IDreamInTech

Let’s be honest, we all read a lot of email.  Though, we live in a 2.0, social media landscape, email has continued to remain as one of our top forms of communication.  Just like social media though, the amount of spam we recieve in our email has increased as well leading to even fuller mailboxes.

Thankfully one positive form of email that’s been on the rise in the last few years, is the newsletter.  Newsletters are the equivalent, of the sunday newspaper, they tell us multiple stories and keep us updated with what’s going on in a particular field.

If your company is not doing a newsletter, it might be something to implement in the future, as newsletter’s serve as a great tool to keep your customer engage and to keep your brand in the mind of the customer.

Want to see a newsletter done perfectly?  Subscribe to one of these three…

1) Convince and Convert – Sent at 4 every Tuesday and Friday.  This email tells you the top 3 tech stories that you might of missed that day.
2) Webtrends – Sent maybe once a week these guys send you the social media white papers that you know, you are dying to read.
3) Social Fresh – The Social Media training group sends you the infographics that you know you are dying to read.

What makes these newsletters perfect?- They don’t over send, like a lot of newsletters do.  Once, maybe twice a week is enough for me.
- They are quick and easy to read.  They don’t oversaturate us with information.
- They don’t sell, they compliment the product.  Newsletters serve as tools not as salesmen.

*If you’re thinking about creating a newsletter, above all else do the research.  Find out what works for your demographics and what doesn’t.

Do you subscribe to newsletters?  Have good stories or even bad ones?  Leave them in the comments below. 

What does your brand say about you?  This is a question that we should be asking ourselves every day.  How does our day to day actions create the brand that we want others to see?

In particular, what do you see when you go to someone’s blog or website.  This is something that I’ve been thinking about a lot in the last few days, as I’ve been thinking of mulling over some changes to this very website.

Most people come to a website for particular reason,  ESPN’s brand is about sports, CNN’s brand is about news, and Amazon’s brand is about shopping.  All of these websites have a particular brand, but does yours?  Even a blog, should have a particular direction.  Ask your friends what your blog or website is about and see if they can tell you.

As I begin thinking about my brand going further in 2012, this is something that I’m going to be thinking about and maybe you should too.

 

 

It’s Thanksgiving time, the time of the year where we all take five minutes out of our day and think about what we’re thankful for.

Now me personally?  I have tons to be thankful for.  I’m employed with two jobs, I started dating someone new this year, and as always my friends and family continue to challenge me each and every day.  To list everything that I’m thankful for would be a bit time consuming but the following list is a few things that definitely stand above the rest.

I am thankful for…My friends who will listen to me no matter how late, I call them…Spotify, for single handedly becoming my music fix each and every day….my nephew and nieces who make me smile no matter what… the experts and bloggers, who continue to make me think…my brother who always reminds me to push harder…the God Damn Batman Twitter account which always makes me laugh…Google mobile maps, for single handedly never  getting me lost…to DJ Waldow and Jason Falls, who reminded me that this social media thing does work…my girlfriend who listens to my rants even when they don’t make sense…my boss and employer who continues to allow me to be creative on a daily basis…to the shiny infographics that are always cool to look at…for Facebook and Twitter for keeping marketers like me employed and busy…to the awesome new people I’ve met this year, who decided to stay around…and most of you I am thankful to you guys, who have continued to follow me on this crazy journey.