Michelle Corley : KJA Designer & Thinker
As I was reading some of the web-strategy wisdoms of Jeremiah Owyang the other day, I got knocked out of my chair by the clarity of his thinking. A crystal clear realization immediately followed: In our quest to effectively utilize social networking for our agency and our clients … one important component’s been shoved to the corner of the room like a misbehaving child: email.
Before you caught up with people and businesses on mySpace, Facebook, Twitter, FriendFeed, etc… you relied on email. Facebook’s 250 million user count is paltry when compared to the number of people with email accounts. In fact – I believe it’s fair to say in order to use any one of these social platforms, you have to have an email address. And most of us have more than one.
Owyang made a couple of valid comparisons between email and these other social networks:
- Both create connections. Whether you’re responding in an email or making a comment about a status, you’re connecting.
- Both are useful. You still share information, collaborate and make plans via email.
Plus there’s the credibility factor…Forrester Research did a survey in 2008 about trustworthy information sources. Seems email holds up: 77% said they trusted email from people they knew. There’s no reason for that to stop.
Then there’s the bottom line issue… Just like social networking – email provides a low-cost way to connect with your current and potential customers.
In our ever-connected world – don’t forget the basics. Go, collect those email addresses, sort your databases and develop an in-box campaign that works as hard as your social networking efforts.
Click here to read Jeremiah Owyang’s full post.
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March 29, 2011 at 9:01 am |
[...] The Original Social Network we talked about the staying power of email. You get email daily. You send it daily. In fact, you [...]