Here’s a quick preview of how it looks on an iPhone.

A focus on reporting

When deciding what functionality to include in the mobile version, we’ve been keeping a close eye on our customers. It turns out that the most popular section of your account accessed by a mobile device is campaign reporting, so that’s where we focused our efforts. More than 95% of all mobile visitors also come in on an iPod or iPhone variant, so we put a lot of work into making sure the experience was perfect on these devices in particular. It’s a really nice way to get the latest stats on a campaign you’ve sent in a couple of thumb presses.

Launch it

One great thing about the iPhone is that you can launch web applications just like a traditional app you’ve bought from the App Store. By heading into your account with Safari and adding it to your Home screen, you have a dedicated button that will load your latest reports with a single click. We even provide a nice icon and loading screen while the latest stats are downloading.

There is lots of cool technology under the hood of our mobile version, and I’ll be sure to share some of the more interesting details in a future post.

Easy switching

While the mobile version is all about your campaign reports right now, you can still switch to the full version and access all our functionality with a single click. At the footer of every page is a link to switch to the corresponding page in the full version of the app. We’ll automatically switch you back to the mobile version the next time you log in.

If you’re using this; please let us know what you think

View it over at vimeo

www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdRkdvKy5WI

Well lucky you

www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjN5avRvApk

The WordPress dashboard is easy to set-up, customise and use the way you want to. This video walks you through its features. -

Diving into drafts from the dashboard

If you want to get right back to a recent draft, you can now dive in right from the dashboard’s Recent Drafts pane. This video walks you through what’s on offer. -

Saving and returning to draft posts & pages

If you’d like to save your work and come back to it another time, without putting it out for the world to see, WordPress gives you various draft options. This video talks you through the process. -

Using Quick Edit and Bulk Edit to manage your posts in half the time

Quick Edit and Bulk Edit are two features that will make it easier for you to quickly make changes to single posts or a whole bunch at once. This video shows you how. -

Rearranging the post editor to suit your style

The WordPress post editor lets you set it up to suit you – this short video shows you how you can configure it to taste. -

Writing and publishing a post

The thing you’ll probably be doing most with WordPress – writing and publishing posts – is covered in this short flyby tutorial. -

Embedding photos, video & audio into your posts

If you’d like to insert photos, videos, audio or other media into your blog posts, this video will walk you through the basics. -

Adding categories and tags to your posts

Categories and tags help to organize the content in your blog, and make it easier for people (and Google) to navigate through to find what they’re looking for. In this short video, we’ll take a look at how to add and manage both. -

Publishing your post at a later date

If you’d like to set a post to publish at a future date, WordPress makes it easy. Here’s how to do it. -

Moderating your recent comments from the dashboard

If you want to get a quick glance at your latest comments, or moderate them right from the dashboard, this video will walk you through the feature. -

Getting a post out quickly with QuickPress

If you want to quickly get a post out without the trimmings of the main editor, QuickPress makes it simple to publish right from the dashboard. This short video walks you through it.

Twitter Glossary

Twitter has started posting definitions of common Twitter terms on your profile page, beneath your picture. Note: If a term is classed as a “phone command”, it will only work from your phone. Your web tweets will go on functioning the same way. For anything that isn’t on this list, you can go to Twittonary.com, type your term in, and get a definition instantly. # sign The hash sign is used to mark a word as a keyword, which denotes a “hashtag”. More on hashtags further down the list. @ reply The @ sign is used to indicate that you are replying to a specific username. For example, if DickCheney tweets a question about font tags, you will reply with @reply DickCheney “nobody uses font tags anymore, try CSS” or something of the sort. Remember that when you use @reply it is visible to everyone – for private communications use a direct message. 140 character limit Twitter messages are meant to be short. Most people don’t even go up to the 140 character limit when posting a tweet. This is the reason for utilities like URL snippers, which we’ll get to. Block The act of blocking a particular user name from following your tweets. You block someone by clicking on their profile and choosing “Block” on the right sidebar. d USERNAME Updating Tweets from a Mobile Device: You can send tweets from any mobile device using text messaging. Text “d YOURUSERNAME” and your tweet and send it to 40404, Twitter’s text message number. Direct Messages Direct Messages are sent from twitter by entering d RECIPIENTUSERNAME Text of Message. DM This stands for direct message, which is the Twitter equivalent to e-mail. You may only send direct messages to those following you. To do so, click on “Direct Message” on their profile and type out your message, again only up to 140 characters. Automatic direct messages can be set up to thank someone for following you using a free service such as TweetLater. Keep in mind that you cannot send Direct Messages to people that are not following you, even if you are following them. This is Twitter’s built-in spam protection. Drunktwittering Drunk dialing on Twitter. Dweet Related to above, Tweet sent while drunk. Failwhale The whale logo that pops up when the Twitter service crashes. FAV You can favourite a tweet by typing FAV in all caps plus their username. This will automatically favourite the last tweet from that user. Feed Your posts on Twitter are commonly referred to as your “Twitter feed”, or “timeline”. FOLLOW username Phone command. This command sends the message that you want to follow a specific user on Twitter. Followers People who follow your updates. Friendapalooza A round of friending on Twitter. Geotwitter Type it in to get the geolocation of the most recent tweets. GET username Retrieves the most recent tweet from that user. Hashtags Hashtags, such as #BSG for “Battlestar Galactica”, denote groupings on Twitter for popular, commonly referenced items. You can follow updates on hashtags in real time at Hashtags.org They were developed as a means to create groupings on Twitter. In order to have hashtags tracked, start following @hashtags on Twitter. It will follow you automatically and your use of hashtags will be tracked. Hashtags became popular during the San Diego fire, when Nate Ritter used the hashtag #sandiegofire to chronicle his updates of the event. Since then they have been used to track specific events in real time on a regular basis. INVITE phonenumber This will send a Twitter invite to a mobile phone. LEAVE username Phone command. Sends the message that you wish to stop following a certain user. Locking Your Profile You can “lock” your profile so that only friends can see your updates by scrolling down to the bottom of your “Settings” tab on the Twitter website and clicking the box beside “Protect My Updates”. This may deprive you of followers who would have otherwise followed you based on keywords in your posts and isn’t advised for general use. You would only want this if you wanted to use Twitter, but need to avoid public communication for a specific reason. Even celebrities have public profiles on Twitter. Microblog Twitter is a microblogging platform. A shorter and usually more immediate version of a blog. mistweet Similar to “mistell”, a term coined by gamers, a mistweet is a tweet that you will regret. You can delete your tweets on your profile page, but everyone on your follow list will still have seen it when it was posted. NUDGE username Reminds one of your friends to update. off-Twitter A variant of “offline”, usually used when someone wants to share something with someone privately. OFF Phone command. Turns all notifications to your phone off. OFF username Phone command. Turns all notifications to your phone from a certain user off. ON Phone command. Turns all notifications to your phone on. ON username Phone command. Turns all notifications to your phone from a certain user on. Public Timeline The timeline of all public Tweets. Seen here. ReporTwitters Reporters publishing tweets in conjunction with their articles or broadcasts. RT/Retweeting This stands for retweeting, the process whereby you repost someone else’s Twitter post on your feed. The proper form for this is: RT #usernameyouarerequotingfrom “text of the retweet”. You are specifying that it is a retweet and putting in the full username so others on your list can choose to follow them if they like it. Search Go to search.twitter.com to search tweets for a specific keyword. Also, http://twitter.com/invitations/find_on_twitter will allow you to search by name. STATS This is a command that returns how many people you are following, how many people are following you, and which words you are tracking. TinyURL Name of the most popular URL snipping service which trims URL lengths to allow for inclusion in twitter messages. Located at tinyurl.com. There are others out there but this is the most commonly used one. Twactor Someone who impersonates another person on Twitter. Twittcrastination Using Twitter to procrastinate. Twadd The act of adding someone as your friend. Twaffic Traffic on Twitter. Twaggle A bunch of followers. Twaigslist To sell something via Twitter. Twaiting Twittering while waiting for something. Tweeps/Tweeples A cluster of friends on Twitter. Frequently used to address all of your followers at once, e.g.”Morning, Tweeples!”. Tweet-back Bringing a previous tweet back into the current conversation. Tweeter A Twitter user. Tweeterbox Someone who Tweets too much. Tweetard Someone acting like an idiot on Twitter. Tweetheart Another way to refer to friends on Twitter. TweetIn A group of users agree on a set time to Twitter to each other. Tweets A collection of posts on Twitter. Twerminology Lingo used on Twitter. See this Glossary. Twhepard Twitter employee that restores your lost followers if you have lost them due to a technical glitch. Twhiner A Twitter user who posts a high number of negative items. Twike To ride a bicycle while Twittering. Don’t ask for a how-to. Twis A “dis” of a fellow Twitterer. Not a good idea since everything on Twitter is public. Twittectomy The act of unfollowing someone on Twitter. Twitterati The Twitter L33T. This is not a comprehensive list at all, but it is generally accepted that a member of the Twitterati has 30,000 or more followers. A very nice graphing of Twitterati networks is available here. Twitterbate This was meant to be a comprehensive list. Self-explanatory, but the mental images are disturbing. Twitterific Something awesome related to Twitter. Twittering To send a Twitter message. Twitteritas Ladies who use Twitter. Twitterject To insert your tweet in an ongoing conversation between other people on Twitter. Twitterlooing The act of Twittering from a bathroom. Twitterphoria What you feel when something good happens on Twitter, like being followed or retweeted. Twittermob Similar to a “flashmob”, this is a bunch of people who descend on an often ill-prepared location based on a Twitter message. Twitterstream The Twitter timeline, both your own and the public one. Twittfessional A confession made on Twitter. Twittosphere The community of Twitter users. Twittworking Networking with other Twitter users. Twoogle Twitter as the human version of Google, since you can post a question and get instant results. Twoops Sending a private message to Twitter by accident. Twoosh A full 140 character Twitter message. Twurvey A survey conducted over Twitter. Twype Typing a Twitter message. WHOIS username Gets profile information for a Twitter user. Don’t forget to…

What Twitter is in plain English.

Twitter – The Basics

There isn’t one! Sorry it’s true. Think about it. There must be a infinite number of combination of content out there in the emails you get. Can you sum all of them up with the same subject line? No. The same runs true here. However there are a few things you could to “help” with your open rates. People who are new to email marketing often ask us, “What is the best subject line for me to use?” or “How should I write my subject lines so that more recipients will open my emails?” So we have got some examples for you to look at to get a good idea of what works and what doesn’t. The “highest” open rates were in the range of 60%-87%, while the “lowest” performers fell in the dismal 1%-14% range. Do you see a pattern below?

Best Open Rates (60%-87%)

• [COMPANYNAME] Sales & Marketing Newsletter
• Eye on the [COMPANYNAME] Update (Oct 31 – Nov 4)
• [COMPANYNAME] Staff Shirts & Photos
• [COMPANYNAME] May 2009 News Bulletin!
• [COMPANYNAME] Newsletter – February 2009
• [COMPANYNAME] Newsletter – January 20096 [ *|FIRSTNAME|* *|LASTNAME|* ]
• [COMPANYNAME] and [COMPANYNAME] Invites You!
• Happy Holidays from [COMPANYNAME]
• ATTENTION [COMPANYNAME] Staff!
• ATTENTION [COMPANYNAME] West Staff!!
• Invitation from [COMPANYNAME]
• [COMPANYNAME] Jan/Feb 2009 Newsletter
• Website news – Issue 3
• Upcoming Events at [COMPANYNAME]
• [COMPANYNAME] Councils: Letter of Interest
• [COMPANYNAME] Coffee Exchange – Post-Katrina Update
• We’re Throwing a Party
• October 2009 Newsletter
• [COMPANYNAME]: 02.10.09
• [COMPANYNAME] Racing Newsletter

Worst Open Rates (1%-14%)

• Last Minute Gift – We Have The Answer
• Valentines – Shop Early & Save 10%
• Give a Gift Certificate this Holiday
• Valentine’s Day Salon and Spa Specials!
• Gift Certificates – Easy & Elegant Giving – Let Them Choose
• Need More Advertising Value From Your Marketing Partner?
• [COMPANYNAME] Pioneers in Banana Technology
• [COMPANYNAME] Moves You Home for the Holidays
• Renewal
• Technology Company Works with [COMPANYNAME] on Bananas Efforts
• [COMPANYNAME] Update – A Summary of Security and Emergency Preparedness News
• Now Offering Banana Services!
• It’s still summer in Tahoe!
• [COMPANYNAME] endorses [COMPANYNAME] as successor
• [COMPANYNAME] Holiday Sales Event
• The Future of International Trade
• [COMPANYNAME] for your next dream home.
• True automation of your Banana Research
• [COMPANYNAME] Resort – Spring into May Savings
• You Asked For More…

Observations

On the “best” list, you’ll notice the subject lines are pretty straightforward. They’re not very “salesy” or “pushy” at all. Some people might even say they’re “boring.” On the “worst” list however, notice how the subject lines read like headlines from advertisements you’d see in the Sunday paper. They might look more “creative,” but their open rates are horrible. It’s as if those email marketers assumed that subject lines have to jump off the screen and “GRAB THE READER’S ATTENTION!” or something. Unfortunately, most people get so much junk mail in their inbox, anything that even hints of spam gets thrown away immediately.

Setting Expectations

So does that mean your subject lines should be really stale and un-creative to get high open rates? We don’t think so. We actually saw some campaigns that used more “creative” subject lines (like the ones on the “bad” list) but they had pretty decent open rates. The difference seemed to be in the expectations that were set for the emails. Email newsletters, or eShots are for soft-selling. They build relationships with your customers, and they’re great if your products have a very long sales cycle. Use them to slowly soften your customers for the sale, or to make them feel really good about your brand. If your recipients signed up for these kinds of emails, don’t expect them to be very enthusiastic when, out of the blue, you send an email with a subject line like, “10% Discount! Open Now!” For newsletters, keep your subject lines simple, straightforward, and consistent. On the other hand, if your subscribers specifically opted-in to receive “special offers and promotions” from your company, there’s nothing wrong with saying there’s a “10% off e-coupon inside.” They’ll be expecting a “hard sell” from you. It’s when marketers send promotional emails to their entire “newsletter” list when things go wrong. The idea is to create a totally separate opt-in list for those who want to receive promotional emails. Furthermore, segment your promotions list into smaller, more focused groups before you send your campaign (don’t send an offer for purses and high-heel shoes to the men on your list).

The Secret Formula for Subject-Lines

So what’s our advice for email subject lines? This is going to sound “stupid simple” to a lot of people, but here goes: Your subject line should (drum roll please): Describe the subject of your email. Yep, that’s it. Always set your subscribers’ expectations during the opt-in process about what kinds of emails they’ll be receiving. Don’t confuse email newsletters with promotions. If your email is a newsletter, put the name and issue of the newsletter in your subject line. Because that’s what’s inside. If your email is a special promotion, tell them what’s inside. Either way, just don’t write your subject lines like advertisements. When it comes to email marketing, the best subject lines tell what’s inside, and the worst subject lines sell what’s inside.

Next Time…

In the next article we will be talking about “eShot Design” (the exciting bit?).