Email and social media, a better fit than you think
For years I've been harping about how I think play well together as marketing tools. Now, a B2B Ask the Expert article aptly suggests email has a place within social media as well. Who'd thunk it!
"E-mail marketing could not be better suited to enhance your social media efforts; in fact, it is the key ingredient in launching a successful social media marketing campaign," states the article. "The rise of social media is pushing the evolution of e-mail marketing from blast campaigns to more personal, one-to-one engagements."
How do most Facebook, Ning and other online communities keep members informed? Email is the obvious choice. For example, I manage the IBNMA and use FB's email messaging component all the time. It's ability to proactively "push" content is the key -- as opposed to the more passive RSS feed.
Speaking of RSS, in spite of the fact it's been around since 1995 (a long time in Internet years), it's rate of adoption among non-techies still pallors in comparison to old-fashioned email.
Those who prophesied email's demise must surely chagrin (if they even remember what they said). Email is far from dead. In fact, I can't see a time when it will die, even with RSS, Twitter, Friendfeed and all the other choices.
The bottom line is that, today, we have multiple options for how we receive information. The fact that email is still one of them - and a significant one to boot - is a good thing.
What do you think?
