Social Media and Email are both key online marketing channels which have unique characteristics and strengths. When planning your strategies for these channels it is important to know those unique strengths but also consider the synergies of the two channels. Email is a powerful direct and targeted medium, unrivaled in terms of tracking and accountability but as marketers we are challenged by deliverability, delivering on relevance and fierce inbox competition. Social Media is the new kid in town and everyone is doing it and talking about it. In its raw form it is a permission based broadcast medium and at best it is a viral dialogue engine.

Both channels orbit around People and Information. Without these massive entities, social media and email are lifeless. Luckily for us, the 21st century crowd is eager to distribute information freely and require it in real time. Importantly, these concepts are platform independent meaning that just because Facebook and Twitter happen to be the giants of social media today doesn’t mean that the fickle aforementioned 21st century crowd will not turn on a sixpence and use the next big thing to come along. The principles will remain.

You social media strategies should look like any other marketing strategy. Lead with your objectives and remember that different social networks have different audience and information types and so may have difference objectives. As an example, fashion retailer New Look found Twitter users to be more Fashion Forward, where as their Facebook fans were very much Here & Now. Keep the customer at the centre of your thinking, and understand that socially engaged users can be customers or prospects at any stage of the lifecycle.