As social networking becomes the ‘in’ thing, people are beginning to question where that leaves the use of email. You’ve heard the saying, ‘video killed the radio star,’ so is this a case of history repeating itself? Is email about to fall victim to social networking?

Well, no we don’t think so. From a Ph. point of view, we just don’t buy this theory that “email is dead,” and there are plenty of reasons why:

• People still send hand-written letters
• Nearly all websites that require registration request an email address
• Email notifies you of updates from your social networks
• Email is universal, social networks are not
• Many people have no interest in joining social networks but will use email
• Email is still improving
• Even social networks recognise the importance of email
• More social media use means more email use
• As far as marketing is concerned, email is doing pretty well

Businesses should be merging social aspects with their email programs to not only expand the reach of their offers, but to maintain customer loyalty and ultimately grow their database. So if you’ve been questioning the life expectancy of email, stop now. Keep in mind that about 50% of content is shared through email and social media is a great way to get subscribers.

In case you’re STILL not convinced, here are some final thoughts for you;

• Mobile apps will continue to keep email relevant in the mobile world.
• Google recently released its own social media product, Buzz, which the company decided would fit best with Gmail.
• Microsoft Outlook only recently started integrating social networks into the inbox.
• The social networks themselves are creating email services - Facebook is said to be working on its own...and we know how popular Facebook is.
  

It seems that companies on the social web are trying to create better consumer relationships by doing good deeds. Their social media efforts are creating incredible new ways for companies to partner with customers, resulting in a wide range of initiatives including contests, giveaways and fundraising events to benefit communities.

Here are two initiatives that represent some of the best corporate “social media for social good” campaigns to date. Take note and be inspired:

Ford Helps Invisible People across America

What matters in these campaigns is visibility and impact, just look at Ford’s sponsorship of Mark Horvath’s drive across America. The company simply provided a Ford Flex and a company-promoted social site to Horvath’s virtually unknown “Invisible People” campaign.

In the end, Ford managed to make homelessness a primary issue. Furthermore, the 11,263 mile effort legitimised Horvath’s “Invisible People” campaign online. Since last summer Mark Horvath has become a national leader in the battle against homelessness.

 “Ford’s support of the Invisible People project was never one of lead generation; it was mainly because we believed in Mark’s mission and because it aligned with our own strategic initiatives,” said Scott Monty, Ford’s social media lead.

“We felt that Mark’s project was a way to extend that and to give some additional exposure to some of our strong products.”

The Pepsi Refresh Project

Although Pepsi Refresh is still in the works, there is no question that Pepsi skipped this year’s Super Bowl ad to reallocate $20 million to the crowd sourced community giving program. The fact that it was a weak year for Super Bowl ads only helped make Pepsi’s decision look even smarter and gave the company a tonne of publicity.

The reason these campaigns work is because it’s not just about writing a quick cheque but it’s about launching a programme that can make a huge impact over a spread out period of time.

Pepsi also did the smart thing of getting people involved with how the money is invested. Remember it’s not just about supporting good causes; it’s about letting your customers help decide which ones are worth supporting.

Social media marketing campaigns are proving to be goldmines, rich with customer engagement offering an insight that companies wouldn’t normally have. Companies like Pepsi have been going to great lengths to adopt this kind of collaboration with fans, and the rewards have been worth it.

Pepsi’s Mountain Dew division is several stages into its DEWmocracy campaign — a plan to launch a new Mountain Dew flavour with the public’s involvement at all levels of the process. The aim being to integrate consumers more closely with the brand.

The first DEWmocracy campaign, which launched in 2007, allowed consumers to choose Mountain Dew’s new flavour, colour, name and graphics, and resulted in more than 470,000 people voting and an overall 1 million people taking part in some phase of the process.

In July 2009, when the second DEWmocracy campaign was launched, die-hard Mountain Dew fans had to narrow decide on a new flavour to become a permanent part of the Mountain Dew family, using social media platforms Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

Every part of the campaign involves the fans and the public — from picking flavour names, to voting on the best user-submitted ad campaign. Pepsi needed their customers to be involved throughout.

This type of marketing is less about crowd sourcing and more about collaboration. Pepsi recognises that DEWmocracy has been driven by word of mouth and this way doing business, rather than an ad campaign, recognises the passion consumers feel for Mountain Dew.

Pepsi is now looking at social media as the best way to directly communicate with their fans and we think giving your customer ownership of your brand is a fantastic idea.

Marketers are diverting marketing budgets away from direct marketing and into social media, according to research by Alterian. We’ve been saying this for a while but now these new statistics can back us up.

In a survey of more than 1,000 marketers from around the world, Alterian found that 66% will be investing in social media marketing activity over the next year and 40% will be using their direct marketing budget to do so.

The 40% said they’d be cutting their direct marketing budget by more that a fifth to pay for their social media activities and 51% of those surveyed will be moving away from a direct marketing centred model completely.

David Eldridge, Alterian chief executive, said: "Untargeted and irrelevant marketing techniques are now redundant and the results of this survey show many in the industry recognise this."

The rise in the number of marketers turning to social media is reflective of a maturing market and a growing understanding of the role social networking can play in a successful marketing campaign.

The shopping cart abandonment rate is a key metric that every ecommerce site should track. Changes in the abandonment rate give an insight to the changes in behaviour which impact every website.

New data has revealed that abandonment rates hit a high of 87 percent on January 5 and 6.

The evidence points to January being ‘bargain seeking’ month but it could also indicate popular items being out-of-stock. The annoying thing is that despite huge numbers of potential customers reaching you online, they have yet to be converted.

So how do you avoid falling at the final hurdle? Try the following steps…

1. Email your contact list with items on promotion that are in stock, and be careful not to include items likely to go out of stock quickly. Save these items for more targeted campaigns.

2. Remarket to shopping cart abandoners. It should go without saying that one-to-one emails to customers who almost purchased are one of the most profitable types of campaigns that you can run. Retailers have reported that these campaigns are typically 10 times more profitable! If widespread optimised follow-up programs were in place already, then we probably wouldn’t have seen that 87% drop in January.

3. We know that a customer almost purchased your product, but something held them back. We know that there is a very strong correlation between the website conversion rate and promotions. The most popular type of promotion with customers is free shipping. Consider extending free shipping offers or making them permanent.

4. If you have the ability to segment your customers based on browsing behaviour, now is the time to do it. Highly targeted, specific promotions—segmented by visitor behaviour and product interest—will score well. Remember that customers don’t want to miss a genuine bargain, and this may be the call to action needed to get the conversion.

5. While many marketers used Twitter and Facebook to publicise their Christmas offers, most have now stopped promoting their offers via social media. Don’t feel like there are only so many times that you can tweet about your promotions, there’s always a fresh spin you can put on it with a little creativity.

It seems that Bill Gates may have had a strategy in mind when he recently decided to join Twitter. With nearly 250,000 fans, he is now taking the opportunity to use his popular account to promote his new project: The Gates Notes.

The new website will offer a collection of Gates-related information with blog-like sections documenting everything from his travels to what he’s reading and thinking about. On the site, Gates hopes to get more people thinking and learning about the issues he thinks are interesting and important.

So if you’re about to launch a new site, try and capture the attention of social media users to get an instant flood of traffic. The likes of Twitter, allow you to use a new platform to share fresh content with your followers and quickly gain an audience for your new online project.  With the audience landing straight into your conversion friendly website; you’re bound to improve your business.

The Super Bowl is consistently one of the most-watched television programs of the year in America and advertisers continually pay big money for a TV spot on Super Bowl Sunday.

But that could be about to change.

For the first time in 23 years, Pepsi will not have any ads in the Super Bowl. Instead, the company will be spending $20 million on a social media campaign it’s calling The Pepsi Refresh Project.

Pepsi’s tight association with the Super Bowl has made this decision to shift to new media much more remarkable. Having spent $142 million on Super Bowl adverts over the last decade, Pepsi’s ads are often some of the most iconic, and the company has historically pulled out all the stops for the Super Bowl.

This is an interesting strategy; especially for a company that continues to spend much of its advertising budget on television but if Pepsi is hopeful that a $20 million social media campaign will be more rewarding than an advert during Super Bowl – what does this say about the future of marketing? What message is this sending out about social media?

If your company can effectively orchestrate a social media campaign, like Pepsi intend to do, then you can build brand awareness across the world. Whilst you won’t be spending as much as Pepsi (unless you have $20 million to spare!) you can still get the benefits of a buzz-generating ad campaign which will generate you plenty of business!

A report out yesterday revealed that optimism is returning to UK marketing companies with budgets set to rise in 2010. This follows a long and consecutive period of cuts made since the recession began.

Whilst preliminary data confirmed that budgets have been set higher on average for 2010, it also found that Marketing spend for PR and events, and for traditional media, dropped 4.1% and 6.9% respectively. 

This year, despite budget cuts, we’re betting the smart money will be spent far more on online activity and in particular, social media. After all, online marketing is not as expensive as traditional marketing methods.

Times have changed and big brands are beginning to embrace online and social media and now we are seeing small to medium size businesses beginning to catch up.

Online marketing will ensure your conversion rate is high and that your marketing is generating business for you as it should be.

The true power behind Social Media is so powerful, so astonishing that no one has the faintest idea!

I learnt this yesterday when I saw an advert for a low-budget independent film called Paranormal Activity. Filmed in a similar style to the 1999 horror, The Blair Witch Project, the main concept behind this film lies within a $15,000 budget and a hand-held camera. A simple but terrifying idea- I HAVE to see it!

Here’s where the dilemma began… after much Google searching, nowhere seems to be showing it! I called a local cinema which specialises in commissioning, exhibiting, promoting and supporting artists' work in the fields of film, video, and new media. The polite members of FACT, Liverpool, informed me that they would not be showing the film. However, if I started a forum on their website it might get shown? Interesting.... will this really work?

After just two hours of posting a rather straight forward forum I had received not only an answer but a following of 163 people! Amazing! Not only had this small organisation actually listened to me but, due to the support of my 163 fans, they offered me an advanced screening of the film a week before the rest of the nation!
Surely this is just a glimpse of how important; not to mention how powerful, social media truly is! If one forum about a low budget film has had an impact like this, imagine what it could do to you business!

My advice to businesses out there is to get blogging, twittering, poking whatever it is- it works! Social media is an intensive and immediate way to get the answers you need- which let’s face it- is how businesses run these days! No time for carrier pigeons, post or even email responses, social media is the answer!

Check my forum out at:
http://www.fact.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1645

When it comes to getting your email to the necessary person, it is no longer the case of contending with the PA. Unfortunately the biggest problem you’re going to have now is that your email will be automatically flagged as spam.

Luckily for you, I’ve come up with ten tips so you can try to make your email bulletproof.

1. If you get no response to your email, how can you ever be sure it was really delivered? Instead of sending a follow-up, which is usually going to get on the recipients’ nerves, ask the recipient in the first email to get back to you with a quick note. Just letting you know that they have received the email indicates that no instant reply to your email is necessary.

2. Always keep the senders name and email the same, if you change it suddenly then you might not be recognised and consequently you will be named as spam. This means you won’t be able to contact them again.

3. Never put a link before the important information, otherwise they’ll be sent to a page and they’ll have no idea why. As soon as they get back to your message they may report you as spam.

4. Follow up your email with a letter to their postal address. In the letter, refer back your email with the date and time it was sent. This will establish contact and hopefully start building a relationship.

5. Always communicate with your recipient personally. Spam-filters will automatically award emails without a name with spam score points (By default, this spam filter flags messages with a score greater than 5 as spam.) So make sure you provide your recipient with an exact name and contact information.

6. Offer subscription to your newsletter and let the recipient know when to expect it. That way they know when your emails are coming and they will know what it is straight way. They will also become accustomed to receiving your emails at that specific time every week.

7. Always insert the current date in the content. When the date isn’t mentioned or it is provided incorrectly, the newsletter will be given spam score points.

8. Make sure you verify your subscribers with signup confirmation. This means that when your user subscribes to your mailing list, they will be sent an automatic email to confirm their subscription. This way you avoid contacting incorrect email addresses, which may lead to being reported as spam.

9. If your newsletter has too many closed tags, too many graphic images or structural tables then it is going to score many spam points. Besides which, many readers use Outlook, which automatically blocks images. If the users don’t understand the mail then they’re most likely to report is as spam. Therefore keep your newsletter simple. Colorful backgrounds, tables, JavaScript’s and web forms shouldn’t be in newsletters.

10. Finally, check out some of tools and services available online to test your spam score. They’ll be able to check through the content of your email and report back with your score. It will take a bit of time but if your email has over 5 points, you can be sure it won’t even reach your recipient’s inbox.