Moka Media Inc. » Vancouver Based Creative Agency Specializing In 'New Media'

How To Properly Send Emails

Jordan — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 19:41:24 +0000

General

Try to avoid (not always possible) referring to two or more different projects in one single e-mail. It is better to send two messages instead of one.

Introduction

Clearly state your topic. Identify your message with a succinct, informative subject line. Well-titled messages allow the recipient to prioritize.
If an e-mail is not related to a particular project, use appropriate descriptive text in the subject header.
NEVER leave the subject header empty.

Structure

E-mail content must be organized. Don’t create long letters without using paragraphs or making a clear distinction between different elements. If a sender expects an answer on different items in the e-mail, those items must be clearly indicated. This could be done by using item numbering, paragraphs or bullet lists. Those items on which the sender expects an answer must be clearly indicated, preferably at the beginning of the email.
Avoid emails with more than one person noted in the e-mail TO field. Only the direct recipient of whom an action is expected should be listed in the TO field. All other recipients must be listed in the CC box. Avoid using BCCs altogether.

Style & Spelling

Avoid the use of fancy fonts. Stick with a generic font for your message content (Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Georgia, Times New Roman etc.)
Prevent using ALL CAPS, which signifies shouting.
Don’t compromise your e-mail message with poor spelling or style. Use the spell check at all times before pressing ‘send’.
Avoid abbreviations. Less that half of your recipients know what FTF, IMHO, BCNU or TTYL mean. So if you use shorthand, many people simply will not know what you are talking about.
Always ensure that the message you send is polite .
Don’t use multiple exclamation marks. One well-placed point reflects much more importance than 10 after every other sentence.

History

Copy any e-mail to which you are replying, below the new e-mail message you are writing. This will immediately make clear which e-mail you are referring to.

Timing

E-mails received before 3:30 pm on normal working days (Monday till Friday, holidays not included) for which a response is required / requested, should be replied to within 2 hours.
If a full response to the question is not possible within 2 hours, the receiver should reply within 2 hours with acknowledgment of receipt and an indication of when that full response will be forthcoming.
E-mails received after 3:30 pm on a normal working day or during the weekend should be answered before 10:00AM local time the next working day.
When means ‘Time’ + ‘Date’ + ‘Time Zone’. If you are an international company a reply stating: “I will answer your question on Friday” is not good enough. Instead it should read, for example “I will answer your e-mail on Friday, 21 May before 1o:30 PST”.
If e-mails do not receive a reply within the agreed timing, it should be assumed that the intended receipent did not receive the e-mail.
If an urgent reply is required, then a text SMS should be sent to alert them. This SMS should include the name (and if appropriate) the phone number of the person needing to be contacted and the project identifier.

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Jordan — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 06:19:11 +0000

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Social Media Platforms Explained

Jordan — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 22:43:00 +0000

	Twitter is a free social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read messages known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters displayed on the author’s profile page and delivered to the author’s subscribers who are known as followers. Senders can restrict delivery to those in their circle of friends or, by default, allow open access. Users can send and receive tweets via the Twitter website, Short Message Service (SMS) or external applications. Twitter currently has approximately 18 million active users worldwide and is growing quickly! Visit Twitter
	Facebook is a social networking website that is operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. Users can add friends and send them messages, and update their personal profiles to notify friends about themselves. Additionally, users can join networks organized by city, workplace, and school or college. Facebook is the most widely used social network in the world and currently has more than 200 million active users! Visit Facebook
	MySpace is a free online community composed of personal profiles aimed mostly at a younger audiences. Myspace became the most popular social networking site in the United States in June 2006. However it was overtaken internationally by its main competitor, Facebook, in April 2008, based on monthly unique visitors. MySpace currently has around 60 million active users. Visit MySpace
	Digg is a social news website made for people to discover and share content from anywhere on the Internet, by submitting links and stories, and voting and commenting on submitted links and stories. Voting stories up and down is the site’s cornerstone function, respectively called digging and burying. Many stories get submitted every day, but only the most Dugg stories appear on the front page. If your website is lucky enough to appear on the the Digg.com homepage you can expect to receive thousands of unique visits within minutes! Digg is a great way to release information such as product launches and news releases to massive audience. Visit Digg
	Windows Live Spaces (previously MSN Spaces) is Microsoft’s blogging and Social Networking platform. The site was originally released in early 2004 under the MSN Spaces name to compete with other social networking sites. Windows Live Spaces received an estimated 27 million unique visitors per month as of August 2007. Visit Windows Live Spaces
	StumbleUpon is an Internet community that allows its users to discover and rate Web pages, photos, and videos. It is a personalized recommendation engine which uses peer and social-networking principles. tumbleUpon chooses which Web page to display based on the user’s ratings of previous pages, ratings by his/her friends, and by the ratings of users with similar interests. Users can rate or choose not to rate any Web page with a thumbs up or thumbs down, and clicking the Stumble button resembles “channel-surfing” the Web. StumbleUpon also allows their users to indicate their interests from a list of nearly 500 topics to produce relevant content for the user. Visit StumbleUpon
	Vimeo is a video-centric social networking site which launched in November 2004. The site supports embedding, sharing, video storage, and allows user-commenting on each video page. Users must register to upload content. Registered users may also create a profile and upload small user pictures as their avatars, comment and “like” videos. Vimeo does not allow commercial videos, gaming videos, or anything not created by the user to be hosted on the site. Vimeo has gained a reputation as catering to a high end, artistic crowd because of its high bitrate, resolution, and relative HD support. Visit Vimeo
	LinkedIn is a business-oriented social networking site. Founded in December 2002 and launched in May 2003, it is mainly used for professional networking. As of October 2009, LinkedIn had more than 50 million registered users, spanning more than 200 countries and territories worldwide. LinkedIn is a great way to connect with old business partners and clients or meet new ones! Employers can even list job opportunities to recruit new, well qualified professionals! Visit LinkedIn
	Delicious (formerly del.icio.us) is a social bookmarking web service for storing, sharing, and discovering web bookmarks. Delicious allows their users to get to their web bookmarks from any computer at anytime, bookmark webpages and share them with their friends, checkout popular websites other delicious users are bookmarking. Visit Delicious
	YouTube is a video sharing website on which users can upload and share videos. YouTube, LLC was bought by Google Inc. for $1.65 billion, and is now operated as a subsidiary of Google. YouTube uses Adobe Flash Video technology to display a wide variety of user-generated video content, including movie clips, TV clips, and music videos, as well as amateur content such as video blogging and short original videos. Most of the content on YouTube has been uploaded by individuals, although media corporations and other organizations offer some of their material via the site, as part of the YouTube partnership program. Visit YouTube
	RSS (most commonly expanded as “Really Simple Syndication”) is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works—such as blogentries, news headlines, audio, and video—in a standardized format. An RSS document (which is called a “feed”, “web feed”, or “channel”) includes full or summarized text, plus metadata such as publishing dates and authorship. Web feeds benefit publishers by letting them syndicate content automatically. They benefit readers who want to subscribe to timely updates from favored websites or to aggregate feeds from many sites into one place. RSS feeds can be read using software called an “RSS reader”, “feed reader”, or “aggregator”, which can be web-based, desktop-based, or mobile-device-based.

The Social Media Revolution

admin — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 19:03:45 +0000

5 Tips for Social Networking

admin — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 18:05:45 +0000

Among the various types of internet marketing techniques, social networking is becoming increasingly popular as an online marketing technique. Any place where you can find a large mass of people is perfect for marketing, not to mention the social networks that receive millions of visitors per day. If you are running a business and you need customers for your business, take advantage of social networks right now.

Being overly enthusiastic, business owners tend to make terrible mistakes in social networking resulting in total failure. You need to know what not to do in social networks to run successful marketing campaign in these networks for your business.

1. Using social networks for selling – Social networks are places to establish business networks. Don’t sell your products at these places. Sending out advertisements to your friends and followers in the network is the last thing you want to do in your online marketing campaign. You should try to establish good relationships with your friends and prove yourself to be a worthy person for them to follow.

2. Creating poor profiles – Most entrepreneurs who want to be active in social networks don’t understand the importance of creating good profiles. Your profile is the first thing that your friends and followers will look at. If you have a poorly designed profile, no one will trust you and you can’t establish successful relationships. You should spend some time to create a professional looking profile.

3. Not promoting business at all – Even though social networks are not for selling your products, you have to certainly use these networks to promote your business. Once you have started establishing your own business network, you have to tell your peers from time to time about what you are doing. People who are your friends and followers will be interested in knowing who you are and what you have got to offer.

4. Not interacting with others – Social networking is very much different from blogging. You have to interact with your friends and others in a network. Just sharing information is not sufficient to exhibit you as an interactive person. You have to participate in discussions and give valuable inputs to be recognized by others. You have to learn what your friends are doing and comment on their information to be active in the network.

5. Losing interest in expanding networks – Many entrepreneurs show interest in social networks in the beginning and over time, they lose interest and stop expanding networks. If you have your business profile in any network, try to stay active and make a few friends from time to time. This will help you expand your business network and establish business brands.

Why you need Social Media Marketing

admin — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 18:35:06 +0000

“Social Network Marketing will be the next major opportunity to massively grow your business in a playing field that is level for everyone”

“Social Network Marketing is the application of Internet-based social network methods in order to connect and involve users with products, organizations and ideas.”

To fine tune it a little more: Social Network Marketing is the use of Internet network media such as YouTube, MySpace, Facebook, forums, etc. and their resulting techniques of getting the user involved. A classic example of social network marketing is American Idol in which viewers not only watch the show, but text message votes and participate in online dialogue, websites and commercially-driven surveys, etc.

The major advantage of the entire buzz around this new medium is that no matter what your budget, or your size the playing field has been leveled. No longer will only the super large companies be able to dominate the landscape. Everyone who wants to participate and gain exposure has an equal opportunity. This new advertising platform will be limited only by ones creativity not pocketbook. Some of the most viral advertising will likely come from some of the most unsuspecting places…you and me.

The new reality is it may be the way the message is delivered. Entertainment and information value are the new kings of the new social media. You can either embrace it or ignore it but ignoring it will certainly leave a major void in your communication with your client or customer. Our likes and dislikes are changing quickly and those that adapt there advertising to piercing that laser targeted traffic will be the long term winners in this emerging growth market. What worked last year doesn’t this year so change is the mandate for success. Either change or die.