Author: Emily Ott, Marketing Coordinator
I was recently emailed the link for an article from the Wall Street Journal about the way social media is replacing email as a form of communication. As I read this I was intrigued, but by the time I finished, I felt as if I were terribly out of touch with the social media world because I still cling to my inbox more than my Twitter feed.
Soon after, while updating AMR’s Twitter feed ironically, I came across the results of Nielson Media’s recent research which shows there is a strong correlation between the amount of social media activity and the amount of email activity a person has. Contradictory to the predicted hypothesis I was fascinated to see that our technological tools do not have to be a battle between the best, but rather an integrated cog of methods to most effectively communicate what we want to say.
Over the past few years the wave of social media platforms has most definitely impacted the way we interact in our personal and business life (see our last post on social media). However, its an interesting thought that these new technologies do not necessarily outdate our former methods of communication, like email and even face-to face meetings, but rather give a new spin on an old classic (has email been around long enough to be considered classic?). Rather than feeling the need to replace all of your current methods with the newest and latest trend, why not recognize the benefits of how to integrate new technologies into current operations to grow in some areas and enhance other firmly established best practices?
It’s no question that social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter are infecting our current model of operations, from governance, to membership, to event planning. It’s practically impossible to miss the fact that social media has already challenged associations in almost every aspect of operation. Membership models are changing, free content from every direction pushes organizations to find more value to offer members, and anyone can voice an opinion about your organization, good or bad. On the upside, social media enables new ways to develop relationships, engage members, recruit volunteers and gives the entire world (at least the world wide web) more of an opportunity to learn about your association and it’s purpose.
Comments
Bravo! Marketing
Marketing Communication departments in every field need to be thinking about the potential impact of social media on their current strategies. From what I understand about search marketing, Google's new social media optimizations are going to play a huge role in how your site ranks. For example, if two sites of equal importance are competing for the top rank, the one with a more active social media component may edge the competing site. The reason? If more sources on the net are talking about you over your competitor, there's a likelihood that you're a more relevant result.
I realize I'm a little late to the convo but I'm putting together some research for a web design firm and I Googled some things related to the WSJ's article you referenced, "The End of the Email Era." Anyway, this blog post came up and I'm going to loosely reference it, amongst a bunch of other posts from across the web, about how it's strategically foolish to discount the importance of social media. However, with that in mind, in all communication plans it's paramount to remember that each outlet is just another tactic to be used. Also, the "meatball sundae" concept proposed by Seth Godin should be considered. For example, I'm not sure a Twitter effort is necessary for a mortuary service. I may be wrong.
Anyway, it was a good read that I wish more people would have joined sooner. Comm people everywhere should be thinking about everything you've said.
Submitted by Anonymous on February 21, 2010 - 2:28pm.Post new comment