These days, it’s pretty hard to go anywhere without hearing about social media – it’s in the press, on your phone, it’s just about everywhere you look. So what does this mean for more traditional forms of communication such as email?
thebooth is an online ticketing agency, and we’ve now been around over 5 years. Over this time, we’ve seen a massive change in online technologies – who would have guessed 5 years ago that Facebook and Twitter would revolutonise the way that we interact with our friends, or that the Iphone would become so popular? And how do all these technologies affect the way we do business?
As an online ticketing agency, social media tools fit nicely with thebooth ethos. We tweet about events going on sale, and our number Facebook fans is growing by the day; so as our social media sites continue to gain popularity, what about traditional methods of communicating with our customers, good old fashioned email?
As social media sites continue to grow and become more established, it would be all to easy to say that the death of e-mail is nigh. However, there has been much research and debate on the subject. ClickZ, a news and advice website for digital marketers, is just one of many sites where experts in online marketing argue the case that the explosion in social media does not spell the end for email.
Certainly, in the last 18 months, thebooth has seen an increase in our promoters requesting promotional e-flyers – and the response rate by customers far exceedes the take up rate on either our Twitter or Facebook pages. If you’d like to receive our e-flyers, you can sign up here.
Of course, e-flyers and social media can go hand-in-hand together. We use an email service provider called Mail Chimp, which features a multitude of integreation tools – all e-flyers are posted to Facebook, Twitter and MySpace, we can send e-flyers based upon RSS feeds, and I’m sure another 101 things we’ve yet to discover.
For those who have still to join in the social media revolution, or just aren’t sure if it’s for them and their business, there is a great deal of information out there on the web. A quick Google search will pull up 1000’s of pages of information, a look on WordPress will find you 100’s of blogs written by industry professionals, offering advice on how to get started and best practices. HI-Arts, the arts dvelopment agency for the Highlands and Islands, recently updated their social media tip-sheet, with lots of useful information – although aimed at those working in the arts sector, the information can be easily applied to anyone starting out in social networking.
And there are always new things to be discovered in this ever evolving world of digital change. Next month I will be journeying further into the world of social media, and attending the Arts Marketing Association’s Digital Marketing Day in London. The conference aims to help delegates to gain a better understanding of the digtal media opportunities out there, and to develop a strategy on how best to implement them.
It is clear to see that social media does have an effect on the way that people and businesses interact with each other, but does it signal the death of e-mail – I think that will be a long way off yet!
Elizabeth
Marketing and Administration Officer
