Monday, October 26, 2009

MIO: Twitter Vs. Facebook - I am wrong- Day 1

For those of you following my social media channel test, I an looking to determine what channel drives the strongest word of mouth over a 1 week time period - and then want to test it against email to define the ultimate winner.

You can read the earlier post - but in general I posted two links:

Get a free 1 year membership to VIVmag at: http://idek.net/GVp or http://www.vivmag.com/subscribe and type in "freeviv" as the code

Or Get a 1 year free subscription to your favorite magazine in digital format at http://idek.net/8HA or http://goreadgreen.com

Posted the offers on both facebook and twitter and let it roll.

After 1 day: Twitter traffic and conversions are beating out facebook by 10 to 1! I am shocked. I thought for sure Facebook would win.

Stay tuned for another update tomorrow and please- help the test, RT or post these offers on the channel of your choice.

Sunday, October 25, 2009

MIO: Latest ClickZ column

This week I have a fantastic column on Clickz. In it I interview Dave Lewis from Message Systems. Check it out here: http://www.clickz.com/3635445

For those of you following the Twitter/Facebook test. Twitter is winning so far, with 20% higher pass along value. Looking forward to see what Monday brings.

MIO: The Power of Pass Along: Twitter or Facebook?

I am doing an experiment. I am testing to see which is a more powerful channel for passalong efforts: Twitter or Facebook. Once I define a winner I will test the winning channel against good old email.

Step 1: Compelling offers. (I chose 2)
1- Go to goreadgreen.com and choose a digital magazine to lock in a one year free subscription (no strings attached) - includes lots of very popular titles.
2- Go to vivmag.com and get a one year free membership to the more dynamic digital magazine around with the code freeviv.

Step 2: Place posting.
Twitter post shares offer, asks people to RT - posted on my personal twitter and the zinio and vivmag twitter accounts.
Facebook post also shares off and asks people to share - posted on my personal FB and the vivmag and zinio groups.

Step 3: Monitor results.
After a whole 30 minutes - Twitter is winning for both offers.

Hmmmm- my money is on FB for the long haul - but we will see.

Thursday, October 22, 2009

MIO/BJ: Resourcefulness - And the 3 words driving success

Many times my personal and work lives collide. That's when the best blog posts come to life. Wednesday was a standard "Jeanniey" day. Wake up at 3:30 am. Check email, workout, get showered/dressed (this is important to note). Got dressed in a nice green suit, went downstairs at the hotel and had breakfast. Went back to the room and had a conference call with Germany. Started a call with Spain while I walked to the elevator, downstairs and got in a cab. Got out of the cab at convention center- Walked upstairs; Met with a good friend and fellow presenter and spent about an hour getting ready for an upcoming presentation.

When my co-presenter got up for a few minutes I decided to plug in my pc to charge. THANK GOD I decided to do this when i did- because as i stood up and took one step- jzzzzzooooop - my suit skirt fell off! Ummmm. yeah.... in the middle of the Direct Marketing Association conference at the San Diego convention center my skirt falls down to my ankles.


How the heck can this happen? (Re-read the top section and see ALL of the things I did without my skirt falling off) It appears the zipper broke :-(

I grabbed a bag and a garbage can and recomposed myself. Not sure if there were video cameras - pretty sure this is the only documented sighting. Thankfully only 3 people were walking in the hallway. The resourceful side of me thought fast and I felt pretty good about minimal damage.

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The lesson learned for this "adventure" is that resourcefulness is the key to success many times. And when you are resourceful it makes you feel better about yourself and decisions you make.


What does this have to do with email marketing, branding or publishing? It's a perfect segway for a lesson ALL marketers should hear.


On Wednesday, after the skirt thing, Jim Taylor, PhD and I gave a great presentation to an overpacked room of people titled: "Keeping the Interest of your Online Visitors." In it, we unveiled the behaviors of consumers in the current economic climate. It was pretty eye opening.


We shared our research and case studies indicating how the days of banners and flashing buttons are over. That effective online advertising and marketing is occurring inside venues that are considered to contain, trust and reputable content. Aka: Search, emails, digital magazines and digital newspapers.


In a down economy, 76% of people surveyed in a recent Wealth study by the Harrison Group said they take pride in their shopping skills. 88% say they have done a good job in making their household more fiscally responsible.


Three keys words to keep in mind when you are planning your online marketing in this economy are: Intelligent, Loyal and Self-Sufficient - if your marketing does not come across appealing to those characteristics- it will fail.


This poses a significant opportunity for all of us in the advertising, marketing and publishing industries. The "fluff" of online marketing is finally going away and the real successful companies are breaking through with smart, resourceful efforts.


Another key topic we covered was that fact that websites are dying, standard banners are dead- and online is expanding: outside of the computer monitor and into a world of potable devices - like smartphones, web enabled TV"s, gaming devices, e-readers etc.

And finally, we shared a decision matrix showing where people turn to make decisions at each step of the buying process. Resourcefulness, again, plays a key role here.

After our presentation we received positive comments and lots of requests for some great followup conversation. We felt good about speaking to the group, and when I look back on the day I feel even better about it knowing that I was resourceful enough to fix my skirt so that the presentation could go off without a hitch.

Guess those three words really do make a difference after all.

Sunday, October 18, 2009

BJ: O.M.G. THEY HATCHED

OK... For those of you who don't really know me outside of work - weird things just happen to me. My house is haunted, I have a few stalkers, I'm pretty lucky at poker and the list goes on. Adding to this list is some weird fascination I now have with Mexican Jumping Beans - and why in the H%^&* we allowed them into the country.

So I travel a ton (and that is an understatement). And the agreement at home is that I ALWAYS bring back the girls something from where I have been. They now could each open an airport store filled with all the crazy stuff you buy 5 min. before the plane takes off.

The last long trip I had, I wanted to buy something very cool for them. At the counter as I was buying my FIJI water and Emergen-C (which i cannot live without) I saw Mexican Jumping Beans.

Now... I am not old enough to actually remember when they first came out as gifts (that's my mom's era I think) but I do remember having them in the 70's and thinking they were fun. And so, as a cool retro gift I bought 2 of them. Took them home and we had a blast having bean races on the living room table.

The next day my 11 year old asks my why they jump. I have no clue. So I turn to Eric (for those of you who don't know, I call anything Google "Eric" at this point because if he is going to take over control of our lives, he might as well be recognized by his first name). Eric sent me some of the most HORRIFYING photo's I have ever seen.

DO YOU KNOW WHAT IS IN A MEXICAN JUMPING BEAN?

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...
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It's a BABY WORM who will become a moth.... yeah... and that jumping is the baby trying to crack the shell and get out!

Are you kidding me? Me and GG looked at these photos in horror. And all of the sudden the LAST thing we wanted was those worms cracking out of their shell at night and attacking us as they turn to killer moths.

We immediately took them outside - and screamed when we noticed one of the shells was already cracking.

So that was a few weeks ago. Little did I know that the beans were put in a spot where we could watch them. Today-we noticed they had hatched. All I can say is O.M.G. and be grossed out at the same time.

Am I a good mother? I seriously question who in the world would give their kids worms trying to break free and laugh as they jump and cant get out of their shells. This whole thing is just beyond comprehension for me.

Digital publishing, email marketing, brand advertising, starting companies... those things are simple. I get it.... freak bugs stuck in shells wanting to turn into moths from another country - just makes me shake my head.

This totally tops last years adventure when we set the empty aquarium outside and saw lots of little things swimming in it and thought were growing frogs until someone at work showed me that we were really growing mosquito's.

MIO: Where in the world is Jeanniey Mullen (this week)

I love speaking, and writing, and presenting and networking! I guess I just love being around people and helping them out (which is why my dad had to BEG me not to get the Master's in Education, that I got anyway). In fact, two of the smartest men I know in the world have really shown me how important personal connections are to success in business and in life in general.

My belief is that you can always learn so much from every conversation. There is alway at least one takeaway that will improve your life if you just listen (A Shout Out to my 3rd Grade Teacher Sister Angela goes hear for making the entire class repeat a poem about listening for tne entire period one day).

The point is, if you learn something, you should share it with others to help them grow too.

This week, I'll be in NY on Monday- packed full with meetings. Then off to sunny San Diego. I will be speaking at the Direct Marketing Association's Annual Conference on Wednesday 10/21 from 10-11 PST
Keep Online Visitors Engaged with your Content
Then later that day at 1:45 for the Post Show Sessions.

I will be in San Diego Tuesday and Wednesday, SF on Thursday and LV on Friday. Hope to see you at one of those locations.

If not this week, don't miss next week in NY at DPAC (I have a comp code if you need one).

Saturday, October 17, 2009

MIO: Dynamic Images in Email- The Next Old Thing?

I felt compelled to write something work related and semi-smart after making my first post a personal one. ****Have you ever tried to use dynamic images in an email?***


I spoke at a conference a few weeks ago and found myself answering questions about "new" trends in email. The challenge I had answering these questions was that every single one of these was not really new. They were new 9 years ago, then they all died somehow, and now they are coming back as new.


I wasn't sure if I should be frustrated that no one paid attention to them 9 years ago, or happy that the world recycles and a new opportunity is presenting itself for some very cool ideas to have a second chance.


One of the ideas that I am referring to is the idea of using dynamic images in your email. This is something really quite simple, but powerful. in your email, you code to hold an image (like a picture of a pair of shoes that have a discount code in the image - ex. SH20). When your recipient gets the email and opens it, they see a discount code on a great pair of shoes. They go shopping at your site and file your email away in a folder.


The next day, when they open the email back up, the shoes are GONE. Instead, in the very same email, there is another image showing up. This time it is a sweater with a new code.


How ever did this magic happen? Simple... On the server, the image of the shoes is replaced.


This tactic works really well. It keeps people engaged for weeks at a time for the same email. It generates a ton of FTAF and word of mouth. And, it drives brand loyalty with 0 cost.


If you tried this tactic 9 years ago when a few companies actually built products around this concept- I'd love to hear from you. If this is new to you but you are going to try it, I would love to hear the results.


Tactics and ideas like this one really do create a fun and value-added experience that we, as consumers really enjoy among our busy crazy lives.


Other "new" old things I see coming back to life include:

Video playing inside email
Commerce inside an email
Preference Centers
Viral campaigns (now using social media instead of email sends)
Link-based analytics
and 3rd party monetization efforts



I guess it's like they say in

BJ: A Lesson for the Kids

A little while ago the girls were asking why some groups of people don't get along with other groups. It's hard to explain why the world isn't just one big happy group of people. So after, what seemed like hours of explanation, one of my girls rolled her eyes, and I'm pretty sure the other one was bored into a nap. It just wasn't a compelling answer.

But that all changed today! Driving home from the bank in my little suburban town I thought I had found a life changing image that would help my kids understand how and why others feel oppressed and need to have their voice heard.

To the left of the stop light, in the rain and 40 degree weather, I saw a large group of people marching down the street chanting something. They were dressed head to toe in white, and there were about 30 of them. I could hear a drum banging too.

I pulled the car over and immediately went into explanation about oppression, "the man" and having to take matters into your own hand. Power to the people! I pointed out the window up the street and told them this was an example, in the pouring rain, of how some people felt they needed to act to have their voice heard. I rolled down the windows and let the rain in so they could experience life firsthand.

My little one looks at me and says "mommy- it's a parade!" - "No! I snapped. It's a group of people fighting for a voice. Look harder." Then my 11 year old chimed in. "Yeah- um, mom, it's the high school band practicing. (insert big sigh and eye roll here)"

And yes... yes it was. The band came by the car, drum banging, pom poms flopping, all dressed head to toe in white rain ponchos.

Today's lesson is now complete. Mom is .... well... I won't post what I am on my first blog post ever.