Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream of Vermont announced in an email to their subscribers last week that they will be discontinuing their regular email marketing campaigns, in favor of social media. This was a major surprise – Usually, I think of social media and email marketing as having a close relationship and that they are most effective when used together. However, Ben & Jerry’s clearly feels otherwise and that their customers prefer contact through social media sites to email in their inbox. In their last email message, they invited their subscribers to connect with them via their Facebook or Twitter accounts, and this would be the last email they would receive from the famous ice cream brand.

Since this announcement, internet marketers and marketing blogs have been buzzing with the news. This is the first major corporation to completely discontinue email marketing, a mainstay of internet marketing since the 90’s, for other internet channels. Ben & Jerry’s customers had indicated that they disliked the email despite loving the brand, which means that it wasn’t building the positive relationship that the famously brand-conscious ice cream company wanted.

Why is this working for them so well? Their presence in social media was already well established, and their fans wanted to continue the connection beyond the email. Their Facebook and Twitter profiles are already delivering tremendous value to them, and so it was easy for them to expand the energy behind those accounts. Their Facebook Page has over 1.3 million fans as of the time of writing, and they maintain several Twitter profiles (Such as @CherryGarcia and @ BenJerrysTruck) with many thousands of followers each.

Embracing social media should not mean organizational change, it should change the organization. I now take the organization’s current strategic plan, CEO’s vision, mission statement and make those the metrics of a social media strategy. If a non-profit has a strategic objective to “further engage current donors”, with 600 million people on Facebook it is a sure bet that some of them have a profile. No new metrics, measures or key indicators – we have simply created an additional platform from which to further engage stakeholders in our work and achieve existing goals.

Social media exists and organizations are in it whether they choose to be or not. For non-profits, we are seeing a shift – not only are we working to find donors/members, they are finding us…through social media. It is a slow moving shift, however it is a juggernaut and unstoppable. I recently heard a poignant expression, “you are your Google results”. Truer words could not be spoken and your results may be reflecting a message that is contrary to your organization’s mission and self-image. Those results will not change without a concerted effort to engage in social media. Throughout life it drives us crazy when people talk about us when we’re not around – here we have an opportunity to be present. Why ignore it?

Leaders may believe that if they don’t play, they cannot lose. Losing in social media can be akin to the experiences of companies like Kraft, Nestle, and BP in the social media realm. At the very least those companies are engaged in the conversation and have a strong awareness of the perceptions of their brand. On occasion, each has even taken action related to the “conversations”. As a leader, I prefer to have as many listening posts as possible in regard to my organization and those I serve and hope to serve.

Follow the ‘via’ link to go to the source…

Too little too late. If you really want to experience social media integration with Outlook, use the Gist plugin for Outlook — it will give you all this and more…

An overwhelming majority (93 percent) of online Americans say companies should have a social-media presence, and 85 percent believe these companies also should be interacting with consumers through social media, according to research from Cone, writes MarketingCharts.

The 2008 Cone Business in Social Media Study also reveals the depth and breadth of social media interaction with companies. Some 60 percent of Americans interact with companies using social media, one in four interact more than once per week, and 56 percent feel both a stronger connection with and better served by companies when they interact via social media.

Asked about specific types of interactions, respondents said:

• Companies should use social networks to solve their problems (43 percent).
• Companies should solicit feedback on their products and services (41 percent) via social media.
• Companies should develop new ways for consumers to interact with their brand (37 percent) through social media.
• Companies should market to consumers (25 percent) using social media.

“The news here is that Americans are eager to deepen their brand relationships through social media,” said Mike Hollywood, director of new media for Cone. “It isn’t an intrusion into their lives, but rather a welcome channel for discussion.”

Other findings:

• Men are twice as likely than women interact frequently (one or more times per week) with companies via social media (33 percent vs. 17 percent).
• One-third of younger, hard-to-reach consumers (age 18-34) believe that companies should actively market to them via social networks.
• The wealthiest households (household income of $75K+) also believe that companies should seek to reach them via social media.
• Two-thirds of the wealthiest households and the largest households ( those with three or more members) feel stronger connections to brands they interact with online.

“All of this is great news for marketers,” Hollywood said. “Men and younger consumers are traditionally the most challenging to reach, while the highest-income households are typically very desirable; here they are saying ‘come market to us and interact with us online.’ This is really a license to put more energy and resources into this medium and do it effectively.”

About the study: The 2008 Cone Business in Social Media Study was conducted online, September 11-12, 2008 by Opinion Research Corporation. It surveyed 1,092 adults comprising 525 men and 567 women 18 and older.