Older business executives still prefer email

 

by David Graham, Digital Channels Executive at Deloitte Consulting

I ran a poll on LinkedIn where I asked business executives how they would prefer a professional services organisation to communicate with them. The options I provided were email, the company blog, Twitter and LinkedIn. I made a point of communicating the poll through all the options provided in the poll. To be quite honest, I am not surprised with the results of the poll  It is quite apparent that email communication is the preferred option, followed by Linkedin, then the company blog and Twitter. As the Digital Channels Executive at Deloitte Consulting I participate across all digital channels and keep a close eye on developments and research results in the digital marketing industry. These are my observations and findings:

• Whilst LinkedIn is the preferred social network globally for business professionals, there are still those who do not use LinkedIn at all 
• Many business executives may have registered on LinkedIn but do not use the network on a regular basis for communication purposes
• Whilst many business executives have indicated that email is the preferred communication channel, do not abuse the channel. Keep communication short and relevant
• The poll I ran indicated that 45 year plus business professionals prefer email. Do not ignore the younger demographic that DO participate on blogs, Twitter, Facebook, etc 
• Whilst the older demographic prefer email, a large majority also use LinkedIn. Whilst these individuals do not actively participate on blogs or Twitter, they will have visibility of blog posts and Tweets if these are incorporated into your LinkedIn profile and web pages  

In summary, whilst a weekly email is the preference, I would advise the provision of links to pertinent blog posts and to your corporate website, and as mentioned in one of my points above, incorporate blog posts and Tweets into your LinkedIn profile and web pages and incorporate tweets into your blog. Whilst the majority of business professionals prefer email, remember there are others that do participate in Twitter, Facebook, blogs, etc and these individuals are either senior managers and executives, or will be in the future.

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