THINKing

Social Nets vs. Email

A new Nielsen study shows that social networks have overtaken email as the most popular online activity. Says a story in Adweek,

Active reach in what Nielsen defines as “member communities” now exceeds e-mail participation by 67 percent to 65 percent. What’s more, the reach of social networking and blogging venues is growing at twice the rate of other large drivers of Internet use such as portals, e-mail and search.

Big Brand Blogging

Friend Jim Deitzel handles social media programs for the Rubbermaid brand, a Newell-Rubbermaid company. This is a big brand that truly gets social media, so I thought you might like to hear a bit about their efforts. The content of the Rubbermaid blog focuses on organization, one of their key brand drivers. Some of the recent stories on the blog include a Q&A with a professional organizer; laundry room organization; and festive holiday containers. The brand’s coordinated use of a variety of social media vehicles as a means of marketing content, I think, is the key to their success.

Social Media Best Practices

The OnlineMarketerBlog threw out the challenge for us to discuss our social media best practice. The blog’s author, DJ Francis, called me “impressively tenacious”. That’s politically correct for cranky, I think! Anyway, here goes.