Opportunity Knocking

You Tube adds another Social Networking layer

Jason Kincaid of TechCrunch posted a great article today about YouTube’s plans for a new real-time product that adds a much needed social layer to the popular site.

It basically boils down to allowing your friends on the site to see what you’re watching without having to use an outside program like Twitter. 

Although the product is only in Beta stage and could benefit from a better layout – YouTube is headed in the right direction. 

What people want are social networking sites that can do it all -we don’t want to have Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Digg all open at once to satisfy our online needs.  I love to see that the current social networking giants are continuing to make improvements so they won’t soon fall behind the pack.

What do you think about this new product?  Is YouTube heading in the right direction? Or do you like to use a plethora of sites and just organize them via a feed aggregator like FriendFeed?

Photo Credit: Tech Cruch

A Quick e-mail Marketing Tip

I just received an awful piece of e-mail marketing and it reminded that the most common mistake made by green and seasoned marketers alike is fuzzy messaging.  Often we are so entrenched in our own businesses and corporate cultures that we forget to think like a customer or prospect – we lack objectivity.  Before any email campaign is launched, there must be a clear and expressly identified goal in mind.  Ask yourself, “What do I want the recipient to do after getting this?”  If the answer is not blatantly obvious after three seconds of looking at the email, it’s time to go back to the drawing board.  Don’t make the reader guess at what you’re offering and above all, steer clear of jargon and lengthy descriptions of features and benefits – stick to identifying “what’s in it for me?”

Web site Content is STILL King

When it comes to Web sites, whether consumer or business, the design is the suit you wear, the content is what you say and how you say it.

 

In other words content trumps design all day long – but a nice looking person with a sharp suit,  disarming personality and a perceived understanding of my personal and professional issues wins hands down.

 

Solid market research to determine key messages and the Web site copywriter are where the gold is hidden. 

 

Is your website content updated and talking the right language?

Food for Thought: Avoid Eating Your (e-mailed) Words

We expect everything to be nearly instantaneous nowadays - our meals are ready in under three minutes, thanks to the drive-thru's and microwaves; even our favorite television programs can be seen without commercial breaks, thanks to TiVo and DVR.  So, it is no surprise that e-mail - which is the fastest and easiest form of interaction today - is the number one means of communication in the business world. 

 

As we rely more and more on e-mail as our main form of communication, keep these three things in mind: 

 

1.  Unlike many other forms of communication, like the telephone and the simple face-to-face interaction, e-mails are actually legal documents.   Yes, e-mails are admissible evidence in any kind of court case where the content of the document is proven to be relevant. E-mail has even played a large role in the current Peanut Corporation Salmonella Incident.

 

2.  Choose your words carefully. Be cautious of what you write in an e-mail to a vendor, employee, prospect or customer. Take this scenario for example:  A vendor e-mails you an estimate and you reply back, "Sounds good".  To your vendor, this response could be perceived as approval to proceed with the project, when all you meant was that the price seemed fair.  Needless to say, how you say what you say in an e-mail is of utmost importance.  Check out Robert Scobel’s popular tech blog and see what happened to him through a personal e-mail he sent to a company in regards to a speaking engagement. This could happen to YOU.

 

3.  E-mail is a one-way form of communication.  As "marketing and PR people", we are the in the business of writing and choosing our words carefully.  But, the fact is that, at times, we are all victims of our own words.  It is important that we remind ourselves, and each other, that e-mails are all too often one-dimensional because you never know how the person on the receiving end is going to interpret its contents. 

 

To avoid eating your words later, next time you write an e-mail, consider its contents before you hit send.  Or, instead, you could just pick up the phone.