Email: the original social network
- Sat, June 04 2011
- Filed under: Fundraising essentials
There was a great post in ClickZ this week that points out that email is “social.” The post was a reaction to all the debate about email vs. social networking. Done right, email is just as personal, conversational and bond-building as social networking. People can forward emails just as they share content elsewhere. In fact, as the article points out, you could say that email was the original social network:
Philosophically, there is no difference. You are managing content that is pushed out to subscribed (opted-in, following, etc.) users and managing responses (once someone responds, you now have a conversation)... The message’s content still needs to be relevant, timely, and match the expectations of the subscriber in either the e-mail channel or a network channel (and we all know each network is different). E-mail marketers need to get in this mindset - it’s not either/or; it’s not one killing the other; it’s two different channels that are very much the same.
On a personal note, I just got a wonderful email that shows just how compelling, engaging and “social” a simple email can be. It comes from A Wider Circle, one of my favorite local nonprofits. A Wider Circle provides beds and other basic needs to families who are just getting onto their feet in empty apartments.
Here was the start of it:
First, a few words from Noreen who was served in May:
“I would like to thank you all at A WIDER CIRCLE for helping myself and my children through this very difficult period in our lives… Right now I am sooooo happy that I am unable to fall asleep. Normally, my son (8 yrs.) and daughter (12 yrs.) would fall asleep with me on a queen sized mattress on the floor in my bedroom. Tonight they are asleep in their individual rooms, in their own beds!! I continue to go into each room and stand over each of them for a few minutes just watching them sleep peacefully. My two older children (21 and 22) were also very excited to have beds. It was very hard to watch them all have productive days knowing the pallet on the floor was all I could manage for them.”
Noreen’s was one of 306 families that received much-needed help from A Wider Circle in the month of May.
The email went on to tell me about - and invite me to - some local goings on.
A simple email, with a heartfelt thanks, an amazing story and a kind invitation. I cried when I read about Noreen getting up with glee to watch her children sleep in their own beds for the first time. As a mother, that experience resonates to my core. I was so touched, I blogged about it. You can’t get more social - and connected—than that.