The Social Media Channel

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• How Twitter can prevent a massive user exodus in Asia
• Facebook passes 1.23 billion monthly active users, 945 million mobile users, and 757 million daily users
• PayPal denies providing payment information to hacker who hijacked $50,000 Twitter username
• Twitter for iOS updated with new photo tools, recommended tweets, and better login verification
• Facebook for BlackBerry 10 gets inline tagging, option to delete Timeline posts, offline viewing, and more
• LinkedIn launches ‘How You’re Connected’ tool on profiles to help members introduce each other
• How I lost my $50,000 Twitter username
• How to craft the perfect email subject line
• 5 ways to get through writer’s block or content marketing fatigue
• Facebook now lets all advertisers target people who visited their site or used their mobile app

How Twitter can prevent a massive user exodus in Asia Posted: 29 Jan 2014 01:55 PM PST Thomas Clayton is the CEO of Bubbly, a social media startup backed by Sequoia Capital, SingTel Innov8, and JAFCO.  Twitter has experienced a few highs and lows as a public company since announcing its IPO in November. Now on the verge of the company's first quarterly earnings report, there's already a major issue Twitter needs to address to keep its future looking bright: users in Asia are increasingly losing interest in the service. According to a report by social media research company Semiocast, Asia was once the fastest growing market for Twitter in the summer of 2010. This growth has since been slowly waning and has now reached a noticeable tipping point. This is particularly alarming for Twitter in areas like South Korea and Japan, where mobile device usage and wealth are prevalent, and lack of access isn't an issue. A report by the analytics company CYRAM indicates that as of August 2013, 64 percent of South Korea's approximately 7 million users hadn't tweeted in over six months. This number has gotten significantly worse from the prior December, when it was at 56 percent. In order for Twitter to fully capitalize on the benefits the vast Asian market has to offer, the company needs to focus on keeping users engaged and generating enough advertising cash to be profitable. Here are my thoughts on how Twitter can reverse its outlook in Asia. Make its community smaller and more exclusive The most influential markets around the world have spoken: when it comes to social media, less is more. Furthermore, Twitter users in South Korea and Japan have said they're quitting the service because it's too open, too crowded, and too difficult. People are tired of scrolling through seemingly endless photo streams and bogged down newsfeeds. Instead, the tide has turned toward sharing that is more closed and simple. Just look at the rampant success of services that employ this strategy such as Snapchat, WeChat, and LINE – to name a few. With this trend in mind, Instagram recently added a new private messaging feature that allows users to share photos and videos with a small group of followers, rather than to one's entire follower base. This is exactly the kind of step that Twitter needs to take to get back in touch with its Asian user base. Right now, people in Asia view Twitter more as a news delivery tool rather than a place to share and interact with friends. By expanding the Direct Message feature to allow users to share with a small group of followers, it would make Twitter more relevant for social sharing and give them a chance to pull Asian users back in. Adjust monetization strategy Since smartphone penetration is relatively low across South and Southeast Asia, Twitter also has a lower penetration rate and a far lower monetization rate, as an ad-model doesn't really work with feature phone users. Therefore, this leaves Twitter in need of an alternate earnings route. In my opinion, the best way for Twitter to generate revenue in emerging markets is to partner with local carriers. This is definitely not the norm these days in the West, where partnering with mobile operators is a thing of the past. However, working with operators in Asia is the best way to reach the most number of people. In emerging markets, operators have the existing infrastructure needed to reach the masses, and Twitter could reach far more users over simple SMS – just as it did originally in the U.S. before smartphone apps existed. This would also give Twitter an alternative charging and monetization option: users' prepaid cards, the only ubiquitous billing mechanism across these markets. Currently, the largest 40 operators across Asia represent more than 90 percent of all subscribers, which comes out to more than 2 billion potential users. These numbers alone speak for themselves. What may be surprising to some is that many feature phone users are very willing to spend for simple service features, because paying for content on the mobile web is engrained in their culture. They don't expect all Internet services to be free, whereas Westerners will spend more time searching for workarounds to avoid additional charges. This is why selling virtual goods, which are intangible objects in online communities such as ways to upgrade or personalize the service, could also be a viable revenue-generating strategy for the company. It has been a successful route for companies like Tencent, which have brought in billions through these kinds of sales. Add culturally relevant features Stickers are essentially a must on social networks these days in Asia. One reason stickers have been so successful in Asia, is that they help people to express their emotions accurately and concisely – often much faster than it would take to type them in local language characters. In Asian languages, long-winded responses are frequently needed to accomplish this. The use of a sticker not only solves this problem, but it adds humor and fun to social interactions that many users enjoy. Just look at emojis for example. These could fall right in line with the before mentioned suggestion of Twitter adding a line of virtual goods. If the company released a package of purchasable stickers, it could capitalize on Asian trends and spending behaviors in one swoop. However, before the results unfold on February 5, Twitter needs to take a hard look at the Asian market and make some very specific changes. Asia doesn't fit into the same business model mold as other continents, and it has the potential to pay serious dividends. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Facebook passes 1.23 billion monthly active users, 945 million mobile users, and 757 million daily users Posted: 29 Jan 2014 01:12 PM PST As part of the financial results for its fourth quarter, Facebook today announced a number of new milestones. The social network has now passed 1.23 billion monthly active users. Of those, daily active users passed 757 million on average during December 2013, and the number of monthly active mobile users hit 945 million. Here's the breakdown from the release: Daily active users (DAUs) were 757 million on average for December 2013, an increase of 22% year-over-year. Mobile DAUs were 556 million on average for December 2013, an increase of 49% year-over-year. Monthly active users (MAUs) were 1.23 billion as of December 31, 2013, an increase of 16% year-over-year. Mobile MAUs were 945 million as of December 31, 2013, an increase of 39% year-over-year. As always, mobile is what we want to focus on: Facebook needs to keep growing its number of users signing in on phones and tablets to stay relevant and to keep investors happy. In fact, it's worth noting that 76.83 percent of Facebook's total monthly user base now accesses the service from a mobile device. With both daily numbers available now, we can calculate the percentage of Facebook's total daily user base that accesses the service from a mobile device: 73.44 percent. That number has been slowly growing from the 40 percent mark in 2011, through the 50 percent and 60 percent marks in 2012. It moved into the 70 percent range in 2013 and managed to keep growing. Last quarter, we predicted the number will get to 80 percent in 2014, and while that's very high for a service that began as a desktop website, we're sticking to our figure. As we do every quarter, let's now take a look at this growth in graph form. Here is Facebook's growth for total active users: Here is Facebook's growth for monthly mobile active users: Last but not least, here are daily active users: Last quarter, Facebook passed 1.19 billion monthly active users, 874 million mobile users, and 728 million daily users. While the year-over-year growth numbers are listed above, it's also interesting to see Facebook's growth from quarter to quarter. Between Q3 2013 and Q4 2013, the company was up 3.36 percent in total monthly users, 8.12 percent in monthly mobile users, and 3.98 percent in daily users. Unfortunately, we can't look at the growth in daily active mobile users, since Facebook has only started providing the figure this past quarter (that's why you only see three charts above). We can say, however, that the percentage growth for monthly mobile users is increasing. Top Image Credit: Chris Jackson/Getty Images This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

PayPal denies providing payment information to hacker who hijacked $50,000 Twitter username Posted: 29 Jan 2014 12:24 PM PST PayPal today denied the allegations made in the viral story "How I lost my $50,000 Twitter username" by Naoki Hiroshima, saying it immediately investigated the situation and has found it was not at fault. The company said its policies prohibit the discussion of "details related to our customers' accounts," but it wants to set the record straight as best as it can. PayPal is making the following assertions: PayPal says it carefully reviewed its records and can confirm that there was a failed attempt made to gain this customer's information by contacting PayPal. PayPal did not divulge any credit card details related to this account. PayPal did not divulge any personal or financial information related to this account. This individual's PayPal account was not compromised. "At PayPal the security of your personal and financial information is our top priority," the company said. "Our customer service agents are well trained to prevent, social hacking attempts like the ones detailed in this blog post." PayPal also said it is reaching out to the affected customer and will offer assistance. It's unclear that the company will be able to do much for Hiroshima, given that the deed is already done. Since PayPal isn't providing a recording of any phone calls the hacker reportedly made to the company, there is no way to verify if PayPal employees followed the correct protocols. At the same time, the hacker in question could easily not have told Hiroshima the truth about how he or she gained access. GoDaddy has yet to issue its own statements, but even then it appears this story will remain a "he said, she said" tale. We may never find out exactly what happened. Top Image Credit: Eric Piermont/AFP/Getty Images This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Twitter for iOS updated with new photo tools, recommended tweets, and better login verification Posted: 29 Jan 2014 12:11 PM PST Twitter today updated its iOS app new photo tools, a new recommended tweets section, and better login verification. You can download the new version now directly from Apple's App Store. Here's the full Twitter version 6.1 for iOS changelog: Click on a Tweet and reply with a photo by selecting the gallery icon. Easily mention other users when you Tweet a photo. Improvements to the photo cropping and image rotation. Various improvements to the photo viewer. Users with login verification enabled no longer need temporary passwords to log in to their device. When you've read all the latest Tweets, pull to refresh and see recommendations for new content on Twitter. The additions first arrived on Twitter for Android on Monday, and the company said they would be "coming soon" to iOS. Two days later and the new version is here. Image Credit: Damien Meyer/AFP/Getty Images This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Facebook for BlackBerry 10 gets inline tagging, option to delete Timeline posts, offline viewing, and more Posted: 29 Jan 2014 10:42 AM PST BlackBerry today released Facebook version 10.3 for BlackBerry 10 smartphones, adding a slew of new features. You can download the new version now directly from BlackBerry App World. Here's what's new: Inline Tagging in Status Posts – Easily tag friends in a status post or a shared post. Your friends list automatically appears as you type. "New Stories" active link in newsfeed – Get notification as new stories are posted. Notifications appear when in the newsfeed, and instantly refreshes the newsfeed when selected. Deleting/hiding posts on your own timeline – Second thoughts about that post… not to worry, you can now delete or hide posts on your own timeline. View content when offline – Improved caching means that you can now see all content downloaded prior to going offline, when you are offline. ➤ Facebook for BlackBerry 10 See also – BlackBerry begins selling SIM-unlocked smartphones online, starting with Z10 for $399 and Q10 for $549 in the US and Twitter for BlackBerry 10 gets support for lists, location trends, suggestions for who to follow, and more Image Credit: Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

LinkedIn launches ‘How You’re Connected’ tool on profiles to help members introduce each other Posted: 29 Jan 2014 08:16 AM PST LinkedIn today launched a new "How You're Connected" tool on profile pages that aims to help members introduce each other. This feature will begin rolling out to English members around the world beginning today, and the social media company says the types of insights it provides will be expanded "in the months to come." The addition means when you visit someone's profile, you will now not only see who in your network knows them, but also how they know each other. Here is how the new feature looks like: LinkedIn hopes that by helping users find "the best path or strongest commonalities shared" between them and the person they're interested in, it will increase the chance of forming new important contacts. If you're looking to strike a professional relationship, LinkedIn says this information should help you decide the best contact to request an introduction from. Here is the example LinkedIn provides: So let's say you're an advertising professional looking for an introduction to the CMO of a company you'd love to do business with. You might find one mutual connection attended school with her before she kick started her career but another worked with her recently on a very high-profile campaign. Chances are, the connection that worked with her recently is more likely to have a stronger, more relevant connection and therefore be the best source for an introduction. In the end, of course, you're still playing a guessing game. It's possible "the connection that worked with her" didn't enjoy any of it, and the "mutual connection that attended school with her" was the better choice all along. Regardless of how powerful social networks are becoming, they're still augmenting human relationships, not replacing them. See also – LinkedIn partners with 7 online education firms to let users add certifications and courses to their profiles and LinkedIn redesigns its apps for iOS 7, adds endorsements and beginner's guide to mobile site Top Image Credit: mariosundar / Flickr This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

How I lost my $50,000 Twitter username Posted: 28 Jan 2014 08:57 PM PST Naoki Hiroshima is the creator of Cocoyon and a developer for Echofon. This post originally appeared on Naoki's Medium blog and has been republished with permission. Update: PayPal has denied that its customer service representative divulged credit card information over the phone. GoDaddy has admitted partial responsibility for the incidents. Finally, the @N account itself is actually in someone else's hands, after Twitter made it available after initially deactivating it. I had a rare Twitter username, @N. Yep, just one letter. I've been offered as much as $50,000 for it. People have tried to steal it. Password reset instructions are a regular sight in my email inbox. As of today, I no longer control @N. I was extorted into giving it up. While eating lunch on January 20, 2014, I received a text message from PayPal for one-time validation code. Somebody was trying to steal my PayPal account. I ignored it and continued eating. Later in the day, I checked my email which uses my personal domain name (registered with GoDaddy) through Google Apps. I found the last message I had received was from GoDaddy with the subject "Account Settings Change Confirmation." There was a good reason why that was the last one. From: GoDaddy To: <*****@*****.***> Naoki Hiroshima Date: Mon, 20 Jan 2014 12:50:02 -0800 Subject: Account Settings Change Confirmation Dear naoki hiroshima, You are receiving this email because the Account Settings were modified for the following Customer Account: XXXXXXXX There will be a brief period before this request takes effect. If these modifications were made without your consent, please log in to your account and update your security settings. If you are unable to log in to your account or if unauthorized changes have been made to domain names associated with the account, please contact our customer support team for assistance: support@godaddy.com or (480) 505-8877. Please note that Accounts are subject to our Universal Terms of Service. Sincerely, GoDaddy I tried to log in to my GoDaddy account, but it didn't work. I called GoDaddy and explained the situation. The representative asked me the last 6 digits of my credit card number as a method of verification. This didn't work because the credit card information had already been changed by an attacker. In fact, all of my information had been changed. I had no way to prove I was the real owner of the domain name. The GoDaddy representative suggested that I fill out a case report on GoDaddy's website using my government identification. I did that and was told a response could take up to 48 hours. I expected that this would be sufficient to prove my identity and ownership of the account. Let The Extortion Begin Most websites use email as a method of verification. If your email account is compromised, an attacker can easily reset your password on many other websites. By taking control of my domain name at GoDaddy, my attacker was able to control my email. I soon realized, based on my previous experiences being attacked, that my coveted Twitter username was the target. Strangely, someone I don't know sent me a Facebook message encouraging me to change my Twitter email address. I assumed this was sent from the attacker but I changed it regardless. The Twitter account email address was now one which the attacker could not access. The attacker tried to reset my Twitter password several times and found he couldn't receive any of the reset emails because it took time for the change of my domain's MX record, which controls the email domain server. The attacker opened issue #16134409 at Twitter's Zendesk support page. N, Jan 20 01:43 PM: Twitter username: @n Your email: *****@*****.*** Last sign in: December Mobile number (optional): n/a Anything else? (optional): I'm not receiving the password reset to my email, do you think you could manually send me one? Twitter required the attacker to provide more information to proceed and the attacker gave up on this route. I later learned that the attacker had compromised my Facebook account in order to bargain with me. I was horrified to learn what had happened when friends began asking me about strange behavior on my Facebook account. I received an email from my attacker at last. The attacker attempted to extort me with the following message. From: SOCIAL MEDIA KING To: <*****@*****.***> Naoki Hiroshima Date: Mon, 20 Jan 2014 15:55:43 -0800 Subject: Hello. I've seen you spoke with an accomplice of mine, I would just like to inform you that you were correct, @N was the target. it appears extremely inactive, I would also like to inform you that your GoDaddy domains are in my possession, one fake purchase and they can be repossessed by godaddy and never seen again D: I see you run quite a few nice websites so I have left those alone for now, all data on the sites has remained intact. Would you be willing to compromise? access to @N for about 5minutes while I swap the handle in exchange for your godaddy, and help securing your data? Shortly thereafter, I received a response from GoDaddy. From: change@godaddy.com To: <*****@*****.***> Naoki Hiroshima Date: Mon, 20 Jan 2014 17:49:41 -0800 Subject: Update [Incident ID: 21773161] — XXXXX.XXX Unfortunately, Domain Services will not be able to assist you with your change request as you are not the current registrant of the domain name. As the registrar we can only make this type of change after verifying the consent of the registrant. You may wish to pursue one or more of the following options should you decide to pursue this matter further: 1. Visit http://who.godaddy.com/ to locate the Whois record for the domain name and resolve the issue with the registrant directly. 2. Go to http://www.icann.org/dndr/udrp/approved-providers.htm to find an ICANN approved arbitration provider. 3. Provide the following link to your legal counsel for information on submitting legal documents to GoDaddy: http://www.godaddy.com/agreements/showdoc.aspx?pageid=CIVIL_SUBPOENA GoDaddy now considers this matter closed. My claim was refused because I am not the "current registrant." GoDaddy asked the attacker if it was ok to change account information, while they didn't bother asking me if it was ok when the attacker did it. I was infuriated that GoDaddy had put the burden on the true owner. A coworker of mine was able to connect me to a GoDaddy executive. The executive attempted to get the security team involved, but nothing has happened. Perhaps because of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. Then I received this follow-up from the attacker. From: SOCIAL MEDIA KING To: <*****@*****.***> Naoki Hiroshima Date: Mon, 20 Jan 2014 18:50:16 -0800 Subject: …hello Are you going to swap the handle? the godaddy account is ready to go. Password changed and a neutral email is linked to it. I asked a friend of mine at Twitter what the chances of recovering the Twitter account were if the attacker took ownership. I remembered what had happened to @mat and concluded that giving up the account right away would be the only way to avoid an irreversible disaster. So I told the attacker: From: <*****@*****.***> Naoki Hiroshima To: SOCIAL MEDIA KING Date: Mon, 20 Jan 2014 19:41:17 -0800 Subject: Re: …hello I released @N. Take it right away. I changed my username @N to @N_is_stolen for the first time since I registered it in early 2007. Goodbye to my problematic username, for now. I received this response. From: SOCIAL MEDIA KING To: <*****@*****.***> Naoki Hiroshima Date: Mon, 20 Jan 2014 19:44:02 -0800 Subject: RE: …hello Thank you very much, your godaddy password is: V;Mz,3{;!'g& if you'd like I can go into detail about how I was able to gain access to your godaddy, and how you can secure yourself The attacker quickly took control of the username and I regained access to my GoDaddy account. PayPal and GoDaddy Facilitated The Attack I asked the attacker how my GoDaddy account was compromised and received this response: From: SOCIAL MEDIA KING To: <*****@*****.***> Naoki Hiroshima Date: Mon, 20 Jan 2014 19:53:52 -0800 Subject: RE: …hello - I called paypal and used some very simple engineering tactics to obtain the last four of your card (avoid this by calling paypal and asking the agent to add a note to your account to not release any details via phone) - I called godaddy and told them I had lost the card but I remembered the last four, the agent then allowed me to try a range of numbers (00-09 in your case) I have not found a way to heighten godaddy account security, however if you'd like me to recommend a more secure registrar i recommend: NameCheap or eNom (not network solutions but enom.com) It's hard to decide what's more shocking, the fact that PayPal gave the attacker the last four digits of my credit card number over the phone, or that GoDaddy accepted it as verification. When asked about this, the attacker responded with this message: From: SOCIAL MEDIA KING To: <*****@*****.***> Naoki Hiroshima Date: Mon, 20 Jan 2014 20:00:31 -0800 Subject: RE: …hello Yes paypal told me them over the phone (I was acting as an employee) and godaddy let me "guess" for the first two digits of the card But guessing 2 digits correctly isn't that easy, right? From: SOCIAL MEDIA KING To: <*****@*****.***> Naoki Hiroshima Date: Mon, 20 Jan 2014 20:09:21 -0800 Subject: RE: …hello I got it in the first call, most agents will just keep trying until they get it He was lucky that he only had to guess two numbers and was able to do it in a single call. The thing is, GoDaddy allowed him to keep trying until he nailed it. Insane. Sounds like I was dealing with a wannabe Kevin Mitnick—it's as though companies have yet to learn from his Mitnick's exploits circa 1995. Avoid Custom Domains for Your Login Email Address With my GoDaddy account restored, I was able to regain access to my email as well. I changed the email address I use at several web services to an @gmail.com address. Using my Google Apps email address with a custom domain feels nice but it has a chance of being stolen if the domain server is compromised. If I were using an @gmail.com email address for my Facebook login, the attacker would not have been able to access my Facebook account. If you are using your Google Apps email address to log into various websites, I strongly suggest you stop doing so. Use an @gmail.com for logins. You can use the nicer custom domain email for messaging purposes, I still do. In addition, I also strongly suggest you to use a longer TTL for the MX record, just in case. It was 1 hour TTL in my case and that's why I didn't have enough time to keep receiving emails to the compromised domain after losing the DNS control. If it was a week-long TTL for example, I would have had a greater chance to recover the stolen accounts. Using two-factor authentication is a must. It's probably what prevented the attacker from logging into my PayPal account. Though this situation illustrates that even two-factor authentication doesn't help for everything. Conclusion Stupid companies may give out your personal information (like part of your credit card number) to the wrong person. Some of those companies are still employing the unacceptable practice of verifying you with the last some digits of your credit card. To avoid their imprudence from destroying your digital life, don't let companies such as PayPal and GoDaddy store your credit card information. I just removed mine. I'll also be leaving GoDaddy and PayPal as soon as possible. Editor's Note: The Next Web has reached out to GoDaddy, PayPal, and Twitter for comment. – PayPal says it did not release any credit card, personal or financial information for the account in question. – A Twitter spokesperson tells us: "While we don't comment on individual accounts, we are investigating the report." – GoDaddy Chief Information Security Officer Todd Redfoot provided the following statement: Our review of the situation reveals that the hacker was already in possession of a large portion of the customer information needed to access the account at the time he contacted GoDaddy. The hacker then socially engineered an employee to provide the remaining information needed to access the customer account. The customer has since regained full access to his GoDaddy account, and we are working with industry partners to help restore services from other providers. We are making necessary changes to employee training to ensure we continue to provide industry-leading security to our customers and stay ahead of evolving hacker techniques. Don't miss: How to stop giving a f@$% what people think And: Four months ago I completely quit lying. Here's how it dramatically and positively transformed my life. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

How to craft the perfect email subject line Posted: 28 Jan 2014 01:16 PM PST Dmitri Leonov is the VP of Growth at Sanebox, where he leads business development, sales and marketing efforts. According to some estimates, more than 144 billion emails are sent every day, and sometimes, it seems like every one of them lands in your inbox. Even those of us who are tasked with creating email marketing campaigns aren't immune to information overload: We all know what it's like to be bombarded with email messages – all competing for a share of our attention during a busy day. If it's your job to come up with a subject line that is compelling enough to cut through all that clutter, it's a good idea to leverage your experience as an email recipient to help you craft the perfect subject line. What gets your attention? How do you decide which emails to trash unopened and which to read? There are tons of scientific studies that can tell you which words appear with the most frequency in successful email campaigns, and that is useful information. But when it comes to creating a compelling subject line, sometimes a simple strategy works best. Here are some tips that can help you improve open rates: Keep it brief When prospects are scanning their inboxes, a short, snappy subject is more likely to catch their eye than a lengthier line. If possible, it's best to keep the subject line short enough to appear as one line on a smaller device screen, such as a smartphone or tablet. Keep it short and sweet to improve your click rate. Don't waste valuable real estate A subject line doesn't provide much space, so make every word count. Don't waste space with words that don't add much value to your message, such as "hello." When crafting your subject line, evaluate each word and make sure it adds value from an information standpoint or as a way to encourage readers to open the email. Be specific When readers are scanning new messages in their inbox, they're generally in a hurry to respond to urgent messages or tackle the next task in their busy day. In this state of mind, they won't have much patience for a mystery. Cut to the chase by telling them what the message is about in the subject line. Make it searchable There's a good chance your reader won't have time to focus on your message when they first see it, so it's wise to give them an easy way to return to the message when they have more time. If you make the subject line searchable so readers can easily find it later, there's a better chance that they'll revisit your email, even if they don't have time at first. Include a call to action Make sure your subject line tells the reader what he or she can do to benefit from the message – whether it's visiting a site, making a call or just reading the message. A brief line that summarizes the value can be highly effective, so think about what's in it for the reader and try to convey that in the subject line. Don't create anxiety While you want your readers to take action, it's important to balance a call to action with a signal that you respect their time. Subject lines that include phrases like "immediate response required" can come across as arrogant. Adding "FYI" or "No need to reply" can take the pressure off while still signaling that the message contains valuable information. Include your company name Readers will be more likely to open an email if they know who it's from and perceive value from the sending organization. Including a company name is especially important if you already have a positive relationship with the reader. Last year, a McKinsey Global Institute report noted that knowledge workers spend about 28 percent of their workday managing email. We all complain about email volume, and unless you manage your inbox wisely, it can seriously decrease productivity by forcing you to weed through unimportant, unwanted messages to find the emails that are worth your focus. That said, it's important to remember that email is how we communicate in business – the issue isn't email itself, but inbox overload and finding a way to separate what's mundane and annoying. There are proven ways to tame overflowing inboxes, and every professional needs a sound strategy. But as an email marketer, your challenge is to ensure that your message makes the cut. Since you're an email consumer as well as an email developer, take a step back and think about what motivates you as a reader. Chances are, you respond better to messages that are brief and to the point. You want to know why you should open that message – what's in it for you. You want to know who it's from and how it can help you. Write a subject line that you would open, and you'll get a great response. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

5 ways to get through writer’s block or content marketing fatigue Posted: 28 Jan 2014 11:28 AM PST This post originally appeared on the Buffer blog. When you're facing a blank page with no idea what to write, it's hard to imagine how you'll ever get to the other side of a finished piece. I've gone through this a few times, so I thought it might be helpful to share the methods that have worked for me. 1. Be honest & work your struggles into your content This is actually the method that inspired this post. I was working on a post about Google Analytics recently and I was struggling to get started. After a few false starts, I finally decided to just write my concerns into the post. It turned out well, and made me think that sharing this method, and others I use, could be helpful to others. Here's how the intro to my Google Analytics post ended up: Admission time: I don't know much about Google Analytics. In fact, I generally gloss over when I read anything about it, since I usually find it all quite overwhelming and hard to understand. And not that much fun, to be honest. But, being a content marketer, I can't afford to ignore Google Analytics. It's a great (free!) tool that helps us keep track of our goals for the Buffer blog and understand where we can improve. If you're in a similar situation to me, hopefully this post will highlight some of the most useful parts of Google Analytics for content marketing, and how you can use that data to your advantage. Without being boring! At least, I'll give it my best shot… 2. Use your own experience One method I've used a lot at Buffer is to use our internal experiences as a basis for blog posts. When we run an experiment or change up our internal routines, this can be really useful to explore on the blog. Let's look at some examples of how I've used this method: How the Founder of Buffer Tweets: The System and 5 types of Tweets to Keep your Followers Engaged This was a recent post I did after chatting to our CEO, Joel, about his tweeting habits. I talked to Joel about the 5 types of Tweets and how he uses them in his personal Twitter strategy. I was able to write a helpful social media post with solid advice by using what I learned in my conversation with Joel. How Twitter's new expanded images increase clicks, retweets and favorites [New data] This was a fun post to write, because I did some analysis of the analytics we had for our @buffer Twitter account. From the data, I got some help from our team to create graphs to show the improvements we'd seen in engagement on Twitter due to Twitter's new inline image preview feature. 8 Helpful Online Tools To Keep Your Company On Track For a different style, this post was a roundup of tools we use internally at Buffer. I took screenshots of each tool and explained how they help us to be more productive and in-sync with each other. 3. Just write—even if it's terrible In a post I wrote for Buffer on the best advice from successful writers, I explored the "blank page" hurdle, and how to get over it. Here's what I wrote at the time: I write because it comes out — and then to get paid for it afterwards? I told somebody, at some time, that writing is like going to bed with a beautiful woman and afterwards she gets up, goes to her purse and gives me a handful of money. I'll take it. — Charles Bukowski Unlike Charles Bukowski, writing well doesn't come so easily for a lot of us (including me). It takes a lot of mental energy, strains your working memory and often makes you feel vulnerable if you try to be open and honest in your work. The pure effort of writing is hard enough, but coupled with the pain of putting your work out into the world and letting others judge it, this can be enough to stop you from getting started at all. The trick to overcoming this isn't easy, but it's surprisingly effective: give yourself permission to write badly, and just start. Anne Lamott, author of Bird by Bird wrote an excellent essay on why writers must start with horrible drafts: I know some very great writers, writers you love who write beautifully and have made a great deal of money, and not one of them sits down routinely feeling wildly enthusiastic and confident. Not one of them writes elegant first drafts. All right, one of them does, but we do not like her very much. Anne's essay makes me feel much better about the hard work of writing great content, as she makes it clear that all great writers struggle with their first drafts: We all often feel like we are pulling teeth, even those writers whose prose ends up being the most natural and fluid. So to get over the biggest hurdle—the blank page—just get writing. Don't be afraid that your draft might be bad (it probably will be, but that's okay.) Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. You need to start somewhere. Start by getting something – anything – down on paper. I love this image from Copyblogger on writing first drafts, too: 4. Draw from what you're reading Something I've been doing more of lately is pulling from small sections of the books I'm reading and expanding on a specific point they make to develop a blog post. Often a book will cover a lot of ground in one area, but a blog post is short enough to focus on one interesting point. I just wrote a post using this technique: Why positive encouragement works better than criticism, according to science I lean heavily on two books by Daniel Goleman in this post. After I saw an article written by Goleman about the effects of positive and negative feedback, I started reading about this topic further in each of his books. While his books cover far more than positive encouragement, I was able to draw on this specifically, taking only the most relevant points for my post. 5. Draw on what others have said about the topic as a starting point Looking at what others have said about a topic is a really helpful method for me when I'm struggling to get started. I'm lucky that we've had some great writers contribute to the Buffer blog, so often I can start here. Here are a couple of examples of where I've used this method: 8 Things You Don't Know Are Affecting Our Choices Every Day: The Science of Decision Making In this post, I referenced an earlier Buffer post by Brian Bailey and drew on what he'd already written about the process of decision-making. This gave me a start to get past the blank page, and helped me to develop the structure of my post. How naps affect your brain and why you should have one every day I used one of Leo's earlier Buffer posts for this one. Since I was writing about the benefits of naps, it made sense to start with sleep in general and how that affects us. Using Leo's earlier post as a starting point, I worked from writing about sleep to more specific points about naps. I'll bet you've got some other methods that work well for you when you're struggling to get a post started. Let us know what works best for you in the comments. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Facebook now lets all advertisers target people who visited their site or used their mobile app Posted: 28 Jan 2014 10:20 AM PST Facebook today launched new features to help marketers reach people across devices and encourage them to take action. Custom Audiences now allows businesses to deliver targeted messages to people who have visited their website or mobile app, and certain News Feed ads have gained the option to feature enhanced call-to-action buttons. Facebook first announced the new Custom Audiences feature in October, although it was limited to a number of test partners. The company promised to roll it out globally "in the coming months" and three months later, it is delivering. Here's how it works. A business places the Facebook remarketing pixel on their website, or the Facebook or third-party SDK in their mobile app, and then build Custom Audiences based on the actions people take while visiting their site or mobile app. Once done, the business can deliver ads to these users based on these actions. You can see the new custom audiences above on the left. On the right is an example of marketers creating a Page post ad driving traffic to their desktop or mobile website and getting an option to add a call-to-action button in the lower right-hand corner of the ad. Marketers can choose from five types of buttons: Shop Now, Learn More, Sign Up, Book Now, or Download. Facebook offers two examples of how businesses could use these features (available from Power Editor, Ads Manager, through PMDs, and via the API): A travel website with the remarketing pixel could use Custom Audiences to reach a group of people — say, people that searched for flights but never made a reservation — with a targeted message in News Feed: Come back for 10% off your next flight reservation. A retailer could build retargeting campaigns by installing the Facebook or third-party SDK in their mobile app and target people on mobile or desktop, encouraging them to come back and purchase the items left in their shopping cart. Facebook is once again pulling the information located on other properties where its plugins reside back to its main service, to the benefit of revenue-generating advertisers. Since the company takes a cut, it is essentially growing its bottom line. See also – Facebook redesigns its ad buying and reporting tools to help businesses meet 'objectives' and Facebook is tweaking its News Feed ads algorithm to consider user feedback, including what you report or hide Top Image Credit: Manjunath Kiran/Getty Images This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

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