Category Archives: Social Media

The Importance of Grammar, Punctuation, Spelling, & Capitalization

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An interesting and perhaps unanticipated result of the growth in social media for marketing is an increased need for good writing skills. Blogs, drip marketing, opt-in electronic newsletters, and other “new media” require both useful content and good writing to attract and keep readers.

The elements of good writing are simple: grammar, spelling, punctuation, and capitalization. By mastering the rules and conventions, you will make your writing easier to understand and more enjoyable to your readers.

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The Role of Print in Social Media Marketing

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salesUse of social media sites has exploded in the last several years. In February 2005, the Pew Research Center conducted the first of six surveys as part of the Internet & American Life Project. In 2005, only 2% of adults who used the Internet were using a social media site. That number has increased to over 75% in 2016.

Along with this growth, social media sites have evolved from purely personal to commercial use – a way for people to connect to a business and its fans. Businesses find they can use social media sites for marketing purposes, such as engaging in a dialogue with customers, building brand awareness, making offers, providing coupons or samples, and alerting customers to upcoming promotions or product launches (sneak previews).

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More Than Ever Before… Type Matters

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typeTypography has always been important as a design element in written documents. It attracts and holds the reader’s attention, indicates a hierarchy of information, creates harmony, and builds recognition without the reader being conscious of it. Good typography is part of the design structure that underlies effective communication.

Now, as the world develops a new visual culture in smart phones, tablets, notebooks and e-readers, we are beginning to realize just how influential typography is in providing information and shaping opinion. More than ever before, type matters.

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What Did You Say? Communicating Across Generations

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GenBusinesses and organizations engage in two kinds of communication: internal communications among staff members and external communications between the business and its customers and prospects. Both require selection of a communication style — the specific way the message will be delivered.

Much internal communication is between individuals or small groups in the work place, while external communication is usually to a large audience (though with enough personal data, an external communication can be crafted for a small group or even an individual). Individuals differ in how they receive and share information, shaped by how they prefer to process information — visually (seeing), aurally (hearing), kinesthetically (doing), or a hybrid of reading and writing. Interestingly, an individual’s preference for sharing information may be different than his or her preference for receiving information.

When an individual is in a group (say, a participant in a meeting or part of the intended audience for a marketing message), then the individual’s generation shapes communication preferences. Understanding these generational preferences is the basis of communicating effectively.

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Engage Your Customers… With Content Marketing

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Customers are rapidly developing a new set of habits to govern their interaction with businesses. In the past, the interaction was described by the push system – the business pushed its products and services at customers and prospects while using focus groups, trend analysis, and other techniques to forecast demand.

In a push system, the business is largely in control of the customer interaction. With the rise of e-commerce, a shift is occurring to a pull system: customers and prospects pull the products and services they require or want from businesses. By changing who controls the interaction (the customer instead of the business), customers are becoming increasingly resistant to interruption marketing (such as television ads, telemarketing, spam, and web pop-up and banner ads) and are seeking useful, relevant information to help them make buying decisions. Social networking sites as well as “comment” and “review” features of e-commerce sites are new ways for customers to seek and receive information.

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Using Direct Mail… To Enhance Social Media Marketing

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Use of social media sites has exploded in the last seven years. In February 2005, the Pew Research Center conducted the first of six surveys as part of the Internet & American Life Project. In 2005, only 2% of adults who use the Internet were using a social media site.That number increased to 16% in 2006, 29% in 2008, 46% in 2009, 61% in 2010 and 65% in 2011.

Who are these users?
According to a Morgan Stanley report issued in December 2009, 67% of 18-34 year olds use a social networking site – and so do 67% of 45-54 year old and 55% of those aged 55+. In 2007, social networking represented about 1 out of every 12 minutes spent online, while today it accounts for 1 out of every 6 minutes spent online.

Along with this growth, social media sites have evolved from purely personal to commercial use – a way for people to connect to a business and its fans. Businesses find they can use social media sites for marketing purposes, such as engaging in a dialogue with customers, building brand awareness, making offers or providing premiums, coupons or samples, and alerting customers to upcoming promotions or product launches (sneak previews).

Direct mail is still relevant
Does the popularity of social networking sites mean that businesses and organizations can drop direct mail as a marketing tool?

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