Serif Group

I’m not a big text person, so when I received one the other day I was curious to find out who it was. It was AT&T texting me about American Idol Season 8. Funny, I didn’t ever remember signing up to receive text alerts from American Idol or AT&T. With economic pressures mounting look out for companies Spamming via text. Although some would argue that the AT&T message was not Spam because it was free, it did ruffle some feathers.

As an email marketer, I fight the uphill perception battle that Email marketing is Spam. I figured the best way to combat this perception is to learn about SPAM and try to help others understand what they can do to fight it.

What do we do with all of the junk we get? If your Spam filter isn’t catching everything these sites may help:

Spam information resources:

Federal Trade Commission

Spamcop.net

The Spamhaus Project

Spambusters.org

Abuse.net

Spamresource.com

Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group

Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial Email

International Mail Consortium

Spamlaws.com

Email Sender Provider Coalition

Conference on Email and Anti-Spam

Get Net Wise

Melon Stork

Spam Blockers or Services

Spam Assassin

S-Mail

Blue Bottle

Join us for an Orange Open House at the offices of Serif Group and Inbox Orange to celebrate the first anniversary of Inbox Orange, an email marketing firm.  Please drop in and visit on Wednesday, January 7, 2009 from 4-7 p.m. We will enjoy catering by Corky’s, drinks, and networking—and don’t forget to grab a swag bag of goodies provided by our clients before you leave! Click here for a map and driving directions. 

One more thing …

In keeping with the Christmas spirit. If you live in the Lexington area the local Ronald McDonald House needs your help. As you may or may not have heard, the Ronald McDonald House had a flood in their house due to a leaking fire sprinkler system on Monday. As a result, many, many gifts collected for sick and hospitalized children were ruined.  If you would like to help the Ronald McDonald House out in this critical time of need, they have asked for folks to help the House with either gift cards to stores like Kroger and Wal Mart or to simply consider making a financial contribution. There was quite a bit of damage to the room they had the toys in and they will also need to replace some or all of their board room furniture.

How does a busy person stay up to date with Facebook, blogging, Twittering (tweets) and discovering new media trends? I am not exactly sure, but I can tell you that is isn’t easy. Between working on Serif Group, Baby publictions and Inbox Orange projects and building my knowledge base about the ever-changing landscape of new-media marketing I find it difficult to even type this very blog update. I preach to others how blogging is a great way to reach your customers and become a ‘thought leader’ in your industry, but I can’t seem to follow my own advice. (See this article about blogging)

Last week I finally signed up for Myspace-though I have yet to make it mine. On Facebook my friend list grows, but my status updates don’t. I even have my status updates on Facebook linked to Twitter to make it easier. But, to this day, I have 28 followers on Twitter but only a total of 29 updates-EVER.

Not only is Myspace on hold, but so is Delicious and StumpleUpon. I’d even love to explore Ning a bit more, but can’t find the time to stay up on my Google Analytics & Adsense accounts let alone my Commision Junction account.

Work smarter is an option, but I’m looking for anyone with other ideas. Are you experiencing the same problem? Is it just that time of year? Let me know what you think. Which social media tools do you find not worth the effort? Which ones do you swear by?

Whenever I get some downtime I’ll finish reading the 4 books that I have lined up to read and then maybe, just maybe I’ll add some more contacts to LinkedIn.

We were so excited about having a story about us in last week’s issue of Business Lexington. We couldn’t believe it when we got our copy in the mail and saw that our photo was featured on the cover and the table of contents! Talking about exposure that money can’t buy. Bill and I are grateful for the opportunity to work and live in such a wonderful community. Thank you Smiley Pete Publishing, Kathie Stamps and Shaun Ring Photography. (BTW, the week before the story came out Shaun ran a very creative promotion using Twitter and Facebook which resulted in our professional photos. I highly recommend you check him out as his photography is just as outside-the-box as his marketing.)

I guess this is the lazy way of blogging rather than coming up with interesting stuff on my own, I share with you some of the good stuff I have found around the web.

1) Before we can read, we know what a logo represents. It shows how powerful a good logo can be. Track some of them through the ages here: Evolution of Logos

2) Have you or your company gone digital yet? A good short article on the benefits of investing in digital rather than traditional. Going Digital

3) Need to find a logo to use: Brands of the World

4) Newspapers in decline. Nothing new, but worth mentioning. Bye-bye old media.