ScottWritesEverything.com

The Nora Chronicles: Turning Two

Scott Cohen — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 15:00:05 +0000

What? It’s been 8 months since I last wrote about Nora? Wait, you’re saying she’s turning 2? You’re kidding, right?

Nora turns 2 tomorrow. Two years ago today, we went into the hospital for the induction. (Remember “The Ordeal?”) People always tell me it goes by in the blink of an eye… yikes, they weren’t kidding.

Somehow, I’m not surprised that I haven’t done a Nora Chronicles in eight months. After all, life has gone warp speed since Nora was born, and now I think we’re at the point where big milestones like birthdays are going to be the times I remember to blog about her. Nora’s now at an age where, like the rest of us, milestones are the times we reflect. The rest of time we spend just keeping up.

So, in the spirit of reflection, here’s what I’ve learned over the past eight months, and really two years:

It’s still about small victories and survival.

In thinking about this post, I came across my Nora Chronicles post from the first month. I laughed a bit, because you would think in two years of constant change that this would change, too. Alas, no. But then, that’s what life is really about: survival and small victories. Big victories are so rare, so it’s the small ones you should focus on.

For example, when Nora is in a good mood, she’s funny, amenable, and easy-going. When she’s not, watch out. A constant blend of fun, small victories, and survival. Like life.

Toddlers learn fast. Nora learns crazy fast and has an awesome memory for her age.

In August, I went to Dallas for our first “All Hands” meeting with Inbox Group folks. A few weeks later, as I was leaving to play golf one morning, I went to say bye to Nora. She looked at me with great concern, and said, “You leave on airplane?”

When I was gone, Nora would ask about me, and my wife would say that I was flying on an airplane and that I would be back soon. Nora remembered that a few weeks later. It was crazy… especially considering “airplane” was a new word for her at the time.

It’s just fascinating to truly see how much a baby and toddler are simply sponges for information. Nora doesn’t just parrot back words, she learns them and uses them quickly. She’s just turning two. It’s impressive, right?

And I get a chuckle out of what I wrote 15 months ago: “Can you imagine what humankind would be capable of if we could maintain the exponential learning curves of babies into our adult years? It’s crazy to think of how awesome humans would be if we didn’t plateau in… say… high school.”

Think about it. Seriously.

Getting used to forgetting everything is taking some getting used to.

My short-term memory is horrible now. I have to write everything down, and even then, not necessarily a guarantee that I’ll remember it… if, say, I forget to look at my list, which has been known to happen.

I used to make fun of my parents for forgetting things, and calling all their kids by the other kids’ names. Now I do that all the time, and I only have Nora and the dog. Usually it goes something like this: “Hey X.. I mean Y… whatever your name is!”

I’ve been told this happens to all parents. Does it get better? I hope so. In the meantime, just another in the millions of adjustments to be made.

Babies get personalities awfully quickly… and become kids fast. There are times to jump in and times to let go.

It’s hard to look at your 2-year-old and see a baby… particularly when she looks at you and says “I big girl, Daddy!”

Probably the biggest “culture shock” comes when you realize you don’t have a baby anymore, but a kid. It’s insane. The kid comes equipped with a personality largely their own. I don’t think my wife and I have too much influence on the raw personality, but we’re certainly doing our best to teach Nora right and wrong, danger/no danger, etc.

Perhaps the hardest thing to deal with is the fact that you spend 12-18 months trying to find some control over the environment, and then systematically have to find a way to let things happen anyway. It’s the “Learn It the Hard Way” time in a human’s life. There are some things that can’t be explained.

And not that I’m particularly good at being okay with that. But, it has to happen. And I’m rambling now.

Birthdays are fun again.

When you’re a married-with-kids adult, birthdays mean, “Hey honey, would you mind if I don’t do anything today?” But when you’re a kid, birthdays are everything. I’m excited for the presents Nora will be getting tomorrow. I’m excited for the look on her face. And somehow, eerily, I’m looking forward to having even more toys in my living room.

Yep, birthdays are fun when you’re young.

——

Two years ago tomorrow, I was here:

Now I’m here:

Crazy, ain’t it?

Happy Birthday, Snickelfritz!

An Email Snob Interview with Brad Spychalski

Scott Cohen — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 15:00:17 +0000

It’s been a while since I’ve posted here. I’ve spent the summer largely “unplugged.” In an effort to get things back on track, I have another fabulous email snob interview for you. This time, I talk email with Brad Spychalski, the Connections Manager at OLSON.

ScottWritesEverything: Brad, thanks for joining me. Let’s start at the beginning. I know you’re a bit of a cross-channel marketing guy, but how did you get your start in email marketing?

Brad Spychalski: To be honest, email marketing found me. The whole idea that email could be used as a viable marketing tool was completely off my radar until the company I was working (North American Media Group) was purchased by NY-based venture capitalist and private equity firm the Pilot Group.

(In case you’re unfamiliar, the Pilot Group–led by Bob Pittman, of AOL, Six Flags, MTV, etc., fame–made waves in the email marketing business when they sold Daily Candy for around $100 million to Comcast. (How’s that for proof that email marketing can lead to major profits!) They’re also major investors in other daily e-newsletters such as Thrillist, Vital Juice, and Tasting Table.)

When Pilot Group acquired us, all NAMG properties–including The History Channel Magazine, which I was then managing editor for–jumped head first into the email marketing game. Already taksed with putting out a print magazine, running their social media efforts, developing an iPad edition, and maintaining the magazine’s web presence, adding email to the mix was a bit daunting at first. As time went on, and as our list began to grow in terms of size and user engagement, the real benefits of email marketing started to shine through.

SWE: You and I met through the email marketing “conversations” on Twitter. Do you have any recommendations for those who want to get involved in email marketing?

BS: A few biggies:

Listen. If you were new to something, you wouldn’t just jump in without a plan. The same holds true for any business objective, including email marketing. Sit back and take it all in first. Listen to what the industry leaders are saying and doing and begin to tailor your own program based on their recommendations.
Subscribe. There’s something refreshing about a managed inbox. But you’re an email marketer; it shouldn’t be clean. It should be overflowing with new messages. And although it may be a daunting task to get through them all, try your best not to “mark all as read” because each email is a case study in what works and what doesn’t. So subscribe to everything, B2C, B2B, retail, national, local… permission granted!
Engage. There are so many insightful, innovative, and helpful people in the email marketing business (especially on Twitter — see below). Reach out to them. Ask them for advice. We’re help to help. You’re not alone.

SWE: You talk about those helpful people. Who are your biggest influences in the email marketing community?

BS: A ton of people have influenced me in the email marketing business, especially the folks at the Pilot Group, including Andy Russell, Steven Cutler, and Katherine Chen. Additionally, Tim Carroll, who was NAMG’s general manager of digital business.

Other biggies are the email experts I’ve met on Twitter. Here are a handful of people I’ve come to love, trust, and respect:

SWE: Let’s keep in that same vein and talk blogs. What are your top 5 blogs for email marketers to read?

BS: My 5 are:

SWE: Great list. Let’s talk a little business now. What would you identify are some unique opportunities for email marketing that email marketers may be missing?

BS: One of the biggest is the influence of social media. Rather than fighting it, incorporate it, embrace it. Social is all about relationships, engagement, and community building. So is email. Harness that power and give your audience exactly what it craves.

SWE: What do you think are the biggest challenges facing email marketers today? How can these challenges be best fought?

BS: I see two big challenges:

Overload/Permission. Let’s face it; our inboxes are personal, only accessible by those we trust. You’re not allowed in without permission. So as email marketers, I believe it’s our duty to only send to subscribers who’ve given use permission to do so. If you break that rule, you’ve already broken the trust of your audience… your community is flawed, and ultimately unhappy. Talk about a blueprint for failure.
Spam. Okay, we know the difference between an actual email message and spam, but the lines are getting blurry. Don’t send me multiple emails per day. Is your message on brand? As consumers we should never wonder “why” a message was sent. Always have a purpose. Don’t anger your community. It’ll come back to bite you.

SWE: For email campaigns, what are the top three questions you believe marketers should be asking themselves before they hit send?

BS: Great question! Here is my top three:

Would you open and read this message?
Is the content timely, relevant, and on-brand?
Have you double and triple-checked grammar, punctuation, flow, tense, and style? (My inner editor hones in on this step, big time.)

SWE: Fun questions now. How has your work in email marketing affected your personal use of email?

BS: The biggest effect email marketing has had on my personal use of email is my BS detector can’t be fooled. I’m a bit brutal with my email reading habits. If a subject line doesn’t hook me upon first read, to the digital trash bin it goes. If you haven’t earned my trust, don’t expect to be read. Blow me away, impress me, catch my attention… and then repeat, over and over. Once you’ve done that, we’re best buds.

SWE: What’s your favorite thing about email marketing? What gets you revved up in a good way about email?

BS: In my opinion, the best thing about email marketing is how it is constantly evolving. How many times have you heard that “email is dead?” While article upon article has been written about its demise, email keeps on kicking. In every business I’ve been in, email is the primary means of message exchange. Even those who say social will devour email are incorrect. How do we receive new friend requests, follows, DMs, etc.? That’s right, via email.

SWE: On the flip side, what’s your least favorite thing about email marketing?

BS: My least favorite thing is actually a positive: inbox clutter. I get so many emails sent my way; I just don’t have time to consume it all. Each email is a lesson in good and bad email marketing. So much can be learned just by reading and consuming content.

SWE: Last question. Let’s say you’re giving a keynote speech to the email industry and it’s your personal soapbox. What’s your message?

BS: “I never gave you consent to contact me… so why the hell are you spamming me?”

No one likes to get a phone call from your cable company on a Sunday afternoon offering you an upgrade or a new “deal,” so why are you infringing upon my personal inbox without my permission? Get consent, then send. The whole ask for forgiveness later line doesn’t work in email marketing.

—————

About Brad Spychalski

Brad Spychalski is connection manager for OLSON, an advertising agency in Minneapolis, where he builds online communities. Prior to that he was managing editor of The History Channel Magazine, where in addition to putting out a print magazine, editing the iPad edition, and running the brand’s social media channels, he was in charge of the magazine’s daily e-newsletter, Living History. You can follow him on Twitter at @bradspy or on his blog, The Spy Way to New Media (http://www.thespyway.com).

Email Marketing Incentives: Can We Give Up the Freebies?

Scott Cohen — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 16:00:38 +0000

(Yes. I’m guilty of this, too.)

Odds are, whenever you read or hear about building your email marketing list, inevitably these words are uttered or written:

“Give them an incentive to subscribe.”

Often, marketers take this to mean something along the lines of a coupon or a freebie. “Join our email list and get 10% off your first order.” Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

I have so many questions about this approach. Let’s start with this one: Have we marketers hardwired ourselves to think we have to offer tangible incentives (15% off)?

Better yet: Can an incentive be something other than a freebie? Can we “get away” with “selling” potential subscribers on other benefits of joining the list? Are the below benefits enough?

Exclusive access. (I’ve written about the new socio-economic model being “Access and Opportunity”)
Status. (This may have a lot to do with exclusive access, but perhaps status can be what you’re selling)

Can we answer the “What’s in it for me?” question without resorting to freebies? Or have we not only conditioned ourselves as marketers to acting that way, but our customers as well?

Perhaps the bigger sociological question here is, have we conditioned ourselves as a species to expect something for nothing?

You tell me.

An Email Snob Interview with Andrew Kordek

Scott Cohen — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 15:00:47 +0000

For this next installment of the Email Snob Interview Series, I talk email (via email) with Andrew Kordek, Co-Founder and Chief Strategist for Trendline Interactive.

ScottWritesEverything: Andrew, thanks for joining me. Let’s start at the beginning. Tell me how you got started in email marketing.

Andrew Kordek: I was in sales for Quest Software and thought it would be a good idea to send out a massive email to all my prospects to get them to download the new piece of software. I was able to figure out how to do mail-merge in Outlook and one night I set it up to run all night long and send individual emails to over 5,000 prospects. The results were amazing and it got me on the map to create a lot of noise in the products we were selling.

I was then asked to do what I learned to fill up a seminar that the company was having and, lo and behold, they had the highest registration rate and turnout in the company’s history. I quickly moved out of sales and into a marketing role.

SWE: For as long as I’ve been a part of the email marketing community, you’ve been heavily involved in the “conversations” around email marketing. How did you develop your passion for email? And what would your recommendations be for those who want to get involved in the email marketing community?

AK: I think it boils down to knowing that you are good at one thing and getting involved. I love the way this industry is evolving and the people are super passionate about what they do. There is only one way to get started in the email circle, and that is to participate in all the forums and discussions that are going on. Have an opinion, stick to it, but be open to learning from others.

SWE: Who is your biggest influence in the email marketing community?

AK: There really is no single person I can point to. I love them all for many different reasons.

SWE: What are your top three books you feel every email marketer should read? (They don’t need to be email-specific)

AK: My three:

The Little Engine That Could. Sometimes you have to just keep pushing and pushing to accomplish things.
The Last Lecture. Makes you appreciate all that life has to offer.
Email Marketing By the Numbers. One of my first email books and still one of my favorites.

SWE: Let’s stay in that vein and talk blogs. What are your top five blogs for email marketers?

AK: There are so many that are good. I consume a ton of information in short bursts, but I would have to say some of my favorites are:

SWE: Having made the “switch” from client to agency side in the past year, what do you think are the biggest things that vendors and agencies forget about on the client side? What can vendors and agencies do better for clients?

AK: Three things:

It’s easy to talk about things and changes, but difficult to implement.
Go to your client and learn about their program from the inside out. It might surprise you.
Ask questions. Lots of questions.

SWE: In the next 9-18 months, do you see any paradigm shifts coming for email marketing? What should email marketers be focused on?

AK: Email marketers should be focused on driving repeatable business and establishing long-term relationships with email. Wait.. no. That’s barfy and sounds like everyone else.

Email marketers should be focused on getting better everyday. That “getting better” is different in every company and should not be labeled as only a few things.

SWE: For email marketing campaigns, what are the top three questions you believe marketers should be asking themselves before they hit send?

AK: Is this targeted? Does the call-to-action clearly tell them what I want them to do? How does this email look on mobile or any email client?

SWE: Now some fun questions. How has your work in email marketing affected your personal use of email?

AK: My inbox is the craziest ass place you will ever see. Well over 300,000 messages and searchable, too. I am obsessed with signing up for programs but I have to find a desktop email client that can handle the load. Seriously, I have tried them all.

SWE: What is your favorite thing about email marketing? What gets you revved up (in a good way)?

AK: Making it better for companies and showcasing successes rather than point out failures (unless they are epic).

SWE: On the flip side, what’s your least favorite thing about email?

AK: People who claim to be experts or strategists and charge money for advice only to find out they have never done email marketing on the client side. Poseurs…

SWE: Let’s say you were giving a keynote speech to the industry as a whole and it was your personal soapbox. What’s your message?

AK: When you follow best practices, you’re merely redefining mediocrity.

SWE: Last question. If you were stuck in an elevator with the CEO of a company that doesn’t utilize email, what is your “elevator speech” for email marketing?

AK: I have no elevator speech. I would simply ask the CEO why they are not utilizing email. To me, it’s about asking questions and not selling them on why they should be doing it.

——-

About Andrew Kordek

Andrew Kordek is the Co-Founder and Chief Strategist for Trendline Interactive. He has over 19 years of sales and marketing experience, but his passion with email and interactive marketing began 11 years ago.

During those 11 years Andrew has

Managed all aspects of the email marketing program which included deliverability, retention, activation, lifecycle and testing at Groupon Inc, the fastest growing company of all time
Responsible for the strategy, execution and analysis of the transactional and trigger based email for Sears Holdings, the nations fourth largest broad line retailer.
Created and managed all of the email and interactive marketing globally for Quest Software, a $700 million software company.

Andrew is a subscriber advocate, concerned more with the right thing than the easy thing in email marketing. His passion and boundless energy has been called infectious and contagious by many.

When Andrew is not spending time with his family, watching football and finding cool new apps on his iPhone he is thinking, writing, speaking, blogging, dreaming and generally obsessed with email marketing.

Find Andrew on Twitter: @andrewkordek

Find Trendline Interactive on Twitter: @trendlinei

Email: andrew@trendlineinteractive.com

An Email Snob Interview with Chester Bullock

Scott Cohen — Wed, 25 May 2011 15:00:27 +0000

For my next subject in the Email Snob Interview series, I decided it’s appropriate to switch my focus to the client side, particularly now that I’m on the vendor side of the email marketing house. As a result, this time I chat email with Chester Bullock, eMarketing Specialist for AAA Arizona.

ScottWritesEverything: Thanks for jumping in, Chester! Let’s start at the beginning. I’d love to know how you got your start in email marketing.

Chester Bullock: When I graduated from college (1994), the web was just starting to take off. I was hired into IT at Copper Mountain ski resort in Colorado. I was doing “social” before it was called that (Usenet anyone?), publishing my “Somewhat Daily Reports” about snow conditions. It was a totally underground thing, just me–not endorsed by the company at all. It must have been a good idea because another resort started doing something similar a short time later (The “Steamboat Straight Talk Ski Report”).

Anyhow, I told them this “Internet thing” was going to be big and we should have a website. We were the third ski area in the world with an official website, and the first one built in house. If you want a laugh, go to the Internet Archive and look up the early versions. I have been involved in Internet-related marketing and technologies ever since.

SWE: We got to know each other because we’ve both been heavily involved in the “conversations” around email marketing, you particularly so in the past year or so. What would be your recommendations for those who want to get involved in the email marketing community?

CB: Don’t hesitate to ask questions. The people I have met in the email industry are incredibly gracious and helpful. The biggest names in this business have been extremely kind and helpful to me, and I really appreciate that. But I never would have known that if I hadn’t asked. From the outside, it might seem like some kind of clique, but it really isn’t. These people are genuine.

The social side is different. There are still some super helpful people, but there are also a lot of big egos and, in my mind, too many people trying to make a go of it on their own. You can throw a pebble in the air and hit a social media consultant or self-proclaimed expert these days. I have never been a big fan of the blatant self-promotion thing, so these people bother me a lot. Probably part of why I do better on the brand side than doing my own consulting thing.

SWE: You mention how email folks are incredibly helpful (and I completely agree, by the way). Who is your biggest influence in the email marketing community? Why?

CB: Joel Book and Andrew Kordek. Both of these gentlemen have been tremendous resources for me. They encourage me to constantly think outside the box, and have not hesitated when I have had a question. I try really hard not to abuse that. The amount of knowledge both of these people bring to the game is astounding, and I feel very privileged to know them.

SWE: Let’s stay in that influence idea. What are your top three books (email-related or not) that all email marketers should read?

CB: My three are:

Good to Great by Jim Collins. Every senior executive reads this at some point. I kept hearing quotes from it from a former CEO. I read the book and learned he was using it like statistics–only telling the story he wanted to. This helped me better understand the CEO (and that he couldn’t really be trusted), but also helped me articulate a lot of things I felt about building a team. If you really read the whole book, there is a lot of great stuff in there that people need to consider when they move into management and become responsible for teams of people and the success of a business unit or company.
The Mirror Test by Jeffrey Hayzlett. This book prompts you to ask the hard questions about your business. The kinds of questions that are in the back of your mind, but you won’t ask because your judgment is clouded by emotion. It is also illustrated with great examples of the author’s own poor choices. I am a pretty straightforward person, and Mr. Hayzlett is as well, so I really appreciated what he had to say. That also means it may not be for everyone.
Anything written by David Meerman Scott. His premise that social really just boils down to real time is something a lot of people and organizations still don’t get. In order to better understand how email fits into the picture, we also need to understand the needs and desires that social fills people. Never hurts to know about all the channels that we use to communicate.

SWE: Nice list. What about blogs?

CB: Wow, this is tough. I use Pulse News on my iPad and have two tabs filled with email and social blog feeds. I guess the top ones now are:

It really isn’t fair to limit the list though, as there is a ton of good content out there. I should also toss out a mention for one of the best resources I know–though it’s not a blog per se–OnlyInfluencers.com, the invaluable email list that is run by Bill McCloskey.

SWE: Let’s talk shop. Given your unique view from the customer side of email marketing (working for AAA), what would you say are some unique opportunities for email in terms of customer communication?

CB: Email is still incredibly portable. You can get it on a mobile device, on the desktop, or at a hotel kiosk when you are traveling. It is easy to archive and search, and lends itself well to a number of applications in nurturing a relationship with a customer or building one with a potential customer.

SWE: What sort of overall effect do you see mobile having on email marketing as a whole in the next 3-5 years? Any paradigm shifts?

CB: Rendering I think is the biggest one. I’d be in favor of a new mime type to address mobile devices. I don’t think that there are any massive paradigm shifts though, because email is still good at what it does. You can only convey so much in an SMS before the user has to go to a web page, read an email, or make a phone call. For the space that my company is in, mobile can be really useful, but the crossover into what we do via email is fairly minimal.

SWE: In light of mobile and social, what do you think are the biggest challenges facing email marketers today? How can these challenges be best fought?

CB: The biggest challenge is the hype. It started last year when a very uninformed reporter declared email dead. People need to acknowledge the strengths and weaknesses of each communication medium and build plans around those. Social and Mobile are almost looked upon as the latest incarnation of the Holy Grail. I remember when websites were going to fill that role. We now know that isn’t the case.

SWE: For email campaigns, what are the top three questions you believe marketers should be asking themselves before they hit send?

CB: My three questions:

How am I providing value to the subscribers of this list?
How am I going to measure success?
Am I taking advantage of an opportunity to test?

SWE: Fun questions now. How has your work in email marketing affected your personal use of email?

CB: I don’t hesitate to reply to companies that have something wrong in their campaigns. The latest example would be Qdoba emails not rendering correctly in Gmail. I replied to them, letting them know and suggesting a fix. Of course, this was met with a response of “We don’t monitor this inbox,” which led me to start asking questions about this practice in the industry groups I am a part of. I don’t agree with this policy at all. You should ALWAYS be listening and responding to the feedback, no matter what channel it is coming in on.

SWE: What is your favorite thing about email marketing? What gets you revved up in a good way about email?

CB: The theoretical ability we have to meet the needs of every subscriber. It isn’t always practical, but you can also do little things to serve the needs of the subscriber while furthering your business goals. For example, in our preference center, we recently added an option to choose which time of day you receive email from AAA Arizona. We now send our emails at three different times of day–mid-morning (10 am), mid-afternoon (2:30 pm), and early evening (6:30 pm). It’s still too early to tell what the impact has been, but it seems like the right thing to do.

SWE: On the flip side, what’s your least favorite thing about email?

CB: Fighting the battle for the inbox at the ISP level. The seemingly moving targets the ISPs have to put in place because of the spammers can be frustrating. Our customers trust our brand (it’s what our brand was built on), but because it is so easy for a spammer to impersonate us, the digital world has to be weary. To that end, I am glad I don’t run my own mail server. The headaches would be an order of magnitude higher, I’m sure.

SWE: Let’s say you are giving the keynote speech to the email marketing community as a whole. It’s your personal soapbox. What’s your message?

CB: I am more excited than ever to be involved in email marketing. At a large number of organizations, it is finally gaining the respect it deserves as a marketing channel. For the first time, the arguments of list quality versus list quantity are being own. Companies like Best Buy are demonstrating that with a reasonable amount of resources, you can take a campaign to the next level by creating 18 million unique versions of an email on the fly, tailored to the customer preferences and habits.

I have always been a data person, and email lets me leverage data in ways marketers have always hoped to. The Holy Grail will never be obtained, but email marketing can drive more than its fair share to the bottom line when done properly.

SWE: Last question. If you were stuck in the elevator with the CEO of a company which doesn’t utilize email, what is your “elevator speech” for email marketing?

CB: How many seconds does Jeffrey Hayzlett say you have these days? 118?

The first 8 seconds to hook them: “I can improve customer retention for this company using email marketing.”

And then the remaining 110 following:

Email marketing allows me to take the vast knowledge you have about your customers and tailor a campaign to fit with their needs or desires. While the term “relevance” has become cliche in digital marketing, email can truly be relevant to a customer and spur them to make the decision to continue doing business with you. New customers are expensive to acquire, and email is an extremely cost-effective way to keep your brand in the forefront of your current customers’ minds.

———————

About Chester Bullock

Chester Bullock is currently an eMarketing Specialist for AAA Arizona. A veteran of the Internet, he built his first website in 1995 and was doing social media when its name was USENET. He currently sends 65 email campaigns a month for AAA, and is a believer that Subscribers Rule. A 100% telecommuter, he resides in Denver, Colorado with his wife and 3 children.

Three Lessons Learned from the Social Network

Scott Cohen — Tue, 17 May 2011 15:15:09 +0000

A few months ago, I decided to get “caught up” and watch “The Social Network.” I am now getting caught up on deciding how to address the key messages I got from the film. What I will not be doing is reviewing it in depth (beyond I enjoyed it, and I know a lot of people didn’t).

One of the better memes in the movie was the ongoing argument of how to monetize Facebook. From this ongoing argument, I gleaned three important lessons about business building as well as social media:

1. Don’t monetize until you know what you’re monetizing.

Once Facebook began to gain momentum, Zuckerberg and Saverin (his best friend and business partner) argued over how to make money with the site. Saverin wanted to have ads on the site as soon as possible. Zuckerberg wanted to wait to make any money off of the site because “he didn’t know Facebook really was” yet.

Bloggers and companies fall into this trap all the time. They think that they should be trying to make money right away. Yes, money is important. But social media in particular has flipped the funnel a bit. You have to present value and “make deposits” before you can withdraw.

Zuckerberg realized that they needed to figure out the intrinsic and perceptive value of Facebook before they tried to make money off of it. Just because Facebook was becoming popular wasn’t enough of a reason to ignore the need to find the unique value proposition of the site.

Bloggers often forget that. They’ll place ads right away. They’ll monetize before they develop their community. And oftentimes, monetizing too early alienates those who are building your business for you.

2. Recognize the value of your product.

This goes hand-in-hand with lesson #1. Once you figure out what you’re trying to monetize, determine the value you’re bringing to your customers each and every day. There was a poignant moment in the movie where Zuckerberg said, “Facebook doesn’t go down.” Zuck’s realization that the power behind Facebook was constant access was his “I-know-what-this-thing-is-worth” moment.

What’s your business, Twitter handle, or blog worth?

3. Have a reason for everything you do.

The origin behind Facebook (at least according to Aaron Sorkin’s script) was entirely Zuckerberg’s obsession with gaining the exclusive access to the “clubs” at Harvard. Why? Because they were exclusive and “cool.” Has it expanded since then? Absolutely. But there was a driving purpose behind everything he did and has done to build Facebook.

I can’t tell you how many businesses join Facebook simply because they “need to be on Facebook.” Why do you need to be on Facebook? How are you going to use it? What community are you going to build?

Don’t be on Twitter for the sake of being on Twitter. Tweet for a reason. That reason will drive the value you bring to your community of customers and influencers. Without that reason, you’re just taking up “space.”

Answer the “Why” before you answer the “How.” Trust me.

Another Day, Another Email Marketing Podcast

Scott Cohen — Fri, 06 May 2011 16:24:47 +0000

A few months ago, right as I joined Inbox Group full time, I jumped on a podcast with Luke Glasner of Red Pill Email to discuss list hygiene and engagement. I’m thinking I have a voice for radio, no? If you have 8 minutes, take a listen:

Inbox Group on the EEC List Growth and Engagement Podcast from Inbox Group on Vimeo.

Note: If you want a more in-depth summary of what’s said, I posted this on the Inbox Group blog yesterday.