Taken from NikkiPilkington https://twitter.com/NikkiPilkington
Why don’t you follow as many people as follow you Nikki?”
“I’m following you, why aren’t you following me, Nikki?”
“I stopped following you because you’re not following me Nikki”
Just 3 of the messages I’ve received recently talking about who I do and don’t follow on Twitter.
You may have already read my post ‘How I use Twitter’, and this is in a similar vein, but here are my thoughts on following and followers.
As of right now (time of writing), I follow 412 people, and have 1128 people following me. So obviously I don’t have an ‘autofollow’ mentality, following everyone who follows me. I also don’t go around randomly following people in the hope that they follow me.
I’m not saying that my way of doing things is the right way, I’m just saying it’s how I do it, and it means that twitter works for me in the way I want it to.
So first up, who DO I follow?
People I know and like from Ecademy, LinkedIn, Xing, UK Business Labs, BT Tradespace and WeCanDoBiz - I’ve known some of these people for many years, and know that I will be interested in their Tweets.
People who have written articles that I like, and put their Twitter details at the end - I know that they may Tweet about other articles they write, and it’s an easy way to keep up with them.
People who are respected in my industry - they will Tweet SEO news, and links to articles I may not pick up on my own.
People who other people I follow have recommended - you could call it ‘networking’
People who retweet my articles and blog posts - if they’re retweeting me, they may be doing the same for other epople I should be aware of.
People who I find during random searches - I have alerts for various keyphrases and sometimes they throw up intersting people.
People who write apps / have sites I like / use - so that I can keep up with their news and developments.
People who have sent me an @ message - if you’ve taken the time to message me, I’ll check you out and probably follow you.
And who DON’T I follow and why?
People who have just one Tweet, usually promoting a website - your twitter stream doesn’t tell me enough about you to know whether or not I want to follow you.
People who have nothing in their Twitter profile - unless your Tweets are particularly interesting, if i know nothing about you, I won’t follow you.
People who Tweet constantly about themselves and their business - if you do this and share nothing else of interest, I’ll unfollow you.
People who don’t reply to @ messages - Twitter is a two way thing and if I can see people have messaged you but you’ve not replied, then I probably won’t follow you. Similarly, if I @ you and you don’t respond on more than a couple of occasions, I’ll probably unfollow you.
People who send me constant DMs promoting their business - I know what you do, I’m following you - don’t try and sell to me via DM.
People who only ever auto tweet - so their tweets are all automatically set up and they never actually post anything themselves. I get to see all the things they comment on, their latest blog posts, and in some cases their retweeted DMs yet they never actually Twitter themselves.
People who Tweet in a language other than English or French all the time. Although I do have a basic understanding of German and Flemish/Dutch, it is VERY basic, and I don’t have the time to look up translations for languages I don’t understand, sorry.
People who have twitter names such as MLM_1234 - I prefer people with real names, although I’m not anal about this - if you fulfil the criteria in the first list your name doesn’t matter.
So there you have it, some of the reasons I do and don’t follow people. If you’re following me and I haven’t followed you back, don’t take it personally - I just don’t know you yet. Send me an @ message to say hi, and I’ll probably follow you if you fit into the first list.
As an extra to this, most people who follow me will get a message saying “Thanks for the follow - check out http://tinyurl.com/5d2jg8 to see how I use Twitter! Send me an @ to say Hi!” - this isn’t automated, although it is a cut and paste message. I check out most people who follow me, and send them that message so that they know what to expect.
You can follow me on Twitter here - let me know what you think of this post, and please feel free to retweet it so others can read it.
And of course, please feel free to comment below!
Larson note: Here are my twitter thoughts on following
As of right now (time of writing), I follow 169 people, and have 164 people following me. MY following an d followrs goes back and forth and I really pay little attention to it.
Who do I follow and why?
Before I add anyone, I do look at their site we what they are tweeting and how often they tweet. If this meets with my personal satisfaction I add them.
People who have written articles that I like, and put their Twitter details at the end - I know that they may Tweet about other articles they write, and it’s an easy way to keep up with them.
People who are respected in my industry - they will Tweet SEO news, and links to articles I may not pick up on my own.
People who other people I follow have recommended - you could call it ‘networking’
People who retweet my articles and blog posts - if they’re retweeting me, they may be doing the same for other epople I should be aware of.
People who I find during random searches - I have alerts for various keyphrases and sometimes they throw up intersting people.
People who write apps / have sites I like / use - so that I can keep up with their news and developments.
People who have sent me an @ message - if you’ve taken the time to message me, I’ll check you out and probably follow you.
People who have an interesting business I want to know about and have a greater synergy with.
People who I consider a prospect.
And who DON’T I follow and why?
People who have just one Tweet, usually promoting a website - your twitter stream doesn’t tell me enough about you to know whether or not I want to follow you.
People who have nothing in their Twitter profile - unless your Tweets are particularly interesting, if i know nothing about you, I won’t follow you.
People who Tweet constantly about themselves and their business - if you do this and share nothing else of interest, I’ll unfollow you.
People who don’t reply to @ messages - Twitter is a two way thing and if I can see people have messaged you but you’ve not replied, then I probably won’t follow you. Similarly, if I @ you and you don’t respond on more than a couple of occasions, I’ll probably unfollow you.
People who only ever auto tweet - so their tweets are all automatically set up and they never actually post anything themselves. I get to see all the things they comment on, their latest blog posts, and in some cases their retweeted DMs (yes @thomaspower I’m talking about you) yet they never actually Twitter themselves.
People who Tweet in a language other than English all the time. Although I do have some understanding of French, Norwegian and Swedish, it is VERY basic, and I don’t have the time to look get out the old dictionary, sorry.
The big taboo (for me) People who tweet 10 to 12 times an hour. Hate my screen being filled up with 1 person.
Yes they are almost the same as Nikki’s but then why add or change something that doesn’t need it?
Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
larsonassoc1975@yahoo.com
http://www.geocities.com/larsonassoc1979/1
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com/
http://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates
http://businesswarfare.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://teamcircle.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate
P.S. Get in control of your own marketing destiny with a guerilla marketing consultation. Call today and schedule your appointment.
*Source: Nikki Pilkington https://twitter.com/NikkiPilkington http://businessontwitter.co.uk/twitter/2009/01/who-i-follow-and-who-i-dont-and-why-on-twitter/
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Five tips to improve e-mail marketing
Clean your e-mail list
Keeping a clean list is a challenge for all businesses, especially small business owners who have the time to do it themselves or have a person to handle it. Make 2009 the year to start by scrubbing your list or bad addresses before sending out your first campaign of the year. You'll improve your e-mail marketing performance, your reputation and deliverability rates. The first step is make sure your unsubscribe requests are up-to-date.
Look at what worked and didn't last year
Take a close look at your 2008 e-mail marketing successes and failures so you can repeat the winning campaigns and cut the under performers. Combine elements of your successful email marketing tactics to get better results.
Make a 2009 e-mail marketing plan
You should have an overall marketing plan and then individual plans on how to use different channels in your attack, like e-mail. We're all working so hard and running so fast, many of us are accustomed to leaving our e-mail marketing campaigns to the last minute. Do this and you will have a campaign that looks like it was a last minute idea. Start by looking at the calendar through your customer's eyes. Ask yourself what business and seasonal cycles are most relevant to your target audiences, then create an e-mail marketing campaign with the calendar mapped into those cycles. Putting in a few hours to plan out your campaign for the year will ensure that your e-mail marketing campaign(s) are timely and relevant and worth something to your clients, customers and prospects.
Use customer data in e-mail campaigns
Many of us are using some kind of CRM software and lead generation systems that is or should be filled with customer data that can help in defining your e-mail marketing campaign. You can build targeted, segmented lists based on customer data. Even if you don't use a CRM programming, you can still break your lists down based on purchasing records. You do have records don’t you? You also can conduct a quick poll through your e-mail marketing service to gather more information from your customers that will help you improve the targeting, relevance and timeliness of your campaigns.
Try something new
Challenge yourself in 2009 by trying something new, if you are an old hat at emailing of a newbie in e-mail marketing campaigns have some fun. Embed a video file or podcast into it. Add some multimedia to make your campaigns more interactive and engaging. Setting up automated trigger campaigns also can improve the timeliness and relevance of your e-mail marketing campaigns. It might sound too complicated or time intensive, but a good e-mail marketing service should have the tools and technologies to make it easy for you.
Larson note: It’s a new year, yes times might be tough, money tight if not scarce to be extravagant but go for it. Make your mark; establish your “brand”. Now more than ever you can stand out from the crowd and be heard and seen!
Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
larsonassoc1975@yahoo.com
http://www.geocities.com/larsonassoc1979/1
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com
http://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates
http://businesswarfare.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://teamcircle.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate
P.S. New Larson Service: Total Sales Outsourcing Management! We will sit down with you over the phone and go over YOUR numbers to see if it is a cost effective alternative for your company.
*Source(s): Direct Marketing Association & MotivationConnect
Keeping a clean list is a challenge for all businesses, especially small business owners who have the time to do it themselves or have a person to handle it. Make 2009 the year to start by scrubbing your list or bad addresses before sending out your first campaign of the year. You'll improve your e-mail marketing performance, your reputation and deliverability rates. The first step is make sure your unsubscribe requests are up-to-date.
Look at what worked and didn't last year
Take a close look at your 2008 e-mail marketing successes and failures so you can repeat the winning campaigns and cut the under performers. Combine elements of your successful email marketing tactics to get better results.
Make a 2009 e-mail marketing plan
You should have an overall marketing plan and then individual plans on how to use different channels in your attack, like e-mail. We're all working so hard and running so fast, many of us are accustomed to leaving our e-mail marketing campaigns to the last minute. Do this and you will have a campaign that looks like it was a last minute idea. Start by looking at the calendar through your customer's eyes. Ask yourself what business and seasonal cycles are most relevant to your target audiences, then create an e-mail marketing campaign with the calendar mapped into those cycles. Putting in a few hours to plan out your campaign for the year will ensure that your e-mail marketing campaign(s) are timely and relevant and worth something to your clients, customers and prospects.
Use customer data in e-mail campaigns
Many of us are using some kind of CRM software and lead generation systems that is or should be filled with customer data that can help in defining your e-mail marketing campaign. You can build targeted, segmented lists based on customer data. Even if you don't use a CRM programming, you can still break your lists down based on purchasing records. You do have records don’t you? You also can conduct a quick poll through your e-mail marketing service to gather more information from your customers that will help you improve the targeting, relevance and timeliness of your campaigns.
Try something new
Challenge yourself in 2009 by trying something new, if you are an old hat at emailing of a newbie in e-mail marketing campaigns have some fun. Embed a video file or podcast into it. Add some multimedia to make your campaigns more interactive and engaging. Setting up automated trigger campaigns also can improve the timeliness and relevance of your e-mail marketing campaigns. It might sound too complicated or time intensive, but a good e-mail marketing service should have the tools and technologies to make it easy for you.
Larson note: It’s a new year, yes times might be tough, money tight if not scarce to be extravagant but go for it. Make your mark; establish your “brand”. Now more than ever you can stand out from the crowd and be heard and seen!
Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
larsonassoc1975@yahoo.com
http://www.geocities.com/larsonassoc1979/1
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com
http://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates
http://businesswarfare.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://teamcircle.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate
P.S. New Larson Service: Total Sales Outsourcing Management! We will sit down with you over the phone and go over YOUR numbers to see if it is a cost effective alternative for your company.
*Source(s): Direct Marketing Association & MotivationConnect
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
2 New services: Virtual Sales Manager and Total Salesforce Outsourcing
1) Virtual Sales Manager: Don’t have a sales manager but have staff that needs to be trained and managed? Try out virtual sales manager service. Get all the pluses of a real sales manager at a fraction of the cost.
2) Total Salesforce Outsourcing. Want a sales staff, local or nationwide but don’t have the time or expertise to put it in place. Try this one. We will sit down with you, over the phone and go over YOUR numbers to see if it is a cost effective alternative option for your company.
Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
larsonassoc1975@yahoo.com
http://www.geocities.com/larsonassoc1979/1
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com
http://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates
http://businesswarfare.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://teamcircle.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate
2) Total Salesforce Outsourcing. Want a sales staff, local or nationwide but don’t have the time or expertise to put it in place. Try this one. We will sit down with you, over the phone and go over YOUR numbers to see if it is a cost effective alternative option for your company.
Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
larsonassoc1975@yahoo.com
http://www.geocities.com/larsonassoc1979/1
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com
http://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates
http://businesswarfare.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://teamcircle.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate
Projected Slowdown for local interactive ad spending
2007 - $8.7 billion
2008 - $12.8 billion
2009 - $13.9 billion
Larson note: All things are going to be a little slower in the first half of the year. Look for ways you can maximize your web presence and get more exposture for eash dollar or minute you spend in online marketing, that does mean you all you little twitter people.
Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
larsonassoc1975@yahoo.com
http://www.geocities.com/larsonassoc1979/1
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com
http://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates
http://businesswarfare.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://teamcircle.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate
P.S. New Larson Service: Total Sales Outsourcing Management! We will sit down with you over the phone and go over YOUR numbers to see if it is a cost effective alternative for your company.
*Source: Borelli Associates, third quarter 2008
2008 - $12.8 billion
2009 - $13.9 billion
Larson note: All things are going to be a little slower in the first half of the year. Look for ways you can maximize your web presence and get more exposture for eash dollar or minute you spend in online marketing, that does mean you all you little twitter people.
Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
larsonassoc1975@yahoo.com
http://www.geocities.com/larsonassoc1979/1
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com
http://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates
http://businesswarfare.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://teamcircle.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate
P.S. New Larson Service: Total Sales Outsourcing Management! We will sit down with you over the phone and go over YOUR numbers to see if it is a cost effective alternative for your company.
*Source: Borelli Associates, third quarter 2008
Monday, January 5, 2009
The Week Ahead for The Week Ahead for January 5-8, 2009
Monday: Construction spending
Tuesday: November factory orders
Wednesday:
Thursday: Weekly initial jobless claims, November consumer credit
Friday: December unemployment report, November wholesale inventories
Larson note: I will probably be too premature to see any inventory drops and the general employment picture will not be good. Just hang on to your hat and ride it out.
Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
larsonassoc1975@yahoo.com
http://www.geocities.com/larsonassoc1979/1
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com
http://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates
http://businesswarfare.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://teamcircle.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate
P.S. New Larson Service: Total Sales Outsourcing Management! We will sit down with you over the phone and go over YOUR numbers to see if it is a cost effective alternative for your company.
Tuesday: November factory orders
Wednesday:
Thursday: Weekly initial jobless claims, November consumer credit
Friday: December unemployment report, November wholesale inventories
Larson note: I will probably be too premature to see any inventory drops and the general employment picture will not be good. Just hang on to your hat and ride it out.
Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
larsonassoc1975@yahoo.com
http://www.geocities.com/larsonassoc1979/1
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com
http://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates
http://businesswarfare.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://teamcircle.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate
P.S. New Larson Service: Total Sales Outsourcing Management! We will sit down with you over the phone and go over YOUR numbers to see if it is a cost effective alternative for your company.
Friday, January 2, 2009
Packaging Survey Results
Labor costs
Cost to process an order
2004 $7.872005 $6.72
2006 $6.48
2007 $4.81
2008 $5.21
Cost of labor as a percentage of company sales
2004 10.4%
2005 9.4%
2006 8.6%
2007 8.9%
2008 6.3%
Cycle time
The in-transit time in going up as fewer shipments go air
Total 5.0
Internal 2.3
Error Rate
Other 0.95%
Mgf 0.89%
Retail 0.88%
Ave. 0.78%
Wholesale 0.62%
3PL 0.21%
Larson note: The packaging and logistics industry are getting a solid handle on themselves despite the economy. Costs are down and error rates are down
Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
larsonassoc1975@yahoo.com
http://www.geocities.com/larsonassoc1979/1
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com
http://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates
http://businesswarfare.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://teamcircle.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate
P.S. Get in control of your own marketing destiny with a guerilla marketing consultation. Call today and schedule your appointment.
*Source: Parcel industry
Cost to process an order
2004 $7.872005 $6.72
2006 $6.48
2007 $4.81
2008 $5.21
Cost of labor as a percentage of company sales
2004 10.4%
2005 9.4%
2006 8.6%
2007 8.9%
2008 6.3%
Cycle time
The in-transit time in going up as fewer shipments go air
Total 5.0
Internal 2.3
Error Rate
Other 0.95%
Mgf 0.89%
Retail 0.88%
Ave. 0.78%
Wholesale 0.62%
3PL 0.21%
Larson note: The packaging and logistics industry are getting a solid handle on themselves despite the economy. Costs are down and error rates are down
Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
larsonassoc1975@yahoo.com
http://www.geocities.com/larsonassoc1979/1
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com
http://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates
http://businesswarfare.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://teamcircle.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate
P.S. Get in control of your own marketing destiny with a guerilla marketing consultation. Call today and schedule your appointment.
*Source: Parcel industry
Do You need your SE to Go Beyond Google, Yahoo and MSN?
Should you stop at Google, Yahoo and MSN? No way!
According to ComScore only 36% of users time is spent on the top 20 internet sites a 4% decrease from last year. When doing local searches, more that 50% or people ending up searching for local products and services on search engines outside of the big 3. With the emergence of hundreds of local search engines, there is a unique opportunity for businesses both small and large to maximize there online reach. This brings you to a choice, of doing your own internal list management, which can be labor intensive or get a provider to do a complete job, collect, enrich, optimize, distribute and manage your listings.
To get maximize reach you need to have a partnership is both local search engines the major engines as well as a long listing of the various Internet Yellow Pages.
Larson note: It is quite possible to do it yourself, if you have the time and what to do the research, if not get a pro to do it for you.
Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
larsonassoc1975@yahoo.com
http://www.geocities.com/larsonassoc1979/1
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com
http://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates
http://businesswarfare.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://teamcircle.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate
P.S. Get in control of your own marketing destiny with a guerilla marketing consultation. Call today and schedule your appointment.
*Source: Direct Marketing Association
According to ComScore only 36% of users time is spent on the top 20 internet sites a 4% decrease from last year. When doing local searches, more that 50% or people ending up searching for local products and services on search engines outside of the big 3. With the emergence of hundreds of local search engines, there is a unique opportunity for businesses both small and large to maximize there online reach. This brings you to a choice, of doing your own internal list management, which can be labor intensive or get a provider to do a complete job, collect, enrich, optimize, distribute and manage your listings.
To get maximize reach you need to have a partnership is both local search engines the major engines as well as a long listing of the various Internet Yellow Pages.
Larson note: It is quite possible to do it yourself, if you have the time and what to do the research, if not get a pro to do it for you.
Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
larsonassoc1975@yahoo.com
http://www.geocities.com/larsonassoc1979/1
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com
http://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates
http://businesswarfare.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://teamcircle.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate
P.S. Get in control of your own marketing destiny with a guerilla marketing consultation. Call today and schedule your appointment.
*Source: Direct Marketing Association
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