Emails Vs. Social Media. Does it have to be a choice?

Interesting that some of the recent email vs. social media effectiveness data is filtering down through the community, and surprisingly being quoted back by people who traditionally have had very little interest in anything related to marketing before.

Case in point this week when one of my clients sent me a recent review that took a position that emails were more effective than social media marketing activities.

As someone that's been involved in marketing for 30 years I never tire of seeing people have these 'grade 5' type arguments about who's better, as if there has to be a clear winner and loser.

Well news flash. They are both useful, strong and proven in marketing, and as part of a balanced and blended promotional strategy will both provide value.

Although they will do so in slightly different ways.

Let's start with email. Certainly it's been around longer and more people have email accounts than social media accounts, proving that the potential audience will be bigger. Very true. However the real drawback with email is that the laws that have evolved over the last decade or so against spam, are quite severe and it goes without saying that email is really only for existing clients that have given you prior approval to communicate with them (by way of a double opt-in process).
Naturally once that has been lawfully done, email becomes a viable and sustainable channel through which your business can communicate over time to customers.

Social Media on the other hand has been around less time and has less people involved in it. However unlike email you can communicate with prospects, qualified leads and former clients as well as current clients alike.

As such it can help you gain a raised market awareness within all of these groups in an open, social and engaging way.

Clearly, this is not a black and white, two dimensional argument. There are serious shades of grey here and all businesses should include elements of both of these promotional tools to their marketing plan to help ensure success.

Let us know. Which one do you prefer and why?

And until next time, good marketing and good luck.

Daniele.

Do You Really Digg It

Lately I've been asked several times about what's the best way a person can leverage an article that they have written.
I think I should preface this response by saying that what is often written to this question assumes that you have a well written, informative, current, humorous or challenging article that will for what ever reason engage the reader on some level.
If any of these things apply to you and your article, read on.

To begin with you can always submit your article to the major journals and magazines that specialise in your area and whose target audience perfectly matches your own.
Writing for magazines carries a lot of prestige and certainly helps you to position yourself quickly as an expert in your field.

Away from printed media, there are also article submission directories that receive electronic versions of articles and publishes them on the web. Providers such as ezine.com well know and widely read.

And yest another and for some inexplicable reason one of the best avenues for articles around on the web, remains largely under utilised. Namely news sites such as: Digg.

The concept being that articles on any topic are submitted and referenced on the site and readers get to vote on the quality, relevance and ultimate usefulness of the piece by either voting to 'Digg' it or alternatively bury it.

Clearly still finding their place within the overall, social media marketing landscape, social news sites I suspect have the capacity to grow in popularity and become a more prominent platform moving into 2012 and beyond. If you haven't already done so, give it a go and see how you go.

And until next time, Good marketing and good luck.

Daniele.

Remembering Steve Jobs. Innovator, Visonary and Technological Icon.

With the sad news of Steve Jobs recent passing I think it's fitting to pay homage to a man that has forever changed the way we communicate and interact with each other.

With a seemingly endless list of technological initiatives and breakthroughs including the global icons of: Macs, iPods,iPhones, and more recently i Pads, Jobs lead the charge for better, faster and more functional technology.

But as much as this man being an unparalleled IT genius he was quite clearly also a marketing wizard with a singular talent to interpret people's unmet needs and translate them into these amazingly advanced and yet always practical pieces of hardware art.

"Steve's brilliance, passion and energy were the source of countless innovations that enrich and improve all of our lives," Apple's board said in a statement. "The world is immeasurably better because of Steve."

Like so many wonderfully talented figures before him, Jobs died at the early at of only 56. We can only imagine what other advances and refinements he most certainly would have come up with given better health and more time.

In 2005, following the bout with cancer, Jobs delivered Stanford University's commencement speech.

"Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life," he said. "Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure — these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important."

I'm sure that these words fall into the realm of timeless wisdom and I know they certainly resonate with me, and perhaps you as well.

Thank you for all that you've done Steve and may your after life be as brilliant as your life on Earth. R.I.P.

And until next time, Good luck and good marketing.

Daniele.

LinkedIn : Not the only professional networking choice but still the best

I must admit I am writing this weeks blog post partially out of a sense of frustration in regards to how many businesses I know who have still surprisingly not taken up the opportunity to be involved on the LinkedIn networking site.

I know some people even now will be thinking yes but surely your social media goals will dictate what sites you use or don't use. This is true to a point but some things are a must and this is doubly true especially B2B businesses.

Where do you start outlining the advantages of this amazing networking platform.
Currently LinkedIn has over 120 million active users globally and unlike Facebook its primary focus is business not social.

This means that people go there unashamedly looking for win - win, business opportunities that can be mutually beneficial to both parties.

So it is important to get involved and I mean now. As LinkedIn's size and influence continues to grow, there is also an expectation that serious businesses will be listed there and well placed in terms of profiles, recommendations and general activity to put them into the mix of firms that may be considered for a specific project or task.

Over time we will look at several of the key linked features and how they can be used to leverage success for your business, but for today the message is simple and direct.

Get involved now.And if you're already involved, maintain your input, focus and commitment to your LinkedIn professional network.

Please let me know what your favorite LinkedIn feature is. Personally I love LinkedIn questions.

So until next time, good luck and good marketing.