But what happens when you summarise the summary? Or summarise the content from your summarised summary? A recent article on Summly suggests that users are already getting tired of the super fast information provided to them online, and sooner or later people will want someone else to just cut out all the crap and highlight the main points already.

But isn’t that where all good direct marketing should be anyway? In some ways yes – with the right targeting and insights on your customers, you should be reaching those who are receptive to your information (because whether they know it or not, you’ve got a product they’re searching for).

The discipline for marketers and advertisers is to present this information creatively, cleverly and concisely.

If you follow the internet’s trajectory, you’d think in years to come we’d end up sending communications with little more than “Here’s an offer. Sign up now”.
And while there’s sure to be a percentage of people that would probably take it up, it’s the little things we do that surround the offer that make communications work.

Design. Art direction. Copy. Structure. Touch. Tone and so on. All those things lacking in your predictive internet searches are the very things that help people comprehend communications sent to them – and to take action.

And don’t forget good old personalisation or pleasantries. Believe it or not, people still appreciate it when they can tell you know who they are – either a loyal customer or a potential one. It doesn’t take much to introduce yourself, your offer and why you think it would be good for them.

So the next time you receive a communication from someone, take note of the process you go through upon receiving it.

What made you take note?
Did you jump straight to the offer?
If the offer appealed to you, did you then look back at what surrounds it?
If you took up the offer, was that process fast too?
And in summary, was the experience a positive one?

If it was, no doubt all the elements that made up the communication, including the offer, worked in harmony. If it wasn’t, why not?

Perhaps it was a lack of personalisation in some form.

However, just like all good advertising, it’s those who show an active participation and respect for the medium they’re using that prosper. This can be from the simplest of things, like providing clickable CTAs in eDMs to purpose built campaigns that understand the fundamentals of social media platforms.

Be active.
Like life, the easiest way to prove your commitment to anything is by being involved. Online, the more involved you are, the more those using social media will accept your involvement within ‘their’ online realm.

Conversely, the more obvious it is that you’re using the platform just because everyone else is, or if what you’re promoting is not in the slightest bit relevant, then you’ll soon find out the hard way – either by poor results or backlash from the medium you’ve misjudged.

A great example of active participation in social media to market a product can be seen by music festival guru fuzzy.

In promoting the recent nationwide Parklife, fuzzy used social media to converse with likely attendees in developing the line-up. Once developed, this peer accreditation allowed them to penetrate 95% of attendee Facebook pages. In fact, 56% of all Parklife attendees were made aware of the event through friends in person or on Facebook.

Not ending the dialogue there, they showed an understanding of social media by giving their new-found brand ambassadors everything they could need as part of their Parklife journey. They created:

• discussion and sharing opportunities through existing platforms
• purpose built smart phone apps to use at the event
• an “I’m going” campaign for ticket holders to share and celebrate their purchase
• and integrated social content that let attendees share their day as it happened.

If you think this all takes a lot of effort, and money, you’d be right. But consider how much a mainstream media campaign can cost in comparison. However, like all good DM, if you do it right, you’re bound for better ROI because you’re targeting relevant people.

So, what does this mean for would-be social media campaigns? Perhaps two words – time and commitment. Put both in, and you’ll get much more out.

Don’t do either, and suffer the fate. Because the only thing worse than a social marketing campaign with disregard for execution and audience is the backlash you’re sure to receive. Just ask Qantas.

Recently, when Qantas used social media in a campaign to engage their audience, by asking an open question on twitter – what’s your definition of Qantas Luxury? – they were hit with a barrage of responses. Many ridiculed the question, the brand and the fact that Qantas seemed oblivious that such a question on twitter showed they didn’t understand the possible consequences.

Or did they?
With so many negative responses to their question, the mainstream media used it as the basis for articles on another Qantas #fail.

But look at it from another side. In the preceding weeks, Qantas could do no right. They were splashed about the papers for their poor management of a tense situation.

They ran full-page ads in major newspapers that openly apologised and offered compensation to affected customers. And even when they did this, these acts of apology were still set upon by certain media.

Perhaps Qantas asked themselves, is any publicity, good publicity? And if so, is paying top dollar, for top shelf media, really worth it?

If not, what’s the cheapest way to engage people, and spark a reaction? Twitter. And 140 characters later they made the papers. Again.

So maybe, just maybe, their tweet wasn’t the results of twits after all.