owners. Make that your goal! 

3. Target specific companies or people. Once you set your goal you should know who you need to target. Check out your connections’ connections! See who your 2nd and 3rd degree connections are and request an introduction.

Other Helpful Resources

• Five LinkedIn Tips
• How Many Connections is too many?

I’ve gotten this question for several business owners in the last couple weeks. I guess its ad renewal time for Verizon and the Yellowbook… 

Which phonebook is more valuable? Which book should I advertise in? Should I advertise in all of them? Should I advertise in them AT ALL… or should I just be listed? 

These are all great questions and ones that everyone should consider. As a public relations expert in technology this is what I know: 

• The use of phone books is becoming more scarce because of the information age and the internet
• People who do use phone books probably don’t have the internet or don’t care about using the internet… so… we are mainly talking about an older generation
• In Lynchburg, VA the population is a little slower on new developments and technologies, so compared to the rest of the world people are probably still using phone books

Unless you are tracking the phone calls you get from the phone book, nobody can really tell you how effective it is has been. And unless you can tell the future, nobody can know how effective it is going to be.

Phonebooks are going to become obsolete in the future… we all know this… but just how near in the future?

So, we tend to go off of other people’s experiences in making our decisions. And that is precisely what I have been telling people. I have heard good things about Verizon, OK things about Yellowbook, and horrible things about My Community Phonebook. So… there you have it. 

Another way to advertise in the “Phonebook”

We can adapt to the new technologies and use the internet! The internet is a giant phone book in itself. Make sure you are listed in:

• Google! Do search engine optimization to get your services and products listed organically. Also make sure to be listed in Yahoo and other Google-juiced sites
• Online phone books like yellowpages.com 
• Online communities and networks like Facebook and LinkedIn
• Customer Review websites like Yelp

All of these websites allow for you to have your phone number and address – some of them even give you the opportunity to put up a map and get customer reviews.

If you are going to be involved in social media at all, you are probably asking yourself how to do this… juggle multiple social media sites at once, that is.

On the Social Media 101 group on LinkedIn, Linda Goin wrote:

I want to narrow down my involvement in social media, as I don’t have time to tap all the resources (LinkedIn being one of those neglected mediums). Any suggestions on how to handle (juggle) multiple social media sites?

At the Circus on Flickr from ecpica

There are SO MANY social media tools out there… facebook, linkedin, blogging, twitter, flickr. (Get a complete list of all web 2.0 projects at http://www.go2web20.net/)

Social media tools arent’ just about networking. They are about making life more efficient… and sometimes fun. Last Christmas I sent out a holiday newsletter for my company, Expressions Laboratories. Instead of giving people more information in an already busy holiday season, we decided to give everyone a little gift: we elf’d ourselves. Along with hand written cards (nothing beats a personal hand-written note) we plugged our faces into elfyourself.com and made fools of ourselves. It was a hit. 

This Christmas I wanted to renew the gift. Here is me and my two favorite men (David and Kaleb, 5) in a holiday dance: 

What did I learn from this experiment? 

1) People want to see your sense of humor. It makes you a real person. That is part of what social media is all about… showing people that you can relate to them on more than one level. 

2) It saved time sending out extra hand-written cards. I sent the ones I wanted to send, but I didn’t have to spend an entire afternoon writing cards… or spend $100 because those little boxes only hold 10 or so. 

Make some of your own: jibjab.com

Buzzlogic and Jupiterresearch published a study on the influence of blogs on consumer purchases.

They found that the number of blog readers has TRIPLED in the past four years and that the blogs they are reading strongly influence their purchase decisions. 

Read the article by Retailer Daily here >