The Marriage of Email & Social Marketing

By Mike Storzieri

Social marketing by way of e-mail, has been around for a while. Beginning about eight years ago, it was called viral marketing, and recipients were asked to forward e-mails to their friends and colleagues. However, it has faced challenges in the marketing world. (Same as the old school, Fax Blast did, I remember those days ).

The reason why? It really didn’t start a conversation going, It was very one-sided.

E-mail combined with today’s social networking offerings such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn… however, is a whole different story.

Businesses are seeing the idea of sharing with social media really taking off. By clicking a link, you can share your content in a place where you can engage with influencers, that you could never have touched in the past.

Here are 8 tips to help get you started, in Social Marketing:

Start by signing up with Twitter, this will give you a place, to get you going in the social world, for your business.
You can use your name or your company name, it’s up to you. My rule of thumb, if you’re out to build your brand, use your company name. If your a small company and your the go to person (your the brand) for your customers, use your name and add information about your business, like your website, email address, etc. as part of your Twitter Background. See Example: My Twitter.
Never try and sell on any social network, use them to help people, have fun and build a rapport with your followers. Give advice and be helpful, send them to your website, blog, web page, etc. with a helpful link, that’s where you can sell your wares.
Make sure your website is setup with a way for visitors to sign up, to receive information by you, in the form of Email. This is where a system like Aweber comes in handy, to make it easy to keep track and create mailers, such as newsletters. This way you don’t loose contact with your visitors, you can keep them informed about your products, services, specials, etc. over time. Without this, they visit and may forget about you, “Out of site, Out of Mind”, as the saying goes.
Once you know what you’re writing about, you can start talking about it on your social networking sites. Publish a status update, on your social network the day before you send your newsletter out to remind people it’s coming, and get them excited about it! You can even send them to the company website ahead of time so they can sign up, if they aren’t already on your list.
Make sure your Opt-in forms are easily found on your web page you are sending people to, from your social networks. “Make it VERY OBVIOUS“.
Use the search functions. You can do this on most social networks, like with Twitter, you can enter: your company name, and see the buzz on Twitter about you. Twitter search, for example, allows you to follow everything that’s mentioned about you or your company. Now you’re hearing things you would never have access to. You can then, for example, take the good and the bad that’s being said and respond to that in your e-mail marketing. And if you’re not seeing anything about you, when you do a search, it just means, you need to start Tweeting and they will.
Be a joiner. You can get more people interested in what you’re saying by becoming a trusted source. By joining Twitter, LinkedIn groups, and responding to questions, and joining Facebook groups and getting involved in discussions, you set your company up as a great resource and you as an expert. Think of it as a complementary extension, to your Email marketing.