Email marketing is far from dead. In fact, according to this infographic from Constant Contact, it’s very much alive. Check out these important data points:
- The average email marketing campaign gets a 20-30% open rate (as compared to the 1-2% response rate from direct mail campaigns).
- 83% of people check their email first when starting their business day.
- 74% of adult consumers prefer to be contacted via email.
- 88% of people use their mobile device to check mail.
The initiative supports a true attempt at the first paperless work environment by encouraging the staff to use electronic communication and converting paper files to electronic and digital formats, as the only rental aggregator actively pursuing a GREEN Initiative.
Online PR News – 05-April-2012 –Rentzio, Inc, President Ronald Silbermann, announced today to the Rentzio staff and its Travel rental partners Rentzio’s GREEN Initiative. Silbermann and his team have created a multi dimensional approach to begin moving the company towards sustainability. The initiative supports a true attempt at the first paperless work environment by encouraging the staff to use electronic communication and converting paper files to electronic and digital formats.
Pinterest is all the rage – and for good reason! It’s a fun social media network that allows people to get creative. Pinterest is based on the idea of “visual pinboards” where people “pin” graphics of things they want to remember. For small businesses, it’s a great way to market your company and build SEO for your website.
Pinterest allows search engines to crawl through its members’ boards, and as a result, websites are seeing a big boost from Pinterest. Just recently, a study indicated that Pinterest is driving more referral traffic than Twitter, and a study before that showed Pinterest traffic exceeded that of Google , YouTube and LinkedIn combined.
In the past, when people wanted to find a business, they looked in the Yellow Pages. Now, customers search for companies on Google. If your business doesn’t show up on the first page of search results, you are losing customers.
How do you make your website appear on the first page of search results? You use a method called “search engine optimization” – or SEO for short. SEO is a constant process, but here are 11 SEO tips to get you started:
I recently wrote a blog post about social media spam inspired by the amount of promotional wall posts that were appearing on my Facebook page. I feel that most of the time such posts are if not accidental, posted by people who are unaware they can be considered as spam.
A discussion in the comments afterwards suggested that many people would see others doing it and then do it themselves thinking it acceptable practice. Another comment from fellow Bloggertoner Lorna Sixsmith told me about a page that responded to such posts by pointing people at their Facebook posting guidelines.
Lots of great information here about physician use of technology. I particularly found the box about social media very compelling:
1) Physicians prefer open forums over physician-only online communities.
2) Almost 50% of doctors are influenced by user-generated content.
Certainly, these numbers will increase over time. What are your thoughts?
The words “digital divide” typically refer to the technological gap between those who have up-to-date IT and those who don’t.
But it seems safe to say that a new digital divide is beginning to emerge and is likely to widen quickly.
The cause of the gap is the explosion of social media opportunities for healthcare providers.
As this tech executive notes, while other business sectors are jumping onto the social media train as quickly as they can, “hospitals, doctors, nurses and patients . . .been slow to take advantage of it because of well-founded fears of violating patient-privacy laws.”
My take:
To friend or not to friend? Physicians in the U.K. received firm direction from the British Medical Association to not “friend” patients on social media.
It’s advice long overdue. It’s tricky for physicians to have an online “”friend” relationship with their patients. What if a physician posts a picture that someone might deem unprofessional? What if the patient reaches out to the physician for medical advice? The water is too murky.
Physicians who want to interact with patients in social media would be better to create a Facebook page (or eventually a company profile on Google+). A business presence allows the physician to better control the patient-doctor interaction.
Wondering how Google+ will help healthcare? Check out this article, which outlines many of Google+’s benefits, including circles.
You may have noticed that Emma, the Hound Dog Social Media icon, is sporting a couple new looks. The fact is, Emma didn’t receive her new glasses and lab coat from graduating medical school, but she has been rebranded to meet Hound Dog Social Media’s new focus – healthcare social media.
A couple weeks ago, Jill came to me with her new business focus. We knew that re-branding Emma would be a great way to kick things off and create a buzz.
