Lies that the “Please Hold” Voice Tells You

New blog post: "Lies That the ‘Please Hold’ Voice Tells You" — http://todmaffin.com/please_hold_lies (You like? Please RT.)

Having recorded at least 1 set of menu items for a company, I agree with your point about them not changing too often. However, as they just changed, letting people know that they did change “can” be useful if you remember to:
a) record a second version at the same volume level without the “we've changed the buttons” message, and
b) remember to actually change the message

As such, I just avoided moving 90% of the numbers around as it was just too much work, and they in the end got routed to about 4 call responder groups anyway depending on what product/service was being requested.

The best call system, one that gets you close to the right human. Usually these menu's should look like your high level org chart. if it doesn't you're org chart is broken, or your business is, fix that first and then try to fix your phones.

Lies that the “Please Hold” Voice Tells You – I make a lot of phone calls in the day. Note that I didn’t say … http://ow.ly/15JxXG

rt @LauraDeSantis Lies that "please hold" voice tells you: http://bit.ly/3lCPLH

We finally switched back to a very simple phone system: It rings, we answer.

We used to have options, but they all kind of sucked. Now? It rings. We answer. How hard is that? (Although in others defense, we have 5 employees…)

That phone looks oddly familiar. Or is it the screaming-at-it part that looks familiar?

Hi Disqus!

It’s been a busy few weeks for me, keynoting conferences in Miami, Dallas,
Regina, Yellowknife, and Halifax — all within an eight-day span! One of the
presentatons I really enjoyed researching and preparing was about the
implications of social media in real estate legislation. I presented my
findings and thoughts to regulators throughout the U.S.

This summer, I did a complete redesign of my web site, business cards,
presentation slides, and more. If you haven’t visited my site recently,
please take a second to click on http://todmaffin.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=cb6a9f84c38e0053d2616bc47&id=be910ec3e8&e=e977438207

P.S. Are you an educator or school administrator? Be sure to check out the
bottom of this email for my education presentations!

______________________________________________________
Labour Relations in a YouTube Era

I’ve just been booked as the “super-session” speaker at the 13th World
Human Resources Congress next year in Toronto. My topic will be “Labour
Relations in a YouTube Era,” and will cover how the outcomes of labour
disputes can be radically changed by employing social media and engaging new
swams of supporters. It’s a three-hour presentation designed for both
management and labour unions, and will look at ways today’s technology can
actually bring the parties closer and even avoid larger-scale disruptions.

There are big pitfalls awaiting the unprepared. Perhaps it starts as a
striking worker starting an anti-management blog. Or a locked-out staffer
uploading videos to YouTube of managers crossing the line. In no time,
you’re in the middle of a labour relations firestorm — and you may not even
know it.

I should know. When the CBC locked me and 5,500 other employees out in
2005, I started a blog. In time, it grew to be the hub of communications for
both labor and management, garnering 10,000 unique visits daily. Some say
the blog helped end the dispute earlier. Since then, I’ve helped both union
groups and corporate H.R. departments understand how tools like Facebook,
Twitter, and blogs can both hurt and help in a labour dispute.

If this sounds like something you’re interested in for your own
organization, contact me now at http://todmaffin.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=cb6a9f84c38e0053d2616bc47&id=9892e2c419&e=e977438207

______________________________________________________
Are you an association or Chamber of Commerce manager?

Hit reply to contact me about my half-day _Social Media Boot Camp for Small Business_
_Owners_. It’s an in-depth afternoon covering how to _generate __guaranteed
ROI_ on their online marketing efforts — from advertising on Facebook and
Google, to why you shouldn’t bother with a blog, building a “tribe” of fans
online, and much more.

Attendees walk away with a customized action plan, workbook, and access to
private resources.

The sponsoring organization takes home a percentage of the ticket revenues.
*This is usually about $2,000 in cash returned to your Chamber of Commerce or
association.*

Let me know if you’d like to schedule a call to discuss how this might
add value to your members.

______________________________________________________
This Is How Twitter Will Die

Perhaps the most difficult part of forecasting technologies’ pace is
discerning which technologies will be short-lived fads and which will become
ingrained in our lives. Often, millions of dollars are at stake — should the
I.T. department hold steady or invest in a promising solution that may
indeed become the next Pointcast. It’s not an easy game and for that reason
many technology commentators steer clear of any kind of forecasting.

This is how Twitter will die. (And, thus, live forever.)
- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - -

Perhaps the most difficult part of forecasting technologies’ pace is
discerning which technologies will be short-lived fads and which will become
ingrained in our lives. Often, millions of dollars are at stake — should the
I.T. department hold steady or invest in a promising solution that may
indeed become the next Pointcast. It’s not an easy game and for that reason
many technology commentators steer clear of any kind of forecasting.

But despite the infrequent unpredictable breakout hit, technology’s growth
curve is actually quite predictable. (The oft-misquoted Moore’s Law is
probably the most well-known reliable long-term trend in computer hardware.

There is indeed a tipping point in technology timelines — the moment when a
fad evolves into being a secure part of our lives — and it is the point at
which a technology becomes invisible. Not literally invisible, of course,
but practically invisible in our day-to-day lives.

The Thermostat Test
- – - – - – - – - – - -

Think about your home thermostat. When you actually stop to consider what
it does — measure the room temperature and automatically adjust the
heating/cooling automatically — it’s actually quite an amazing technology
that’s had a large impact on our standard of living.

One can imagine the attention the invention received when it was first in
use in the late 1800s. Today, though, it’s pretty much invisible in our
lives. Sure, you can see it, but when was the last time you actually thought
about your thermostat? Nobody has come to your place and stopped to remark
about “that awesome thermostat” of yours. It’s simply slipped into the wider
growing conscious of the technology around us.

This, then, is the litmus test for tech fads and technology’s influence in
our lives. When a technology blends effortlessly into our daily living and
becomes essentially invisible to us, it secures a permanent place in our
environment.

And this is how Twitter will die.
- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - -

I’m not suggesting, of course, that we’ll be without the ability to tweet
any more, just that the mechanism by which we do so will become so ingrained
in our lives that we may not even know it as “Twitter” in the future.

Consider the ways Twitter has evolved beyond being a hyped-up web site:
* Facebook completely redesigned its site to become more “Twitter-like”
(much to the chagrin of its user base)
* Hundreds of thousands of Twitter users interact with their Twitter
followers only though mobile-phone text messaging
* Dozens of mobile applications exist on nearly every cell phone to
provide direct access to Twitter’s functionality
* Long-term Twitter API holdout LinkedIn has caved into member pressure
and, as of today, now provides a way of tweeting directly from its site

As more developers take advantage of Twitter’s API, the need for anyone to
go to Twitter’s actual web site lessens. Now, we access through phones,
airport and mall kiosks, and even toilets. A small industry is developing
around linking ‘real life’ to Twitter. An inexpensive do-it-yourself kit
hooks everyday appliances to Twitter so they can tweet about their daily
energy consumption. And, in what screenwriters would call a beautiful
“envelope ending,” modified thermostats can now tweet their average
temperature points.

The Looming Death of the Twitter Brand
- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - -

Contrary to the opinions of most tech pundits, in the coming years I expect
the Twitter brand will decline in mindshare. Consider that most venture
capital money is historically speculative and short-term in nature; V.C.s
quickly grow tired of funding rounds devoted to building mass brand
awareness, a very expensive strategy. This is partly why many
buzz-attracting tech brands of the past today operate happily in the
background, quietly earning consistent returns without the brand
front-and-centre.

In fact, this trend toward invisibility is already happening to Twitter —
newscasters tell viewers to “send a tweet” today, not “Go to twitter.com and
send a message” as they used to. The act of tweeting will stay with us now,
even if the brand fails.

As Twitter becomes less a web site and more simply a platform for short
messages, the more its brand will recede from our mind. If history is any
guide, this will be the point at which Twitter, as we know it today, will
disappear. Its feeder parts, like cell phone apps and social networking
sites, will then devour its functionality, pushing its growth into the
stratosphere, making it immortal.

Twitter will die. And, in so doing, will live forever.

___________________________
Graduating College Students

Colleges and universities are beginning to book their year-end
presentations. My presentation From Backpack to Briefcase:
How to Thrive in the Hyperspeed Workforce Without Losing Your Mind”
has drawn rave reviews from schools and students alike.
http://todmaffin.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=cb6a9f84c38e0053d2616bc47&id=f03b7d4da6&e=e977438207

Get more information here and watch what students say about the
entertaining and informative speech.

___________________________
Educators

One of the key areas I research is the impact of technology and social media
on learners. Here are some of the presentations I’m able to do, aimed at an
audience of educators and school administrators:
* Teaching the Facebook Generation:
Connect with Your Gen-Y/Millennial Students Better and Teach More
Effectively
— http://todmaffin.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=cb6a9f84c38e0053d2616bc47&id=609d6078cb&e=e977438207

* Learning in a Digital World How Technology is Changing the Way Students Learn
— http://todmaffin.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=cb6a9f84c38e0053d2616bc47&id=1d140bce2d&e=e977438207

* The Clicks Behind Your Back: Social Networking in the Classroom
— http://todmaffin.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=cb6a9f84c38e0053d2616bc47&id=65a50b79d2&e=e977438207

______________________________________
Independent Professionals

Realtors | Accountants | Lawyers | Coaches | Financial Advisors | …and more

You’ve got enough to do talking to clients and chasing new business — the
last thing you want is another task, even if it IS to build your business.

Let me show your association’s attendees the eight secrets to marketing
their independent business online. Using tools like Twitter, Facebook, and
LinkedIn, I’ll teach them how to set up a self-running marketing machine
that drives real, qualified leads in, in less than 30 minutes a week.

http://todmaffin.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=cb6a9f84c38e0053d2616bc47&id=b621834028&e=e977438207
==============================================

Unsubscribe from this list:
http://todmaffin.us1.list-manage.com/unsubscribe?u=cb6a9f84c38e0053d2616bc47&id=f37c56aa61&e=e977438207&c=3bdced004d

Hi Disqus!

It’s been a busy few weeks for me, keynoting conferences in Miami, Dallas,
Regina, Yellowknife, and Halifax — all within an eight-day span! One of the
presentatons I really enjoyed researching and preparing was about the
implications of social media in real estate legislation. I presented my
findings and thoughts to regulators throughout the U.S.

This summer, I did a complete redesign of my web site, business cards,
presentation slides, and more. If you haven’t visited my site recently,
please take a second to click on http://todmaffin.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=cb6a9f84c38e0053d2616bc47&id=be910ec3e8&e=06bbdeb415

P.S. Are you an educator or school administrator? Be sure to check out the
bottom of this email for my education presentations!

______________________________________________________
Labour Relations in a YouTube Era

I’ve just been booked as the “super-session” speaker at the 13th World
Human Resources Congress next year in Toronto. My topic will be “Labour
Relations in a YouTube Era,” and will cover how the outcomes of labour
disputes can be radically changed by employing social media and engaging new
swams of supporters. It’s a three-hour presentation designed for both
management and labour unions, and will look at ways today’s technology can
actually bring the parties closer and even avoid larger-scale disruptions.

There are big pitfalls awaiting the unprepared. Perhaps it starts as a
striking worker starting an anti-management blog. Or a locked-out staffer
uploading videos to YouTube of managers crossing the line. In no time,
you’re in the middle of a labour relations firestorm — and you may not even
know it.

I should know. When the CBC locked me and 5,500 other employees out in
2005, I started a blog. In time, it grew to be the hub of communications for
both labor and management, garnering 10,000 unique visits daily. Some say
the blog helped end the dispute earlier. Since then, I’ve helped both union
groups and corporate H.R. departments understand how tools like Facebook,
Twitter, and blogs can both hurt and help in a labour dispute.

If this sounds like something you’re interested in for your own
organization, contact me now at http://todmaffin.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=cb6a9f84c38e0053d2616bc47&id=9892e2c419&e=06bbdeb415

______________________________________________________
Are you an association or Chamber of Commerce manager?

Hit reply to contact me about my half-day _Social Media Boot Camp for Small Business_
_Owners_. It’s an in-depth afternoon covering how to _generate __guaranteed
ROI_ on their online marketing efforts — from advertising on Facebook and
Google, to why you shouldn’t bother with a blog, building a “tribe” of fans
online, and much more.

Attendees walk away with a customized action plan, workbook, and access to
private resources.

The sponsoring organization takes home a percentage of the ticket revenues.
*This is usually about $2,000 in cash returned to your Chamber of Commerce or
association.*

Let me know if you’d like to schedule a call to discuss how this might
add value to your members.

______________________________________________________
This Is How Twitter Will Die

Perhaps the most difficult part of forecasting technologies’ pace is
discerning which technologies will be short-lived fads and which will become
ingrained in our lives. Often, millions of dollars are at stake — should the
I.T. department hold steady or invest in a promising solution that may
indeed become the next Pointcast. It’s not an easy game and for that reason
many technology commentators steer clear of any kind of forecasting.

This is how Twitter will die. (And, thus, live forever.)
- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - -

Perhaps the most difficult part of forecasting technologies’ pace is
discerning which technologies will be short-lived fads and which will become
ingrained in our lives. Often, millions of dollars are at stake — should the
I.T. department hold steady or invest in a promising solution that may
indeed become the next Pointcast. It’s not an easy game and for that reason
many technology commentators steer clear of any kind of forecasting.

But despite the infrequent unpredictable breakout hit, technology’s growth
curve is actually quite predictable. (The oft-misquoted Moore’s Law is
probably the most well-known reliable long-term trend in computer hardware.

There is indeed a tipping point in technology timelines — the moment when a
fad evolves into being a secure part of our lives — and it is the point at
which a technology becomes invisible. Not literally invisible, of course,
but practically invisible in our day-to-day lives.

The Thermostat Test
- – - – - – - – - – - -

Think about your home thermostat. When you actually stop to consider what
it does — measure the room temperature and automatically adjust the
heating/cooling automatically — it’s actually quite an amazing technology
that’s had a large impact on our standard of living.

One can imagine the attention the invention received when it was first in
use in the late 1800s. Today, though, it’s pretty much invisible in our
lives. Sure, you can see it, but when was the last time you actually thought
about your thermostat? Nobody has come to your place and stopped to remark
about “that awesome thermostat” of yours. It’s simply slipped into the wider
growing conscious of the technology around us.

This, then, is the litmus test for tech fads and technology’s influence in
our lives. When a technology blends effortlessly into our daily living and
becomes essentially invisible to us, it secures a permanent place in our
environment.

And this is how Twitter will die.
- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - -

I’m not suggesting, of course, that we’ll be without the ability to tweet
any more, just that the mechanism by which we do so will become so ingrained
in our lives that we may not even know it as “Twitter” in the future.

Consider the ways Twitter has evolved beyond being a hyped-up web site:
* Facebook completely redesigned its site to become more “Twitter-like”
(much to the chagrin of its user base)
* Hundreds of thousands of Twitter users interact with their Twitter
followers only though mobile-phone text messaging
* Dozens of mobile applications exist on nearly every cell phone to
provide direct access to Twitter’s functionality
* Long-term Twitter API holdout LinkedIn has caved into member pressure
and, as of today, now provides a way of tweeting directly from its site

As more developers take advantage of Twitter’s API, the need for anyone to
go to Twitter’s actual web site lessens. Now, we access through phones,
airport and mall kiosks, and even toilets. A small industry is developing
around linking ‘real life’ to Twitter. An inexpensive do-it-yourself kit
hooks everyday appliances to Twitter so they can tweet about their daily
energy consumption. And, in what screenwriters would call a beautiful
“envelope ending,” modified thermostats can now tweet their average
temperature points.

The Looming Death of the Twitter Brand
- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - -

Contrary to the opinions of most tech pundits, in the coming years I expect
the Twitter brand will decline in mindshare. Consider that most venture
capital money is historically speculative and short-term in nature; V.C.s
quickly grow tired of funding rounds devoted to building mass brand
awareness, a very expensive strategy. This is partly why many
buzz-attracting tech brands of the past today operate happily in the
background, quietly earning consistent returns without the brand
front-and-centre.

In fact, this trend toward invisibility is already happening to Twitter —
newscasters tell viewers to “send a tweet” today, not “Go to twitter.com and
send a message” as they used to. The act of tweeting will stay with us now,
even if the brand fails.

As Twitter becomes less a web site and more simply a platform for short
messages, the more its brand will recede from our mind. If history is any
guide, this will be the point at which Twitter, as we know it today, will
disappear. Its feeder parts, like cell phone apps and social networking
sites, will then devour its functionality, pushing its growth into the
stratosphere, making it immortal.

Twitter will die. And, in so doing, will live forever.

___________________________
Graduating College Students

Colleges and universities are beginning to book their year-end
presentations. My presentation From Backpack to Briefcase:
How to Thrive in the Hyperspeed Workforce Without Losing Your Mind”
has drawn rave reviews from schools and students alike.
http://todmaffin.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=cb6a9f84c38e0053d2616bc47&id=f03b7d4da6&e=06bbdeb415

Get more information here and watch what students say about the
entertaining and informative speech.

___________________________
Educators

One of the key areas I research is the impact of technology and social media
on learners. Here are some of the presentations I’m able to do, aimed at an
audience of educators and school administrators:
* Teaching the Facebook Generation:
Connect with Your Gen-Y/Millennial Students Better and Teach More
Effectively
— http://todmaffin.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=cb6a9f84c38e0053d2616bc47&id=609d6078cb&e=06bbdeb415

* Learning in a Digital World How Technology is Changing the Way Students Learn
— http://todmaffin.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=cb6a9f84c38e0053d2616bc47&id=1d140bce2d&e=06bbdeb415

* The Clicks Behind Your Back: Social Networking in the Classroom
— http://todmaffin.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=cb6a9f84c38e0053d2616bc47&id=65a50b79d2&e=06bbdeb415

______________________________________
Independent Professionals

Realtors | Accountants | Lawyers | Coaches | Financial Advisors | …and more

You’ve got enough to do talking to clients and chasing new business — the
last thing you want is another task, even if it IS to build your business.

Let me show your association’s attendees the eight secrets to marketing
their independent business online. Using tools like Twitter, Facebook, and
LinkedIn, I’ll teach them how to set up a self-running marketing machine
that drives real, qualified leads in, in less than 30 minutes a week.

http://todmaffin.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=cb6a9f84c38e0053d2616bc47&id=b621834028&e=06bbdeb415
==============================================

Unsubscribe from this list:
http://todmaffin.us1.list-manage.com/unsubscribe?u=cb6a9f84c38e0053d2616bc47&id=f37c56aa61&e=06bbdeb415&c=3bdced004d

INSIDE: Meet Email of the Future, my free iPhone app, best time to hold a seminar, and more!

Hi!

It’s gearing up to be a busy few months for me, giving presentations all
over the place, especially focusing on my Assured ROI™ model (details coming
soon!) and doing a lot of presentations for [4]realtors, [5]educators, among
others. Plus, I’ve got a secret project in the wings that I’ll give you the
first peek at when I launch it.
Links:
4. http://todmaffin.com/realestate?utm_source=Tod+Maffin+Newsletter&utm_campaign=c39f7d6833-TM_Newsletter_Jan_14_101_14_2010&utm_medium=email
5. http://todmaffin.com/presentations/learning?utm_source=Tod+Maffin+Newsletter&utm_campaign=c39f7d6833-TM_Newsletter_Jan_14_101_14_2010&utm_medium=email

DO YOU HAVE AN IPHONE OR IPOD TOUCH? Why not add my free App to it? Now, you
can keep on top of my articles, videos, tweets, and more by downloading my
app. Just go to http://iphone.todmaffin.com?utm_source=Tod+Maffin+Newsletter&utm_campaign=c39f7d6833-TM_Newsletter_Jan_14_101_14_2010&utm_medium=email — iTunes will open and
you’ll be able to download it in seconds. Let me know what you think!

My “Blazingly Effective Email Marketing” Seminar

_This Wednesday, January 20th_, I’ll be holding my intensive Email Marketing
half-day seminar in _Vancouver_. Email marketing is one of the most
effective tools, with one of the highest returns on investment, yet so few
companies do it right. (Or at all.)

Let me show you the ins and outs of email marketing — from the very basics,
right through to advanced techniques like click-weighted A/B testing, and
integrating your newsletter directly into your web site. I’ll teach you how
to get subscribers the best way, or double the number of followers you
already have a list. This isn’t a high-level 30,000 ft view of email
marketing and its place in the world. These are fast and effective tips to
make sure every effort you spend in email marketing returns many, many more.
[7]Take a look at the full morning’s agenda and register. _There are only a
handful of seats left for this intimate and information-rich workshop._
7. http://todmaffin.com/emailnewsletters?utm_source=Tod+Maffin+Newsletter&utm_campaign=c39f7d6833-TM_Newsletter_Jan_14_101_14_2010&utm_medium=email

(If you’re not in Vancouver, but would like to put your name on a list for
when I do it in your city, please put yourself on the list here.)

Email 2.0

With everyone distracted by the various shiny tech objects out there
(Twitter, Facebook, and so on), we’ve been neglecting our loyal — if a
little rusty — friend: simple email.

Email, as we know it today, was developed in the early 1980s, a derivative
of code from ARPANET made ten years prior. It went through a handful of
iterations and today, most of the Internet relies on a solid little
performer called sendmail. Sendmail is, surprisingly, quite a simple and
small program. It sits in millions of Unix servers around the world to ferry
email messages to and fro.

_Sendmail is a great program. But it’s old. It’s still mostly the same
program it began as. That’s no good._

Meanwhile, commercial email systems, like Microsoft’s Exchange or Novell’s
Groupwise, have filled the functionality gap and added new functions that
make electronic communications far more effective. And yet, we still slog
along with the tired old sendmail. Email should do more than it does. And
there’s no reason why we can’t start now.

Retrating Emails

Everyone who’s reading this article has had this experience: You compose an
email, perhaps a little hot-headed, and hit the Send button. That’ll teach
him, you think. An hour passes. You realize maybe you shouldn’t have called
your boss a pig-headed douchebag after all. Lucky for you, he’s not back in
the office until tomorrow. _If your message were sent as a post-it note, you
could walk into his office and throw it away. Not so with email._ Barring
breaking into his office, you’d best use your time thinking of grovelling
strategies.

Commercial email systems like Exchange have been able to retract emails for
years. You just track down your “Dear douchebag” email in your sent items,
and click the “Retract Email” button. Done. Gmail has a slightly different
take on it — you can send the email from your computer, but Gmail will hold
onto it for up to 10 seconds before it actually sends it along (you have to
turn this option on in Settings / Labs).

But the vast majority of email users should have this kind of functionality.

Enough With The Enless Quotes

An email currently in my inbox contains two sentences. And ten screens full
of the past conversation. Gmail can hide this conversation, but it still
gets sent through servers worldwide. I’d venture a bet that 85% of email
traffic on the Internet is actually this back conversation. This may have
been a great feature to have in the early 80s when email clients didn’t
really exist as we know them now, but it’s just silly these days. We already
have the back-conversation because we’ve been in it. We need a “Show Me This
Conversation’s History” button that constructs the conversation flow from
our records.

Attachments

Email 2.0 should not permit anyone to send attachments. You read that right.
Emails are a lousy distribution method for sending large binary files.

Anyone who’s used an online upload service, like drop.io, can see where this
needs to go. Rather than attaching a video file (or whatever) to an email,
where that file literally travels with the email en route to its recipient,
the Attachment button should instead place that file on one of these
systems.

This has a number of benefits. Since attachments will live elsewhere, those
attachment-hosting services can add more value. File conversions can happen
on the fly. _Send a Word DOC file, and I can download it as an Apple Pages
document, PDF, ebook reader, or whatever I want. _No more “I can’t open this
file! Can you export it as a blah blah and send it again?”

We’d also have more control over the security of the attachment. Attachments
can self-destruct after they’ve been downloaded. Or you can set them to only
be downloaded from a certain IP range (within your company, for instance).
That way, even if someone steals your notebook computer and gets into your
email, they won’t be able to get access to critical files that were sent to
you.

Action-Oriented Emails

This is a common workflow for me:
1. Send important email that I need an answer for.
2. Promptly forget about it.

Email needs to provide a reminder service that’s optionally tied to a
specific date. If I email my agent and I need to hear back from her by
Friday, the only way I can be assured that I’ll keep this email active is by
putting a note in [8]RememberTheMilk.com or writing myself a reminder.
Links:
8. http://rememberthemilk.com?utm_source=Tod+Maffin+Newsletter&utm_campaign=c39f7d6833-TM_Newsletter_Jan_14_101_14_2010&utm_medium=email

This should be built directly into email. _When you send an email, you
should be able to set a date when you want the email to “bubble back up”
from your sent items if you haven’t heard back from the person at the other
end. _When you do hear back from them, a simple “Close this thread OR Set a
new bubble-up date” prompt would make me far more efficient.

[9]Gootodo.com claims to offer this kind of functionality — bcc’ing
[10]4D@gootodo.com will have the service send you the email back four days
(“4D”) later. It’s rudimentary and, um, doesn’t seem to work. At least when
I’ve tried.
Links:
9. http://gootodo.com?utm_source=Tod+Maffin+Newsletter&utm_campaign=c39f7d6833-TM_Newsletter_Jan_14_101_14_2010&utm_medium=email
10. mailto:4D@gootodo.com

_What email functions do YOU wish existed?_

Interviews with Social Media Marketing experts

I interviewed two experts in social media marketing recently — and you can
listen to them right now.

First, if you’re a small business trying to find your way around social
media, a very solid resource has hit the bookstores. Friends With Benefits:
A Social Media Marketing Handbook was written for marketers looking to find
new effective ways to sell products and services through social media
channels like blogs, Facebook and Twitter. Julie Szabo and Darren Barefoot
of Capulet Communications co-authored the book and I interviewed them about
their ideas. You can listen at http://todmaffin.com/friendswithbenefits?utm_source=Tod+Maffin+Newsletter&utm_campaign=c39f7d6833-TM_Newsletter_Jan_14_101_14_2010&utm_medium=email .

Second, The new book Trust Agents has been generating a lot of buzz. Written
by two social media veterans, they show readers how to tap into the power of
social networks to build brands’ influence, reputation, and, of course,
profits. I had the chance to interview co-author Julien Smith for about 20
minutes about his ideas. The interview is in this post. (Chris Brogan is
Julien’s co-author.) You can listen at http://todmaffin.com/trustagents?utm_source=Tod+Maffin+Newsletter&utm_campaign=c39f7d6833-TM_Newsletter_Jan_14_101_14_2010&utm_medium=email

See Malcolm Gladwell In Person

Join me whehn Malcolm Gladwell (author of The Tipping Point, Outliers, and
Blink!) presents in person at the [11]F5 Expo in Vancouver on April 7, 2010.
Great info-packed sessions. You should [12]register now while they still
have seats. And I’ve secured a special discount for you — if you use
_todmaffin2010_ as the promo code, you’ll get 10% off the ticket price.
Links:
11. http://www.f5-expo.com?utm_source=Tod+Maffin+Newsletter&utm_campaign=c39f7d6833-TM_Newsletter_Jan_14_101_14_2010&utm_medium=email
12. http://www.f5-expo.com/attendees?utm_source=Tod+Maffin+Newsletter&utm_campaign=c39f7d6833-TM_Newsletter_Jan_14_101_14_2010&utm_medium=email

Best Time to Host a Seminar

I asked you on Twitter and my blog last month what day and time you’d be
most likely to attend a business seminar. If you’re interested, [13]here are
the results.
Links:
13. http://todmaffin.com/images/seminar-times.jpg?utm_source=Tod+Maffin+Newsletter&utm_campaign=c39f7d6833-TM_Newsletter_Jan_14_101_14_2010&utm_medium=email

_Contact Tod right now!_

Call toll-free +1.604.618.2861

or email tod@todmaffin.com

_________________________________________________________________

Tod Maffin Inc.
c/o 410 – 900 Howe Street
Vancouver, BC CANADA V6Z 2M4

Copyright (C) 2009-2010 Tod Maffin Inc.
All rights reserved.
==============================================

Unsubscribe from this list:
http://todmaffin.us1.list-manage.com/unsubscribe?u=cb6a9f84c38e0053d2616bc47&id=f37c56aa61&e=06bbdeb415&c=c39f7d6833

INSIDE: Meet Email of the Future, my free iPhone app, best time to hold a seminar, and more!

Hi!

It’s gearing up to be a busy few months for me, giving presentations all
over the place, especially focusing on my Assured ROI™ model (details coming
soon!) and doing a lot of presentations for [4]realtors, [5]educators, among
others. Plus, I’ve got a secret project in the wings that I’ll give you the
first peek at when I launch it.
Links:
4. http://todmaffin.com/realestate?utm_source=Tod+Maffin+Newsletter&utm_campaign=c39f7d6833-TM_Newsletter_Jan_14_101_14_2010&utm_medium=email
5. http://todmaffin.com/presentations/learning?utm_source=Tod+Maffin+Newsletter&utm_campaign=c39f7d6833-TM_Newsletter_Jan_14_101_14_2010&utm_medium=email

DO YOU HAVE AN IPHONE OR IPOD TOUCH? Why not add my free App to it? Now, you
can keep on top of my articles, videos, tweets, and more by downloading my
app. Just go to http://iphone.todmaffin.com?utm_source=Tod+Maffin+Newsletter&utm_campaign=c39f7d6833-TM_Newsletter_Jan_14_101_14_2010&utm_medium=email — iTunes will open and
you’ll be able to download it in seconds. Let me know what you think!

My “Blazingly Effective Email Marketing” Seminar

_This Wednesday, January 20th_, I’ll be holding my intensive Email Marketing
half-day seminar in _Vancouver_. Email marketing is one of the most
effective tools, with one of the highest returns on investment, yet so few
companies do it right. (Or at all.)

Let me show you the ins and outs of email marketing — from the very basics,
right through to advanced techniques like click-weighted A/B testing, and
integrating your newsletter directly into your web site. I’ll teach you how
to get subscribers the best way, or double the number of followers you
already have a list. This isn’t a high-level 30,000 ft view of email
marketing and its place in the world. These are fast and effective tips to
make sure every effort you spend in email marketing returns many, many more.
[7]Take a look at the full morning’s agenda and register. _There are only a
handful of seats left for this intimate and information-rich workshop._
7. http://todmaffin.com/emailnewsletters?utm_source=Tod+Maffin+Newsletter&utm_campaign=c39f7d6833-TM_Newsletter_Jan_14_101_14_2010&utm_medium=email

(If you’re not in Vancouver, but would like to put your name on a list for
when I do it in your city, please put yourself on the list here.)

Email 2.0

With everyone distracted by the various shiny tech objects out there
(Twitter, Facebook, and so on), we’ve been neglecting our loyal — if a
little rusty — friend: simple email.

Email, as we know it today, was developed in the early 1980s, a derivative
of code from ARPANET made ten years prior. It went through a handful of
iterations and today, most of the Internet relies on a solid little
performer called sendmail. Sendmail is, surprisingly, quite a simple and
small program. It sits in millions of Unix servers around the world to ferry
email messages to and fro.

_Sendmail is a great program. But it’s old. It’s still mostly the same
program it began as. That’s no good._

Meanwhile, commercial email systems, like Microsoft’s Exchange or Novell’s
Groupwise, have filled the functionality gap and added new functions that
make electronic communications far more effective. And yet, we still slog
along with the tired old sendmail. Email should do more than it does. And
there’s no reason why we can’t start now.

Retrating Emails

Everyone who’s reading this article has had this experience: You compose an
email, perhaps a little hot-headed, and hit the Send button. That’ll teach
him, you think. An hour passes. You realize maybe you shouldn’t have called
your boss a pig-headed douchebag after all. Lucky for you, he’s not back in
the office until tomorrow. _If your message were sent as a post-it note, you
could walk into his office and throw it away. Not so with email._ Barring
breaking into his office, you’d best use your time thinking of grovelling
strategies.

Commercial email systems like Exchange have been able to retract emails for
years. You just track down your “Dear douchebag” email in your sent items,
and click the “Retract Email” button. Done. Gmail has a slightly different
take on it — you can send the email from your computer, but Gmail will hold
onto it for up to 10 seconds before it actually sends it along (you have to
turn this option on in Settings / Labs).

But the vast majority of email users should have this kind of functionality.

Enough With The Enless Quotes

An email currently in my inbox contains two sentences. And ten screens full
of the past conversation. Gmail can hide this conversation, but it still
gets sent through servers worldwide. I’d venture a bet that 85% of email
traffic on the Internet is actually this back conversation. This may have
been a great feature to have in the early 80s when email clients didn’t
really exist as we know them now, but it’s just silly these days. We already
have the back-conversation because we’ve been in it. We need a “Show Me This
Conversation’s History” button that constructs the conversation flow from
our records.

Attachments

Email 2.0 should not permit anyone to send attachments. You read that right.
Emails are a lousy distribution method for sending large binary files.

Anyone who’s used an online upload service, like drop.io, can see where this
needs to go. Rather than attaching a video file (or whatever) to an email,
where that file literally travels with the email en route to its recipient,
the Attachment button should instead place that file on one of these
systems.

This has a number of benefits. Since attachments will live elsewhere, those
attachment-hosting services can add more value. File conversions can happen
on the fly. _Send a Word DOC file, and I can download it as an Apple Pages
document, PDF, ebook reader, or whatever I want. _No more “I can’t open this
file! Can you export it as a blah blah and send it again?”

We’d also have more control over the security of the attachment. Attachments
can self-destruct after they’ve been downloaded. Or you can set them to only
be downloaded from a certain IP range (within your company, for instance).
That way, even if someone steals your notebook computer and gets into your
email, they won’t be able to get access to critical files that were sent to
you.

Action-Oriented Emails

This is a common workflow for me:
1. Send important email that I need an answer for.
2. Promptly forget about it.

Email needs to provide a reminder service that’s optionally tied to a
specific date. If I email my agent and I need to hear back from her by
Friday, the only way I can be assured that I’ll keep this email active is by
putting a note in [8]RememberTheMilk.com or writing myself a reminder.
Links:
8. http://rememberthemilk.com?utm_source=Tod+Maffin+Newsletter&utm_campaign=c39f7d6833-TM_Newsletter_Jan_14_101_14_2010&utm_medium=email

This should be built directly into email. _When you send an email, you
should be able to set a date when you want the email to “bubble back up”
from your sent items if you haven’t heard back from the person at the other
end. _When you do hear back from them, a simple “Close this thread OR Set a
new bubble-up date” prompt would make me far more efficient.

[9]Gootodo.com claims to offer this kind of functionality — bcc’ing
[10]4D@gootodo.com will have the service send you the email back four days
(“4D”) later. It’s rudimentary and, um, doesn’t seem to work. At least when
I’ve tried.
Links:
9. http://gootodo.com?utm_source=Tod+Maffin+Newsletter&utm_campaign=c39f7d6833-TM_Newsletter_Jan_14_101_14_2010&utm_medium=email
10. mailto:4D@gootodo.com

_What email functions do YOU wish existed?_

Interviews with Social Media Marketing experts

I interviewed two experts in social media marketing recently — and you can
listen to them right now.

First, if you’re a small business trying to find your way around social
media, a very solid resource has hit the bookstores. Friends With Benefits:
A Social Media Marketing Handbook was written for marketers looking to find
new effective ways to sell products and services through social media
channels like blogs, Facebook and Twitter. Julie Szabo and Darren Barefoot
of Capulet Communications co-authored the book and I interviewed them about
their ideas. You can listen at http://todmaffin.com/friendswithbenefits?utm_source=Tod+Maffin+Newsletter&utm_campaign=c39f7d6833-TM_Newsletter_Jan_14_101_14_2010&utm_medium=email .

Second, The new book Trust Agents has been generating a lot of buzz. Written
by two social media veterans, they show readers how to tap into the power of
social networks to build brands’ influence, reputation, and, of course,
profits. I had the chance to interview co-author Julien Smith for about 20
minutes about his ideas. The interview is in this post. (Chris Brogan is
Julien’s co-author.) You can listen at http://todmaffin.com/trustagents?utm_source=Tod+Maffin+Newsletter&utm_campaign=c39f7d6833-TM_Newsletter_Jan_14_101_14_2010&utm_medium=email

See Malcolm Gladwell In Person

Join me whehn Malcolm Gladwell (author of The Tipping Point, Outliers, and
Blink!) presents in person at the [11]F5 Expo in Vancouver on April 7, 2010.
Great info-packed sessions. You should [12]register now while they still
have seats. And I’ve secured a special discount for you — if you use
_todmaffin2010_ as the promo code, you’ll get 10% off the ticket price.
Links:
11. http://www.f5-expo.com?utm_source=Tod+Maffin+Newsletter&utm_campaign=c39f7d6833-TM_Newsletter_Jan_14_101_14_2010&utm_medium=email
12. http://www.f5-expo.com/attendees?utm_source=Tod+Maffin+Newsletter&utm_campaign=c39f7d6833-TM_Newsletter_Jan_14_101_14_2010&utm_medium=email

Best Time to Host a Seminar

I asked you on Twitter and my blog last month what day and time you’d be
most likely to attend a business seminar. If you’re interested, [13]here are
the results.
Links:
13. http://todmaffin.com/images/seminar-times.jpg?utm_source=Tod+Maffin+Newsletter&utm_campaign=c39f7d6833-TM_Newsletter_Jan_14_101_14_2010&utm_medium=email

_Contact Tod right now!_

Call toll-free +1.604.618.2861

or email tod@todmaffin.com

_________________________________________________________________

Tod Maffin Inc.
c/o 410 – 900 Howe Street
Vancouver, BC CANADA V6Z 2M4

Copyright (C) 2009-2010 Tod Maffin Inc.
All rights reserved.
==============================================

Unsubscribe from this list:
http://todmaffin.us1.list-manage.com/unsubscribe?u=cb6a9f84c38e0053d2616bc47&id=f37c56aa61&e=e977438207&c=c39f7d6833