You've already seen that email open rates are not the primary metric you should care about -- you don't send an email to get people to open it. You send an email to get people to take an action (or, at least, you should!).

But the fact is, worrying about open rates too much is not just misguided -- it can also be counterproductive. And in a world where open rates are the first thing a lot of non-digital people want to know about, knowing how and why to avoid this trap is crucial.

Email marketing is a great tool that enables organizations to contact, message and drive action among their supporters. It’s easy to track, relatively inexpensive and there is a flood of email marketing companies eager for your business who have built platforms that do all of the hard work for you. Sounds good? Ready to sign up? So tell me, how are you going to get your audience to open it?

Texts from Hillary. Big bird. Relatable Romney. Binders full of women. What do these phrases coined from the 2012 Presidential election all have in common? They were all made into memes that went viral.

Internet memes have just recently skyrocketed to popularity on an array of topics, forums, social networking sites, and in various forms— from something as silly as Grumpy Cat (shout out to Professor Kreiss for getting this reference) to something as serious and controversial as memes on social issues. The point being, since memes have become an almost all-encompassing form of communicating and sharing information online, they have, of course, became an interesting piece in the political communication puzzle.

Internet memes are phenomena that rapidly gain popularity or notoriety online. Often, modifications or spoofs add to the profile of the original idea, turning it into a phenomenon that transgresses social and cultural boundaries—and adds a humorous component, which makes the meme all the more likeable.

One of the more common misconceptions about social media is that a company or brand can achieve and maintain meaningful results at little or no cost. Sure, setting up brand pages on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and just about any other social channel can be done in almost no time without spending a dime. But that’s like ordering tap water at a restaurant and hoping it will be the whole meal.

The truth is, achieving ongoing success on social media is anything but free. Based on the social media audits Renegade has performed over the last three years, we have identified five buckets of “hidden costs” that just about every practitioner will face soon enough.