Well folks, things have been busy. I don’t mean just normal busy, but really busy. The winds of change are in effect and everywhere pundits and experts and music geeks are shouting, “but you’ve got to have a relationship with your fans!” and “email works!, social networking works!, Communicate, communicate, build a fanbase” We are seeing first hand the success and revenue which properly executed direct to fan initiatives can drive. As our friend Ian recently said, ” The business is changing, artists have choice, and artists will find partners to help them get done what they need to.”

To that end we are thrilled to welcome new clients like DJ Shadow (yeah, I’m a huge fan), Beck, Cucu Diamantes, Sugar Ray and Bad Lieutenant and who have all launched new fan marketing campaigns to connect more closely with core fans.

One of the most exciting new clients in the mix is Them Crooked Vultures – a super group made up Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl, Queens of the Stone Age’s Josh Homme and Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones. The mystery around this group is only starting to become clear, so join their list to get the scoop.

Outside of the music space we are thrilled to present our new client Coach Pete Carroll. On top of being the well known coach for the USC Trojans, he is a inspired author, speaker, leader and mentor. His “Win Forever” philosophy has not only led the USC football team to win the last 74 of 83 games but is now the topic for an upcoming book, DVD and educational track. We are thrilled to be working with such a leader.

We have also been busy playing with new features which are helping our clients acquire, retain and grow their fan bases. Social Forward is a new feature which encourages your fans to pass on content from your emails.

Social Forward from David DeVore on Vimeo.

This really is the coolest thing since sliced bread since it vastly expands the ability of your content to be viral as well as your ability to track the reach of a message. Early indications are showing 80 times the pass around which normally happens from traditional Forward to a Friend. All the major social networks are supported and full tracking is available.

We also have a new user community, which looks to expand the knowledge and support which all clients have through 3sixty.

Highlights from our new community include:

• Home page: Topics of recent interest (for example : how to add web-collection forms to facebook). You can also find announcements, new feature highlights & navigation for the entire support desk

• Knowledge Base: Segmented support topics on an array of topics.  From the ‘Getting Started’ page to help jump start your new account to ‘Additional Software Tools’, the FanMail Knowledge Base is the place to find information, documentation, videos and much more on a vast array of topic
• Submit a problem or issue: Using the ‘Submit a request’ tab, you can create a ticket and a direct line of communication with our account management team.  Your ticket will be noted and work will begin immediately to answer your question.
• Track your support requests: You can log into the Knowledge Base to track the results of your submitted ticket.  Here you will see updates and notifications made by our account management team.

Lastly, we are seeing some massive early results through our text collect (also called Capture) technology which collects email addresses through SMS.

The Capture Package can help you:
•     Grow your list of mobile subscribers through Text Capture
•     Engage mobile subscribers through Voting and Keyword Response
•     Increase subscriber conversion from offline to online

Early indicators are showing that when this is executed correctly Text Collect can be one of the fastest list growth mechanisms out there. We we be excited to post some real case studies and results over the next few weeks.

Cheers!
David

Sometimes Christmas comes early. For users of FanMail Basic, FanMail Advanced and FanMail Enterprise (as well as partners and partner clients under William Morris Agency and Front Gate Tickets) there are a number of new and enhanced features.