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Opt-in & opt-out, opt-ions. The Data Protection Act and email lists

November 21, 2012 by Peter Mahoney

We spend a lot of time worrying about the Data Protection Act (1998) when marketing here in the UK. It’s outdated and therefore unnecessarily restrictive.

It also means there’s a lot of misunderstanding and misinformation flying around about it.

When I worked at the American School in London we sought legal advise as early as 2005, and even then we were told it was impossible to uphold the Act to the letter, and the important thing was to demonstrate that we upheld the “spirit” of it! And that was seven years ago.

The Information Commissioner’s Office is a great place to go for useful information on how the Data Protection Act (1998) really impacts us.

Part of building your online community is that you’re going to want to communicate with them (sorry to state the obvious) and that means the law regarding how you can collect their addresses, and how you can use them becomes really important.

The big question has always been opt-in versus opt-out. Do we need users to give us express permission before we contact them, or can we assume (or even just hope) that they’re OK with it?

Here’s the relevant information straight from the Information Commissioner’s Office. To be honest, it’s better than most people think.

Electronic mail marketing

The most important thing to remember is that you can only carry out unsolicited electronic marketing if the person you’re targeting has given you their permission.

However, there is an exception to this rule. Known as the ‘soft opt-in’ it applies if the following conditions are met;

where you’ve obtained a person’s details in the course of a sale or negotiations for a sale of a product or service;

where the messages are only marketing similar products or services; and

where the person is given a simple opportunity to refuse marketing when their details are collected, and if they don’t opt out at this point, are given a simple way to do so in future messages.

When you send an electronic marketing message, you must tell the recipient who you are and provide a valid contact address.

The rules on emails don’t apply to emails sent to organisations, though you must still identify yourself and provide an address.

The Telephone Preference Service (TPS) and Fax Preference Service (FPS) are operated by the Direct Marketing Association, and allow people to register their numbers to opt out of receiving unsolicted calls or faxes. You must not market individuals or organisations who have registered their numbers with the TPS or FPS.

In summary, we recommend that your marketing campaigns are always permission-based and you explain clearly what a person’s details will be used for. Provide a simple way for them to opt out of marketing messages and have a system in place for dealing with complaints.

The difficulty is if you’re starting a mailing list and you already have a database of people you want to put on it. That requires some creative thinking.

via Email & Postal Marketing – Sector Guide for Organisations – ICO.

Filed Under: Marketing, Online community

The five pillars for your online community success

November 19, 2012 by Peter Mahoney

I work with my clients on what I call the Five Pillars, which all lead to the success of their online community.

People tend to look at most of these elements in a microcosm. “How’s your SEO?”, “Are you making the most of social networking?”.

Seeing these as separate hinders your efforts to build and strengthen your online community, which you need to care about because those are the people who will pay for your products and services.

My five pillars are:

  • Core messages
  • SEO
  • Community
  • Social Networking
  • User experience

There is a great deal of crossover between them, as there should be when you’re looking at the big picture rather than focusing on single points.

Over the next few weeks I’m going to describe each one in brief, and in the interests of pith I’ll also do a tweetinar soon, summing the whole thing up in five tweets. That’s going to be a challenge.

Fortunately, I love a good challenge.

Filed Under: Online community, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), Social networking, User experience

Let it snow!

November 16, 2012 by Peter Mahoney

Well, in truth I’m cold enough here as it is. November 16, and I’m still fighting the urge to turn the heating on in my office.

My hands are so chilly that I’m starting to fear for my typing skilsl thgouhg. 🙂

I spent the past hour putting some snowflakes on one of my private client’s WordPress sites, check it out, they look 3D…and very cool.

It’s a nice little trick that shows people you mean more than just business. It’s not exactly new, but it’s the first time they’ve done it so their online community is in for a treat.

I am going to suggest we replace it with a nice warm fire as we get closer to Yuletide though! And maybe a virtual glass of whiskey to warm our bellies too.

Professional language translation services.

Filed Under: Online community, Wordpress

Meta tags and building your online community

November 15, 2012 by Peter Mahoney

Part of building your online community is without a doubt, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). You want your tribe to be well-positioned, and desirable.

It’s just just new members either, but existing ones want to know they’re a part of something exciting, something that ranks highly. Something prestigious.

The “meta tags” in your site’s code are really important here. There’s a science behind it of course, but it’s something you want an expert like myself to help you with. They’re small pieces of code that search engines read to get a better ides of what your site is about, and what keywords it should look for.

However, here’s one of the tricks of the trade you can use yourself. This tool gives you feedback and advice regarding your meta data, helpfully colour coded for people who don’t want to worry about interpreting too much of it.

My favourite metric it returns is to check how relevant your keywords are to your content. This is an absolute must, and something to look at for all your pages.

It’s a bit technical, but the colour coding helps.

Mind you, so can I.

Meta Tag Analyzer.

Filed Under: Hints & Tips, Keywords, Online community, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), Tools

Building and strengthening your online community

November 14, 2012 by Peter Mahoney

I've a new slogan for myself, "Building and strengthening your online community". Since it's what I do, it makes sense to say it!

— Purple Web Marketing (@purpleweb) November 13, 2012

Filed Under: Online community, Tweets

Online communities and ritual

November 13, 2012 by Peter Mahoney

A wonderful line from the Wikipedia article about Online communities.

An online community is a virtual community that exists online and whose members enable its existence through taking part in membership ritual.

I love the idea of describing our online interactions as ritual. After all, ritual permeates all of what we do. I even brush my teeth in a certain way that has become ritualistic. (Start on the lower left, scrubbing around the bottom before moving to the top).

Ritual can, at it’s most basic, be defined as:

5. a. A detailed method of procedure faithfully or regularly followed

That for me is it’s most basic meaning. I love ritual as an experience, something that can be shared, and transformative.

And that is the highest ideal of any online community, to help individuals change through participation in a shared group experience. The online medium of course is very different to a religious or secular ceremony, but it’s differences afford people the option to engage in a different way, to play out other parts of themselves, which is turn allows for a completely different transformation.

That’s my thought of the day. It’s amazing the train of thoughts a simple Wikipedia search can inspire.

Anyway, I’ve brushed my teeth, now on to work.

via Online community – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Filed Under: Online community, Opinion, Social networking

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