Helder Monaco asks me on Facebook:
“I’m always following you with pleasure. When you dismissed the updates on Facebook , I just put a special filer on Thunderbird. “Protest about spam updates” inspired me an interesting matter I want to share with you: each messaging system has got its own value and its own perception: messages on Facebook definitely became more personal than mail.
Instead, messaging on MySpace and MySpace adds seem to drive the opposite: not only people accept spammy messages / comments / adds, but the actually seem to be looking for them.
As a matter of fact, if contents (let’s say music) is in topic with one’s taste, MySpace is the ideal medium. It seems to me that email is becoming a mere notifications receptacle of for other communication systems. What kind of future can have email marketing in such a scenario, according to you? From the very little I know, a good deal of email addresses profiled by “age | sex | city” is a good goal for companies that deal in such matters. But IMHO, it may be more useful to have:
“MySpace URL | age | sex | city”
When, in your opinion will we have such a need?
E’ già in corso? Do already MySpace pre-segmented mailing lists exist?”
Due to the general interest uf such a matter, I’ll reply here:
Email marketing? No thanks!
As a matter of principle and from a copywriter’s point of view, I consider email marketing the same as leafleting and direct marketing. A too costly practice (even with minimum prices) for the results it obtains. It might be useful for big malls and their equivalents on the Web, that have a great deal of products to spread costs upon, but not for smaller companied that would have a to high markup on a fewer number of items, unless as a part of a well defined marketing mix. Also, sending unrequired emails remains SPAM. I always tell my clients to avoid it, and there are much more useful techniques for a lesser cost per contact. For instance a newsletter written by a good copywriter and sent to an aimed and consenting target.
But, to reply to Helder’s questions, here it is:
1. It is not necessarily true that sending mass messages on Facebook. When I’ve been asked “not to spam”, I solved the problem by opening two invite only groups, NON UNIRTI A QUESTO GRUPPO (se non vuoi ricevere spam) and DO NOT JOIN THIS GROUP (unless you want to be spammed), were users are already warned beginning from the title. I moved there all activities concerning this blog, and I keep on “spamming” friends and readers. It is however true that with most of my readers I have already built a relatively strong personal relationship.
2. Personally I dislike MySpace, I find it cumbersome and use it only for notifications and for a “strategic presence”. Yet it is the world’s second social network and you only need to read their “Privacy Directive” to realize that yes, they imply they can sell addresses. And if they can, they certainly do so.
3. A “MySpace URL | age | sex | city”segmentation is useful only if used on MySpace itself. The ones I saw up to now really weren’t very impressive. You cab do much better. But banner advertising has got a ridiculously low redemption. Is it really worthwhile when we have evidences that a good viral marketing campaign can rise much better results for a definitely lower cost? 
