Should you kill your Email Online Marketing and Promotion Budget?

How could email, the communication service that brought millions onto the Web in the first place, possibly die? Well, email will probably always be around in some form, but trends show that younger generations prefer to communicate through other mediums like social networks, instant messaging and text messaging. This is something that savvy online marketing and promotion companies are catching on to.

This should be no surprise to anyone who knows a teenager. To most of them, email is only for formal communication, and not a means to connect with friends and peers.

So what does this mean for online marketing and promotion? While email newsletters are still a valuable marketing tool, companies that want to reach customers in a more “non-formal” setting are going to have to use Webapps like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.

Social Networks 301: Building Business Social Networking for Profit

This is part 3 of a 3 part series on social networking.

 

The more popular and user-friendly business to business social networking site is LinkedIn.com. A free business social networking site that has several features including: Question and Answer (Q & A), Jobs – both to list and to find, Groups to join and network with other like minded business professionals and promote your company, a comprehensive profile to highlight your expertise, experience, interests, past and present positions, email, company profile, and new applications such as WordPress blog links, RSS feeds, and the ability to build your network with people across the world.

 

Recently nominated as one of the top social networks on the web, as stated on a member’s home page is FastPitchNetworking.com, a business social networking site, which is also free to join, but has the option to upgrade for added features. Free elements include: comprehensive profile, photos, video, RSS feeds, join groups to promote yourself and your company and increase friend network, post company events, other tools include adding your profile to other personal and business social networking sites and micro-blogging sites including Facebook and Twitter. With an upgrade on Fast Pitch’s business social networking site, a member is able to link their blog to their profile and have a FastPitch logo inserted on their blog site, take part in Tuesday Live Chat, and a new feature for Premium and Platinum members is to utilize 3Step Contact, which is their email marketing partner. For a small monthly or annual fee Premium and Platinum members are able to market their company through a top-rated business social networking community for less than one newspaper advertisement!

 

Search Circus recently asked an open-ended question on LinkedIn for its group members, “What issues do you foresee your company experiencing for 2009 regarding marketing?” The answers are starting to roll in as this blog is being written. So far the answers have been blogging, joining and building business social networking with several sites. You can do it too.

 

We recommend the following B2B social networking sites for all types of businesses and their employees.

 

Facebook.com

LinkedIn.com

FastPitchnetworking.com

Plaxo.com

Twitter.com

 

We welcome your comments how business social networking has affected your online marketing campaign.

Social Networking 201: Social Networking Facts to Increase Business Connections

This is the second of a 3 part series on social networking.

In the previous blog, “Social Networking 101: What is Social Networking?” we discussed the buzz about social networking and its purpose. Businesses, small and large, can benefit from joining social networking sites as well as B2B social networking sites.

Check out these recent statistics and social networking facts:

• According to Rapleaf, a social network statistical guru of sorts, more women use social networks than men. In fact, women on average have 6% more friends than men on social networking sites.
• Not only do women have more friends, but they also spend more time on such sites as Bebo, Facebook, Twitter and others.
• Facebook is more user friendly and is geared toward high school age and above.
• Facebook has also recently added the Visa Business application to target small businesses to network with other small businesses. Facebook, reported by some users, also has better monitoring than MySpace and less Spam.
• Social networking facts include the net worth of these sites:
• According to an article from USAToday Online, Facebook is worth $15 billion, but doesn’t turn a profit. Advertising has helped develop Facebook’s reputation for being one of the top places to advertise. This could also be an avenue for businesses to look into joining social networks. Hence, advertisers follow people, says Facebook’s chief operating officer.
• There are approximately 850 social networks online now, however, Bill Eager, co-founder of bSocial Networks, says as many as 250,000 social networks could be created over the next year. This is the trend for online socializing and a viable marketing tool for all types of businesses.

Need more social networking facts?

• More niche social networking sites are catering to specific professions such as for nursing professionals, models and photographers, media professionals and lawyers.
• LinkedIn is taking control of the B2B networks and more people are linking to people across the country not only as business associates, but also help networks, business advice, finding jobs or resources and answering questions.

These social networking facts can help increase your business network as well as your reputation for building connections and may serve as a marketing tool.

Look forward to the final blog in this series: building business social networks.