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Regina (Reggie) Brady is president of her own e-marketing and direct marketing consultancy, Reggie Brady Marketing Solutions. She is a leading authority on Internet direct marketing and has held executive positions in Internet marketing at FloNetwork Inc. (subsequently acquired by DoubleClick), Acxiom/Direct Media and CompuServe.

Social networking is certainly the rage today, but I'm advancing the theory that most direct marketers don't use it to its fullest capacity. A few weeks ago, I spent about four hours looking at Facebook sites for my favorite retailers, catalogers and online merchants. Many were good at initiating conversations and trying to build brand loyalty. Very few, however, followed the basic tenets of direct marketing by using that communication to either build their databases or encourage purchasing. Social networks are places to build community. But that can go hand in hand with marketing and selling.

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