Judith – one of Tearfund’s campaigners in Copenhagen for the UN climate talks shares her reflections after visiting the conference centre:

“The Bella Conference centre, where the Copenhagen climate talks are taking place, felt a bit like a combination of an international airport plus a recent Baptist Assembly – but was 5-10 times bigger!

It was good to be there after the long queue for registration to meet Tearfund staff in person, and to spend time praying together.

As in the rest of Copenhagen, there were so many symbolic globes, each decorated differently. We stood by the globe in the conference centre to pray. We prayed for the climate talks, for all those tirelessly negotiating to get a deal, and for the poorest and most vulnerable people suffering most from climate change.

On Sunday the Bella centre closed – I hope the delegates are able to rest so that they will be able to agree a strong and fair deal this week that protects poor people.”

Judith and the rest of the campaigners are now on their way home. More updates from badger soon!

One of Derry’s best-known civil rights campaigners and founding member of the Derry Labour Party, Willie Breslin dies…. From BBC News. Full story

This site may contain information about: ogden city. The blog is also related to: major city.

Small business adoption of technology-based solutions rarely keeps pace with the expectations of vendors, analysts and pundits. When it comes adoption of digital marketing and social media tools, however, small business adoption is fast and furious.

Recently, we (Hurwitz & Associates) conducted a survey sponsored by email marketing vendor Campaigner. The survey investigates how North American small businesses with 1-20 employees are adapting their marketing plans and budgets to compete more effectively in the future. While we uncovered many interesting trends in the first report in a two-part series, Small Business Marketing Health Check (available here), one of the most eye-opening findings is that small businesses are rapidly shifting their marketing initiatives from traditional media to digital marketing media tools, including social media, such as blogs, forums, Twitter, Facebook, etc., email marketing, search engine marketing and webinars and podcasts (Figure 1). While traditional media, such as direct mail, tradeshows and newspaper advertising still have a part in many small businesses’ marketing playbook, they are being overshadowed by digital and social marketing alternatives.

Figure 1. Small Business Use of Marketing Tools

Why are small businesses, who usually take a long time to shift gears, so fast out of the gate in this case? In a nutshell, it’s because digital and social marketing solutions deliver on the cheaper, faster, easier and better promise that so many other technology-based solutions don’t deliver on. These marketing tools are often less expensive to use than such traditional marketing options as print advertising and direct mail—a small investment can help companies significantly boost marketing reach and return. Digital and social media marketing tools give small businesses more immediate visibility into whether they’re reaching their target audiences, and easier ways to track and measure payback on the time and money they’re investing than traditional media. You can also rapidly adjust and refine campaigns and outreach as needed.

So, with their appetite whetted, what will leading-edge small businesses be looking for next to take their digital and social media marketing game to the next level? Here are some of the areas that I think hold great opportunity for growth as small businesses appetite in this area increases:

• More targeted search optimization and management. Services that are tailored to help specific kinds of small businesses achieve very specific results from their search engine marketing campaigns. For instance, Lotusjump provides a service to help small businesses optimize organic search results for hundreds or thousands of keywords to generate more qualified leads. The automated service automates the process of building more qualified leads based on more specific “longtail” search terms. Yodle, meanwhile, focuses on SMBs with local services business harness existing demand, by helping them to create a Web site, develop an effective SEO campaign across the Web, and help make the phone ring when the business is found through a Web search.

• Solutions that help local businesses integrate online marketing and advertising campaigns across different outlets. Own a hair salon or a tree service business? If you do, everything is local, and services that help to reach the local market are what you care about. WebVisible,  for instance, buys advertising space from multiple media providers and ad networks, and provides many types of online marketing solutions, including fully managed search advertising, banner/display advertising, call tracking solutions, custom landing pages, promotional URLs and more. Using the WebVisible platform, small businesses can target local advertising more effectively.

• Tools that enable you to manage all of your social networking profiles through one client. HootSuite offers a service today that lets you manage all of your Twitter profiles simultaneously, but I don’t think I’ve seen something would let you do manage across multiple sites, such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.

• Services that help integrate more structured digital marketing tools (Web sites, email and search engine optimization and marketing) with more ad hoc social media initiatives. Ideally, this integration could significantly boost the value of both types of activities. I haven’t spotted a  good example of this yet, so let me know if you know of one.

Liveblogging from Liberty’s 75th annual conference.

(edit: Some content remains on my Twitter feed but will be added to a write-up which I’ll work on in a few days)

All in all a brilliant day – notable in the three way disagreement between Jack Straw, Dominic Grieve and Lord Bingham over the Human Rights Act and the impending battle which even Shami Chakrabarti herself notes is likely to be the next big war over civil liberties and human rights in this country.

Click the link for the full liveblog. Full of drama but also some very current and relevant politics. This wasn’t a talking shop – with the Secretary of State for Justice, the former Home Secretary Jack Straw, this mattered. Read and comment if you are so moved.

1727 Great argument that control orders should be stopped before we get moving on do constitutional reform. That really needs to be circulated wider.

1723 A big celebration about the win against 42 days. Liberty did that – a timely reminder. Britain isn’t a police state – it’s a complacent one but is waking up!

1717 Democracy will eat itself without human rights.

1711 Overly glowing about Obama in Cairo. Action speaks louder than words Shami! A huge slam on Cameron too – so much of a battle to come with him.

1707 Shami really in awe of a big day, asking for a membership drive from this motivation. Ah she does self-deprecation!

———————————————————————

1658 Kate Adie gets great laugh when she finds most delegates voted on Thursday – we’re not exactly representative of the country are we?! We’re effort makers. She’s a gay icon I tell you. Diane Abbott breaks the argument nicely on race & class grounds…

1651 Is Jon Gaunt really championing culture?! Thank you Kate Adie for balancing that out! Freeing airwaves is a dual edged sword. Oh no don’t do it Vivienne!

1640 Mark’s up now. Doesn’t sound like Milo. Rightly reminds us of the loss of public spaces and how much social debate was enabled in them. Major questions about what’s ok to bring up in art and what isn’t. Very subtle issue but so important!

1639 Actually she’s so mad I think I love her.

1636 Am a bit lost now. But Mark Titchener’s hair makes him look like Milo Ventimiglia! I may take that fantasy and run with it if this goes on…

1632 Vivienne Westwood – what point is she trying to make about human rights? She has great hair and loves Prince Charles!

1625 Gaunt triumphing Sun Radio. Oh God. It’s so not the answer.

1622 John Gaunt says he was learning about rights through having attacks on his. Alarmed at post-Ross era self-censorship reining in free speech. I’m agreeing with a Sun journo! Repeats Kampfner’s attack on BBC timidity, which really gets on my nerves for the same reason.

1615 Diane Abbott having fun at Gordo’s expense…final plenary starting. Starting with Kate Adie, bringing up freedom questions around Tianenmen anniversary. China developing and growing rapidly, changing. But still total political repression. The dissidents need our support, not just trade at all costs.

———————————————————————

1441 Nutty control order man starts yelling again…

1439 A written constitution he says must not be the plaything of the political classes in its development.

1435 Now a woman…there are no TV cameras for them though…

1434 Conference hijacked by man under control order…

1427 Samira asks how to balance immigration & anti-terrorism. Clegg slams New Labour for it’s treatment of asylum seekers and its assumption most are bogus. He’s right – the government’s incompetent.

1424 Nick’s not answering how he could change the police. Would a public enquiry do this? He does at least argue the police need fewer powers.

1419 Great argument too for universal DNA database. Ahmed’s canny, although it ignores the likelihood that good policing does too little and could do more. Fantastic argument by Clegg about the folly of trying to eliminate risk through giant databases.

1417 Samira Ahmed’s right – how do you successfully preach to the unconverted? He replies with a waffle, suggesting Brits convert when they see outright abuses like G20 policing.

1413 ID cards are already dead he believes. Fun hearing him talking PR up – talks the German minimum vote threshold up. Impressive! Why so wordy though?

1405 Oho Tories support ID cards for foreigners?! I didn’t know. Vile. Rights must be fundamental and universal and the Tories don’t get it. They too want them conditional so can’t be trusted. Well put. A slightly overly long party political broadcast.

1400 Thatcherite centralism must be reversed. Would it be if they were in coalition? Savages first past the post – nice. Brings about disengaged government. Good word but not a terribly analytical perspective.

1353 Whitehall government causes a simplistic outlook on governance & liberty. He’s preaching to the converted though. Constitutional reform needed, a written constitution. Otherwise we rely on trust – not enough. Would have to incorporate HRA. Attacks US extradition treaty – excellent.

1351 Back to the Freedom Bill. Great Nick but FPTP won’t get you into government…

1349 People now want sweeping Obama-style change in the face of state bullying/incompetence. How to force it to happen though? Erk he’s looking to a Blairite like Purnell?!

1344 Is Nick advocating nationalism? He can’t believe the level of suppression of protest – police now agents of state not people. Nice one. No scrutiny of executive is at fault

1338 Now it’s Nick Clegg’s turn. He wants to talk about renewal, changing govt entirely to guarantee rights. Power has to leave Whitehall apparently. Good luck with that Nicky.

———————————————————————

1243 Tony Benn brings about laughter on the cyclical nature of history. Anger against injustice and the flame of hope keep him going!

1241 Interesting that Grieve talks up the Equality Bill when his party is against it.

1235 Straw not popular but no real heckling. A rambling question about media unaccountability gives him a break.

1231 Here we go. Labour did go too far?!! But slates Grieve. Platitudes about a better balance. Crap about Freedom of Info, ignores his abuse of it!

1227 Now Straw! Bleats on about hard choices, even asylum seekers and children in detention. Huge obfuscation over asylum seeker treatment. Groans ring out. Alludes to referendum for PR, who noticed?! Keeps talking up HRA as he’s losing on every other count.

1225 Grieve warns against transferring ownership of what’s wrong to external agencies/quangos.

1222 Grieve says politicians shouldn’t interfere with police but it WAS a political issue for Smith, as was Damien Green. It’s about good governance. New Labour implicitly at fault by it’s lax views over place of governance.

1220 Maguire agrees G20 police were looking for a fight. Give police powers they’ll abuse them! Govt won’t talk HRA up when they intend to on swine flu.

1216 Macdonald demands explanation from IPCC over balaclavas and numbers removal by Met. Straw curiously applauds. Repeats 42 days was cynical game with human rights.

1215 Benn talks down referendum politics to sidestep poor political representation.

1212 Straw attacked for anti-terrorism legislation. Will he repudiate his position on 42 days/ID cards?

1207 Why change HRA? Doesn’t trust Tories to provide us with better deal from barest minimum. Huge applause again. Straw & Grieve under pressure.

1203 Yasmin Alibhai-Brown can’t understand how Sralun could be put into government. It undermines govt. Accuses Straw of being two-faced, attacking punishment of asylum seekers. Thundrous applause. Reminds us HRA failed people like Binyam Mohamed – Macdonald was wrong.

1201 Straw says New Labour opponents have moved on. Curious.

1157 Kevin Maguire says HRA horribly misrepresented. British Xenophobia at the heart of it. Human rights also seen as elitist, a rarely talked up term. Losing the argument because of opportunists like Cameron and New Labour disinterest.

1151 Ken Macdonald supports Human Rights Act & pats Straw on the back. HRA stood up after 9/11 when the US Constitution did not. Supports Grieve, suggesting he’s trying to stand up to Tory bigots. HRA protects everyone in the criminal justice system, should be proud of it.

1149 Tony Benn suggests we’re in a counter-democratic revolution. Very amusing and lovable but adds little.

1143 A BBRR must merely comply with ECHR requirements, ignoring universality of human rights & the need to access them easier in the UK. Fails to explain what the difference would be when he suggests BBRR would apply universally. Asylum seekers?

1138 Dominic Grieve replies, attacking Labour’s real civil liberties failures, sidestepping the issue. Commits to ECHR but not the Act. Says Act doesn’t fulfil ECHR requirements well enough, but still witters on about a British Bill of Rights. Lame.

1136 Commits to not repealing it. Attacks Tory threats to repeal it.

1132 Straw addresses Lord Bingham’s speech on Human Rights Act. He acknowledges HRA embodies parliamentary sovereignty and forces govt legislation to use it as a prism in drafting stage.

1128 Straw embarrassed by Shami over 42 days…

1122 A Jack Straw vs Tony Benn battle in the next hour? It looms…this is very exciting!

———————————————————————

1106 The Justice Secretary is here for reasons unknown. Ego? Rebranding? Spin? If I could ask him a question what should it be? Something substantial please, not about Brown. Jon Snow tried that the other day.

1057 Even if the Tories repeal the Human Rights Act they’re still bound by the European Convention on Human Rights. Disconnection from the ECHR is unthinkable.

1050am Lord Bingham’s opening speech is on my twitter feed to the right of this entry on the main blog page. Quite inspiring, taking the odd pot shot at Jack Straw, who is in the room.

11.    I stopped watching the Simpsons after Episode 22 of Season 6 (when Groundskeeper Willie called the French ‘cheese eating surrender monkeys’). It was inappropriate and – even with my deep distrust of cheese – really quite offensive. I miss the Simpsons. They were like friends.

12.    In the fourth season of the Simpsons (Episode 8, The New Kid on the Block), Homer is banned from an all-you-can eat restaurant for over-consumption of food. This also happened to my cousin Tracey when she had her 18th birthday party at “Mamma Jo’s” in Kettering and spent nearly four hours eating coconut shrimp. She claims the humiliation of the experience scarred her for life and was the start of her bad relationship with food. Since then she has ballooned from 15 to 23 stone and apparently the incident in the restaurant when she was 18 is the principal reason for her on-going weight battle. I think it’s just greed myself.

13.    The best coconut shrimp I have ever had was at the Peninsula Creamery in Palo Alto, California. I went there on a blind date with a girl from Corpus Christie who wanted to make it big in Hollywood. She never did, and ended up going back to live with her parents in Texas and she now works at Wendy’s. But she did put out on our first date so the story at least has a happy ending.

14.    I have just finished eating a banana.

15.    The best advice I ever received was don’t do it. How can you ever regret something if you don’t do it?

16.    I wished I had received this piece of advice before I played a practical joke on my Auntie Mavis when I was 8. She and Uncle Reg were staying for the weekend and I urinated in a glass and told her it was apple juice. I thought this was the funniest thing ever. Father disagreed and had one of his fits. He claimed to have taught me better than that, but I can assure you he never told me not to urinate in a glass and serve it as apple juice to anyone, let alone Auntie Mavis.

17.    My Uncle Reg claimed that he supplemented his meagre pension by playing the spoons around the pubs of North Manchester. He was paid in beer so he wasn’t actually any better off financially than if he’d just stayed at home. Silly old fool.

18.    Reg also played the Ukelele and my father once told me he was more talented than George Formby. I don’t think George Formby was reduced to playing the spoons around Cheetham Hill in return for a few pints so I added this to my list of things that father knows nothing about.

19.    My father was a great fan of George Formby but I find his songs contain some rather dubious and unacceptable messages. I believe some inappropriate lyrics are used for humourous effect without warning the casual listener of the dangers present. I remain an avid campaigner to have warnings printed on all George Formby material.

20.    I often wondered what would have happened if I had played Eminem in retaliation for father playing George Formby. He would have failed to understand that Mr Wu spying on women in their bathrooms is no more acceptable that some of the things Marshall Mathers raps about and almost certainly have had one of his fits.

James Estrin for the New York Times

Jeffrey Deskovic was imprisoned for 16 years for a rape and murder he did not commit. The New York Times produced this sobering slideshow of his first year outside prison.

James Estrin for the New York Times

Two things in Deskovic’s story stood out. First of all, I was struck by the everyday practices and processes he lists as doing for the first time – cooking his own breakfast; opening and closing the window, keeping his own hours, shopping, even driving “represents power and freedom”; using the internet; using a cell phone (“I asked where the holes were to talk into”); first day at college; and swimming. “The water felt heavy” was Deskovic’s summary. It had been so long his body was not used to it.

James Estrin for the New York Times

The second thing that struck me was how alone Deskovic was. He admitted to low points, thinking about taking his own life, wondering if it was a dream. Most tragic was his nagging feelings that he has somehow slipped through the cracks and that a twist of fate landed him on the outside. He is struggling and wonders whether he will be a ‘prisoner’ all his life. His institutional life has seeped into his psyche it seems.

James Estrin for the New York Times

These revelations are most shocking to me because Deskovic looks so well equipped to deal with his new life. He is an advocate for overturning wrongful convictions, he works with the press diligently, he feels “at his best” when he is making a presentation or talk. And yet, he is still waiting for the gradual process of a “normal-life”, including a trusting partner, to become him.

Jeffrey Deskovic addresses the press. James Estrin for the New York Times

Jeffrey Deskovic admitted to a small smile when he first spoke to the press following his release, because “they knew what I had always known”. I would like to think this smile has sustained and grown in the 15 months since the New York Times did the feature.

Please read the original story by the New York Times. Photography by James Estrin and Suzanne DeChillo, who has photographed incarcerated immigrants awaiting deportation at Wyatt Prison, Rhode Island.

What do you do when your ratings in the polls show you down ?

It would seem you get back out campagning.  Elkhart, Indiana just fed his narcisistic ego – he needed bigger, much bigger.

Well Ft. Meyers, Florida was the next day and WOW you would think someone ‘planted’ these people in the audience…

*You know you cannot just “enter” an Obama town hall meeting. They give out tickets in advance. Who gets the tickets? People who stand in line and wait. Who tells people when and where Obama will appear next? Certainly not the Secret Service who has to protect this man. Not the MSM, who are too busy telling us how great he is without asking any critical questions.

Sooooo… how does a 61 year-old homeless woman who’s living in a pickup truck with her son JUST HAPPEN to get a ticket so she can VERY PUBLICALLY ask Prez. Obama for a HOUSE? Anyone? Who pushes her up on stage? She’s right at the front of the crowd. Did she just happen to get a seat there?

Now, within moments of this happening, it’s trumpeted all over the news. AND, surprise, surprise, the wife of State Representative Nick Thompson, Chene Thompson JUST HAPPENS to have a spare house worth $150,000 lying around, so she GIVES it to this unemployed, homeless, living-in-a-truck woman. They’ve been homeless for “more than a year”, which coincidentally, predates the current housing and banking crisis by quite a while. How did they learn about the “Obama Town Hall and Tent Revival”? Were homeless people simply rounded up? Did someone pre-canvas the area in search of “great, tear-jerking stories”? Of all the people in the audience, SHE’S one of the ones Obama chooses to ask a question?

BTW-the taxes which will be charged on this “free house” will bankrupt the poor woman. Taxes are levied based on the home’s assessed value, not on the basis of it being a “free gift”.

On a second, double-snort, the last guy who gets to ask a question JUST HAPPENS to be a 19-year-old kid of Hispanic descent who’s going to Edison State College (free tuition perhaps for in-state students?) and has worked at McDonalds for FOUR AND A HALF YEARS. By my math, he started working there when he was 14! Florida child-labor law infraction, anyone? Now, having worked at McDs several times in my past I can say that they DO offer health care plans. You have to PAY for it, just like everyone else in the country does. It’s OPTIONAL. It’s not a God-given right.

…Do the Thompsons get to claim this as a charitable tax deduction against their (probably) considerable 2009 income? How many houses do they own?

Is there anyone left in the media who will ask these questions? Ever?

http://michellemalkin.com/2009/02/10/update-henrietta-hughes-gets-a-house/

http://michellemalkin.com/2009/02/10/obamas-ft-myers-revival-meeting/    <—– with videos

*Today it has been pointed out that Henrietta Hughes has been in the news before -

Before making a nationwide media splash with her savior President Barack Obama at the Ft. Myers revival rally, Henrietta Hughes had garnered public attention before. In 2004, she was living with her unemployed son in Rochester, NY. Good-hearted private citizens offered them help then, too, to supplement the government checks.

http://michellemalkin.com/2009/02/11/a-henrietta-hughes-flashback/

“The White House and the press are holding up this woman and her son as symbols of how the economic downturn has rendered people homeless and jobless.

Mrs. Hughes and her son have been jobless and receiving government assistance since at least 2004.”

Well they certainly can’t say that the current ‘manufactured crisis’ is the source of their problems can they?

How many homes have they had?

http://www.riehlworldview.com/carnivorous_conservative/2009/02/henrietta-hughes-how-many-homes.html

*Now she has a website and registered domain - http://henriettahughes.com/

*Julio gets a job too :

http://michellemalkin.com/2009/02/11/and-now-julio-gets-a-job/

The Messiah works in mysterious ways …

 

• On Oct. 29, 2001, Henrietta C. Hughes and her son, Corey L. Hughes, took on a $124,400 mortgage;

• On Oct. 16, 2003, Henrietta C. Hughes and her son, Corey L. Hughes, paid off that mortgage as evidenced by the filing of a satisfaction document; and

• On Aug. 9, 2006, Henrietta C. Hughes filed a Quit Claim Deed that effectively turned over all rights to the paid-off an adjacent piece of property listed in the documents above to her son, Corey L. Hughes. 

http://bobmccarty.com/2009/02/12/documents-shed-new-light-on-homeless-henrietta/

Seems many people are curious about this person and situation -

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2183147/posts?page=74

 

I wish I could have been there to ask a question  :

What color is YOUR bow?

…a $US1 trillion deficit, “wrapped with a big red bow” awaiting his first day in office…

What color bow is wrapped around this box of excrement you are attempting to force upon the American people with this ’so called’ stimulus bill?

Just got back from Small Business Summit 2009—an awesome event put on by Ramon Ray (www.smallbiztechnology.com) and Marian Banker (www.primestrategies.com ) at the Digital Sandbox in New York City. Turn out for the Summit was terrific, and attendees were treated to a great, interactive agenda including speakers, experts, sessions and networking—hosted by Ramon, who is a terrific at working a room.

On the train ride back up to New Hampshire’s frozen tundra, I started writing a blog about the hot topics that jumped out at me during the event. A feeling of déjà vu quickly came over me as I realized I was getting a great read on the trends I had blogged about in my last post, 2009 Small Business Trends: No Longer Business as Usual (just scroll down to the next post for this one). Based on the interactions I had with small business people and vendors at the Small Business Summit,  I think these trends are gaining momentum even more quickly and forcefully than I’d anticipated just last week. So in this post, I’m revisiting these trends with new, fresh evidence from the Small Business Summit that underscores how quickly they are taking shape.

1. Catch the social networking wave. Social networking took center stage at the Summit. Keynote speaker Bob Pearson, chief social media guru for Dell, kicked off the event with his presentation and set the tone for the rest of the day. Bob explained why social networking is so important, and provided down to earth recommendations that your grandma could understand about how small companies can get in the game. He encouraged people to “just get in and do some science experiments” and learn as they go (check out this link for Dell’s primer on social media: http://www.facebook.com/dellsocialmedia). Attendees couldn’t get enough information, asking lots of questions about where and how to set up blogs, how often to post, how long their posts should be, what does Twitter work best for? A few people said that they were going to start blogging right away, and the tweet volume rose through the roof! Furthermore, the vendors at the show are walking the walk themselves, creating, monitoring and responding across the social media spectrum.

 2. Demand solutions that do more for less. Well duh! Of course this is big. Gene Marks, Marks Group PC, emphasized that now is the time to re-negotiate everything, high tech or low, from insurance and rent to IT vendors and consultants. Ramon’s discussion of how to get free publicity through media coverage was spot on, of course.  Panelists and speakers representing a diverse group of vendors and solutions highlighted the abundance of free and low cost solutions available, designed especially for small businesses.  For example, on demand and software-as-a-service vendors were well represented, with the likes of Microsoft Office Live, Google, Campaigner and InfusionSoft on hand. Intuit was promoting its free QuickBooks SimpleStart, and free six-month trial for Intuit Payroll Online.

3. Find fresh technology alternatives more appealing. The audience at this event knows that they will have to work smarter, not just harder, to survive and thrive through this downturn, and come out ahead of the competition when things turn up again. Elance presenter Brad Porteus made a compelling case for using online freelancers for all those pesky jobs you need to do—but don’t have time for. This generated a lot of buzz—one of the attendees piped up that she was going to get an Elancer to track her brand across the Web. Attendees also asked a lot of questions about how they could use technology to become more relevant and create more value for their brands and businesses. They wanted to know things such as how and when to use videos, podcasts and polls, and how to use collaboration tools to foster improved communication and project management build the group dynamics they’ll need to rise above the competition.

4. Favor software-as-service (SaaS) over packaged software that they have to buy, install and manage. As I noted above, many of the vendors at the show were featuring SaaS solutions. What I didn’t hear were many attendees voicing concern about SaaS security or data ownership issues. What I did hear were many conversations between attendees and vendors, with attendees trying to figure out if a particular on demand solution would work to satisfy a specific business requirement. A clear signal that  that the issue of on demand versus on premise is becoming a moot point. Campaigner, which offers on demand email marketing, was a hot spot. Email marketing—like most application areas—is still very underpenetrated in terms of small business adoption. But economic conditions are sending these companies a loud wake up call to take action. They’ll look for an easy, fast on ramp to try, buy and get results—and find SaaS solutions fit the bill.

5. Increasingly turn to non-Microsoft desktops and servers. Ok, this wasn’t a topic that came up at all during the event, so this is all based on my very casual observations. It just seems that everywhere I go, and at this show as well, there are more and more people pulling out MacBooks instead of Windows notebooks. I think that many of the new solo entrepreneurs that will emerge from the layoffs will opt for Macs. Sure, Macs cost more than Windows PCs, but many people suffered a lot of problems with Windows PCs. When  they have to spend their own hard earned money, I think these newbies will turn to Apple in greater numbers.

6. Innovate beyond what we can anticipate.  What can I say, other than spending a day with small business people and vendors who are committed to the success of small businesses is inspiring! Small businesses didn’t get us into this mess, but they will pull us out. Many of the vendors had great examples of their small business customers using their solutions to innovate. I could see the gears spinning as people thought about ways they could apply a couple of the tricks they learned when they got back to their office–or just as likely, their home office. Their drive, energy and creativity will lead to new business models, products, services and solutions that will revitalize the economy.

I’m already looking forward to the 2010 Small Business Summit to see how fast these businesses will run with some of these things, and will be very interested to see where they’re at next year. In the meantime, if you are part of a small business, let me know what’s at the top of list to help your business in 2009.

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Let me start this post by saying: I am not a huge fan of mass emails.

Exception: When someone has opted in, as I have for two of the best newsletters I know (from Harvard Business School and Julie Weeks’ WomenAble, also listed at bottom of this post).

Sections of this post will cover: Popular mass/blast email programs/campaigners, how to write a blast email, challenges of blast emails, and other fun stuff. Everything in this post is totally opposite @TheMogulMom’s summary of Seth Godin’s advice on “How to Write a Personal Email.“

For the Hot Mommas Project, mass emails are about moving out of our comfort zone: Theme song (Retro, baby)

These are mass email programs I considered:

* These are the smallest packages available per program

iContact – This was recommended to me by Robin McIntire on Twitter. What won me over was their really good, results-based marketing approach on the site. They talk about how they are white listed because of relationships with ISPs.

Constant Contact - Tons of people use this. There has to be a reason.

Campaigner – My husband’s company uses this. He does a lot of emails.

Mail Chimp - This was mentioned to me by JRLeckie on Twitter.

HOW TO CONSTRUCT A MASS/BLAST EMAIL PROGRAMS/CAMPAIGN:

Below are completely subjective tips on constructing a mass email based on:

a. Common sense

b. The reactions to our most recent blast emails, and

c. How I constructed my email in iContact.

Starter tip: Choose a service that meets your contact and email volume needs  – Some services limit you by number of contacts, but let you send a million, billion emails to those contacts. For others, it’s the opposite. I have very few contacts (1,000) but can do 6,000 emails per month. So, I will send an email to 700 people from my Outlook, delete that list, upload another list of 500 people from my Outlook so I don’t go over the 1000 limit. My lists are very organized in Excel, so, I don’t stress about deleting and adding back lists to stay under 1000 contacts.

Another starter tip: Do a trial - Most of the services above offer a free trial.  I think I started with a 250 contact trial on iContact. It went well, so, I upgraded to 1000 per month. When/if you upgrade, find out how you can get out of the contract.  For instance, we at the Hot Mommas Project are just doing these emails during our case competition. I want to end the subscription after that. Look into those rules for the service you choose if this is not a permanent thing.

1. Upload contact list. You will need to have a list of emails in Excel. You will need a new file for each group (you can’t upload multiple worksheets). I sent one to “men” one to “Hot Mommas” and one to “survey takers.” These were three separate documents.

Tip: Use a service with easy contact upload and purging. You look dumb if you send someone the same email a million times. Make sure the service you use purges duplicate emails.

2. Manually edit list.

a. Make sure your emails and names look okay. I had to change the first names of folks where I had “Alan & Karen”, for instance, and make sure it just said, “Karen.”

b. Label fields.You can do this by adding field names in the very first line of your spreadsheet, e.g. [fname] (first name). Alternatively, iContact has a drop down box that you can use after upload to label each column in your spreadsheet.

3. Construct email (sample in next section). You can use a template or create from scratch. You can insert [fieldname] in the text of your email where you want the information to appear. For example, Dear [fname] would be “Dear Kathy” in my email. I prefer to construct mine from scratch. I do not like HTML template emails.

NOTE: If you want to track results for your campaign you do need to do a version in HTML, even if it is just a text email. The site will explain all of this hopefully. iContact does.

4. Copy HTML to plain text. A plain text version is needed for folks that don’t have HTML capability (Blackberries and such is my guess on this). Typically, it can look a little weird and you need to EDIT the plain text version to make sure it looks okay.

5. Do a spam check. Once you construct an email, iContact has a ”spam checker” which rates the chances of your email getting through SPAM filters. You can then go back and make changes based on the feedback of this little bot. One of my favorites, which I still don’t understand, is “Attempt to obfuscate subject.”

6. Send a test email. Send one to yourself and make sure it looks okay.

7. Launch! I read one-time that campaigns launched on a Tuesday or Wednesday mid-day/afternoon were most successful.  This  survey says it is true.

8. Measure results. You should be able to click and track pretty easily.

Tip: Use a service with good results tracking. I do this so infrequently that I don’t care about results. But, if I had a newsletter that folks opted into and I did this every quarter, I’d be curious about performance.  The iContact dashboard looks good to me. There is summary, detail, and lots of pretty pictures. Again, you will have to see if the service you’re looking into tracks the data in which you’re interested.

TABOO – Don’t Do This or You Will Be Automatically Entered Into The Formaggio Club:

I just attended a conference for entrepreneurship professors. There was an exhibitor there called “SimuLearn.” I did not go to their both, nor did I have any interactions with their staff. What arrives yesterday? A blast email from SimuLearn. They are operating off the attendees list. Look, I have as much sympathy for small business sales folks as anyone. However, the title of this email – in my opinion – should be: “Sorry we didn’t have a chance to meet at the conference”. In the TEXT of the email I would like to see the following:

1. An introduction

2. An explanation of value provided by being on their list (giveaways, cutting edge research, blah blah)

3. Permission to keep sending notes.

Bottom line: I think it is tacky to heist names off an attendee list or an email to you and send repeated blast emails. Don’t put friends and associates – or even strangers – in that position. Your friends and associates may be too polite to unsubscribe, but, they are annoyed that you put them on the list without their permission and then they get all these emails from you every week for a year.

[Update: See comments below - I got my first-ever "cold" blast email that I liked from www.OurMilkMoney.com]

EMAIL SAMPLES AND REACTIONS

The “tacky factor” was my big obstacle to doing a mass email in the first place. There is something about it that gives me the willies. I went ahead and sent the email. It started like this:

“Dear [name of person receiving email],

This morning I was speaking with my friend Colleen at Starbucks. “Why haven’t I heard anything from you on The Hot Mommas Project case competition? It is such a great project to help women and girls,” she said. I told her “Because I don’t like sending mass emails.”  In a very nice way, she told me to get over myself and send the email. You are receiving this email because you are in my Outlook, which undoubtedly means you have something great to offer The Hot Mommas Project project. The bottom line is this: If you are a great female role model or have ever considered mentoring a young woman or peer, please see the information below. If you also want to nominate another role model,  please forward this email (nomination information below) and cc us at support@HotMommasProject.com. Cases must be completed by 1/31 midnight EST. This is a ground-breaking project to help the women and girls. If you are not already involved, please consider participating telling your story and/or nominating 2 others by forwarding the below information…”

HOW YOU KNOW YOUR EMAIL WAS GOOD: POSITIVE REACTIONS.

Great reaction #1:

My BFF Julie who runs the policy office for the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship:

“I like how the email started. It drew me in.”

Great reaction #2:

“Kathy – from my perspective I love to get “mass” emails just like this one. Thanks for taking the time to send it out and I will certainly fill in a case. Cheryl, Cheryl Mitchell, Principal, Red Ball Solutions Inc.“

Great reaction #3:

“Hey Kathy, This is is Tricia Duncan Calling. I am calling about your Hot Mommas Project.

I got your email that you sent and sent it off to a bunch of fascinating women that I know. One of them, her name is Rebecca Cooper; she’s an ABC News Correspondent. She has a new show Sunday nights called “Washington Business.” She thinks that your idea is great and she wants to know if you want to be on her show. What I am going to do is get you guys in touch. You can either call me back or email Rebecca. She’s a dear friend of and I know she’d love to hear from you. She also lives here in the Palisades.

Hope to hear from you soon. I think your project is awesome. Bye.”

[Update: I am going on this show February 10th}

PREPARE YOURSELF FOR THIS FLACK:

1. Who are you and how did you get my name? We did not get this response this time around, but I have in the past. Be able to back this up. If you “spray and pray” – remember that your credibility could be diminished. Credibility is very important to The Hot Mommas Project, thus, every single person to whom we send an email is: a. In my personal contact database or has registered on the Hot Mommas Project site, b. Asked to be signed up on our alert list, c. Took our survey between 2005-2007.

2. Did you mean to send this to me? This email came mainly from important people who already serve in some capacity with our project, namely: Judges or faculty at GW.

3. &%!#!!!!!: We didn’t get any of these reactions. But, it would be funny to hear about some folks who have gotten extraordinarily severe reactions to their mailings. Come on, post them in the comments. We all need some entertainment.

FAVORITE NEWSLETTERS AND INFORMATION SOURCES:

HBS Working Knowledge: Harvard Business School’s newsletter which can sometimes be theoretical, but, gives you a good sense of the “big issues” folks are talking about in business.

Julie Weeks – WomenAble: Quarterly newsletters on pretty much every big update in women’s leadership (globally) from policy to business.

HARO :  I  heart HARO (Help a Reporter Out). I have mentioned this many times in these posts. It is opt-in ONLY.  Distribution of over 40k and counting.

Alltop : I heart Alltop- They don’t have a newsletter, though.   However, I’m listing my favorites here and will tell you that seeing 100 + blog headlines in a category (blogs I do are in Moms and Start Up categories) really helps give you a quick sense of what is going on in that segment.

PARTING THOUGHTS:

So – I have “issues” with mass email.  Why? I think it’s kind of cheesy unless done right – which, in my opinion is:

1. OPT IN only

2. INFREQUENTLY to actual contact YOU KNOW.

High value must ALWAYS be the denominator.  Truthfully, I think I still have issues with it even when it IS  “done right.”   This is where mentors come in. I vented about my blast email “issues” to Colleen Reilly, who does VERY cool work in the health care arena, one morning. She’s like, “Eh, send it. Don’t make such a big deal about it.” That helped me. Colleen was like one of those people who pushes you over the wall when you go to those corporate retreat places, except, Colleen didn’t have my shoe/other in her face. Bonus.

LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM – 06.12.08. A young boy gives out leaflets on an environmental protest in London, England on Saturday 6th December 2008 as UN Climate talks take place in Poznan, Poland. The London protest was part of an international day of protest and an appeal to the UK government to take political action to tackle climate change. (Photo by Marc Vallée/marcvallee.co.uk) (c) Marc Vallée, 2008.

“Thousands march on Westminster to push for climate change” -  The Times.

“Climate change campaigners rally” – BBC News.

“Poznan is a shambles” -  The Guardian.

Clients : Click on the images above and below to view a slideshow from the set and click on the link below for rights managed editorial licensing.  High resolution images are available on request.

Images: Climate Change Protest – 06.12.08.

LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM – 06.12.08. Environmental activists protest in London, England on Saturday 6th December 2008 as UN Climate talks take place in Poznan, Poland. The London protest was part of an international day of protest and an appeal to the UK government to take political action to tackle climate change. (Photo by Marc Vallée/marcvallee.co.uk) (c) Marc Vallée, 2008.

LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM – 06.12.08. Two Metropolitan Police Forward Intelligence Team officers conduct a stop and search on a man in the shadow of parliament as environmental activists protest in London, England on Saturday 6th December 2008 as UN Climate talks take place in Poznan, Poland. The London protest was part of an international day of protest and an appeal to the UK government to take political action to tackle climate change. (Photo by Marc Vallée/marcvallee.co.uk) (c) Marc Vallée, 2008.

Environmental campaigner Georgina Downs won an amazing legal victory yesterday to great acclaim. Mr Justice Collins, the High Court judge ruled that Ms Downs had produced “solid evidence” that residents had suffered harm. He said the government had failed to comply with a European directive to protect rural residents.

Throughout her 7 year campaign (www.pesticidescampaign.co.uk) Ms. Downs has continued to present considerable evidence to the Government, its regulators, (the Pesticides Safety Directorate) and main advisors, (the Advisory Committee on Pesticides) regarding the lack of any protection for residents from pesticides.

Georgina’s relentless work exposed the Government’s “inherent fundamental failure” to protect rural residents and communities from exposure to toxic pesticides sprayed near homes, schools, children playgrounds and other premises.

Unlawful

The High Court Judgment from Mr. Justice Collins is very clear in that the Government has been acting unlawfully in its policy and approach in relation to the use of pesticides in crop spraying, and that public health, in particular rural residents and communities exposed to pesticides from living in the locality to regularly sprayed fields, is not being protected (and this applies to both acute effects and chronic long term adverse health effects).

The Judgment states, “The alleged inadequacies of the model and the approach to authorisation and conditions of use have been scientifically justified. The claimant has produced cogent arguments and evidence to indicate that the approach does not adequately protect residents and so is in breach of the Directive.”

The Judgment also states, “It is important to bear in mind that operators and workers are not the only individuals who are exposed to pesticides and, while their protection is of course most important, they can benefit from the use of protective clothing and other measures not available to residents. Some individuals may be particularly vulnerable (for example, the asthmatic, the elderly, children, pregnant women), but they must be protected too.”

Delighted

Georgina Downs, speaking outside the High Court said, “I am obviously very pleased with today’s result, and have been fully vindicated, as this case was based on a set of core arguments that I identified and have been presenting to the Government over the last 7 years. The fact that there has never been any assessment of the risks to health for the long-term exposure for those who live, work or go to school near pesticide sprayed fields is an absolute scandal considering that crop-spraying has been a predominant feature of agriculture for over 50 years. Under EU and UK law the absence of any risk assessment means that pesticides should never have been approved for use in the first place for spraying near homes, schools, children’s playgrounds and other public areas.”

Find out more

In 2003, Ms. Downs produced a DVD that featured individuals and families from all over the country reporting acute and chronic long-term illnesses and diseases in rural communities surrounded by sprayed fields. Acute effects include rashes, itching, sore throats, burning eyes, nose, blistering, headaches, nausea, stomach pains, burnt vocal chords, amongst other symptoms. The most common chronic long-term illnesses and diseases reported include various cancers, especially breast cancer among rural women, neurological conditions, including ME, asthma and many other medical conditions. However, Government officials and advisors dismissed the content of the DVD and have continually failed to act on any of the evidence produced by Ms. Downs. (see ITN clips of the original spraying demo)

Yet today’s Judgment concludes that Ms. Downs had produced “solid evidence that residents have suffered harm to their health”, particularly in relation to acute effects, and that “a different approach” should have been adopted and accordingly there has “been both a failure to have regard to material considerations and a failure to apply the [European] Directive properly.”

What will Gordon Brown do?

Ms. Downs called on the Prime Minister to intervene and stop his Government appealing against the court’s decision. She stated, “I would now suggest that the Prime Minister himself sees the evidence I have presented in my case first hand without being told by his advisors that there is nothing wrong…”