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RSSLet's look at some numbers:
So the majority of Twitter activity is 5% of its users, that is 910,000 users, tweeting less than once a day. I don't think that constitutes a revolution in real-time dialogue. I don't think it even justifies more than a casual mention in social media strategy. Yet it is the basis of many marketers' social media conversation.
Twitter's usage numbers are not putting a dent in numbers like the usage statistics for email - 90% of Internet users spend 87% of their time online reading email! The interesting phenomenon is that billion-dollar corporations are jumping through hoops to respond to tweets -- yet they are still OK auto-responding to emails with, "we will get back to you in 48 hours," or not responding at all. Responding to email should be your first social media strategy.
What happens when customers respond to a commercial email?
I think email's most awesome capability is the reply button. This is what makes email a real-time communication tool that enables true 1 to 1 communication. Yet most companies are still conducting email as a "zero to many" communication.
In 2007 BrightWave conducted a study to see what happens when you reply to a commercial email message. Only six out of 41 replies were from actual customer service reps with helpful information (http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/16630.asp ). I decided to do a casual study on the messages in my inbox today, in 2009, to see if the results have improved in two years. Of the dozen messages I replied to with a simple question, three received a response, two were instant auto-responders followed up with a real email from a real person 24-48 hours later, one was an immediate reply from a human, and nine were just ignored, bounced or came back with "does not accept replies" auto-responders.
There is a lesson to be learned here. There is limitless opportunity for real interaction with your customers sitting right there in your email database. What strategy do you have in place to react to responses to your email campaigns? Is it the "noreply@bigcompany.com" reply-to address or the auto-responder stating "this address does not accept incoming messages?" Imagine seeing that reply coming back to every @bigcompany tweet!
If you have jumped on the bandwagon and developed a strategy to react to Twitter, you can take that strategy and apply it to email. You can route email campaign replies to a real inbox with a real person monitoring it and taking appropriate action. They can actually respond to the emails received. Granted, this won't be a public interaction, so no one but you and the customer will see it happening, but you can be sure that people will tweet about actually getting a human response to an email sent to your company.
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It isn't comprehensive but it's a start.
i do believe, though, that social media has a right to co-exist, and may very well complement the "traditional" online marketing mix, simply because the social web is fundamentally changing how consumers behave and make purchase decisions. as a result, smart marketers will adjust over time and in an evolutionary manner, and embrace social media to remain relevant with their audiences going forward.
to Dotan's question, there are several approaches to integrating email and social media that usually attempt to 1) turn social media users into subscribers, 2) allow for the marketer to broadcast their messages via email and social media channels, or 3) have subscribers share email messages with their social networks which dramatically increases the marketer's reach. i recently explored (but have not used yet) a solution by Strongmail, but am sure other email providers are working on integrated solutions as well.
last but not least, don't confuse social media with Twitter. there are hundreds of channels out there that may one day reach your audience, even though they may never get the twitter buzz.
http://twitter.com/Britta_SF
Just because Twitter is driven by a small percentage of its users doesn't mean it's a broken channel. There are plenty of healthy businesses that derive the vast majority of their profits from a small percentage of their client base. The small percent of Twitter users that drive the conversation are mavens that you'd do well to try to connect with and influence.
I find Twitter to be fabulous to let people know about a post on my blog site but I can't see it as the 'selling tool'.
Emails, when done correctly is THE selling tool.
Go and download my book "7 Killer Tips To Get Your Email Read' from http://www.kurtjohansen.com and discover how to send effective selling emails.
Cheers Kurt - Australia's Email Marketing Guru
There are also CAN-SPAM issues that relate to the do not reply function and handling of unsubscribes which most companies seem to be unaware, or perhaps unconcerned of.
-Simms Jenkins CEO, BrightWave Marketing
"I think email's most awesome capability is the reply button. "
Perfect.
The problem is most companies and marketers aren't really interested in dialogue. They are interested in telling.
Which is one of the reasons Twitter is full of so much noise. Free blasting causes the blasters to blast away. No dialogue there.
The good marketers will utilize the conversational capabilities of Twitter and FB in the same way they do email. The rest of the crowd will likely just view it as another place where they can abuse their customers by over-sending of low quality messages.
The no-reply email is a particularly horrible practice IMO.
http://emailmarketing101.blogspot.com/2008/09/dreaded-no-reply-email.html
thanks,
Dotan