Very exciting announcement by Facebook. They’ve built the most popular website beating even Google, but will people trust it for their email?

So Facebook has debuted a sweeping messaging system–in the works for 15 months, according to Zuckerberg–that pulls in multiple channels of communication from across Facebook as well as other platforms, allowing for faster, shorter, and more real-time forms of messaging as well as Facebook's existing messaging service and chat client. Facebook messaging and chat are used by 350 million of Facebook's 500 million-plus active users around the world, and with 4 billion messages sent per day.

Get more on cnet…  Facebook unveils e-mail, the sequel or check out this video…

“Email Marketing” and “Autoresponders” are two terms that frequently come up when reading or searching for anything to do with Online Business or Internet Marketing. This article will discuss the basics of what they are, how to do them, and the benefits of using Email Marketing as part of your Online Marketing Strategy.

via What are Email Marketing and Autoresponders, and how do they help Internet Marketers?.

If you’re spending more time dealing with email than getting actual work done, it’s time for a makeover.

I just loved this Harvard Business Review post by Gina Trapani… Extreme Makeover: The Email Inbox Edition

b = be
b4 = before
brb = be right back
btw = by the way
gr8 = great
lol = laugh out load
rofl = rolling on floor laughing

How to Revise an Email So That People Will Read It, an article by David Silverman, HarvardBusiness.org includes a checklist to consider when revising:

1. Delete redundancies. Say it once. That’s enough. If you’re repetitive, the reader will stop reading and start skimming. (Like you probably just did.)

2. Use numbers and specifics instead of adverbs and adjectives. ”The project is currently way behind schedule on major tasks,” is not as clear as “The project is 3 weeks late delivering hamburger buns to Des Moines.” (If you don’t have numbers, still get rid of the adverbs and adjectives.)

3. Add missing context. Does your reader know that hamburger buns in Iowa are required for the company to collect $37 million? If you’re not sure, remind them.

4. Focus on the strongest argument. Should those hamburger buns get shipped because the delay is embarrassing for the company, because it’s costing children their lunch, or because it’s costing the company tens of millions of dollars? Maybe all three, but one of those reasons (and it depends on your reader) will be enough to get buns on the road.

5. Delete off-topic material. The best emails say one thing and say it clearly. One-subject emails also make it easier for the recipient to file the message once they’ve taken action, something anyone who uses Outlook to manage tasks appreciates.

6. Seek out equivocation and remove it. ”It was the best of times, it was the worst of times” works for Dickens, not status reports.

7. Kill your favorites. Is something in your text particularly pithy, amusing, or clever? Chances are, it’s not. If it sticks out, it’s probably a tap-dancing gorilla in boxer shorts — hilarious when you thought of it, embarrassing when it gets in your manager’s inbox.

8. Delete anything written in the heat of emotion. Will this sentence show them who’s been right about the hamburger buns since the beginning? Yes? Cut it.

9. Shorten. Remember the reader struggling to digest your message on the run — a BlackBerry or an iPhone gets about 40 words per screen. What looks short on your desktop monitor is an epic epistle on their mobile device.

10. Give it a day. With time, what seemed so urgent may no longer need to be said. And one less email is something everyone will thank you for.

Email blacklists are a common way of reducing spam, and if your mail server has been blacklisted, some email you send may not be delivered. www.mxtoolbox.com will check a mail server IP address against 147 DNS based email blacklists.

I’ve been on the Internet since 1993 and I get a ton of spam! It angers me that people can get away with stealing my time especially the ‘targetted emails’ that promise to elongate my private parts and/or make the Ladies love me – Really???

If you’ve been online for a while, I imagine you’ve got some ‘reactive’ spam strategies in place, however I know of a few ‘preventative’ strategies you may want to consider:

• Use web forms on your website (rather than printing on web pages) to avoid spammers who use “Email Harvesting Software”
  
• Google your email address regularly to find other pages that display your email address on their website, and request that it be removed.
  
• Use unique email addresses to avoid “Dictionary Spam”
  
• Create/use ‘temporary’ addresses when there is no benefit to using your ‘branded’ email address e.g. subscribing to newsletters, registering software, subscribing.

Please visit aWEBthatWORKS.com for more information on spam strategies, and be sure to subscribe to my free newsletter for other tips like this and to be notified of keynotes, seminars and workshops that will help you eradicate spam from your life.

Spam Assassin is software on our server that marks any mail it perceives to be spam with *****SPAM***** before the subject line. This allows us to setup Outlook or our webmail to quarantine it in a folder called spam (just in case we would like to check for a missing message). Alternatively Spam Assassin can be set to delete mail marked a spam without quarantining.

A captcha is an image containing a numerical or alphabetic code that can normally only be read and interpreted by a human. Popular of late because captcha features can help keep spammers at bay. Does this make sense? If not, please click on comment to ask your question.