Email Is DEAD…

Posted on February 21, 2013 by Les Adkins

So yes this is a shocking headline, but amazingly enough after googling, (yes that is a word), “Is Email Dead” there were several articles, blogs and even research papers stating both that yes email is dead and no, when used in a certain manner, it is not dead. So why the headline “Email is DEAD”?

Well lately I have been seeing several emails from email marketers stating why email is better than social media. There was a recent tweet by Chris Brogan that stated “Email marketing is the #1 conversion and revenue tool for my business. I have 10x the followers and blog subs, but I get 10x MORE sales via my smallest channel, my newsletter. Email is FAR more responded to than just tweets. He also stated in a tweet…”When people tell me kids don’t read email, first, bullshit. That’s how FB tells them they were tagged in whatever…” Now I am a big fan of Chris. I met him right after he came out with his co authored book ‘Trust Agent’. And I do value what he has to say.

But based on my own research and working with Universities email is changing. There is still a place for it but it is changing. A few stats for supporting the theory that email is changing.

Boston College Will Stop Offering Incoming Freshman Email Accounts

Many students don’t even want a college e-mail address these days because they already have well-established digital identities before they arrive on campus. That’s the conclusion that officials at Boston College came to in a recent review of their online services. So the college recently decided to stop offering full e-mail accounts to incoming students starting next fall.

EDUCAUSE’s annual survey of 930 higher-education institutions showed that about 10 percent of respondents are considering getting rid of student eMail accounts. For doctoral institutions, the number is 25 percent.

So you might ask yourself where are the student’s getting their information? They are still checking their current emails like gmail, hotmail and others but on mobile devices. Universities are allowing them to move university emails to one of these services or getting rid of emails all together and creating text messaging for important notices. The point is they are not trying to change their behavior they are trying to reach the students where they are already spending time. This is on platforms like FB, Twitter, Bebo and yes folks, MySpace is coming back. So whether it is a text, a post on one of these platforms or an email account forwarded to another service the message is clear that our email world is changing.

So why are email marketers and others promoting email? Well it is my belief that corporate america changes slowly. I’m not disagreeing with Chris and others that email is still a valid marketing tool, but that the climate is changing. I sat next to a gentleman that works for one of the email providers at a conference not too long ago and this topic came up. His response was that email will always be around, I’m not so sure. But his argument was that once Gen Y get’s into the workforce they will be forced to work on email. Guess what folks…he’s wrong. Gen Y will choose where they work and what they do based on their current behaviors not the behaviors of corporate america. If you don’t believe me ask Readers Digest why they are going bankrupt; well it is because they did not adapt to the new marketplace and the new consumer. Email companies are trying to adapt and change. But I hold to the belief that Email is not Social Media…Period. No matter how loud these companies keep yelling and saying that it is.

I’ve put off writing this blog because I know it will ruffle some feathers but those feathers are due to be ruffled. The bottom line is that behavior’s have changed and corporate america must change with these new behaviors. The status-quo is no more and email is just a small piece of how the new customer, employee and vendor is changing the way they want to be communicated with by companies. Think about how much of your email you don’t read because you consider it spam. Now think about the last few texts, notifications and posts you’ve actually read from platforms you are already on.

Just something to think about…

Les Adkins is the CEO of Orange SMS Consulting and an International Social Business Strategist, speaker, consultant and author. Bringing strategy and whole brain thinking to creative campaigns and social media through his work. Please follow @mysylbert and connect on LinkedIn Join us on FB and Google+ as well.

Social Media Bubble “Fact or Fiction” ?

Posted on August 19, 2010 by Les Adkins

So first off, what is a “Social Media Bubble” anyway. Well in total transparency, as social media should be, I will start out by making the blog written by Umar Haque in the Harvard Business Review available to all of you to truly understand what they are talking about regarding the “Social Media Bubble”.

So what they are saying is, well you can read the article above for yourself. Here is why I think the Bubble is Fiction. Let me share with you that there are 76 million members in the Millenial Generation. This versus 85 million Baby Boomers who are retiring rather quickly whether they want to or not and 50 million Generation X’ers. My hypothesis is that this group will force the “establishment” to change how they do business and how they market to their services and products. You can see this currently with all of the major companies doing something with Social Media and moving traditional advertising dollars to social media. These companies are also hiring executives with the title “Social Media Director”.

Here are some things that make Millenials/Gen Y’ers different than previous generation workers according to Clay Collins author of “The Alternative Productivity Manifesto”

Gen Y uses modern tools and technologies, including software that’s easily accessible and free from the Internet;
Gen Y easily maintains their to-do lists, and priorities by synching with the PDAs and iPODs;
Gen Y are not workaholics, and understand the relationship between a balanced life and productivity;
Gen Y are more likely to love their jobs, because they change jobs more frequently, and stay in jobs that match their passions and talents;
Gen Y has a continuing thirst for learning and personal growth;
Gen Y wants to have new experiences, try new things, and be creative;
Gen Y doesn’t stay in jobs they don’t like just to be comfortable and secure.

So as I always do in all my trainings ask the question “What does this mean to you?” or rather what is the WIIFY (What’s In It For You) Why should you care? As you have heard me say “Facebook is not a Social Media Strategy” in of itself, but with over 500 million users you can’t argue with the numbers. Ask any politician about how important the numbers are or a company when they are looking at a market segment.

This new Generation will force companies to communicate with them the way they want to be communicated with, and guess what, this group doesn’t watch a whole lot of TV and they don’t read magazines and they rarely listen to the radio and newspapers forget it. Why do you think magazines and newspapers are moving to an online environment. This is where this generation get’s it’s information, online and through their Social Media Networks. A new list just came out: The Beloit College Mind Set List for the class of 2014 One of the things it states is that this class does not use email because it is too slow. Guess what they text, tweet and post and “join the conversation” of people, companies and political causes that they are interested in.

Those who argue that the Bubble exists and will soon burst I have a few things to say:

The world was never flat
Electricity is not evil
Microsoft did not take over the world
Apple did not fall by the wayside
The Internet did not diminish productivity
The 2012 thing about the world ending, well we will have to wait and see
And we did learn to fly, really well, across oceans for goodness sakes

My point is that be careful what you say about Social Media. It is the first time that communities outside of our grandparents are truly connected by a common thread. They may not be “true friends” but we trust them if they are in our community and add value to our lives. This is what is happening in the world of Social Media:

Trust Agents are being created.
Credibility of a company or a person is more out in the open than ever before.
You can now know in real-time what is happening in Iran and around the world
And I can get an answer to any question in real-time from people I trust in my community.
If a company is lying to me or telling me the truth and more importantly if they care.

Social Media is a young medium but it has already passed all the numbers related to all the other media ever in existence. So for you numbers people out there. Social Media has the numbers and they are continuously growing. If you are trying to promote a brand, product or service and you aren’t using Social Media I guarantee your competition is.

So the Bubble is Fiction, and they have the numbers to prove it. It is also way too young of an industry to start looking for the burst now. I heard earlier today that every 70 years there is a major housing crisis, so Social Media has something like 60 years to go.

Les Adkins, CEO Orange SMS

Stay Tuned for MySylbert Business Community Coming Soon!

100 Day Project

Posted on July 7, 2010 by Les Adkins

So we are 7 days into the 100 day project. Thought I would share with everyone what we are doing. We are attempting to change the way network marketers grow their network online.

There is a whole new generation who for some reason has not heard of Network Marketing or MLM. This is probably a good thing on the one hand, due to my generations experience of pyramid schemes and pushy network marketers inviting us to dinner to ambush us with an Amway presentation. Sorry Amway. The hypothesis is that using Social Media you can grow your network in a positive way by becoming a trust agent and then inviting them to join your network in a non-threatening, non-pushy way. Promising a minimal result based on a certain set of instructions based on a Social Media Strategy. If you work harder you can get a better result and so on.

Did you know that (and I apologize I don’t know where the data came from but a couple of people have confirmed it, and I’m sure that I could look it up but I am tired and yes trying to get this out before bed) if the people who lost their homes had an additional $500 to $1000 a month they would have saved their homes from foreclosure.

I have seen what network marketing can do and a guru in network marketing who has created 7 millionaires in his organization is partnering on this project with me.

So in short we are taking a small group of individuals from different network marketing groups and giving them a social media strategy and then we will tell the world what we found out.

If you are a network marketer and would like to join this group please leave a comment and an email and phone number for us to contact you. The deadline for entry into this focus group is Friday, July 9, 2010.

Next blog we will discuss the so-called Social Media Bubble. Fact or Fiction?

CEO and Founder Orange SMS

How do you Help Gen Y/Millenials Feel Connected?

Posted on June 4, 2010 by Les Adkins

Well yesterday we discussed that one of the main things Gen Y/ Millenials want to feel in the work place is a connection. They want to feel like they matter and also that they are making a difference. So how does a company do that?

There are several different ways, but they unfortunately don’t exist in most of today’s companies. One of the main ways is through a little thing called Relational Onboarding. I discussed this in a previous blog and you can go back and see what I wrote, but the most important thing to remember about “Relational Onboarding” is the power of connections to the organization. When I say connections I mean real, honest to goodness, flesh and blood people.

Relational Onboarding connects new hires to the organization in a much more dynamic fashion than the old traditional onboarding. It is based around creating real connections to real people and then reinforcing that connection through an internal communication tool. This can be an internal social media site or an intranet with social media functionality. Smaller companies can develop groups on LinkedIn or Facebook to allow their employees to stay connected in real-time. The “real-time” aspect is very important, it allows new hires to get answers from a community rather than a single individual who may be on vacation or out sick that day. The community allows everyone to participate and be a part of the success of new hires.

Relational onboarding is not limited to new hires but can also be used to revitalize a department or entire organization. Innovation and ideas come more easily to groups working together for a common cause, in this case the business.

If you have been in corporate America for any time at all you have heard the phrase “silos”, narrow silos that departments and organizations work in where one department or portion of the company does not know what the other is doing. In most of these cases the actions that occur are duplication and redundancy as well as mistrust and blame. Relational Onboarding alleviates these actions and allows for greater productivity, shorter ramp up time, and more cooperation between people, real people. And let’s not forget “Trust”, you tend to trust those you have some connection to.

So get your new hires out of the manuals and off your websites and have a plan to have them meet those people in the organization that will be vital to their success while they are there. They want to stay with the company, you just need to help them do it by framing a program where they can make real connections with real people and maintain those connections.

Last but by no means least the list of people they should be connected to is so much more than just their team members or immediate managers. The Millenials want to feel connected to the company and feel like they are making a difference. The only way for this to happen is if they are connected to the Executives who are running the organization. So yes Executives have to be involved.

When I ran a new hire program for a Fortune 500 company I always had the CEO, President or one of the Executive VP’s speak to them. This is vital to a new hire feeling connected to the organization.

So real connections with real people is the key to helping the Millenials feel connected, it is not only the key for them, it is a deal breaker.

Les Adkins, CEO Orange SMS

Watch for Launch of “MySylbert”

So What Group is Moving Social Media Forward?

Posted on June 3, 2010 by Les Adkins

So Gen X gave us casual Friday’s and eventually casual work places, meaning the type of dress and the type of environment. If you need more information just look at Google’s culture and office. The generation born after the baby boomers caused an entire shift in the way business was done regarding dress and style. The baby boomers however kept them honest and started pushing back so we came up with a compromise. Both casual and business dress is accepted and it really depends on the environment of your industry and office as to what is appropriate. So why do I bring this up. Gen X made major changes but their population never really touched the size of the baby boomers so the baby boomers remained in control.

For the first time ever Generation Y or Millenials is the largest population in the workforce beginning this year 2010. So what does that mean to you as a business? It means that there is a change on the horizon and that the businesses who succeed will give Gen Y the tools and the connections they need to successfully integrate into the world of business. What are the Millenials looking for you ask. Well there was a quote in Sky magazine by Katy Perry that just scratches the surface.

“I think this generation is open to change and looking for more than material things. People are looking for a bit of spiritual awakening- it’s almost like a new kind of 1960′s, but now we have technology, so it’s not ever gonna be the same” Katy Perry (Sky Delta Magazine, May 2010)

Lynne Lancaster and David Stillman recently wrote a book called “the M-Factor” ” How the Millenial Generation is Rocking the Workplace” I have said that this generation wants to do business with companies that do business the way they want them to do business with them. What exactly does that mean? Well let’s look at some of the highlights from “the M- Factor”

These are just a few things Millenials are looking for in the workplace:

The Search for Meaning – recently a young attorney stated to me that if he felt he was becoming cheesy by asking for business from his friends he would quit and go to work as a school teacher and be very happy.
Millenials want to make a difference in the world.
Millenials want to feel they are contributing.
They want to be innovators.
Millenials want to be heard. - I would add that they want to be heard by those running the company not just their immediate supervisor. And they want to be heard now or they will go somewhere where they are heard.
Millenials want to know they are succeeding.
This generation wants to express who they are through work. – Unlike previous generations they do not have a work and personal life. It is one life that is transparent. Not sure why it took so long to lose our multiple personalities.

This group wants to be connected and feel connected to their world and work. They may not all be on Facebook or Twitter but they are looking for true connections. They will push for more transparency in the workplace and from the companies they will do business with. The days of telling your employees what to do and be glad you receive a check are over they will move on if they are not heard.

Change is never easy and usually it is not fast, but this generation has proven they are a force that can move mountains and soon businesses. No one had ever heard of Facebook 4 years ago or even for that matter Social Media….anything. People drive change, it has been proven historically, why do you think there is no Berlin wall? (some of you are scratching your heads at this point). My point is that people in large numbers can change the world. This generation will change the way we do business once and for all. My personal opinion is that this is a good thing. Are you ready for the challenge? Don’t worry, the Millenials will help you one way or another.

Les Adkins, CEO Orange SMS

Stay Tuned for Launch of “MySylbert”

How To Cut Costs Using Social Media?

Posted on May 7, 2010 by Les Adkins

So how can corporations continue to cut costs coming out of the Global Financial Crisis? They have laid off the workforce to the bare bones, closed divisions and departments, consolidated and closed facilities.There really is no place else they can cut.

So although this will not be a popular process for those of you in the current workforce it should allow you to understand where the world of business is trending and plan accordingly. I have spoken to quite a few CEO’s over the last few months and I can tell you that they are still looking to cut costs. In one of my discussions, the CEO and I discussed how to use the incoming workforce to do this.

So if you listen to the news today they are saying that employee confidence is up and that productivity is up. What does this mean? Well I am not an economist but they are saying that companies are looking to hire and expand their workforce. Gallup stated today that although

“…79% of employees saying the financial situations at their companies are good/excellent and 76 % say they are getting better. …findings also reflect profit/growth concerns in the U.S. business community, as fewer employees say they are very/extremely confident that their companies will grow (52%) and be profitable (64%) during the next six months.”

The latter part of this quote is what I am hearing from CEO’s. So how do you use the trend of Social Media to cut costs? We have talked about ways to increase sales and warm leads, how corporations are using social media for customer and employee communication to increase productivity, and how to strengthen a corporations brand. So what else is there?

Well we began this week discussing “Relational Onboarding”, and this is the key. Not the way we onboard but the key is the incoming digital workforce. You have heard me discuss “digital natives” Wikipedia defines this as a

“person for whom digital technologies already existed when they were born, and hence has grown up with digital technology and computers…”

“A digital immigrant is an individual who grew up without digital technology and adopted it later”

There is a discourse that states that neither statement is completely true. Not all children and young adults have a fluid knowledge of technology and not all older adults have a corresponding awkwardness with technology.

But corporations can definitely capitalize on the incoming work force. Gen Y is the largest group in the workforce this year, 2010, surpassing the Baby Boomers. The key areas to help corporations cut costs are the following.

Hire this work force at a lower rate of salary than the current work force.
Pay them a commission on top of that salary.
Use their talents (digital talents) to move the corporation toward doing business differently.

So here is an example. You have an employee working for the organization and they are being paid a salary plus commission that equals $250 to $350k. You hire a Gen Y at a starting salary of $50k, pay them another $50 to $100k for commission and they now make a total salary of $150k. This is a savings of $100 to $200k annually per employee.

This Gen Y workforce also brings with them the skills and knowledge needed to sell and communicate with the digital consumer and businesses. This group of individuals will work with companies that provide the tools they are used to. Gen Y and other consumers and businesses will also, in the very near future, only do business with businesses that do business the way they want to do business. All that means is they will do business with companies that communicate with them, allowing them to join the conversation in real time. Purchase through electronic means and yes even look at the values of the corporation to make sure they match up with theirs.

Gen Y brings all of the above to the table.

Change is always hard. But it is time for a change and corporations can use this change to their advantage. When I got my MBA one of the things I discovered was that corporations only goal is to “increase shareholder wealth”. Executives understand this. With Social Media they can bring about the change and “increase shareholder wealth” by hiring Gen Y’ers.

The above is usually only spoken about in the board rooms. Now you know. Depending where you are in the spectrum plan accordingly.

Les Adkins, CEO Orange SMS (Social Media Solutions)

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