Posts Tagged ‘Social Forward’

New Clients, New Features and our New Community
Thursday, August 13th, 2009

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:

  • 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

Bringing Email, Social and the Power of Viral Together
Thursday, May 14th, 2009

Technology Brings Bands, Artists Closer to Fans

Roadrunner Records Artists Among First to Integrate Email, Social Media


INDIANAPOLIS–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Roadrunner Records artists Nickelback, Theory of a Deadman and Slipknot will be among the first artists in the country to use a new technology that will bring them closer to fans through email, Facebook, Twitter and more than 40 other online networks.

The bands will incorporate ExactTarget’s Social Forward™ technology in emails to fans, giving their followers the ability to share the contents of fan club messages directly to their social networks with a single mouse click.

“Fans are an artist’s best advocate, and the industry is continuously looking for new ways to engage them and help them share their passion for a band with others online,” said David DeVore, chief executive officer of FanMail Marketing, a Cincinnati-based firm that uses ExactTarget and a host of technologies to power and manage communications for artists, promoters and record labels. “While email and social media have become a staple of any band’s communications, the two have been completely separate. With ExactTarget’s Social Forward™, bands can give fans a tool to simplify sharing the latest news and information received by email to their social network friends and followers online.”

ExactTarget’s Social Forward™ technology consists of two new unique offerings – Direct to Social and an integration with social media syndication powerhouse ShareThis.

Direct to Social allows marketers to incorporate the icon of a social network such as Facebook, Twitter or MySpace in an email. Subscribers can click the icon and instantly share the contents of the message with their online networks.

The integration with ShareThis allows email marketers to enable sharing to more than 40 social media sites with a single click of a button. The technology works by incorporating a small ShareThis icon into email marketing messages, allowing subscribers to share email content with their social networks. When subscribers click the ShareThis icon, they are directed to a custom landing page where they can select the social networks where they would like to share the content.

“While Social Forward certainly provides fans a great tool to share content online, it also gives marketers and promoters the first way to value and track social media,” said Tim Kopp, ExactTarget’s chief marketing officer. “Social Forward provides marketers actionable data that identifies the value of a campaign’s most viral content, most active subscribers and the most popular networks for sharing.”

The announcement of Roadrunner Records’ artists adopting ExactTarget’s Social Forward comes less than a month after the firm launched the solution at ad:tech San Francisco. The social sharing solution is available to ExactTarget users through the company’s online Innovations Lab and will become an integrated solution for all ExactTarget users worldwide as part of the company’s Summer release.

Forrester Research’s Emily Riley will join experts from ExactTarget in a June 3 Webinar to provide marketers with the latest research and best practices for integrating email marketing and creative social strategies. Marketers may register for the free Webinar online at http://email.exacttarget.com/Resources/Webinars/SocialForward.html.

About FanMail Marketing

FanMail Marketing is a Fan-Relationship Management and Digital Marketing Solutions Agency for the music and entertainment industry. FanMail helps clients become more Fan-Centric by providing innovative strategies to Artists, Labels, Events, Venues, Festivals, and Promoters and by leveraging the power of cutting-edge email, sms, and voice technology. The FanMail team is made up of the music industry’s top marketers, designers, developers and account executives. Since 2001, FanMail has deployed and consulted on thousands of interactive marketing campaigns for some of the biggest names in the music industry such as Another Planet Entertainment, Superfly Presents, JamBase.com, The William Morris Agency and Roadrunner Records.

About ExactTarget

ExactTarget, Inc. is a leading provider of on-demand email marketing software solutions. The company’s suite of on-demand one-to-one marketing applications enable clients to send business-critical and event triggered communications to increase sales, optimize marketing investments and strengthen customer relationships. ExactTarget offers four editions of its on-demand software application along with integrated solutions such as ExactTarget for Salesforce.com AppExchange, ExactTarget for Microsoft Dynamics CRM and ExactTarget for Omniture Genesis. ExactTarget offers a range of optimization services including support, implementation and training, integration, deliverability, account management, design and deployment and strategic consulting. ExactTarget’s software powers permission-based email communications for thousands of organizations including CareerBuilder.com, Expedia.com, Florida Power & Light, Gannett Co., Inc/USA TODAY, the Indianapolis Colts, The Home Depot, The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, Liberty Mutual Group, Papa John’s and Wellpoint, Inc. For more information, please visit www.exacttarget.com or call 1-866-EMAILET.

Five Clients in Five Minutes
Thursday, April 16th, 2009

Take five minutes to check out some of the progressive things which our clients are doing in their direct to fan marketing and Fan Relationship Management programs.