Is the goal of your online social networking efforts to grow your business? If so, at some point your followers, friends or fans will need to know you as more than just another one of their many online “peeps.” The challenge is the average person is bombarded daily by electronic messages from literally hundreds of people who are part of their ever growing online network of contacts.

Now, I’m no Guy Kawasaki – not by a long shot. But even still I recently counted over 173 electronic messages that I received in a single day. Even worse, I only counted emails, text messages, twitter DMs and replies, Facebook messages and Linkedin group communications. Beyond that there are blog replies, voice mails and various messages from other online networks that I’m a part of. Now, again, I’m no Guy Kawasaki and chances are you aren’t either. However, I’m betting you’re facing the same barrage of online communications. Am I right? Consider it for a second. How many electronic messages do you get a day?

Now let me ask another question. How many personal messages do you get via postal mail? You remember postal mail right? It’s the printed stuff that’s sent with a stamp. Now for the purposes of my question I’m talking about truly personal postal mail. Communications that were written and sent by a person you know or know of – database driven direct mail with your name on it doesn’t count. How many of those are you going to have to sift through today? I’m sure you got as many personal postal messages as you did online ones right? <sarcasm>  No? OK than, how many pieces of personal postal mail did you receive this month or this year?

Just in case it’s not totally obvious where I’m going with this I’ll spell it out for you in this paragraph. The average person today gets less than a dozen (yea that’s 12) personal postal messages in an ENTIRE YEAR. By contrast, the average person gets dozens, and in many cases hundreds of electronic messages DAILY. If your hope is that you’ll be able to truly capture the attention and differentiate yourself with another electronic message (and you’re not Guy Kawasaki) the odds are stacked against you in a big way. That doesn’t mean it’s not possible to make a personal connection with an electronic message. However, if you got a personal printed note mailed to you from one of your Twitter followers is there any chance that might stand out more so than say a Twitter direct message? Of course it would because it’s rare and unique.

Now, this isn’t just a theory. I’ve been sending thank you cards and printed notes to contacts I’ve made online for some time and the response has been nothing short of astounding. How astounding? Well, when I take the time to send a truly personal message better than 60% of the recipients respond. Also, for the record, the first time I mail someone it’s usually just after I’ve connected with them online for the first time.  So, initially these aren’t close contacts. For example, I’ll commonly send an “I’m following you on Twitter” card to people that I follow on Twitter that I’d like to connect with off-line.

I suppose if everyone starts doing what I’m doing my postal messages may not work as well in the future. But for now, using personal postal mail to communicate with online contacts is extremely effective and MUST be considered if you’re serious about your social networking strategy.

Tampa Florida - Enthusem.com’s new breakthrough web application for printed postal mailers is now available to more than 2 million Box.net users, instantly accessible from your Box.net account or anywhere on the web that you choose to display your Box files, such as on your Linkedin Profile page.

Simply login to your Box account and add Enthusem as a service and you will be able to send printed postal mail that same day using your online files.

Marc Fors, co-founder of Enthusem, says:  “We were inspired to establish a partnership with Box because of their unique approach to online collaboration – it’s all about sharing, usability and access – essentially giving users the power to do more with their data. Enthusem is just one of the newest services that makes Box so exciting.  Now you can use your online files to create a printed postal mailer in under 30 seconds – a single piece going to a friend, a sales lead, a customer, or a series of mailers sent to an entire group – automatically printed and mailed for you by Enthusem. Being able to send high-quality mail from the web to one person at a time is novel, but what really makes enthusem relevant today, is that each mailer can have online attachments - just like an email – and when those attachments are viewed, you get an instant email alert. It’s just like having your own personal response marketing system.”

“Box.net is excited to provide Enthusem’s custom printed cards to our business users via our Open Box platform.  The ability to generate thank you notes, invitations and other tailored communications is a perfect addition to Box, and the thousands of sales and marketing professionals on Box will certainly embrace this new tool” said Karen Appleton, Box.net’s VP of Business Development.

Steve Tingiris, Founder and CEO says, “Enthusem is uniquely positioned to instigate and aggregate print events across the web and the social media space.  We have long believed that print is the original social media and is now being rediscovered by a whole new segment as an effective way to market. Enthusem has not only made it easy to create high quality mail in a few clicks, but through the online attachment and response feature, Enthusem has connected traditional printed postal mail to the online world of social media. We like to say that we have reinvented the greeting card – that Enthusem’s features and functionality have breathed new life into print – a proven effective marketing method. We have an open API for the developer community and more partnerships are in the works that should transform and expand how print is accessed and produced in today’s social media sector.”

About Enthusem.com
Enthusem makes sending personalized PRINTED greeting cards as easy as sending an email. Even better, like an email, enthusem cards can include attachments. That’s right; you can attach electronic files like videos, PDFs or web pages to printed greeting cards – and get email alerts when the files are viewed. If that’s not enough, you can also use any image you want for the front of the card, you can write your own personalized message, you can buy and send cards one-at-a-time and you can try Enthusem for free.

About Box.net
Founded in 2005, Box.net (box.net) now serves more than 50,000 companies from small businesses to Fortune 1000 that look to Box for collaboration tools that simplify online content management, accelerate team productivity and connect employees with a familiar interface that anyone can use. Box.net is a privately held company headquartered in Palo Alto, CA, and is backed by venture capital firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson and U.S. Venture Partners.

For more information contact:
Angela Medlar Phone: (800) 709-1755
E-mail: angela@enthusem.com

If you’re one of the over 2 million box.net users I’ve got some good news. You can now send enthusem cards right from your box.net accounts. That’s right, you can use you box image files as card designs and you can even create enthusem attachments to files you’ve stored in your box account.

For those who are box.net users and LinkedIn users you can access your box.net files from LinkedIn and send an enthusem through box without leaving LinkedIn.

If you’re not a box.net users I’d highly encourage you to go signup for a free account. It’s WAY more than online storage – it a way to put you files to work using some of the best services the Internet has to offer.

 View Demo

Tampa, Florida – Enthusem.com announced today that Duct Tape Marketing has added Enthusem as their online system for the Duct Tape Marketing Small Business Marketing System and Authorized Coach Network. Enthusem lets users send personalized printed greeting cards that seamlessly link to Internet content. Using a simple code, enthusem card recipients can visit a web page and access video, audio and other documents that the sender has uploaded. Enthusem takes care of the printing, mailing and online file hosting so users can send their first card in under 60-seconds.

“The combination of real printed greeting cards that link back to personalized online content really is the best of what online and offline communications has to offer. It’s a unique blend of tradition and cutting edge technology. I’ve seen other solutions that let you send a single printed greeting card but the combination of the card and the online attachment really made the difference for me. By sending a card with an attachment, our consultants can really deliver an impactful message that’s also extremely personal. Even more, enthusem provides reporting that tells exactly who is looking at our online files so as a marketing tool; our printed mailers are 100% measurable – that’s an important benefit to us.” said John Jantsch, award winning social media publisher, author and creator of the Duct Tape Marketing system.

“I was very excited to learn that John and his team decided to adopt enthusem. I’ve been a big admirer of the Duct Tape Marketing system and their decision to go with enthusem is more validation that we’re on the right track. Businesses today need marketing tools and strategies that are easy, measurable, effective and affordable. Most budgets aren’t getting bigger these days and marketing absolutely has to create a bottom line result – our enthusem service combined with a great methodology like that provided by Duct Tape Marketing does exactly that,” commented Steve Tingiris the founder and CEO of Prospect Smarter, Inc. and enthusem.com.

About Duct Tape Marketing and John Jantsch

John Jantsch is a marketing and digital technology coach, award winning social media publisher and author of "Duct Tape Marketing - The World's Most Practical Small Business Marketing Guide" published by Thomas Nelson, with foreword by Michael Gerber, author of The E-Myth and afterword by Guy Kawasaki. He is the creator of the Duct Tape Marketing small business marketing system and Duct Tape Marketing Authorized Coach Network. His Duct Tape Marketing Blog was chosen as a Forbes favorite for small business and marketing and is a Harvard Business School featured marketing site. His blog was also chosen as "Best Small Business Marketing Blog" in 2004, 2005 and 2006 by the readers of Marketing Sherpa. His "Hype" column can be found monthly in Entrepreneur magazine along with his podcast on Entrepreneur.com. He is a presenter of popular marketing workshops for organizations such as the Small Business Administration, American Marketing Association, Kauffman Foundation, Painting and Decorating Contractors of America, Associated Builders and Contractors, National Association of the Remodeling Industry and the National Association of Tax Professionals.

About Enthusem

Enthusem, a service of Prospect Smarter Inc. of Tampa Florida, is designed as a web based personal mail system that is perfect for small businesses and independent sales people. The free account allows users to send personalized direct mail pieces one at a time with no minimum quantities, setup fees or recurring costs. Business accounts offer more features and flexibility with very low annual fees. Contact Angela Medlar for more information: (813)-321-1402 E-mail: angela@enthusem.com

Enthusem attachments are online documents that can be 'attached' to your PRINTED card and when your recipient views their attachment (via a pickup code that's printed on your card) you receive an alert email. View Demo

Tampa, Florida - Prospect Smarter Inc., announced today an agreement to provide their Enthusem product to be a sales and marketing catalyst for RealEstate.com, REALTORS®.  The Enthusem product will allow RealEstate.com, REALTORS®’s 1,100 agents to access the web portal anywhere throughout the country so they can create and send printed cards to prospective home buyers and sellers with their own personal design and message.

Steven Tingiris, Founder of Prospect Smarter could not be happier with the success of Enthusem and the newly formed relationship with Realestate.com, REALTORS®.  “Enthusem was created to be an instigator of personalized communications.  There is no better opportunity to prove this out in the real estate market.  We look forward to working together with the RealEstate.com, REALTORS® team to provide more cost efficient ways to reach prospects and customers and create valuable relationships.

”Bruce Walker, Director of Marketing for RealEstate.com, REALTORS® is excited about sharing Enthusem with the team, “So many drip campaigns are created for mass mailings, distribution lists and group sends that we’ve lost touch with the single touch that can be so powerful. Enthusem makes this very easy as it combines the appeal of offline and online media.  The concept is wonderfully simple, but still quite dynamic in the way it is executed.”

About Enthusem: Enthusem makes sending personalized PRINTED greeting cards as easy as sending an email. Even better, like an email, Enthusem cards can include attachments. That's right; you can attach electronic files like videos, PDFs or web pages to printed greeting cards - and get email alerts when the files are viewed. If that's not enough, you can also use any image you want for the front of the card, you can write your own personalize message, you can buy and send cards one-at-a-time and you can try Enthusem for free.Contact Angela Medlar for more information: (813)-321-1402 E-mail: angela@enthusem.com

REALTOR® -- A registered collective membership mark that identifies a real estate professional who is a member of the National Association of REALTORS® and subscribes to its strict Code of Ethics.

Enthusem is really most effective when used one-to-one but if you'd like to send the same message to a small group of people, you can personalize the message using tokens. View Demo

With a paid Enthusem account, you can purchase Enthusem credits and set budgets with the users in your account by sharing them. Or, if you'd prefer, you can keep them in a pool for all of your users to pull from. View Demo