I never cease to be amazed at the way many companies, small, large, well-known or unknown, blow it with their email tactics. This is certainly nothing new but you would think with the passage of time and the luxury of testing, marketers would use this medium to retain and grow customers – not drive them away.

I’ve been attending the Social Media Success Summit 2010, which started on May 4th and runs through the 25th of the month.  Many of the top minds from the social media world have spoken (Guy Kawasaki, Mari Smith, Jason Falls, Jay Baer, Ann Handley, Chris  Brogan, Brian Clark and Darren Rowse – to name a few) and have dispensed literally hundreds of tips, tactics and strategies for using the top social media tools (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Digg – to name a few).

Break out the champagne and bring on the band – after threatening to blog for the last six years and discounting the few feeble attempts that weren’t sustained, I have finally committed to an all out push into blogging! Why now? Great question and the answer lies in and around the following five reasons.