Sep 3
Taxes, Death, and SPAM, are all inevitable.
Lately, I have been monitoring my Gmail’s SPAM folder and I’ve been noticing a disturbing pattern. No … not pharmaceuticals or Nigerian princes asking for money, but Jewish businesses and non-profits sending “blasted” emails to presumably thousands of non-opted in members … all coming from one marketing company’s email account.
Never did I opt-in to this company’s email blasts. They must have recognized that I am Jewish, and/or took my name from the web, and added it to their database. (I am extremely skeptical that this company is actually practicing appropriate marketing etiquette / laws: for example CAN-SPAM laws.)
If you don’t see what the problem is at this point, you probably need a bit of a crash course in marketing communications. You might assume that if you just blast your message to thousands of people, some dopes are going to be curious and not only open your email, but interact with it. This is one of the worst assumptions you can make about consumers, and in fact, this will probably do more harm for your business / brand long term, than will the short term benefit of a few clicks to your site.
There are many ways to properly do Email Marketing, but “renting” email lists, or “blasting” to some company’s list, is probably the opposite of a “best practice” of Email Marketing.
In Email Marketing, as in Social Media Marketing, brands are given permission by the consumers to be communicated to. Consumers opt-in to “Follow” a brand on Twitter, “Like” a brand on Facebook, “Subscribe” to a brand on YouTube, or Subscribe to a brand’s email list. In the digital age, brands can no longer communicate to a consumer without their permission – lest they want to be ignored or shunned.
Best practices in Email Marketing include (but are not limited to):
- Get permission. Don’t scrape the web for email addresses, or obtain emails that are not qualified. They will not help your business cause.
- Build your own mailing list (CRM). Nothing is as targeted as a list of consumers who actively are interested in your brand. You know exactly who is on your mailing list, and don’t need to worry about other’s lists. DON’T BUY LISTS.
- Provide an easy way to unsubscribe. Otherwise, those receiving your emails are trapped in your email list without exit – which will only piss them off. Not a good way to build brand affinity.
- Don’t abuse your list. Sending emails too frequently will inevitably send more and more of your emails into SPAM folders – like the one’s from the company referred to above.
A great way to help bolster your Email Marketing database, is by being active in Social Media. Having a continuous presence within Facebook, Twitter, and other portals allows you to consistently present your message to those who are interested in hearing what you have to say. By engaging in your Social Media community, there are numerous ways you can encourage your consumers (or potential consumers) to opt-in to your Email database. In that case, it’s mutually beneficial for the brand, and the consumer.
To conclude… while there are legitimate Email Marketing companies (especially the ones that assist you in building your own lists) out there, you should be skeptical of “targeted” email lists to communities, hyper specific demographic and/or pyschographic targeting, etc. Use your own networks to build your own list (CRM) and interact with them in appropriate ways. Pushing your content in front of the consumer, instead of conversing, is a sure way to having your business #FAIL.
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Dani Klein has consulted with non profits and small business when he started SocialCity Marketing in 2008. Currently, Dani is working on multiple Fortune 500 brands as the Manager of Social Marketing Strategies for Digitas, a world leading digital marketing and media agency and member of the Publicis Groupe S.A.
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DISCLAIMER
All views expressed within this blog and by this blogger are solely my own and in no way reflect those of Digitas or Publicis.
Aug 12
I’ve recently started an extension to YeahThatsKosher.com offering Kosher & Travel News and Reviews.
Currently I am hosting the site at travel.dani-klein.com, but will eventually move it to an extension of YeahThatsKosher. I hope you enjoy it. Let me know what you think.
If you have any Kosher / Travel news you’d like me to feature, please let me know.
When tweeting about Kosher Travel, please use the #koshertravel hashtag.
May 17
I just wrote a post on Jewlicious.com about the crazy, offensive, and disgusting video game created by Comedy Central called “I.S.R.A.E.L. Attacks!”.
Here’s what I wrote:
The creative / media team behind “Drawn Together” from Comedy Central created a very very offensive game against Jews & Israel …. http://www.comedycentral.com/sitewide/game_player/index.jhtml?game=271497. I am trying to find a way that this is not offensive, but alas, I am at a loss.
The JIDF blog did a piece on it yesterday.
The game’s premise is as follows:
“Jew Producer” apparently failed to destroy other child-like character. Thus, a robot, “the Intelligent Smart Robot Animation Eraser Lady” (I.S.R.A.E.L.) is sent to do the job. The game then shows “I.S.R.A.E.L.”, the robot, destroying everything in its path, even children.
Original Video- More videos at TinyPic
Write to Comedy Central about the disgusting video game on their website called: “I.S.R.A.E.L. Attacks!”: http://www.comedycentral.com/help/questionsCC.jhtml. Tell them that you find the gave repulsive and offensive. Please do not threaten the network in any way.
Join the Facebook group: Comedy Central – I.S.R.A.E.L. Attack game is offensive. Remove it.
Write to Comedy Central on Twitter: @ComedyCentral and tell them about your disappointment.
If you’d like, you can ReTweet my message to Comedy Central:
Shame on @ComedyCentral 4 this “I.S.R.A.E.L. Attacks!” video game: http://j.mp/au5pk8 This is beyond offensive! (RT @YeahThatsKosher)
I’d love to hear your thoughts on this “game”. Please comment below.
Mar 23
It’s pretty exciting to be featured by the CUNY BA, the program in conjunction with Brooklyn College, where I graduated from. They wrote about my life post-college, my projects, and work.
If you’re related to me, you can just skip the article and shep nachas*. Otherwise, the article is on the CUNY BA site here: http://cunyba.gc.cuny.edu/blog/daniel-klein-sociologymarketing/
*[For the non-Yiddish crowd, 'shepping nachas' can be roughly translated as a combination of deriving great pleasure from something and being extremely proud of someone... for example; when a friend or loved one does something exemplary.] ~ Definition from Treppenwitz.com
Mar 17
My wife (Arielle) picked up this circular in one of the kosher restaurants 
in midtown today and was excited to show this to me. I love ads, especially bad ones. Props to Arielle for cherry picking the following ads, which are ripe for parody.
The following are from the Torah Times circular, Week of March 10-16, 2010:
- Shticky Sushi – this ad for a new Kosher Sushi place seemed cool at first. Nice logo. Massive Sushi menu. Great. One problem. I have no idea where this place is. There’s a 718 phone number, but that could mean Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island or the Bronx. No idea. So I figured, I’ll go to their website. Pretty cool website, especially for a Kosher place, right? I looked everywhere. No address. Nothing. What’s even weirder… it says “curbside pickup also available”. Is this a joke? Curbside sushi pickup to a place no one can find? Good luck. >> You guys need marketing assistance. Feel free to contact me… Click for Ad Image
- Joe Lazar for City Council – I only vote for heimeshe people that are warm and fuzzy … Click for Ad Image
Ridiculous Jewish / Pesach (Passover) Products:
I’m actually pissed off I didn’t invent any Kosher for Pesach products. Maybe I should start a Kosher for Passover website: “This site contains no chametz or gebrochts“.
Are these products necessary? If you have purchased (or feel the need to purchase) the products below, please comment on this post to explain why, and include your halachic / textual reference. I’m honestly curious to read why we need them.
- Kosher Passover Pans – seriously? are regular pans laced with breadcrumbs? … Click for Ad Image
- Palisades Aluminum Foil – same shtuyot (stupidity) as the above product… Click for Ad Image
- Glatt Water – Water … with extra special Glatt nutrients! … Click for Ad Image
- Swarovski Crystal Pesach Collection — 1) This ad screams of 2 copyright or trademark infringements. 2) Crystals on your seder paraphernalia? Why? Why? 3) This is selling for $500!! … Click for Ad Image
Mar 11
Yesterday this site got hacked, by “Turkish Muslim Hackers”. How? Why? I have no idea.
I wrote about it on Jewlicious.com: http://www.jewlicious.com/2010/03/what-do-turkish-muslim-hackers-want-from-me/
Mar 10
I am preparing myself mentally for a new stage in my life. I have spent my career defending Israel as a part of my job, and I now have to move to the sidelines. It is difficult to move “to the sidelines”, but I feel that I have given my all to help grow my organization, and to assist Israel in the process. My career path has lead me to accept a great opportunity at a well respected digital marketing agency, for which I am set to begin after Pesach.
I am excited to eat, drink, and sleep social media (which I already do) and now get paid for it. I am thrilled to work with a new team of peers: social media and computer geeks … and with some big name clients. This is a unique time to be in my shoes. This time of transition is a new experience for me, and I am looking forward to the forthcoming challenges that await me in the near future.
I will miss my friends, colleagues, and students I have worked with over the years at StandWithUs. Please stay in touch.
~Dani
Feb 14
Comments Off
It’s interesting that the traditional media, namely television & newspapers, who are not as profitable as they once were due to the Internet, have taken different approaches regarding social media.
Newspapers, the soon to be all but extinct media, have heavily pushed their online presence to give life to their struggling brands. Journalists are using blogs to copy find stories, while the papers are synced with Twitter to publish their headlines in the hopes that they are RT (ReTweeted) out to the masses. Despite this attempt, newspapers will be on life support within a few short years.
Television on the other hand isn’t fully intertwined with social media yet. While you can find almost every show on TV (minus HBO programming and a few others) online, either via Hulu or the network’s website, social media seems to be an afterthought. Yes, there is the required “share” button near the video, and some sites allow or encourage discussion of their programs below or alongside the video. But is that all? With social media as pervasive as it has become over the past few years in our lives, how has it not been integrated into program content? While statistics show that more and more people are spending more time on Facebook, Twitter, writing a blog, and especially checking their mobile devices — do we see our favorite characters on [NBC's] The Office or [CBS's] How I Met Your Mother check their Facebook profile ever?
Couldn’t they make these programs more interactive with the audience? I do have to give credit to How I Met Your Mother for integrating a Super Bowl ad with Neil Patrick Harris playing his character Barney Stinson – encouraging the audience to call a number, blurring the lines of real life and scripted TV. But beyond that, where is the creativity? Where is the use of social media reaching out to fans – current or potential?
Some shows are doing this. I’m currently following Twitter accounts relating to Glee, White Collar, and the Olympics, but those are just a few shows of many I like and follow, and they rarely tweet. With the tons of programming that goes on week after week, the lost outreach opportunities through social media conversations are many. People are talking about your programming. Why not be involved – either by listening or participating, or god forbid both?
I call upon the TV & cable networks to put on their thinking caps, get creative, and think out of the box. Or, hire me, and let’s do something different. 
Feb 7
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When taking taxis in the US, the cab driver’s native language is never English, yet when you go overseas, how frequently does the cabbie speak anything but his native tongue?
Right?
Why the double standard cabbies? You gotta speak English somewhere.
