Smart businesses want to use social media to extend personal connections and interactions. The market is seeing the emergence of a number of tools and resources to maximize presence on the social Web, including techniques for rewarding social influencers to promote products and services. It’s time to pay attention to emerging reward referral solutions and understand the role that service providers can play as companies work to transform customers into brand advocates. I wanted to share some examples of market players that are driving customers to become powerful marketing assets. Refer-a-friend programs are becoming essential marketing tools instead of “wish list” items. Marketers understand that blending direct mail (both print and e-mail) with social media can serve as a mechanism to drive brand awareness and super-charge acquisition at a fraction of the cost of traditional marketing. Service providers must understand how participate in generating campaigns that encourage, track, and monetize referrals. If you haven’t already stepped into the world of social media, now is the time to take a look.

Dukky marketing software designed to make launching multi-channel campaigns easy. The software is designed to blend traditional direct marketing, e-mail marketing, social media, and analytics in a single hub. Dukky recently produced an Ultimate Guide to Integrating Direct Mail and Social Media, and this is well worth the read.

Figure 1: Dukky’s Ultimate Guide to Integrating Direct Mail and Social Media