SharonMostyn.com - A Blog on Motherhood, Marketing, and Medical Mayhem

Haiku for Sarah Evans

By Sharon Mostyn | Published: July 24, 2010

: Haikus relax you and Journchat gets you wound up! from Crestock Creative Photos

Perhaps we should rename this portion of my blog, “Contests From The Woman Who Can’t Turn Down A Dare.”

I mentioned #journchat in my favorite Twitter chats post several months ago and along with it #journchat founder Sarah Evans. I’ve chatted online with Sarah a few times both during #journchat and at other non-#journchat times and I’ve always been amazed at how knowledgeable and genuinely nice she is. But this isn’t a post about Sarah. I got an email from Liz Pope, Media and Research Manager at Sevans Strategy, who read my blog and double dared me to enter the contest to join Sarah during a special edition of #journchat live from the NBC News Studios in NYC on August 9, 2010. The contest and #journchat are sponsored by Cision who makes public relations software – you’ll see why you need to know what Cision is in just a few lines.

I enjoy #journchat because PR is not something I learned in school or something I’ve done often in my 22+ years of advertising and marketing experience. I’ve only worked on the edges of doing public relations activities, but I think that with social media becoming more important in many companies’ marketing strategy, public relations lessons go a long way toward teaching the right things to do in social media. Companies need to treat everyone as if they were a journalist, because with social media they are!

Soooo…since I can’t seem to be able to turn down a double dare, here’s my Haiku for Liz Pope and Sarah Evans:

Smart Sarah Evans
Journchat NBC Thrilling
Cision software too?

I’ll be in NYC for Affiliate Summit East 2010 the following week, so I’m not sure that either my boss or my family would appreciate me heading up there twice in the same week! With that said, I did think the contest was a great idea and hopefully if Sarah is still around from the 14th to the 18th when I’m in New York, I’d love to connect!

I’m looking forward to meeting with so many of my affiliate friends during #ASE10 – will you be there? Drop me a note, or post a comment below letting me know when you’re there and let’s set something up! Want to attend #ASE10 but don’t have a pass? I have ONE Gold Pass that I’m happy to give (at no charge) to the first person who asks for it – either via a comment below, or by sending me an @ or DM on Twitter, but don’t wait too late because I hear #ASE10 will be sold out soon and then my Gold Pass offer expires.

Posted in Affiliate Marketing, General Updates, Marketing, PR, Social Media, Twitter Chats | Tagged #JournChat, Affiliate Summit East 2010, ASE10, Cision, Liz Pope, NBC News, Sarah Evans | 3 Comments

Affiliates & Social Media: #SMchat Topic July 2010

By Sharon Mostyn | Published: July 12, 2010

: #SMchat Global communication from Crestock Creative Photos

In November 2008, Dr. Ralph Wilson interviewed Affiliate Summit co-founder Shawn Collins and the video of that interview contains several great ideas that are still relevant and able to be implemented successfully today! Shawn talked about being a part of the community on Twitter (and all social media) and since it’s the last #SMchat I’m moderating before Affiliate Summit East 2010 so I wanted to find out the prevailing attitude of my community about affiliates in the social media sphere.

Are you an affiliate, merchant, network, in-house or outsourced program manager? Don’t know anything about affiliate programs, but want to learn more? Please share your opinion and your insights on affiliates and social media during #SMchat, Wednesday, July 14th, 2010 from 1-2P ET, and/or meet me at Affiliate Summit East 2010 (an affiliate link in honor of my affiliate friends) and let’s chat in person!

After introducing yourself and letting everyone know what your interest is in affiliate marketing (“just curious” is definitely an option here…), I’d love to know how you feel about affiliates using social media marketing. Here’s what I’m wondering:

1 ) Should affiliates be able to promote using social media? Why or why not?

2 ) Is there a social media channel that is better for affiliates to use? Which one(s)?

3 ) Can a merchant’s Terms and Conditions exclude affiliates advertising via certain social media activities? (How does that impact affiliate sign-ups, etc.?)

4 ) How should affiliates disclaim the FTC Revised Endorsement Rules in social media? Do they need to do it at all?

5 ) How do you monitor use/abuse of social media by affiliates? Are they allowed to link directly to your site similar to direct-to-merchant pay per click (DTM PPC)?

What other questions do you have? Please feel free to leave them in the comments below or ask them when you join us on 7/14/10 from 1-2P ET on the Twitter chat #SMchat – see you then!

Posted in Affiliate Marketing, General Updates, Marketing, Social Media, Twitter Chats | Tagged #SMChat, affiliate, Affiliate Summit East, Affiliate Summit East 2010, Dr Ralph Wilson, FTC Revised Endorsement Rules, Marketing, moderator, Shawn Collins, Social Media, strategy, Twitter chat | 4 Comments

Who Can Turn Down A Double Dare?

By Sharon Mostyn | Published: July 6, 2010

The beginning of July means that the year is already half over. Where did the time go? I’ve been looking back on the first 6 months of 2010 and I’ve really accomplished a lot!

Already in the 1st half of 2010 I have:

posted at least 1x/month in my blog.
spoken at the Marketing Prof’s B2B Conference.
published my first guest post on the Market Like A Chick blog.
become the Marketing Editor / Moderator for #SMchat on Twitter – a chat held each Wednesday from 1-2P ET.
participated in the3six5 project – a daily online diary written by people from around the world.
been mentioned on Good People Day by Dawn Westerberg.
and been named a Wild Web Woman and received an official Thinking Cap from Web Marketing Therapy.

: Patrick Allmond Double Dared me to do it!

And the year’s not over yet! So what goals do I have set for the rest of 2010? Well, with some encouragement (ok, actually it was a double dare) by Patrick Allmond I’m listing today what I would like to get done. In his blog post, he suggested writing down your goals online. With that in mind, I’m posting the top 5 professional goals I plan to accomplish by the end of this year:

Increase my blog readership by completing at least an additional 15 posts on SharonMostyn.com by the end of the year.
Update the About Me page to include both professional and personal info.
Add new affiliate links that would be helpful to my readers.
Problem solve at least once a week by answering someone’s questions or connecting them to others in my network who can help.
Learn something new at least once a week by spending time with my network of friends/fans/followers both online and offline.

So, what are your goals for the rest of 2010? Please post a comment below and let me know – I’d love to hear them!

Posted in General Updates | Tagged accomplishment, goals, Patrick Allmond | 4 Comments

Does Your Corporate Strategy Include Social Media?

By Sharon Mostyn | Published: June 2, 2010

The 6/2/10 #SMchat is all about social media and corporate strategy. I really liked this infographic from Willis Wee that shows how social media is changing business. It presents a lot of questions on how to incorporate social media into your strategic planning.
1 ) Is social media part of your corporate strategy? Why or why not?

2 ) How can you include social media as part of your corporate strategic initiatives? Which ones?

3 ) Can you afford not to include some form of social media?

4 ) What social media platforms work best for your strategy and why?

5 ) Link from @cacildanc: Is social media better at destroying value than creating it? http://bit.ly/bmkDRa – Do you agree?

6 ) Link from @leeodden: 7 Common Soc Med Mktg Problems http://bit.ly/d0razv – What problems are you finding?

7 ) Is a social media “face” (real person behind the name) part of your corporate strategy? What happens when the “face” leaves?

8 ) Link from @harvardbiz http://bit.ly/cJtqS7 talks about big budget social media – what can you do with a smaller budget?

Posted in General Updates, Marketing, Social Media | Tagged #SMChat, corporate strategy, Social Media, strategic planning, Willis Wee | 5 Comments

Testing, Testing, One, Two, Three… #SMchat Topic for 05/12/10

By Sharon Mostyn | Published: May 10, 2010

: Photo credit: MarketingProfs

Last week, I presented along with Stephanie Miller from Return Path, at the MarketingProfs B2B Forum (MPB2B). Our topic was “Email Testing for Higher ROI” and it expanded on the testing theme that was prevalent throughout the conference. Marketing campaign testing is important to increase revenue and strengthen return on investment. In a nutshell, you need to develop a baseline/benchmark, determine your testing methodology and hypothesis, test it out, analyze the results, and refine and repeat based on your initial test results. There were several testing questions that were discussed at MPB2B and I’d like to continue those discussions at this week’s #SMchat Twitter chat.

The #SMchat topic for May 12th is Testing! What questions do you have about testing? What answers / examples would you like to share? Please join us from 1-2:30P ET on 5/12/10 to talk about testing including these conversation-starters:

Welcome…please tell us about you!
Q1 – Do you test your marketing campaigns? How often?
Q2 – What part(s) of your marketing do you test? (i.e. PPC, email, landing pages, etc.)
Q3 – Is there a better/easier web page testing program than Google Website Optimizer?
Q4 – Do you have a method to your testing or just test at random?
Q5 – Do you believe in doing similar and expanding or doing diverse tests and narrowing?
Q6 – What do you consider “statistically significant” results & why?
Q7 – What will you test next?

Any other testing questions you have? Please feel free to leave them in the comments section below!

Posted in Email Marketing, General Updates, Marketing, Web Analytics | Tagged email testing, Google Website Optimizer, marketing campaigns, MarketingProfs B2B Forum, statistically significant, Stephanie Miller, testing, testing methods | 3 Comments

Location, Location, Location!

By Sharon Mostyn | Published: May 3, 2010

I’m in Boston speaking at the MarketingProfs B2B Forum, which is a beautiful city for a conference although Boston has had some water problems in the past few days. (Can you say ‘massive water main break?’ See my post on the3six5.com for more details.) It struck me as a great location, being a quick train or plane ride from most of the East Coast, yet easily accessible from the rest of the country as well. It got me thinking about locations – both big (like cities) and small (like conference rooms).

: Sharon sits on the left.

I sit on the left. I write with my left hand and it makes it easier for me to sit on the left corner of a table if I’m going to be writing – that way I don’t bump elbows with anyone. Being a leftie, the seat at the far left or end of the table makes sense for me. Although my children both write with their right hands, my son throws with his left hand and my daughter bats left-handed. Locating them in certain positions when playing sports makes sense, too.

: M3 Left-Handed Batter Location

For example, my daughter gains an advantage in fast-pitch softball by batting left-handed – she’s already several steps closer to 1st base so it’s easier for her to make it there. Are you making it easier for your customers to make it to the checkout (or form for non-ecommerce sites) by placing the call to action correctly? Best practices say that you should state your offer often (at least 3 times) and “above the fold.” Use your web analytics to make sure you know the most common screen sizes and then place the call to action and conversion process starting point in a prominent location where users don’t have to scroll. Hubspot has a great article on using heat maps to determine optimal placement. That’s one way to take advantage of location on your website.

: T3 Left-Handed Lacrosse Positions

Another way to gain advantage is by marketing to your customers at the right place and the right time (see my post on that here), but it’s also important to take control of the playing field by being in the right location. My son is a lacrosse defenseman and being a leftie gives him the advantage of being able to stay in the middle of the field on defense and have his stick comfortably positioned to line up with a right-handed shooter coming toward him. What do you do to position your product/services so that they line up with your customer’s needs? It also gives him an advantage when he has the ball on offense because his body is lined up between the ball and the defender.

Testing your email campaigns is a great way to determine your customer’s needs in order to have them line up with your goals and objectives. Stephanie Miller and I will be discussing that topic at our Hands-on Session: Email Testing for Higher ROI during the MarketingProfs B2B Forum and I’ll share some of our tips and tricks online after the presentation for those who couldn’t attend.

I hope that you will share some of your tips and tricks on location, call to action, email, or any other relevant topic in the comments section below!

Posted in Email Marketing, General Updates, Marketing, Motherhood, Web Analytics | Tagged best practices, email testing, Hands-on Session: Email Testing for Higher ROI, lacrosse crease defense, MarketingProfs B2B Forum, softball batting left, Stephanie Miller, tips and tricks, Web Analytics | 1 Comment

Marketing and Web Analytics – #SMchat 4/21/10

By Sharon Mostyn | Published: April 20, 2010

: Web Analytics

I’m a numbers junkie – if there was nothing else going on in my world, I could spend all day trying to take website analytics data and make it into actionable plans to increase marketing campaign ROI, so when I needed a last-minute topic for #SMchat, I thought marketing and web analytics would be great.

I’m sure many of you have a great grasp on website analytics, but in case you don’t, the Google Analytics ‘Beginning Analytics: Interpreting and Acting on Your Data’ video on You Tube is a great place to start.

Here are the questions to prepare you for the 4/21/10 Twitter chat on marketing and web analytics:

Intro: Welcome to #SMChat – tell us all about you!

Q1: What web analytics metric do you use the most? Why?

Q2: Benefits of free vs. paid web analytics tools?

Q3: Google Analytics, Coremetrics, Omniture, WebTrends, etc. – which do you prefer & why?

Q4: Do you think social media engagement analytics are valid? RE: Avinash Kaushik’s posts on Measuring Online Engagement: What Role Does Web Analytics Play? http://bit.ly/d4dETE and Social Media Analytics: Twitter: Quantitative & Qualitative Metrics http://bit.ly/aktwtr

Q5: What’s your toughest marketing/web analytics question?

I also wanted to take a moment to thank Avinash Kaushik for his quick response to a late-night (Eastern time) query on this week’s #SMchat topic. It was truly appreciated!

Please join me and the #SMChat crew on 4/21/10 from 1-2:30P ET for answers to the questions above and feel free to suggest in the comments below anything else you’d like to see discussed! I look forward to seeing you on Twitter or on my blog!

Posted in General Updates, Marketing, Web Analytics | Tagged #SMChat, Analytics, Avinash Kaushik, Coremetrics, Google Analytics, Marketing, Omniture, Twitter chat, Web Analytics, WebTrends | 3 Comments

Don’t Put All of Your Eggs In One Basket

By Sharon Mostyn | Published: April 5, 2010

: The Easter Bunny says,

The topic of the first Twitter chat that I moderated was Jack of All Trades or Master of One. You can read more about it here. This past weekend was Easter, and even though the kids are growing up, the Easter Bunny was still hopping!

That combination made me start to think about the way some companies put all of their budget into one channel. During #SMchat, the focus was on individual growth rather than corporate, but the general consensus was that in order to grow you needed to have experience in more than one area of marketing. If it makes sense for the marketer to diversify, it should also work for the companies that they represent, right? That’s why it is surprising to me that so many companies don’t make use of all of the online and offline marketing venues that are available. The explanation that I’ve heard is that there is not enough money in the budget to cover all of the media channels. My response to that is you’re doing your company an injustice if you don’t test every available area of marketing. You never know what will work best for your company without testing.

Testing marketing channels can be done relatively inexpensively, and once you have proven ROI you can determine how much more you can spend in that media. For example, I have worked for several companies who felt that TV is too expensive for their budgets, but I’ve run national DRTV (direct response television) tests that cost far less than what they’re spending on PPC SEM (pay-per-click search engine marketing) campaigns and bring in more revenue for the money spent, plus have the advantage of reaching offline viewers that may not see your ads online.

Another really great marketing channel to test is affiliate marketing. Affiliate marketing is wonderful because there are so many options and it is the most easily tracked – you can pay for the click, the sale, or even the phone call if you convert better over the phone than online.

Email traditionally has the highest ROI of any marketing channel but you need to test email marketing to see how it works for your company, plus you need to build your email list organically in order to have email perform at the levels it is capable of producing. You won’t get those high ROI numbers on a rented list.

Social media is the “new kid” and people are having difficulty determining ROI from Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and the other social media venues. I see social media as the glue that brings the company and the customer together. You need to be where your customers are – and more and more people are on social media sites than any other with the exception of Google.

Do you agree – should your marketing budget be spread across multiple channels or should you focus on one aspect of marketing in order to spend your budget wisely? Please comment below to let me know!

Posted in Affiliate Marketing, DRTV, Email Marketing, General Updates, Marketing, Social Media | Tagged Affiliate Marketing, basket, direct response television, DRTV, Easter, eggs, Email Marketing, Facebook, marketing channels, pay-per-click, PPC, SEM, Social Media, testing, Twitter, YouTube | 3 Comments

21 Years of Mostyn Medical Mayhem…Um…I Mean, Wedded Bliss

By Sharon Mostyn | Published: April 1, 2010

21 years ago today, T2 and I were married. It was a beautiful day, the weather was perfect – plenty of sunshine with no rain in sight, not too cold, not too hot – and here we are 21 years later with slightly colder but nearly the same weather. Even with amazing snow storms in 2009 and 2010, the weather is about the most peaceful thing to happen to the Mostyns in those 21 years.

: T2 – 5 Stomach Surgeries, 16 Knee Surgeries (incl. Replacement), etc.

I should have known when T2 missed our first date because he was getting stitches from an accident at work. When I called to find out where he was, the response from his family was, “he’ll call if he needs a ride home.” I was worried about having callous in-laws, but little did I know that Mostyn Medical Mayhem was so routine that you grow accustomed to it. T2 has had 16 knee surgeries (including finally having one knee replaced), 5 stomach surgeries, his gall bladder removed, had a finger sewn back on from a car hitting his bike as a kid, innumerable stitches, and still counting! Did I mention he needs a tonsillectomy too?

: Sharon - 3 Foot Surgeries

Being married into the Mostyn clan, I’ve had it comparatively easy…ONLY a tonsillectomy (putting a 30-year-old in the pediatric ward is a completely crazy, but that’s another rant…), 3 foot surgeries following a car accident, gall bladder removal and a hysterectomy.

: T3 – Concussions, Traumatic Pancreatitis, etc.

T3 has taken after his father with stomach problems, but his Mostyn Medical Mayhem claim to fame is his concussions and traumatic pancreatitis from different sports. He also needed to have a crushed finger nail removed after he hit with a hammer while helping Dad, then accidentally shut it in the door, and proceeded to go rafting all day before finally deciding that maybe he would get it checked out. He was the second family member to get a tonsillectomy, and most recently a volleyball game in gym class left him with a black eye completely swollen shut.

: M3 – Strained ACL, Broken Arm, etc.

M3 decided Dad wouldn’t be the only one in the family with bad knees. Last Memorial Day weekend she was playing 3rd base for her travel softball team and was going for the tag when she was run over by the base runner. One ambulance ride and two hospitals later, they decided it was a strained ACL. Softball isn’t the only sport where she has been injured…back in her “pony phase” she fell off and broke her arm. She has also had her tonsils removed, so that means T2 is next for sure!

Mostyn Medical Mayhem aside, we have two wonderful children and we’ve made it to 21 years of wedded bliss. As my loving husband sent in his ‘Happy Anniversary’ text: Only 54 more until our 75th! If anyone wants to sponsor our medical insurance between now and then…PLEASE let me know in the comments below!

Posted in Medical Mayhem, Motherhood | Tagged anniversary, Mostyn Medical Mayhem, wedded bliss | 4 Comments

Twitter Chats – Fantastic for Insights and Visibility

By Sharon Mostyn | Published: March 31, 2010

Just two short months ago, I wrote Top 12 Twitter Chats by Day and already I participate in so many more that it needs to be updated. But that’s a post for another time, although I did want to take a moment to thank Robert Swanwick for both his Twitter Chat Schedule (where you can find MANY more than my top picks) and for his post on options for Twitter chat tools.

In my Jack of All Trades, Master of One post, I told you about #SMChat and my involvement there, but I’ve found a new (to me) Twitter Chat on travel that needs to be added to the Twitter chats that I try to participate in each week. Tomorrow, I will be hosting #TNI – nothing like jumping in with both feet to social media community chat moderation! Since I love to travel and my employer is an international travel medical, security, and assistance company, it makes sense both personally and professionally for me to not only join the chat, but to offer to moderate it for the founders. #TNI was founded by the ladies of ZipSetGo.com – April, Rachel, and Sara Beth – and their site seems to be built for corporate travel planners as well as “Travel Addicts” like me.

: T2 & T3: Adventure Travelers

Here are some questions I proposed for Thursday’s adventure travel topic:

What do you consider “adventure travel”?
What’s your favorite adventure travel activity & why?
Where are your favorite destinations for adventure travel?
What happens if you get hurt?

Anything else I should ask? What do you want to know about travel, especially adventure travel? Please join me at the #TNI Twitter chat this (and every) Thursday, 4/1/10, from 3:30-5P ET! (No, it’s not an April Fool’s joke. Yes, I do have a tendency to moderate on holidays.)

So…that’s great, @sharonmostyn is at it again by joining in the conversation with Twitter chats, but WHY? Well, as Meryl K. Evans pointed out when describing her list of Twitter chats, “Twitter group chats offer a clever and effective way to meet people with like interests and to share insights into the topic of discussion.” What better way to connect with people via social media who have the same interests and are willing to talk about it! If you’ve got something valuable to add to the conversation then it allows you to showcase your knowledge and perhaps be thought of as an industry leader or subject matter expert. I have learned so much in the chat sessions, and I like to think I have provided some valuable insights to those who participate as well.

Do you participate in Twitter chats? Why or why not? Please leave me a comment below and let me know…or come join the conversation during #TNI or #SMchat!