Gone are the days where companies can simply operate without bothering about the sentiments of its customers. The revolution of social media has affected large businesses in a way where they are now brought off their high horses and back to the ground where they must learn to provide two-way communication with customers or risk facing a serious online backlash. At the same time, it has also provided small and medium sized enterprises with the ability to extend their social media reach in the same way as large companies do.

One has to recognise that in the realm of the Internet, physical size does not matter. A large chain operating many different restaurant branches may have the same number of social media accounts as a small or medium sized food outlet. In terms of costs, most social media apps are free too. As such, this levels the playing field for eMarketing. A small company who is able to engage netizens has the ability to perform just as well as, if not better than a large corporation who might not be able to engage the online community with meaningful conversations.

Therefore, it is imperative that business owners and executives alike must understand the importance of social media and the tools to enable companies to do well in this realm. It is an environment where word of mouth travels at speeds previously incomprehensible. This makes it a double edged sword where a post in praise of a company and a post complaining about a bad product or service can travel further and faster than before.

Size no longer matters. Engagement does.

Ever heard of the Twesume? Neither have I. Not until this article at least.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/josh-tolan/4-ways-technology-is-chan_b_2736375.html

It has become widespread that companies are beginning to screen potential employees based on their Twitter posts. 140 words are enough to determine if an applicant is a good fit for the company or not.

According to this article, a Twesume is a condensed “140-character resume transmitted over Twitter.” It is concise. Imagine shrinking your entire one-page resume and all that you’ve achieved into 140 characters. That’s essentially what’s going on in the job hunt right now.

After all, Twitter is a great place in the online sphere to connect people. So why not employers and job seekers?

At this time of writing, there are already a number of companies releasing job openings and brief description over Twitter via relevant hashtags. With the limitation of 140 characters, it saves time and effort from both the employer and the potential employee. Each party merely has to read a simple line on Twitter before making a decision to go a step further in the job negotiation process.

From the point of view of an employer, it definitely beats going through a long list of resumes and cover letters. From the angle of a potential employee, the ability to summarize everything into a Twitter feed is going to be a challenge.

If not for #Sauder464, I wouldn’t have known a thing about MailChimp. So what is this application program all about? That was the question running through my mind in class.

In a nutshell, MailChimp is an analytics tool to track emails. It is usually used by companies who frequently send out scheduled newsletters via email. Before this program came about, companies would blindly send out their newsletter to a list of email addresses without knowing if the receiver on the other end has even opened the newsletter or merely tossed it away into the trash can at the click of a button.

Now, with MailChimp, eMarketers can acquire more information about the effectiveness of their newsletter campaigns.

After having experimented with MailChimp for our client’s newsletter, I am now familiar with the three basic tasks of how MailChimp can help us fulfill the three basic tasks of email marketing, namely:

1. Managing Subscriber Lists
2. Building Email Campaigns
3. Review Campaign Reports

MailChimp can even tell us how many receivers have opened the newsletter and how long they have stayed on the newsletter before closing the email.

This is the dream come true for email marketers.