My business partner Susan Hanshaw, Founder and CEO of Inner Architect, enjoyed a successful Direct marketing career which culminated with her position as Vice President and second in command of her firm. She performed and consulted on marketing campaigns that included Bank of America, Health Magazine, and Victoria Secret.

Together we are studying the possibilities of converging direct marketing methodology and social media. Two questions must be answered before we can move. We are asking for your help:

1. In today’s world has Direct marketing finally met it’s match within the social media space?

2. If Direct marketing and social media are compatible, what would be the best methods to utilize and the best social media networks for your Direct marketing campaign?

Entry Points

The idea in today’s world for any entrepreneur, job seeker, or company is to find an entry point in which they may engage with their audience. Once these entry points are identified, then the value message can be strategically delivered to targeted consumers, hiring managers, or specific audiences.

Peter Kim is a social media expert, strategist, and someone who intimately understands the importance of these entry points for companies. In Peter’s article for Mashable.com “22 Step Social Media Marketing Plan”  ,Peter outlines the major tools (and entry points) for companies and entrepreneurs to consider in their social media efforts.

How could you utilize these tools in a direct marketing plan?

Peter Kim’s Framework of 22 Major Tools for Social Media Marketing

1. Blogs (Johnson & Johnson, Delta Air Lines)
2. Bookmarking/Tagging (Adobe, Kodak)
3. Brand monitoring (Dell, MINI)
4. Content aggregation (Alltop, EMC)
5. Crowdsourcing/Voting (Oracle, Starbucks)
6. Discussion boards and forums (IBM, Mountain Dew)
7. Events and meetups (Molson, Pampers)
8. Mashups (Fidelity Investments, Nike)
9. Microblogging (method, Whole Foods)
10. Online video (Eukanuba, Home Depot)
11. Organization and staffing (Ford, Pepsi)
12. Outreach programs (Nokia, Yum Brands)
13. Photosharing (Rubbermaid, UK Government)
14. Podcasting (Ericsson, McDonalds)
15. Presentation sharing (CapGemini, Daimler AG)
16. Public Relations – social media releases (Avon, Intel)
17. Ratings and reviews (Loblaws, TurboTax)
18. Social networks: applications, fan pages, groups, and personalities (British Airways, Saturn)
19. Sponsorships (Coca-Cola, Whirlpool)
20. Virtual worlds (National Geographic, Toyota)
21. Widgets (Southwest Airlines, Target)
22. Wikis (Second Life, T-Mobile Sidekick)

If you are an entrepreneur or job seeker one of the best ways to network, market, and gain audience for your product or service(s) is to leverage the power of social media networks.

The following is a list of the top 25 social media “networks” as ranked by traffic (visits per month) in a great retrospective article by Andy Kazeniac of Compete.com “Social Networks: Facebook Takes Over the Top Spot, Twitter Climbs.” This is a retro look at Andy’s original ranking of the Top 25 last year.  Note: Twitter came in at #22 on that list–look at them today.

Top 25 Social Media Networks:

Courtesy of Compete.com:

Job Seekers

For job seekers #5, LinkedIn and #3, Twitter are the most vital social networks you can utilize to deliver your value, network, and research opportunities.

Entrepreneurs and Companies

Your social networks of choice will depend on your audience demographic and what you have to offer. Facebook, truly a social site, is great for lifestyle and consumer offers. LinkedIn is for business-to-business networking. Twitter spans both business and consumer, and Myspace reaches the youngest crowd.