We’ve talked about email marketing before, particularly in relation to how to make your email social and integrate the two toolsets. This week we talk about email marketing strictly. Yep, it’s open rates, it’s subscriptions, it’s smart content. Everyone’s got an email address, and everybody’s got their own inbox. So this is a privileged place to be. What’s the best way to encourage people to want you in that space? This question and more addressed below.

As always, we’re taking your questions. Did we not hit on the exact thing you wanted to know about? Get at us.

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2 Email Marketing Strategies That Work. This article offers the Short Course Strategy and the Further Interaction Strategy, which are designed to increase open rates, build relationships, and help involve the reader in your multitude of web content.

Humanize Your Email With A Well Timed Thank You. This one gets straight to the point. In all of these articles you’re going to see some constant advice: people don’t like feeling that they’re being sold something. It’s important, as always, to be honest, genuine and human. Thank you notes certainly help–see this article for the proper timing.

Emails Are Content Too. For whatever reason, many organizations are a bit hesitant when it comes to what to put in their emails. What’s the proper content? Can I put this, can I put that? This article encourages you to treat your emails just as you would with any other content venue. Likewise, and perhaps moreso, look at the emails your sending as potential blog posts. Take nuggets from them and you have tweets and fan page updates. Your emails are worth it. Be bold, be original–do your thing.

Email: Option vs. obligation. This raises some interesting questions not only about outward emails but internal email as well–primarily concerning email flood. The article claims that, when we send an email, we feel the recipient is obligated to respond in some way. But what are the implications of viewing it as an option? Keep this in mind when for internal purposes as well as for external purposes.

5 Proven Ways To Increase Email Subscriptions. This is the start of a really solid article suggesting some useful and creative tips for getting more people to subscribe to your email. To read the whole thing you’ll need a MarketingProfs subscription, which is free.

image courtesy emarketing-strategies.blogspot.com

Aren't all of your B2B interactions like this?

Well hello there! This week’s roundup is all business. So business, we’ve got a slew of articles here for you on B2B. Emarketer has some info-packed articles on mobile, email, websites, and social media use among B2B, and MarketingSherpa serves some knowledge made of social media tactics and B2B sales.

So be on the lookout every week for news, tips from pros, reviews, emerging technology, and a whole bundle of thought-provoking articles on this ever-developing, exciting world of social media.

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Website and Email critical b2b investments: Emarketer gives us another insightful article, showing that online marketing spending in 2011 has website and email with the largest increase in funding, followed by social media. This article’s packed with additional stats on what the B2B industry is doing.

How and When to Use Content in the B2B Sales Process: MarketingSherpa has three of their panelists from the “How To Develop Content for Specific Buying Stages” panel break down their systems and advice into essential elements of cohesiveness, defining the buying stages, and involving sales. Read the thorough explanations of each element via the link.

Social Media Tactics for B2b: What are the most common B2b social media marketing tactics? MarketingSherpa graphed it out so you can find out what’s most effective for other B2b groups like your own.

B2B possibilities for mobile: Forbes Insight surveyed C-Suite executives in October 2010 and found 82% had a smartphone, with 56% saying they’d clicked on mobile ads. If you wanted to know about the real presence of mobile in the business world, this Emarketer article breaks it down well. How often do you work on your smartphone?

Happy New Year’s Eve, world! We hope your year is seeing its way out in good health and spirit. This will be our last roundup of 2010, but we’ve got 52 more to look forward to next year. So stay tuned and we’ll keep rounding up the top stories in the social media world to help you stay up to speed with trends and developments that will enhance your online marketing strategy and experience.

This week we take out our crystal ball and talk 2011. What can we expect or hope to see in the coming year? This year brought surprises, and we can only expect more in the coming months, so we look at what people are saying about digital advertising, news media, small business, and lastly, of course, social media. Needless to say, there are a lot of exciting prospects, so we’ll be interested to see how it all pans out.

Be on the lookout every week in 2011 for news, tips from pros, reviews, emerging technology, and a whole bundle of thought-provoking articles on this ever-developing, exciting world of social media. Have a safe, fantastic holiday.

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10 Predictions For the News Media in 2011: Predictions galore, including some of the following—social media optimization will challenge SEO, mobile-first news organizations will emerge, interactive tv will rise up, and more niche content news sites will develop.

5 Predictions for Small Business in 2011: social media will get focused in the new year, smartphones usage—already owned by 48% of business owners—will go up, and cloud computing—are you into it?

6 Predictions for Digital Advertising in 2011: social web influencers will become celebrities; smaller, more intimate social connections will rise up; and brands will become more like media companies.

10 Ways Social Media Will Change in 2011: video will be everywhere, companies will integrate social feedback into decision-making, ROI will be redefined, and some musings on the Next Big Social Network.

Email, Social Media to See More Marketing Dollars in 2011: “According to a November 2010 survey of business executives around the globe by StrongMail, nearly two-thirds of companies will increase spending on email marketing, and 57% will put more dollars toward social media marketing. Search took a distant third place with 41% of respondents indicating they would spend more.”

Holly's "chocolate-chocolate-cherry" cookies

Good tidings of joy, everyone! And a happy holiday season. So you know the rules: you can open one gift on Christmas Eve. But hey, we’re hip! And who are we kidding, you guys are great! So we think we can make an exception–just this year—because we’ve got five gifts for you. And unlike that houndstooth sweater, you can totally regift this.

This Christmas dinner, you’re a social media hotshot. You just checked in at “Granpappy’s House”, on FourSquare, Facebook Places, and Twitter Places (not even integrated) and you tell Aunt Maude: “It’s all about the fans” and grab some casserole. So we take a look at how to get more fans on Facebook and how to be good to them. Then we give you some information that will help you address user-end Facebook concerns with the newsfeed filter and instant personalization.

Be on the lookout every week for news, tips from pros, reviews, emerging technology, and a whole bundle of thought-provoking articles on this ever-developing, exciting world of social media.

Your biggest fan,

Neovia

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Surefire Way to Get More Facebook Fans: If you’re like most of us (everyone but the Glee fan page), you’ve faced some difficulty getting people to “like” your page. Why is that? It’s an art, and in this article from Guy Kawasaki, he recommends incentivizing your fan page content in creative ways. Read on for details.

How to Convert Email Contacts to Facebook Fans Using “Tell Your Friends”: In early December, Facebook threw fan page admins a bone and released an incredibly helpful tool that tells you which of your email contacts aren’t currently liking your page, allowing you to message them. So, tell your friends.

6 Surefire Ways to Piss Off Your Facebook Fans: You just got Facebook fans with the above surefire methods. Now, avoid surefire pissing them off. Facebook fans are your friends. So be good to them, particularly by avoiding the herein-contained activities.

Facebook Creates Page Explaining Instant Personalization: Speaking of pissing off fans, privacy has been and always will be a concern for Facebook users and fans on your page, so it would do you well to be in the know in this department. Facebook released a video showing how they use information to create Instant Personalization and how to turn that off.

Facebook Newsfeed Filtering: Facebook has given the user more control in deciding what goes on their feed. Which means “liking” a page isn’t enough anymore. How will you stay in the feed?