Will social networks make newsletters obsolete in internet marketing?

[Beverly]

I've signed up for site newsletters from sites like ELF cosmetics and they send me newsletters/emails almost daily. Most times i really get benefit from these newsletters. But I have noticed the content of their daily email is the EXACT same as the content published on their Facebook page, including same discounts.

For smaller blogs/sites, i was just wondering if it wouldn't be better to just forgo the hassle of the site newsletter and focus on publishing that same material on a social networking site.

What's your thoughts on this? Do you still publish a newsletter even though you have a social networking page or could you use the page to replace the newsletter?

 

[lowrider.STi]

I don't have a newsletter, but if I had one, I'd probably wouldn't send it daily... And it would contain different stuff than the social networking page.

 

[Shortie861]

I personally think myself it would really depend on how many followers I had on the social networking sites I run as to whether I would make it compulsory to just use my social networking accounts. At the moment for the amount I have I would probably do both and send out a newsletter and also update my pages on social networking sites until I had a bigger following.

 

[isuit21]

I never really have send any newsletter, as hardly anyone views them and it is quite common, that they simply move all of the newsletters to their spam folder. I do think that social networks are better for promoting, than using emails.

 

[StevenF50]

I don't know, a newsletter for my site would contain exclusive discounts, exclusive articles and things like that. However my social accounts would have their own exclusive discounts.

 

[Jimmy]

I am not sure, newsletters are still a great way of getting people updating on a range of subjects related to a site

 

[BigBigFan]

Newsletters are a fantastic way to capture interested leads. If someone takes the time to sign up you know they are interested and they are essentially asking for more information, and are open to receiving special offers. Always capture the lead if you can.

 

[Jessi]

I definitely think they can. I think newsletters should really be used more for summaries or real announcements, though. So while a company might post on FB all week long, I think a newsletter should sum up some of those posts for the people who don't follow them on FB and bring a call to action of some other sort, too, so it's unique.

 

[SonnyNET64]

Social networks won't interfere with any newsletters. It is there to promote and advertise.
As long as you have traffic to your site, and customers/viewers of your newsletters, it will be fine.

SonnyNET64

 

[Samurai]

People pay much more attention to newsletters than Facebook posts or tweets. Consequently, you can get a much better conversion if you're using e-mail marketing. As for me, I'd rather have a newsletter than a Facebook page. Money is in the list, and on Facebook there's too much noise to make people buy things.

 

[vida_llevares]

I think they could be redundant with newsletters. But, you could introduce another approach in e-newsletters to increase their value to your audience.

 

[moneyman]

In my opinion no, since I don't follow the social networks so much that I would gain knowledge and read all the latest updates of the websites I am using. It is more convenient to read them in email which I check every time I am on the computer.

 

[Nymph]

It depends on how tightly knit one is to their viewers. Chances are, if you have them with their real identities on a social network, and are able to keep them, you will definitely profit from something like a newsletter. It's not so much that it becomes obsolete, no, I think it evolves into a greater advantage depending on the size of your group.

 

[Rube]

I think newsletters and social networks will find different audiences for a website. I subscribe to several regular newsletters and if I'm interested in following a link in that newsletter I will do so. People who follow the same website through social networks will also click a link in a tweet or an update if it is of interest to them. There will be some people who do both, but most will either decide to follow through a social network or to subscribe to the newsletter.

If I had a newsletter I would certainly post a link to it in my social networks.