Integrating Web Marketing E-Mail with Social Media

People who use social media are still committed users of e-mail, according to “View from the Social Inbox 2010,” a study published by the marketing agency Merkle and described in this list:

• Of social networkers, 42 percent check their e-mail four or more times per day, compared to just 27 percent of those who don't use the current top social networking sites.

  
  



• Of social networkers, 63 percent use the same e-mail account for their social networking messages and the majority of their permission-based, e-mail.

  
  



• Of Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter users, 20 percent have posted or shared something from permission e-mail to their social accounts by using the Share option.

  
  

With numbers like these, you have every reason to integrate e-mail with social media to attract new subscribers, find new followers for your social media presence, and obtain content ideas for both outlets.

Gaining more subscribers

Cross-promotional opportunities to gain newsletter subscribers abound in social media. Always include subscription links on your blog, in other social media pages, and in your signature block. You can preview topics on Facebook or tweet about your newsletter release to entice friends and followers to sign up. Don’t forget to link to an archived newsletter so that people can view a sample.

Adding more followers and connections

In a parallel fashion to gaining more subscribers, use your newsletter to drive traffic to social media outlets, with Follow Us links and social sharing buttons on each of your newsletters. You can even use your newsletter to announce a special offer or contest that’s available only to social media participants. All these techniques make it more likely that you’ll catch your fish in your online net.

Finding and sharing content

Ah, a life full of repurpose! Just as you can cross-promote between e-mail and social media, you can reuse content in both places or dip into one well to fill the other. Some of the solutions are as easy as using a distribution tool to post your newsletter content automatically to social media channels. Or, use your newsletter content as a contribution to a Facebook or LinkedIn group.

To transport content in the other direction, mine other people’s posts on your own social media pages and follow social media groups to spark ideas for your newsletter, detect trending topics, and pick up industry news. To get ideas, try social media tools such as Google Alerts, Social Mention, Twitter Search, or social news outlets such as Digg or Reddit.

Google Insights shows the time of day, day of week, and time of year when specific search terms are popular. Take advantage of this type of market intelligence to schedule topical e-mail newsletters.

Include the same industry-related or topical keywords and tags in both your social media sites and newsletters or newsletter announcements that may be reposted online.

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