The Foundation Center is a great organization, they run a number of free resource libraries where you can get all sorts of information on grants, fundraising, etc. They also offer classes and have great online resources.

They are also prolific at sending email if you subscribe to one of their newsletters or set up a search criteria. Their emails offer classes, services, news, etc. Its all good, but to me, its too much, and grant writing is no longer something I’m interested in.

I’ve tried to unsubscribe from their lists several times, but they don’t make it easy. They want you to log in to unsubscribe. Here’s the problem with this.

• First, one should not have to log in to unsubscribe. People who want to unsubscribe probably lost interest in your newsletter long ago and no longer remember their log in information.

• Second, to make it difficult to unsbuscribe can make the person frustrated, and lose any goodwill you might have with a potential donor or user who might in the future want to return to your site.

Like myself, many people subscribe to news using an email alias, and other sites have something like this at the bottom of the page “To unsubscribe to this email, reply to this email with ‘unsubscribe’ in the subject line” That does many people no good, as your email alias is not used by your email program.

So, to not frustrate people, and keep the goodwill and trust you have built with a user, make it REAL EASY to unsubscribe. Feedburner and Constant Contact both use a one-click unsubscribe, and so should everyone else. Keep that goodwill, keep people like me from blogging about your poor unsubscribe method.

Just heard about SocialDevCampChicago from TechCocktail, and I have signed up for a slot to talk about “What’s it like to create and manage a niche social network” . I’ll talk about how I decided to create The Green House, and what I’ve found works and what doesn’t, and more as I think about what I’ll say in 25 minutes.

I’m a veteran speaker from several PodCamps, and I love the un-conference model. I’m also talking with several people in Chicago about having a MediaCamp, a mash up of a PodCamp and a WordCamp, and whatever else we throw in. Interested? let me know here. eric — at — ericrochow.com

photo by Steve Garfield

Reading this email today, I am thinking about several things that could improve this message. In this latest installment of “What Eric Thinks”, here’s what I think.

Like you, I meet many people each month, I sometimes get their business card. We talk a for a minute and move on to the next person.

My problem here is that I don’t recall who Jim XXXX is. I click on the link provided and am brought to a Plaxo page that list a few things about Plaxo, NO picture of who Jim is, [ this isn't Plaxo's fault, its Jim's fault ] and no information about Jim.

I don’t use Plaxo, and Jim has chosen to keep his information private, from what I can tell. Plaxo has a very brief description of what it is, but I’m still not completely sold on the idea. The problem I see here is that there is no link to Learn More about Plaxo, there is only a sign up form.

I think everyone who knows what Plaxo is, the early adopters, the biz networking pros have already signed up. I’ve heard of Plaxo, but I’m reluctant to sign up for yet one more social network when I can’t find out more information about it before handing over my email address and information.

So here is What Eric Thinks:

• Add a link to this invite page to Learn More about Plaxo before signing up.

• Jim XXXX needs to upload a picture

• Jim XXXX needs to make his information available to me, before I buy into this network.

I went to Plaxo.com and on their initial landing page, they have a much better introduction. The have a ‘Take A Tour’ link. Drop that Tour link onto the Invite page and watch your join rate climb.

Here’s a big red flag from the get-go: an email from Twitter saying someone is following me, but the name of the person is off somehow. What’s wrong here:

• ALL CAPS , my father uses all caps in his emails still. I keep telling him its rude, he doesn’t listen.

• What an odd name; what or who is AISIJWOODS?

I don’t have a problem with companies using Twitter, but this one isn’t thought thru clearly.

• there is a lack of personality here. Obviously, we know someone is sending out these Twitters, but there is no person associated with this. Its just ‘EnviroMetal’

• the fact that EnviroMetal follows 1,195 people and only 68 are following EnviroMetal is a red flag. People vote with their feet; or in this case, mouse clicks.

Digging thru the web links, I’m betting Jim Woods of the Steel Recycling Institute sends out the Tweets. This isn’t very obvious, as the links are really small and buried at the bottom of the EnviroMetal web page. Looking thru both  the EnviroMetal and the associated  Steel Recycling Institute websites, there is no ‘Contact’ or ‘About’ page, and no email address provided to contact them, only a phone number; another red flag.

If you’re going to step into the Social Media fishbowl, master Web 1.0 first. Few people will call you, many will email you.

My suggestions:

Make it personal. A better Twitter name would be EnviroMetalJim, its easy to remember, and its a lot better than AISIJWOODS. [ My twitter name is EricGardenfork. ]

Make the bio honest. The Green social media people know they’re being pitched by the steel industry, so be upfront about it. Transparency is big in social media:  “I’m Jim, and I am the green outreach coordinator for the Steel Recycling Institute.”

Make it readable. On your Twitter page, don’t put green type on a green background. Its hard to read. Make it as easy as possible for the end user.

Page 1 of a Google search tell us Jim’s email address:   jimw@recycle-steel.org  and from looking in LinkedIn,  I’m guessing Jim is about 35 years old, and he lives in Pittsburgh. He is the Director Public & Education Relations of the Steel Recycling Institute. But one shouldn’t have to look for this on Google, it should be front and center on the sites.

Both websites associated with this Twitter account, http://www.sustainable-steel.org, and http://www.recycle-steel.org/ , have some interesting information, but by having no easy way for someone who might want to blog about them to contact them for further info, EnviroMetal’s outreach efforts will be futile.

But there is a glimmer here, in one Tweet, Jim offers up a Roscoe lunchbox for whoever gets the most people to follow him on Twitter, which, though I’ve never seen a Roscoe lunchbox, it sounds very cool. Bloggers like swhag just as much as movie stars.

]]> http://ericrochow.com/2008/07/15/using-twitter-as-pr-tool-how-not-to-do-it/feed/ 3 http://ericrochow.com/2008/06/29/members-of-congress-start-using-twitter/ http://ericrochow.com/2008/06/29/members-of-congress-start-using-twitter/#comments Sun, 29 Jun 2008 21:48:03 +0000 eric http://ericrochow.com/?p=402 Representatives John Culberson and Tim Ryan are now using Twitter. Other politicians use it, but its usually their staff that send out the posts. These 2 are sending their own. A quick review of some of their posts reveal their outlook on current topics

Of the two, Mr Culberson is using Twitter for what it does best, which is to have a brief conversations; answering back to queries from followers, he is following 768 people. Mr Ryan is using it more to announce what he is doing at that moment, he has 332 followers, but is not following anyone.

Mr Culberson is also using the Qik, ( here is his page on Qik ) which allows you to stream video from your cell phone. He tried to use Qik in the Oval office, but the Secret Service did not allow it, so he did a Qik from outside the White House

This, I think, is great. Using social media tools to reach out to people who would probably not call their office, write a letter, or attend an event, can now connect with their representatives and have a say in politics.

Today I learned that Mark Frauenfelder of Make Magazine has a blog, Dinosaurs and Robots, which I learned about from Make Magazine’s daily email. While reading about Mark building a chicken coop, ( which i will share with Gardenfork viewers on The Green House ) I found a link to Toolmonger, a blog and podcast.

Bang, I see the first few posts and I am hooked. For some people its puppies, for some its infants; for me its tools. Whats not to like with subject headings like ” 1 Beer Projects”?

I knew exactly what they meant by that term. And when they say beer, I know what kind of beer: Lawnmower Beer

‘LawnmowerBeer’ a phrase I claim to have coined, is an inexpensive lager, preferably a old Milwaukee brand, like Pabst Blue Ribbon, the kind your dad let you take a sip of when you worked in the yard.

Toolmonger, as a blog and podcast is a social media success story, and will blossom in the future as it serves a passionate niche of people, many of which love to share, and I believe marketers want to reach.

I’ve replied to a few of these emails, asking the sender where they got my email address, below is typical of the answer I get back, this one came today, hence this post.

Quite honestly, I am not sure how I got your address in that at one point in this project a former colleague and I pooled together group emails we had received from like-minded organizations.

The sender of this particular email used Constant Contact, which is the service I also use. They have a very easy one click procedure to unsubscribe – keep that easy unsubscribe in mind when choosing a mass email vendor – but still, I had no idea how they had gotten my address. Here is my response I sent back:

…while i certainly applaud the work you are doing, and the smart use of an email service that provides an easy opt-out policy, ( i also use constant contact ) people need to be careful who they send email news to.

my experience has found that people, more and more, are guarding their email addresses, and at times can react in a way not intended to unsolicited emails. instead of garnering support for your cause, you lose them.

i’ve been added to several lists the same way i was added to yours, and i’ve gotten similar answers when i ask how they got my name.

my suggestion to you would be to put at the end of your letter a short sentence something along the lines of :

By compiling several groups lists, we got your email address and thought you’d be interested in this event, if you do not want to receive emails from us, please click on this link to remove your name.

that will defuse most people who might be annoyed with yet another unsolicited email. yes, there is unsubscribe link at the bottom, but a link within the body of the letter works better, its more personal .

Constant Contact requires you to attest that all the email addresses you use with their email service have agreed to receive emails from you. So my answer is not letter perfect.

If you are sending out an email, my suggestion is to not compile a bunch of addresses that everyone in the office has, you can run into trouble. Instead, ask the recipients of the email you’re sending to forward it to people they think would be interested. And include a link in your email letter allowing people who have received it to forward to people they feel may be interested.

Photo by Todd Ehlers 

In every episode of Gardenfork and Real World Green, I mention that people can sign up for our weekly email newsletter with the email address on the lower third of the video.

When an email is sent to that address, an autoresponse is generated that includes a link to sign up on our web page on Constant Contact.

I started using Constant Contact after receiving a few emails from people using their service. I really like how they’ve got their site organized. A simple Drag and Drop system allows you to build an email to your liking. It allows me to build HTML emails from well designed templates, and if you are good at HTML or CSS, you can get up under the hood of the templates and customize them.

You upload your existing email list, and set up the automated sign up page that new subscribers use. You can ask for all sorts of demographic information or none at all. I ask for a name, city, state, and how they found out about the show, but do not require any information to subscribe, as I think that drives people away.

On most of their templates is a button to forward the email to friends, and another one to sign up to receive the newsletter.

The site also provides customizable Subscribe buttons you can put on your site. On Gardenfork the sign up button is right below the video player.

click the button to see how this works

Our email list is not large, but it is effective, especially with people who are not on Facebook. It is a personal way for me to reach out to viewers, and I see the effect the email has by the responses I get.

Don’t rule out email as a way to reach out to people, especially those outside the 2.0 fishbowl.

Started by a spur the moment Twitter by Cathleen Ritterreiser,

a few of us who are not going to South by Southwest decided to have a get-together here in NYC. The crew at For Your Imagination came on board, offering their great loft for the event, next Monday, March 10th.

There will also be a virtual get-together via Cathleen’s Twitter and maybe some live video.

Come by this Monday, March 10th, 7 -9 pm. Its a BYOB or make a donation

22 West 27th Street, 6th Floor

www.foryourimagination.com

You can RSVP on our NONE Facebook event page here.

My friend Mabel, who is one of the smartest people I know, has launched Tot Swap Shop, a website for people with children who want to give items they no longer need to people who do need them and vice versa.

Mabel bought me lunch several times while developing Tot Swap Shop to get my input on the social networking world, and I’m really impressed by what she has put together here.

What rings true here is that Mabel, being a mom, saw a need and built a solution, and its a really simple and elegant solution, which is what works best on the net.

Tots Swap Shop only wants to do one thing. We want to offer a community to exchange second-hand children’s products and advice relating to these products.

Parents everywhere, especially those with limited storage space in their homes or apartments, are looking to rid their growing children’s toys, books, clothes, etc. all the time. Whether they advertise in a newspaper or at their local grocery store, or setting up a garage sale, everyone would prefer that these items go to a happy new home rather than to our ever-growing environmental problem.

The idea to provide an online environment for swapping children’s items came naturally to the founder because of her decade-long experience as a web developer and as a mom. The Internet is the ideal platform for such transactions because of its universal reach and its ability to build communities of like-minded individuals.