 How To Socialize Your Emails
Use Social Media and Email Together
To Expand Your Network
A few months back the Wall Street Journal published an article that read Why Email No Longer Rules ... And what that means for the way we communicate. Here's a quote from the article:
"Email has had a good run as king of communications. But its
reign is over. In its place, a new generation of services is starting to take
hold-services like Twitter and Facebook and countless others vying for a piece
of the new world."
Well,
as great as Twitter and Facebook are, they have not replaced email. In
fact, social networks use email notifications to keep their members informed. That's because people aren't on these sites all the time. But
they do check their email inbox often.
Instead of competing with each other, social media and emails can work together to help you expand your sphere of influence both online and offline.
Social networking is a great way to reach out to new people that are not
currently a part of your network. Then emails can help you extend your connection with them so they become a part of your subscriber base.
On the flip side, your subscriber base can help you get your social media following started. Your subscribers can also help you spread the word by sharing your content on their social networks.
Throughout this e-newsletter, you'll find examples of how you can socialize your emails. I even spruced up my social media icons, just for you. Go ahead and click on them and help me spread the word ;)
Encourage Email Subscribers To Be come Friends and Followers
Include your social networks in your e-newsletters and other emails. This allows you to communicate more often than you would otherwise. It also makes your communications more interactive.
Add "Join My Network" links to your emails
You can add clickable icons and text links to your e-newsletters and promotional emails. To get the icons, click on the resource link in the sidebar. You can also add a link to your social networks in your email signature line.
Include links to specific pages in your social networking sites
If you've posted something interesting in your Facebook or YouTube page, add a link to the specific content in your email. You can also encourage your subscribers to comment on your e-newsletter by directing them to the discussions tab in your Facebook page.
Include Share Buttons
Adding share buttons to your emails will help your subscribers share your content with their social networks. If you're a Constant Contact user, click on the FAQs section in the sidebar to find out how you can add a share button to your Constant Contact emails.
Encourage Friends and Followers to Become
Email Subscribers
While having lots of friends and followers is great, it's not as strong a connection as having subscribers. What if something happened to your Twitter or Facebook account? Your connections would be out in cyberspace and out of your reach.
By turning these followers into email subscribers, you can solidify your relationship with them. So how do you turn them into subscribers?
You can promote your email content in your social networks to encourage your Facebook friends, Twitter followers and LinkedIn connections to check out your content and join your mailing list.
On Facebook
Share your emails with your Facebook friends by posting a link to your email archives on your profile page. You can also add a "Join My Mailing List" button to your Facebook page. If you're a Constant Contact user, check out the FAQ in the sidebar to find out how.
On Twitter
Post a tweet with the subject line of your email and a link to the archived email in your Twitter account. You can also add a link to your email signup with your Twitter bio.
On LinkedIn
You can add up to three links in your LInkedIn profile. So add a link to your archived email and signup page. You can also add a post with the subject line and archive link.
Another great tool in LinkedIn are the groups. You can post a discussion question in one of your LinkedIn groups regarding the topic of your email with a link to the email archive. For example, I can post this email with the question, "Is social media communications replacing email?"
To see examples of all these ideas, download the slide show, How To Socialize Your Emails.
I hope these ideas will help you grow your network.
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