Suppose you’re a local craft brewery, without the marketing resources of a Coors, Miller or Sam Adams. You don’t have money in the budget for national TV commercials—or any TV spots for that matter. So how do you get the word out about your award-winning brews?

If you’re Delaware-based Dogfish Head, you make the most of your marketing dollars—by leveraging the Web and social media to help spread the word and turn casual customers into loyal fans.

Now if you’ve ever had a bottle of any type of Dogfish Head, you’ll know that this is one company that knows what they’re doing when it comes to making beer. Dogfish Head brews are consistently tasty, distinctive and often complex in flavor, with notes that are more akin to a fine wine than a beer.

So it probably comes as no surprise that these passionate brew masters have brought the same level of passion and flair to their brand marketing efforts. A few highlights that set the brand apart:

• A robust Web experience—at the Dogfish site, you can read about the latest Dogfish Head releases as well as happenings at the brewery and company restaurant. What’s important here is the sheer depth of the content. Each brew—and there are lots of them—has it own page, with the story behind the beer, tasting notes and even food pairing recommendations.
• An active presence on Facebook and Twitter—the key to success on both of these social sites is to keep the material fresh and interact with those who reach out to you. Dogfish Head does both and has over 55,000 Facebook followers and 18,000-plus on Twitter, impressive for a microbrew.
• Its own video-rich YouTube channel—most of the videos feature founder Sam Calagione with a behind the scenes look at the brewing ingredients and process. Sam is personable, has a good camera presence and his commitment to his craft comes through loud and clear.
• A community of fans—what better way to develop brand advocates than to develop a place where they can congregate and interact. At the site’s community forum, members can pontificate on issues ranging from music to home brewing to, of course, Dogfish Head’s latest releases.

On a personal note: my favorite Dogfish Head beers are the delicious 60-minute IPA, or when I’m in the mood for a more intense “sipping” beer, the raisin-infused Raison D’ Etre.

Cheers!

Tom Rapsas is a seasoned Creative Director and has helped many brands deliver their message effectively to consumers. Loyalty Truth appreciates this tasty post on the eve of the July 4th weekend. You can follow Tom’s creative insights on Twitter via @TomRapsas

Banks traditionally build brand on the pillars of strength, reliability, security, and service. Few have developed a “personality” brand and I cannot think of one that has created a brand that evokes a passionate response from its fans as do Starbucks, Apple, and Coca-Cola.

Though banks are uncomfortable with the concept, many are essentially in the retail business. In my area of the Southeastern US, Bank of America and Chase have a retail delivery network akin to quick-serve restaurants, pharmacies, and gas stations. There seems to be one on every corner.

Considering the current expansion of branch networks (mostly through merger & acquisition), it makes sense that a more engaging brand personality would be good for business.

That said, it was a refreshing surprise to read an article in US Banker’s May issue describing how North Shore Bank was experimenting with Foursquare and other social media channels to create brand awareness in the communities it serves.

The $1.8 Billion bank based in Brookfield, Wisconsin has a tech-savvy e-Business Coordinator, Tim Gluth who decided to contact the “mayors” of the bank’s 44 branches and offer them a $5 Subway gift card for their patronage. “Patronage” could be a stretch as the bank did not ask if the mayors were customers of the bank, they simply acknowledged their mentions of North Shore online to say “thank you”.

Mr. Gluth found the “Mayors” on Twitter and Facebook and made contact initially through those channels. The promotion was greeted with surprise and, from this perspective, was successful in establishing customer engagement. The bank has since carried on to sponsor local Tweet-Ups in support of the minor league baseball Timber Rattlers.

Tommy Clifford was cited in the article as a brand advocate and went beyond tweeting about the experience to documenting his experience in this You Tube video. Jason Sherrill, Owner of InetSolution, Inc., a Utica Michigan based firm, posted on his blog about the experience and is encouraging more banks to follow suit.

Emerging from the recent financial crisis in the US, banks have been working hard to re-establish credibility and trust. Advocating financial literacy among the customer base and offering products that are easy to understand and in the best interest of customers are current marketing themes.

Compatible with that messaging would be to “humanize” the bank brand.

There are still voices that tell me that Twitter, Foursquare and the rest are a waste of time. I would challenge those voices to suggest another way for banks to connect with their customer base on the local level at a cost that will not upset the marketing budget, particularly in community bank and credit union marketing.

I think they’ll find the North Shore experiment to be a big step in the right direction.

I’ve been in way too many meetings lately where I have been asked the question “Is Social Media just a fad that will soon blow away?”

Fortunately, I’m well schooled in responding to skeptics since, for the past dozen years, I’ve been answering the classic question in my core business, “Does this Loyalty stuff really work?”

I have a well-practiced response to the second question, but at times when asked about the staying power of social media, I feel like the kid who was just caught by his parents looking at a magazine not on his school reading list – as if I should feel guilty because I’m making a case for understanding how to incorporate social media into the traditional world of data-driven communication strategies.

Convictions aside, it is fortifying when we see offline businesses wading deeper into the social media pond. We’ve seen plenty of our favorite brands open a Twitter account and establish a public Facebook page. But really linking these venues with their mainline customer acquisition and retention efforts? Well, we are just beginning to see examples in the market.

A great one that I came across, courtesy of @ragythomas is the TastiRewards loyalty program, where customers can not only earn points for enjoying tasty ice cream treats, but can also earn extra rewards by connecting their accounts to  Twitter and Foursquare.

The program is really simple and has adopted what I consider a QSR chain best practice by offering a dual-function gift and loyalty card. In this case, the card can be used across participating locations first to facilitate purchase, but with the added value of registering at MyTasti.com to qualify for extra points through social media updates.

TastiRewards members earn 1 point for each pre-tax dollar spent on qualified Tasti D-Lite products. Members become eligible for rewards once 50 points are accumulated and are eligible to receive a free medium Tasti cup or cone.   Extra points can be earned for registering the card online and checking points balances.  Providing a date of birth qualifies you to receive a free medium Tasti cup or cone on the big day.

The success of the TastiRewards program won’t hinge on its linkage to Twitter and Foursquare but, like most programs, will be judged by consumers on its overall value proposition. Points don’t expire, but earning is only possible when the physical card is presented at time of purchase. And there are questions of just how Tasti D-Lite will protect itself against members who try to use the social media option to game the system. As far as value is concerned, the social media point-accelerator seems to boost the perceived value of the program to 8-10% back, above average among today’s loyalty programs.

Tasti D-Lite has taken the important step of doing something with social media instead of just talking about social media. If their treats are as tasty as their innovative TastiRewards, good things should be in store for the chain. I found a store nearby and plan to visit soon.

I’ve gotten into a bad habit with my children. Whenever they ask me about overzealous promises from a product advertisement, I just tell them “It’s probably not true, it’s just marketing stuff“.

The bad part is that I am instilling a degree of cynicism in the little ones, but then again “buyer beware” has served us well for decades. To get their money’s worth, consumers need to be cautious, if not skeptical, of claims made and should complement personal research with word of mouth recommendations where possible.

My broad-brush description of marketers can be justified simply by witnessing the lack of loyalty transparency in favored market practices today. I really don’t want to read an email telling me that I can earn a 10% rebate on “all purchases made” only to click through and see that there is a monthly dollar cap on my savings. I also don’t enjoy seeing items priced “less mail-in rebate” while I end up paying a higher price at the register and later struggle with paperwork to realize the savings.

To its credit, Best Buy has partially broken from the mail-in rebate habit as it offered 5 Android smartphones at an introductory price with no strings attached.

In the B2B world, the use of whitepapers as the bait in email solicitation is becoming highly annoying and merits a huge Loyalty Asterisk™.  Just this week, I filled out a form to receive a “Whitepaper” from Socialtext covering critical requirements of enterprise social software. Thinking I was going to learn something, I realized as I was reading the document that it was not much more than a capabilities document for their own product reformatted as a whitepaper.

It is a simple and often used formula – take the key features and benefits of the product you are selling and create an outline that proclaims the same key points as “best practices”. The Loyalty Asterisk™ remains prevalent in advertising and promotional circles today and marketers need to accept that building campaigns with roots in gently misleading the public does not breed long term customer or brand loyalty.

In the words of Generation Y (Millennials) it’s “annoying”! Translated, it means “I’m not buying your stuff!”

If marketers are selling quality, performance, and reliability as part of their product or brand promise, then they need to deliver the message with a higher degree of transparency than is seen today. I consistently advise my clients to deliver offers with accurate pricing and all conditions proclaimed up front rather than play the bait and switch game.

The beauty of Web 2.0 and social media in particular is that consumers have the tools and communications channels available to be able to research products, compare opinions, and provide feedback to friends in an almost instantaneous manner. Brands that market with a heavy dose of the Loyalty Asterisk™ will be skewered on Twitter, Facebook, and in the blogosphere.

Rather than play the game and suffer the penalty, marketers would be wise to play it straight, exercise some Loyalty Transparency, and enjoy the complements and adulation of consumers as they award the brand for delivering just as promised. If you are running your business without social media tools to monitor brand mentions and conversations, you need to step up your game.

Adopting the right tools and building a commitment to marketing transparency will yield improved results. I am here to help you with both endeavors.

Atlantic City, the famed gambling Mecca about an hour down the coast from me, is on a nasty losing streak. A recent story in the NY Times quoted a top gambling executive as saying “the city is in a death spiral.” Few disagreed.

It seems that after a rough couple of years, 2009 is looking even worse. Every Atlantic City casino but one is seeing a double-digit drop in revenue. The lone exception being the glitzy, feels-like-you’re-in-Vegas Borgata, which is down about 5 percent this year.

The reasons for the decline are many: the rotten economy, competition from newly opened gambling operations in nearby states, and the fact that Atlantic City, like the dwindling number of day-tripping seniors who bus into the city each day, is feeling old and tired.

The most-talked about solution: a cash infusion of a few billion dollars to build new hotels, new attractions, new anything that can start pulling in people again. Which, with the current economic environment, is as likely as me filling a double inside straight flush at the poker table. Or not very likely.

Harrah’s Entertainment ups the ante

In years past, I’ve frequented the Borgata where I’m a member of the My Borgata Rewards program. But on my last two trips into Atlantic City, I ventured to the swanky but hip Caesars, where I joined Total Rewards–the casino loyalty program from  Harrah’s Entertainment, the company behind the Harrahs, Caesars, Bally’s and Showboat casinos.

It appears that Total Rewards has upped the ante over the My Borgata program, by rolling out the red carpet for program members. My evidence here is strictly anecdotal, but I (and a good friend) recently received a bump up not one, but two tier levels to Diamond status. I also received a pair of free weekday hotel stays. (Surprising because, trust me, a high roller I am not.)

It’s obviously a play by Harrah’s Entertainment to get past customers back to Atlantic City and it’s either a smart move or a desperate move, depending on your perspective. I say smart—because rather than gamble on an expensive, and to my thinking, ultimately wasteful mass media campaign, Harrah’s is appealing directly to its customer base for more business.

Granted, they’re digging deep into the base by giving a two-time visitor like me special favors, but my guess is they’re mining the data for a few things: the recency of my visits, my perceived spend level, and my zip code, which tells them I live nearby and should be at a certain income level.

So can Total Rewards really save Atlantic City? It’s a lot to ask of a loyalty program, but it strikes me that Harrah Entertainment is playing the hand it was dealt—and reaching out to its customer base may be its last, best hope. I, for one, hope it works. In fact, I’m about to book a free night for my wife and I right now.

Now, a few words about the Total Rewards communications

The first good thing I can say about Total Rewards is that they actually have a communications program in place. As a member of the My Borgata program, who opted in for e-mail, I cannot recall receiving the first piece of communications from them, digital or otherwise. (It’s good to be King!)

While the Total Rewards postcard and e-mail creative is perfunctory, they do some small but important things right. They recognize me by name and tier level, and occasionally by the casino I visit, Caesars. They’ve also made attempts to cross-sell me into other areas of the property, including their dining and entertainment venues.

But the Total Rewards communications could go even further. A few thoughts, for the people behind the program:

1. Pump up the engagement: I checked and Total Rewards has a presence on both Facebook and Twitter. Why not add these links to every e-mail? And while you’re at it, add an “invite a friend to join” link to each e-mail, as well.
2. Talk to my preferences: I know your part of the Harrah’s empire, but frankly I only joined the program because I like and visit Caesars. So more info on Caesars and less on Vegas and the other brands please.
3. Leverage the community: I know starting your own online community may be a hassle you don’t want to contemplate, but why not use some of the glowing testimonials found on social travel sites like Kayak and Virtual Tourist. This both encourages loyal customers to return and invites them to join the conversation.

Tom Rapsas is a Creative Director/Writer/Strategist. He can be reached at tomrapsas@gmail.com and via Twitter @tomrapsas.

Editor’s note: I was fortunate to moderate a panel at  Loyalty Expo 2009 this week titled Building Engagement with Millennials. The panelists were rich in expertise engaging and building brand with Generation Y as well as using email and social media as tools for communications. Bjorn Larsen Founder & CEO Edhance,  Atle Skalleberg VP Marketing Student Universe, and Ragy Thomas Co-Founder & CEO Aiti Solutions took part.

One of my fascinations with extending the Loyalty Marketing model beyond its traditional borders is in working through resistance and dissenting opinions. I partnered with Loyalty 360 to use Twitter during the conference with mixed results and learned that not everyone shares the same view on what it will take to build loyalty among Millennials or if it can be done at all.  Contributing Author Brian Kryzanski offers his view on GenY with this post “Generation crY”

Click here to see the connection between Generation crY and “You’ll Get Nothing and Like It”

Let the debate begin!

Generation crY

I want everything now, for free. I want to be treated with respect and don’t try to outsmart me, because you can’t. I want to come right out of college into the CEO chair because I know everything and always win. Simply put, I do not fail! Welcome to Generation crY- a generation of spoiled brats who were brought up in Never Never Land and told by their parents that they are no less than perfect. A trophy for everyone, no losers, no wrong doing, completely invincible, and everybody plays! What have the Boomers and X-generation created?

When I was growing up, and it wasn’t long ago, I was taught that hard work and determination is rewarded. I didn’t get trophies for simply showing up, and didn’t make the team if I wasn’t great or at very least showed 100% passion and effort. I was taught it was ok to fail, to lose, and it was just one step closer towards winning. My high school baseball coach use to say “second place is no place”, and if you were not first or the best, you were told you stink and no one sugar-coated it. You practiced harder, played tougher, studied more, and still were not guaranteed success. If you did bear fruit from your efforts, you then truly know what it is to be a winner, or successful, and appreciate the process.

Athletes are great examples of exactly what I am talking about. Pitchers pitched 9 innings and threw over 120 pitches “back in the day”. People played when they had bruises and bumps, and there were no such things as Social Anxiety Disorders. Why do we have that? Simple, when they get to the “bigs” and are not stellar, they cannot comprehend it. Rookie quarterbacks demanding multi-million dollar contracts before taking a snap in the NFL, or crying it’s not their team of choice – our fault!

We have made Never Never Land a reality! A place where our upcoming consumers are never fooled! The days of hard work and sweat equity are over, and we have created an environment that we are not only responsible for, but challenged as Loyalty or any other genre of marketers to succeed in.

We are told that we are too old and don’t understand the space they play in. Ah, but are fools being fooled? After all, we created Never Land and Tinker Bell has been hard at work creating a new Never Land called My Space, Facebook, and Twitter!

Are the Boomers and GenX marketers really worried, or are they simply still playing the game that they started years ago? We will continue to tell them how good they are as long as they continue to drink the cool aid. Maybe when the responsibilities of GenY increase they will realize that Facebook cannot warm the baby bottles and they actually have to get up and put it in the microwave! Don’t underestimate the X-Factor. We have built the technology and societies you play in, and hold the pixie dust that has been sprinkled among your communities. If all it takes is pizza and beer to hear how good our tactics are working, then we get off cheap.

The Word of Mouth Marketing Association held its “WOMM-U” event last week in South Beach, and was attended by an impressive array of consumer brands including Dell, Disney, Heinz, Kraft, Lenovo, NBC, McDonalds, Pepsico, Proctor & Gamble, Unilever, and Walmart. Add to these familiar names, several titans of Web 2.0 Facebook, Google, MySpace, Yelp and YouTube and you can imagine attendees got their money’s worth during the two day event.

I’ll have a full conference report submitted to The WiseMarketer very soon, but couldn’t wait to share a few highlights. WOMMA puts on a good show and to keep the conversation lively, they shared a live Twitter feed in the main conference salon.  Two days of Tweets are archived on their web page and, taken as a whole, they provide color commentary for the event.

I wanted to share my favorites which were selected for being insightful, forward-looking, or just humorous. Hope you enjoy them and please follow the folks who generated the original content to continue the conversation.

• It used to be that the homepage of your website was your first digital impression. Now it’s the Google search results. | @spikejones
• Federated Media: Amex has found Twitter best online vehicle for advertising their small biz website | @leslieforde
• Lenovo gave 100 Olympic athletes a free technology solution to blog live from Beijing…a social media plan with real teeth | @hyperdrivei
• “Trying to change an organization is like swimming in peanut butter.” – Chris Aarons |@CatchUpLady
• Facebook: focus on building movements, not campaigns | @tsiles
• 50% of US families have broadband – look for video explosion – this is likely how people will consume info – Duncan Wardle | @CentsibleSawyer
• Disney’s Ducan Wardle: Brands who don’t change from marketing to engaging will soon become nostalgia brands | @davekerpen
• 90% of moms watch online video in last 7 days vs only 1/3 of all moms are in the blogosphere. Integrated marketing w/ moms a must | @MomTalkRadio
• Duncan Wardle from Disney: It is NO LONGER about clicks and impressions. It’s about engagement , conversation and conversion. | @warrenss
• “Internet is not a library of information anymore it is a social area for people.” – Kathryn Collins.|@tanyachadha
• FTC Change “The communicator of the message must be transparent and honest.” Well that about says it all. | @jamietedford
• Wonders what a talk at WOMMA looks like. Based on my feed, it’s quiet with hundreds of people looking down, typing madly on mobile devices. | @justicar

If you’re of a “certain age” and have teenagers in the house, then you might have caught yourself proclaiming that your young Millennials (Generation Y) are wasting their lives playing Halo, World of Warcraft, or tinkering with their MySpace page. Since adolescents revel in the opportunity to point out hypocrisy in their adult family members, imagine the return volley of comments about how much time we Boomers spend glaring at the television watching yet another sports event without anything more than a trip to the fridge to break the action.

The best life lessons learned from sports are by playing them, but once in a while you can learn by watching.  The other night as I wandered between the NHL and NBA playoffs, the NFL draft, and some meaningless early season MLB, I had a vision. I found an answer for the big question about Social media.

Everyone knows about Social Media, few understand it, and there are proponents and opponents voicing opinion with increasing volume. To some, employing a social media strategy can accelerate achievement of business objectives, to others it is a greater waste of time than one more round of GTA3.  The one unifying question is “how do all these pieces fit together?” Almost every business person I know expresses interest in executing a social media strategy that is right for them.

Well I’ve got an answer and it is heavily basted in sports analogy:

The Play by Play Announcer: Your web site is the necessary foundation for your social media strategy. Present the facts without too much hype and hyperbole

Color Commentary: People blog for different reasons. I think it serves as a platform for opinion and to demonstrate innovative ideas and thought leadership

Player Roster: Being part of LinkedIn is today’s method to assemble your business network and document a circle of influence

Groupies: They hang out by every locker room door and some you’ll talk to while others you avoid. Establishing an authentic presence on Twitter allows you the same liberty

Inner Circle: You’ve got to have real friends you can trust. Approach these for deeper conversations via email, the phone, and in person (yes, in person should be part of your social media strategy!)

Your Agent: Few of us can do it all. We need a few Subject Matter Experts (SME’s) around to fill in our gaps and to add bandwidth. Find someone who really knows how to coordinate your social media efforts from a technology standpoint

Fans: Filling the seats is a requirement for success. Building a Facebook presence can be your biggest funnel to gain fans and you can connect further with them via the other channels depending on how relationships develop.

Sponsors: Someone has to pay the bills. We often call these folks “clients” or “customers”! The objectives of a social media strategy should include serious business objectives and revenue goals. Your valued customers/clients should be treated in a special way. Newsletters and more personalized digital correspondence works well to create deeper links

I’m interested to have your feedback on fitting the pieces of the social media puzzle together. Are you ready to play ball?

The promise of social media to Loyalty Marketers should be clear. We’ve been advocates of establishing two-way dialogue with program members for the past 20 years, touting that only within the trusted environment of a loyalty program will customers share their preferences, aspirations, and concerns relating to your brand.

Don Peppers and Martha Rogers coined the term “1 to 1″ marketing in what seems an ice-age ago. While the concept was right, execution was too costly for most companies to absorb. It is one thing to craft promotions, offers, and communications by segments, but to drive personalization to the individual account level was not financially sustainable. After the first wave of failed CRM installations, the ambitions of “1 to 1″ marketing were softened to a more practical “Mass Customization”.

With CRM’s legacy of unfulfilled potential, one would think that Loyalty Marketers would be tearing apart the box labeled “Social Media” like a child on Christmas morning to see what’s inside.

I’m not sure it’s happening and here’s why:

Attending Card Forum & Expo in Marco Island last week, I heard a great keynote from Joshua Peirez, MasterCard Worldwide. His topic was innovation and he took an informal poll in the room of 200 bankers:

• Who’s on Twitter? – less than 5% raised their hand
• Who has a MySpace? – no one raised their hand
• Who has a Facebook page? – 25% said “yes”
• Who knows what a Kindle is? – 10% positive response

Given the median age in the room, I was almost relieved with the MySpace answer, but noticed the uncomfortable murmuring that waved through the room upon the mention of Twitter and Facebook. Mr. Peirez had made his point that “we” in the banking and card issuing industry need to understand, if not embrace, these new communications tools if we are to stay current in the market.

Listening to other sessions, my suspicions that all things social media were regarded as distractions to be enjoyed by the younger generation but not to be taken seriously by business, were reinforced.

There was a fascinating panel of “Retail Loyalty Leaders” facilitated by my friend and colleague, Rick Ferguson, Editorial Director Colloquy. Executives from Best Buy, Macy’s, and Saks shared how it was their most loyalty customers who continued to shop even after the economic downturn last fall, but made no mention of  social media until an attendee posed a question at the end of the session. Responses from the panelists were general and non-committal, indicating that social media was “interesting and deserved study” while not citing any ongoing programs.

Imagine you are standing on the crest of a ridge with the entirety of loyalty marketing knowledge under your arm. Across a deep ravine on the next ridge is Generation Y, all 80 Million of them. You can’t just walk over and engage them in what you have to say as there is a river running swiftly through the bottom of the ravine. You’ve got to build a bridge to reach the other side or you will miss the opportunity to engage this massive consumer audience.

Social Media could be the bridge. Read carefully, as I am not telling you that Social Media is THE answer or the ONLY answer. But, it is the best opportunity we have ever had to fulfill the promises of 1 to 1 Marketing.  The technology allows business to tailor messages to small groups if not individuals and the Millennial Generation is the first ever to be so forthcoming with personal insights and opinions.

There is evidence of experimentation in the space, with AirMiles Canada adding a community to its web site. It’s purpose is clear as the landing page advises  “Now there’s a place where you and other collectors can swap tips, experiences, and chat about anything and everything Air Miles”.

And there are a few active Loyalty Marketers with a presence on Twitter. If you open your own account and wonder who you should follow, you could start with @andrewkinnear,  @barrykirk,  @Phil_Rubin,  @Kobie_Marketing,  @LoyaltyLab,   @Loyalty 360 and don’t forget @billhanifin.

One of Hanifin Loyalty’s rules for engaging Generation Y is this:

• Don’t rationalize the need – you don’t have to like it or even fully understand it, you just have to do it.

Meeting the Millennials where they are sets the stage for engagement. How you present your brand from there is a topic for another day.

Follow me …….

One test of social media effectiveness is whether people are listening to each other and relationships are being built. Some of the social networks I participate in are prone to shouting, with little evidence of people listening. Probably because of LinkedIn’s professional networking positioning, people tend to not only listen, but respond, contribute, and share.

I recently asked a question on LinkedIn about how people prefer to communicate. Since most of us (Boomers) have grown up with Outlook as our mail client, we rely on email as our primary communications channel for business. With the introduction of social networks and micro-blogging sites, we have more options these days, and I now receive a stream of messages from within the framework of LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.

It’s all good, but I question the efficiency of having to keep up with multiple communications streams and constantly evaluate which ones are contributing to real business as opposed to sopping up precious time only to be rationalized as building my personal brand. I also wondered if members of Generation Y would choose differently than other demographics. So I asked:

“Which channel is your preferred one for regular communication? How do you decide when to message from email, LinkedIn, or Facebook? Why aren’t more of us using Twitter to stay in touch in “real time”? Please address as much or as little of this as you can. Your responses are highly valuable.”

I received a healthy dose of responses and any shortfall in numbers was overcome by the passion of the replies. I categorized responses in 7 categories: Face to Face, Phone, Email, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter & Skype. Percentages reported are based on the number of responders to the total who indicated they regularly used the channel.

Predictably, Email won out with 75% indicating it was a principle communications tool. More interesting was that Facebook (37.5%), the Phone (37.5%), and LinkedIn (33.3%) ran almost a dead heat as a second priority. Face to Face meetings pulled a 20.8% figure but the low number could have been influenced by the way the question was written.

In the case of this modest survey, the qualitative remarks were the highlight.

The pros and cons of Email were noted: “Email is preferred for in-depth dialogues and information sharing experiences”, though “In an email, I can’t read inflections or any other visible signs. Also, I don’t know how long they have been polishing their answer to me – 5 seconds or 15 minutes. Finally, email is to easy to ignore by the receivers”.

Other channels had their lovers and haters:

Social Networks:

• “Social networking sites are good for mass, impersonal communications”
• “I prefer Twitter (and LinkedIn) for 1:many”

LinkedIn:

• “Linkedin … never lose a message, easy to find responses”
• “Due to the time constraints I primarily try to stick within the LinkedIn network”

Skype:

• “Used more than any other form of communication for voice, IM, and text”
• “Skype video conferencing for more in-depth communication”

Twitter:

• “Public and direct messaging through Twitter opens up totally new channels of communication and new ways to network”
• “Twitter is for twits, twerps, twots and who dunits”
• “As for Twitter, I generally think it’s impractical for most business use”

Facebook:

• “Facebook is extremely productive for groups – both public and private”
• “I personally see Facebook as a recreational tool, not a productivity tool”

Amidst the passion, I was reminded that relationships trump any favored technology ” Virtual communication … is not a substitute for the value of in-person or live voice-to-voice intimacy. When you really need to “talk”, make a date, Skype, meet in person, or speak by phone.”

And, even though F2F meetings didn’t pull big numbers, I couldn’t help but weight this vote with a healthy dose of common sense: “There is, and always will be, only one preferred method of communications. Eye ball to eye ball. Mano to mano. Look ‘em straight in the eye and make ‘em an offer they can’t refuse.”

No, Al Pacino is not in my network.

The response continued: “So, meet me at the bar, at the race track, on the golf course or over a hot game of poker. Look me in the eye and tell me what’s really happening. But be careful. I’ll know instantly if you’re full of @#it.”

With that sobering instruction, I was ready to call the Queen of Networking, Andrea Nierenberg to brush up my people skills.

One of the responders emphasized that synthesizing options would yield the best results: “With all of these … ways to communicate, it really comes down to finding about 3 tools to serve your purposes, personal, business, a cross-over or hybrid of both, and being able to cover all that from a mobile perspective is really the best marriage of tech and social media….relevant is the keyword”

Relevancy and suitability to task, these seem to be the umbrella learnings of the day, summed up with this practical advise “Of course as in anything in life, it all depends on the situation. Face to face is ideal and so is the telephone to really hear and connect. I use all forms as part of the communication.”

My thanks goes out to all the people in my LinkedIn network who responded to the question. I’ll never stop learning and hope you won’t either.