Yesterday (Tuesday 9^th February) Google announced the launch of Google Buzz, a tool which allows Gmail users to send status updates, as reported by the Telegraph.

Google Buzz, as the new application is called, essentially allows Gmail users to write status updates which other users can see, but goes further by allowing them to aggregate other services in an attempt to make it easier to operate in the increasingly frustrating information-heavy online environment.

The benefit of Google Buzz is that Gmail users don’t need to sign up; the feature will automatically be available to users. Also, similar to Facebook and Twitter, you can choose whether to share your updates or keep them private. On the Google Buzz homepage they claim to “go beyond status messaging” and updates can include photos and videos. Google Buzz has also been developed to allow people to access the application on their phone.

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Yesterday Facebook celebrated its 6^th birthday and Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, announced in their blog that the popular social media website now has 400 million users. Zuckerberg spoke in his blog post about how he envisioned Facebook to be.

Facebook began six years ago today as a product that my roommates and I built to help people around us connect easily, share information and understand one another better. We hoped Facebook would improve people’s lives in important ways.

To celebrate, Facebook officially announced the new homepage design. Mashable posted photos back in December 2009 of how the new homepage would look and yesterday Facebook began rolling out the updates.

The changes include the notification bar moving to the top of the page, the left menu bar has changed so you can view and organise the core features easily and the photo dashboard being redesigned. Furthermore, the chat function has been integrated further into the home page. To read more about the changes click here to read Facebook’s announcement.

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Here at Sign-Up.to we believe it’s important for our customers to keep their data organised. However, when it comes to organising your subscriber data, how can it be achieved? Surely, as your database grows it just becomes harder? There are steps to ensure your data is organised and structured.

	1. Use the ‘add list’ and ‘add folder’ function. You can have an endless number of folders and lists, the more the merrier. For example, you may gain new subscribers in different ways – web, email, exhibitions – the list is endless. Why not try having a folder for each location your subscribers originate from? Perhaps you have more than one data capture form on your website, in which case an individual list can be created for each form. Lists also allow you to create autoresponders and you may wish to create individual ones, tailored to the original list the subscriber has signed up to.
	2. Targeting subscribers. This function allows you to specifically target subscribers who have opened, not opened and clicked certain (if not all) links within your email. Our customers often tell us how much they benefit from targeting subscribers in this way. Why not create a specific folder for your targeting activities? This ensures your targeting lists are separate from your main mailing lists.
	3. Subscriber profiling. In profiling you can send email for an endless number of fields including location. If you’re operating a company based in several locations across the UK or even worldwide, subscriber profiling allows you to send your emails to the most relevant audience. In return, you’ll be targeting more effectively, reducing the number of unsubscriptions you may receive.
	4. Gaining as much information as possible. Whilst not directly linked to keeping your data organised, more information makes your subscriber data smart and opens up further options to you. Why have just a subscriber’s email address? Why not have their first name? In obtaining this information you can include personalisation in your emails, adding a more “personal” feel. Subscribers like to feel the email they’re receiving is tailored to them as an individual, so personalisation is something we strongly recommend.
	5. Managing your do not contact list. The do not contact list is where email addresses are placed when a recipient unsubscribes. This information can be exported at any time and as long as a recipient is on the do not contact list, they cannot be added to your list again or receive any future emails from you. Remember, we never advise removing a subscriber from the do not contact list, as this can lead to prosecution if this subscriber makes a complaint.
	6. Regular exports. Though all data is stored securely, we recommend regular exporting for your own records. Subscriber data is valuable and should be treated with care. Occasionally our clients accidentally erase a list, and while we can restore from backup, it’s much quicker and easier to upload an old import. Furthermore, we don’t recommend importing subscriber data that is more than a year old as it can increase the number of bounces and people may forget who you are. Therefore, keep your lists updated – if you feel information is out of date, export it, keep it for your records, and update your Sign-Up.to account.

To summarise, it’s important to tailor your data to your company needs and these steps provide some tips on how to organise it and ultimately, get the best from your subscriber data. As mentioned previously, your data is valuable and it’s important that it’s used in the most effective way to ensure you get the most out of email marketing.

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Those who design and engineer web pages (and emails) have long been aware that Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 6 (IE6) has been something of a thorn in their side. Even basic layouts sometimes require a custom IE6 style sheet, and the kind of modern web features that the likes of Facebook now employ to bring responsive and interactive web pages simply don’t work. As a result for quite some time now there have been campaigns like ‘IE6 Must Die‘ – a geeky read but an excellent example of the frustrations felt in the community. This campaign though has, until recently, not been as effective as that community would have liked.

A recent report by NetMarketShare revealed that IE6 still represents just over 20% of the market. This is because larger corporations and the public sector are often slow to implement technology change, so the ravings of a few internet designers and developers aren’t going to carry much influence. They’ve got the resources to ensure that their own sites work in all browsers, they don’t mind if this prevents their own web sites from being cutting edge, and they are generally insulated to the kind of attitudes and preferences that are advancing web technologies elsewhere. Facebook hasn’t supported IE6 since August 2008. Do large employers care that their staff can’t access Facebook from their office machines? Not likely!

Recently though, the landscape changed. Since hackers in China exploited IE to access some Google mail, it is security rather than beauty and functionality that has taken centre stage on the IE6 issue. The French and German governments went so far as to recommend their citizens choose another browser. Mashable released a new set of reasons why IE6 must die. Google have announced they will phase out IE6 support from March 2010. Today, there’s an article entitled ‘Pressure mounts to phase out Internet Explorer 6‘ on the front page of BBC news.

Here at Sign-Up.to we will be watching this situation with interest. Our public facing services – so that’s our main web site, the dynamic subscription forms our clients can automatically build, and our subscriber profile administration areas  - all currently support IE6. For our paying customers though (those who use our web applications to manage their digital marketing), we haven’t supported IE6 for our customers for around 3 years now. To ensure ease of use and accurate email campaign building it simply wasn’t possible to employ the elderly IE6 engine even then. This has meant that some larger entities haven’t been able to fully use our services, but this is a regret we must carry for the greater good.

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I was recently invited to attend the Talent Expo pre-exhibitor event.

Talent Expo is a new annual trade exhibition looking at the talent industry. The exhibition has been created after noticing exceptional growth of people wanting to be discovered – fuelled by TV shows like the X Factor and Britain’s Got Talent. Robert Fenton, CEO of Talent Expo explained that he found exhibitions had become outdated.

“We’ve tried to make Talent Expo entertaining and theatrical and engaging for visitors and exhibitors”.

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Recently we’ve been adding some useful “how to” style videos explaining key functions in your Sign-Up.to account. Today we’ve added a further 16 videos which we hope you will find useful.

These videos cover subjects such as how to set an autoresponder, how to use split testing, how to export and how to set an SMS keyword. To go to the video tutorials please click here.

Similar to the videos already online, each guide gives you step by step instructions for how to complete the chosen task. By breaking down each task into easy steps, we hope our customers will be able to use our system effectively and ultimately enjoy email marketing and the benefits it brings.

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Last week a Mashable article claimed the location based trending topics were slowly being rolled out on Twitter. Today, it has been rolled out to all and here at Sign-Up.to we’ve been trying out the feature ourselves.

So what is it? Local trends allow you to set your location and see what trends are popular in the selected area. Unfortunately, the locations are still fairly limited, though Twitter have placed the message “we’re working on it”, suggesting the feature will expand over time. We’re based in Woking, Surrey so our most relevant options are the United Kingdom or London. America appears to have considerably more options, so it’ll be interesting to see which locations are added next.

As the feature grows it will allow you as a business to target your customers more effectively. Mashable recently posted the article “Why Twitter wants to know where you are” and claimed Twitter was in a better position than anyone to roll out business services that serve local retails. Furthermore, it suggests Twitter advertising is soon to follow. (more…)

Last week saw a few Twitter users in the news. Whilst we often hear of businesses using Twitter and blogging sites to promote their website, celebrities are also using these mediums to promote their message.

Firstly, Bill Gates. While he’s arguably a household name, the entrepreneur had yet to create a Twitter account. Sure, there were plenty of ‘fake’ Bill Gates tweeting, but there was no official word from him. However, the BBC reported that on Wednesday (20^th January) Bill Gates launched an official Twitter feed. According to the BBC, he gained more than 150,000 followers in the first 13 hours. At the time of writing, @BillGates has just over 330,000 followers. Gates is also following 42 users, allowing his fans to gain an insight into his life. Since opening his account, Gates has used Twitter to announce his new website The Gates Notes. Furthermore, he’s said he wants to use Twitter to “share cool things I’m learning through my foundation work and other interests”.

Secondly, the Pope has made the news this week in a recent speech to priests. On Saturday (23^rd January) in his message for the Roman Catholic Church’s World Day of Communications, the Telegraph reported that the Pope has urged priests to make the most of the “rich menu options” offered by new technology, declaring that they needed to recognise cultural shifts in order to reach young people. Last year, we saw a new Vatican website go live and applications for the iPhone where people can view the Pope’s speeches. Perhaps we’ll see the Pope on Twitter in the future?

Finally, TJ Creamer (@astro_tj) has become the first person to send a real-time tweet from space. According to a recent Mashable article new software aboard the International Space State has made it possible to send live tweets in space. (more…)

In November we launched our brand new video tutorial section and on Friday we added a further 9 useful videos. These videos cover several key functions you may encounter everyday, including how to import data, how to target subscribers and how to insert personalisation. To go to the video tutorials please click here.

Each video provides a step by step guide on how to complete 9 essential tasks and they have been created in line with questions our support team are often asked. Here at Sign-Up.to we monitor the questions and queries our customers have, and therefore believe these videos are in line with our customer’s needs.

The video tutorials section on our website now consists of 21 videos and will continue to grow in the coming months. If you have any feedback or any specific video tutorials you would like to see published, please get in contact and let us know.

We’re often asked when the best time to send an email campaign is. To help provide some insight for the UK market we’ve just run an analysis of 200 million UK emails sent through Sign-Up.to in late 2009, to see the time of day and day of week that get the most open activity.

The full report on UK email marketing open rates is available for free here.