Email Marketing still packs a punch

Soci@lite has had many conversations recently about the merits of Email Marketing, which some consider already to be a dying art. But we would like to challenge that perception. What, because you’re emailing me, I hear you ask? No, because any online marketing activity, be it an Email Campaign, Social Media profile updating, blog posting or the next new-fangled medium to motivate the excite the masses should all be treated as part of a business’ overall marketing and communications strategy to enhance both their on- an offline activity, not as a separate entity they can ill-afford the time and inclination to devote attention to.

Email Marketing in particular has suffered a poor reputation for many reasons, not least because of archaic design tools and web standards not being adopted by email providers to name a few.

Communication is King and always will be and you are never going to please all the people all of the time. My advice would be to employ a number of different mediums for Online Marketing because even for every say fifty to one hundred contacts who do prefer engagement via email, that’s potentially hundreds of people that they could then forward your email to if they like what they read and your content resonates with them.

Whether or not you still consider Email Marketing to be a useful tool for your business after reading this, email remains the main form of contact for most of us – just look at these statistics:

• 96% of internet users’ main reason for being online is email
• 53% of business users check their email six or more times during the working day
• 42% of business users check their business email while on holiday
• 34% of internet users check their email continuously throughout the day

I shall leave that thought with you – if the content I have written resonates with you and you find it interesting, feel free to forward it to a like-minded friend or contact!

Tweet your way to Triumph with my Training!

Come along to my next Twitter Training session and see how it’s done at a fraction of the price you’d pay anywhere else!

Not sure if Twitter is right for your business? Check out these statistics:

1.  34% of marketers have generated leads using Twitter
2.  55% of us access Twitter via our mobiles
3.  There are over 100 million active Twitter users worldwide

You will learn how to:

• Post messages of fewer than 140 characters using blog links, news, events,  etc. to reiterate that your business is an industry authority
• Measure your Twitter success by analysing how followers engage with your content via free metrics to help you make best use of your time
• Integrate Twitter with your website to display at-a-glance information to drive traffic
• Create a bespoke background in your Twitter profile
• Use Socialbro to explore your Twitter community and discover the best time of the day and week to tweet and real-time analytics to see who is using Twitter at the same time as you, etc.
• Use lists to promote and track your industry and competitor activity
• Use #Hashtags to make your Tweets more searchable
• Find your Facebook friends on Twitter
• Insights into what makes people Retweet (RT)
• Decipher the main Twitter jargon
• Use Linkedin to increase your Twitter presence and no. of followers
• Use scheduling tools – which remember to post content even if you don’t!

Click here to Book your place receive a 10% Earlybird Discount if you do so by Tuesday 31 July!

Details: Tuesday 14 August 2012 – 2pm to 4pm: Basepoint Business Centre, Aviation Business Park, Enterprise Close, Christchurch BH23 6NX

Other Options:

1. One-to-one Training – at your desk (or at here at my offices if you work 10+ miles from BH6 5AF)
2. Remote Training – don’t live locally? Take advantage of my one-to-one Telephone & Video Training – contact Katherine for further details

Get LinkedIn to the right training session!

Book your place by Tuesday 31 July and receive a 10% Earlybird Discount!

LinkedIn is your interface to professionals who want to find out more about your company, job openings, culture, recommendations from their network on products/services, etc.

Need to create a Company Page or increase your activity but not sure where to start? Want to get the best out of LinkedIn, raise your profile, expand your network and ensure your company provides the most relevant, tailored messaging?

Come along to my next LinkedIn Training session and see how it’s done at a fraction of the price you’d pay anywhere else!

You will learn how to:

• ‘Follow’ your favourite companies and receive automatic updates in your LinkedIn feed
• Use the Follow button to help users discover who they know at your company
• Add the LinkedIn plug-in to your website displaying at-a-glance information to drive traffic
• Create a Company Page to increase engagement and ensure your company provides the most tailored and relevant messages
• Create a custom URL for your public profile, e.g. http://www.linkedin.com/in/katherinehanson
• Export your connections to a spreadsheet and add them to your Marketing list or Newsletter
• Utilise LinkedIn recommendations – nothing beats word-of-mouth recommendation versus a testimonial from a stranger
• Use LinkedIn Groups to promote and track your industry and competitor activity
• Use the Careers Tab to shape job seekers’ understanding of your company
• Utilise ‘Updates’ to build new connections and discover what people in your industry are sharing

Details: Tuesday 14 August 2012 – 2pm to 4pm: Basepoint Business Centre, Aviation Business Park, Enterprise Close, Christchurch BH23 6NX

 

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Other Options:

1. One-to-one Training – at your desk (or at here at my offices if you work 10+ miles from BH6 5AF)
2. Remote Training – don’t live locally? Take advantage of my one-to-one Telephone & Video Training – contact Katherine for further details

Social Media Fatigue | Chris Brogan

One of the biggest pushbacks I hear from people when I talk about how wonderful I think Google+ will be for business professionals is that they’re tired. They’re tired of joining a new social network. They’re tired of going through the dance of re-adding their friends and connections on yet another platform. They’re tired of having to think up even more content for yet another platform, after having finally committed to Facebook or Twitter or wherever else.

Social Media Fatigue

For a lot of people, the fatigue comes from that sense that they’re doing all the work, but not seeing the results. For another group, it’s that feeling that we’ve all done this before, so why do it again? For others, it’s just that we’re getting to the point where we feel maybe that we’ve shared all we can think of sharing, and we’re tired of rehashing the same old things over and over again.

Are any of these you?

Wake Up

Writing about social media can be boring. Writing about how to empower people, however, is pretty much always interesting. Telling people the same old thing on Google+ that you’d have shared on Twitter or Facebook or LinkedIn is about as boring as it sounds. Maybe try doing something new with the platform. On an absolutely random post about eating the Swedish meatballs at IKEA, I got a comment back from writer and all around interesting thinker, Jeff Jarvis, about how he not only likes the Swedish meatballs, but he admits to liking Taco Bell. For whatever reason, I came away from the experience thinking, “Huh, I wouldn’t normally get into these conversations, inane as they are, on the other social networks. I wonder why I’ve given myself permission to do so here.”

Wake up. We can all find new ways to talk about social media by NOT TALKING ABOUT SOCIAL MEDIA. (Queue the Fight Club comments.) The thing is this: we’re using these tools to enable new connections. We’re using them to make different kinds of business happen. We’re using these tools to help causes that matter, and so much more.

It’s Your Choice

Look at your last 20 posts on any social network, and/or your blog. What are you talking about? Do you find yourself interesting? What else could you talk about instead? What would really change the nature of the conversation? How could you move from “talking about what everyone else is talking about” into talking about what’s next, what’s new, what’s personal, what’s helpful?

Make Your Own Media

These tools let you tell the stories you want to tell. They let you make something meaningful to you, to your business, to your pursuits. Nothing dictates how you use the tools to be your own media platform except your imagination and your ability to create. With that in mind, think up a few ways you might want to put these tools to use to tell the stories you want to tell.

• If you’re a real estate professional, why not bring the neighborhoods you’re selling to life in stories and videos.
• If you’re a freelance photographer, share the stories behind the photos.
• If you’re a corporate blogger, tell us the passionate stories behind the big official posts.
• If you’re writing just for your own passion, show us what you’re passionate about.
• If you’re someone selling something, tell us the stories around that product or service.

The opportunity is for us to make something interesting and worthwhile, to be helpful, to empower others, to encourage and inspire others. If we’re fatigued, let’s all wake up.

I’ll do it too, okay?

Related posts:

1. Free eBook on Social Media and Social Networks
2. Social Media WrapUp-August
3. Mapping Social Media Uses
4. The Biggest Secret of Social Media
5. What are Your Social Media Tasks

About

Chris Brogan is President of Human Business Works, helping (mostly larger) companies with customer acquisition and community nurturing by amplifying the human digital channel. Learn More.

All contents Creative Commons licensed. ChrisBrogan.com.

The Dorset PA’ s Podcast: Why you can’t afford to ignore Social Media

The Dorset PA’ s Podcast: Why you can’t afford to ignore Social Media http://shar.es/bWNWB