I just received this newsletter from Twitter. This is an example of a why newsletters are a bad idea from the most part.
1) I never opted in.
2) It is not clear from the header information who is sending it (ie: it could be spam!)
3) There is nothing in here that I really want to read about – it is all company focused “We celebrated with a little dance party.” Who cares?!?!?
4) there is no “Call To Action”. What do you want me to >>DO<< with this important information?
In short, it makes me leery of more things from Twitter. I know THEY think this information is totally cool and everyone should want to read it... but I am their client and I do not think any of it is worth my time. I guess it fits with the whole Twitter concept of sending out information for folks to consume or dump as they see fit.
On the plus side, it did come across as a personal email from Biz - which is the only reason I even opened it to begin with. They also make it easy to unsubscribe (which I did). And, probably most importantly, it was all real food and no sizzle (ie: no graphics).
The main issue I am bringing up is how you communicate with your clients. If too many of your clients see your newsletter in a negative light, you may harm your brand more than you strengthen it. Your clients view their time as valuable. Treat it with respect and your clients will reward you.
From: “Biz Stone (@Biz)”
Subject: Twitter Newsletter 2010 – Edition #1
To: ulan@yvod.com
Date: Wed, 3 Mar 2010 01:05:07 +0000 (UTC)Hi there,
In the early days of Twitter, I used to send out short updates just to keep everyone in the loop since so much was happening. It’s been a while, but you signed up for short, monthly updates from Twitter so we thought it was time to start sharing more information. We’ve had quite a year. If you haven’t visited in a while, we’d like to invite you to come have a look at http://twitter.com — we’ve been busy!
Growing Up
In the course of a year, registered Twitter accounts have grown more than 1,500% and our team has grown 500%. Recently, we hired our 140th employee! His name is Aaron and he’s an engineer focused on building internal tools to help promote productivity, communication, and support within our company. We celebrated with a little dance party.Features of Note
Some features of note that we released over the course of a year include the ability to create lists, quickly spread information with a retweet button, and an easier way to activate your mobile phone to work with Twitter over SMS. We also built a new mobile web site that looks and works much better on smart phones.Feeling Inspired
By working together during critical times when others needed help, sharing important information that otherwise might not make the news, and inventing new and interesting ways to use Twitter, you’ve shown us that Twitter is more than a triumph of technology — it is a triumph of humanity. Projects like Fledgling and Hope140 were inspired by you.Chirp!
While there may only be 140 full-time employees working at the Twitter offices, there are thousands of dedicated platform developers who have now created more than 70,000 registered Twitter applications creating variety and utility for all of us. We’ll be gathering this spring at Chirp, our first ever official Twitter developer conference.Thanks,
Biz Stone, Co-founder (@Biz)
Twitter, Inc.PS: This was sent to ulan@yvod.com for the account @ulan. If you’d rather not receive newsletters from Twitter, you can unsubscribe immediately. For questions, please visit us at Twitter Support.