Old big things

When is social media interesting? When it will be old and dead! Read Seth Godin's blog about Dead Stuff to see the genesis of this idea, which is basically once something is no longer a big technological innovation, it becomes much more interesting. In other words, the dust has settled, we understand its limits and what it can offer and then the real work begins to obtain value.

Although I am almost afraid to admit it, I am a huge fan of permission based email - mainly e-newsletters and other updates. It just seems so retro at this point. I know the stats very well on industry percentages for open rates and read throughs - both well under 50%. But my gut tells me this is a powerful way to reach people who want to hear from you as an organization. The reality is that for every online conversation, many more people are on the sidelines listening and observing. They do not necessarily want to engage or have a conversation at this precise nanosecond, but they want to hear from you and may jump in at some point. Maintaining contact with them keeps you in their consciousness.

Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto is a shining example of engaging its donors and achieving monumental results, especially in fund raising - one of the hardest areas of sales. They have a gi-normous email base and they send out a classy e-newsletter on a regular basis with results of their scientific research, patients, fundraising events and much more. It's actually a good read at times - even if I am not a donor. I am also on their Twitter feed (1,200 followers) and Facebook (600 followers). But the reality is that they use social network to push people to information on their website, as they do with their newsletter and I imagine with their paper newsletter as well (which I don't receive). So it's all about reaching people in as many ways as possible to get them information of interest. And they succeed very well even if the success percentage of each one is limited. I never read about them in industry articles but I know they are doing great work with 'dead stuff' - the non-cutting edge of communications technology at the service of effective communications.

Thanks for reading!