How do you get the bulk information out to your target audience?  Email Marketing.

Email marketing efficiently hand delivers your message through email newsletters, high-impact email promotions, entailed updates and email event invitations.  Email marketing also conjures audience feedback through online surveys and questionnaires.  Feedback and research lead to targeted strategies built to produce.   

Email marketing is popular.  In fact, the Direct Marketing Association reports that 4 out 5 competitive companies use direct email as part of their marketing mix. 

Email marketing is inexpensive compared to other media.  Email marketed is tested and studied continuously.  Experts know what works.  Most professional SEO specialists can guarantee higher open and response rates for email marketing campaigns than phone campaigns and direct mail campaigns. 

True businessmen never miss an opportunity to network.  Social media is an extensive network that caters to you.  Social media marketing puts you where the people are, people who are searching for you. 

Did you know there are 200,000,000 active Facebookers, 346 million blog readers globally, 
2,000,000,000 daily Google searches and more than 12.5 million Tweets per day?

Though overwhelming, the fore mentioned statistics are just the tip of the iceberg.  Social media is making people millions by reaching millions.  Social media is driving traffic to web sites and sparking interest in online brands across the globe.  Words spread like wild fire, let the fire be your message.

Props to those of you who attempted the Twitter challenge.  The consensus is that Twitter is relatively easy to use.

Here are a few pointers that will help make messaging on Twitter much simpler:

If you want to refer to another Twitter user or address them publicly use @theirTwiiterid
Ex:  Going to dinner with @lisabuck01 or @lisabuck01 thanks for the follow

Direct Message someone from the right side of your Home page.  Click the DM tab, message at top by choosing recipient in drop down box. 

Search for people using the third tab from the left at the top of the page.  Click 'Find People' and type in their name, business name, or Twitter id.

Friends, you have made it through a week of Twitter 101.  Now, its your turn to Twitter. 

Your June 12th Twitter Challenge Task List

1. Take twenty minutes out of your Saturday morning to set-up a Twitter account. 
2. Establish a user name and password. 
3. Personalize your profile, adding a portrait if possible.
4. Search for five friends you are interested in following.  Follow them. 
5. Find five businesses of interest.  Follow them.
6. Send five updates over the course of the weekend. 
7. Send two direct messages. 
8. Retweet two updates.
9. Reply to two Tweets.
10. Visit four profiles. 
11.  Come back to Root & Madison and discuss your experience with your friends here at RM and many others just like you. 

I am intentionally leaving out usage instructions and how to's.  I want to test Twitter's usability and your ability to tap into your tech side.  Good luck! 

Ready, Set, GO! 

Twitter is quickly becoming one of the most powerful vehicles for communication--a way to reach thousands in seconds.  The immediate dissemination of information enamors individuals and businesses alike.  As a growing number of Tweeters log onto Twitter to get their message out, boundaries will become grayed and limits will be pushed.

Twitter, though powerful, is fragile.  People control their accounts and who they follow.  Followers choose the information they want to know.  As a Tweeter, you must be respectful and follow the golden rule, exercising Twitterquette at all times.  If you offend your following, they can and they will stop following you.  Consider your spam email box, a place where your junk mail goes, never to be looked at again.  Twitter account holders do not have to put up with your junk, they will just delete you.

So, a word of advice:  Follow these ten Twitter rules.

10 Rules of Twitter

1.  Don't be the psycho girlfriend!  Avoid Twittering more than once every 15 minutes.

2.  Don't be a Twitter snob!  If they follow you, follow them (unless you are totally uninterested).

3.  No one wants to know what size soft drink you ordered!  Do not barrage your audience with the mundane details of your life. 

4.  Did you find the cure for the dreaded red wine hang over?  People like to learn.  Share interesting tips and facts with them. 

5.  One too many links and the tower falls.  If you post too many links to follow, people will get bored. 

6.  Tweet-Tweet a Tweet-Tweet.  If you are in a meeting or at dinner, please turn your Tweeting Blackberry on silent or better yet, turn it off!  It is rude to be Tweeting when your attention should be focused on a presenter or date. 

7.  Auto-Twitter=Auto-Dump.  If you want to keep your following, avoid Tweets that appear to be automated.

8.  Appropriate touch.  If you really want to woo your followers- reach out and touch them, send a Direct Message.  This is a great way to show them that you care and know that they are there.  Take a look at their profile or updates and make an appropriate remark.

9.  Leave the work at the office.  Don't Tweet business after the shop is locked.  Allow people to relax on the evenings and weekends.  Keep the Tweets light.

10.  Religion and politics don't mix.  If you feel strongly about a current event, direct your followers to a link that pertains to the issue.  Try not to blast them with your opinion.  Remember, not everyone cares what you think.

Twittering should be fun.  If we all follow the rules, Twitter will continue to grow and serve a purpose far beyond its original mission.  Twitter will change our world for the better.  Keep your Twitter personal and you will keep your followers.  And as always, remember to treat them how you want to be treated.