Team Alpha 375

Killer Combo: Social Media and Email

Andy Horner

With all that's going on, it seemed fitting to offer some ideas on how you can use email and social media as a killer combo for expanding your social network.

Announce your blog posts. Until you have thousands of subscribers, one way to build your readership and promote your blog is to alert customers to a new post with an email.

Let’s say you’re a real estate agent and you just wrote a humdinger of an article about the state of the housing market in your locality with tips to sell fast. Many of your contacts would love to read this, but they don’t know your blog exists or that you just posted such a great article.

To drive readers to it, send them a vibrant email that includes the same compelling photo you used in your blog post. Add your logo, photo, contact info AND the first paragraph of the article. End the email with “Read the full article.” Link it to your excellent blog post. Make sure your blog allows readers to tweet it, like it, and email the article to their friends. Once a week or every two weeks is a good time frame to email out your “new post” announcements.

Highlight your tweets. Next issue of your personal ezine (you do have one don’t you?), add a new mini-section to your sidebar. Copy and paste 3 or 4 of your best tweets to the section and title it “Latest Tweets.” Or if you take our real estate agent example from above, you could call the sidebar section “Home Tweet Home.” You get extra points for creativity and fun!

Keep an eye on LinkedIn. Keep an eye on your LinkedIn network feed. When you see that one of your connections has been promoted to a higher position or been hired at a new company, send them a congratulations email. Ace of Sales 2.0 features a new, easy-to-browse gallery filled with fun, friendly, and humorous designs you can use to say thanks, hello, what’s up?, and... CONGRATS!

Promote a Facebook Event. Running events on your business Facebook page is a great way to kick start your Facebook community and get the activity popping. Run a big contest or customer appreciation giveaway campaign. Announce a no cost, live webinar with an industry expert or a visit by a local speaker or celebrity. Keep your Facebook page fresh with all the details, photos, and exciting updates from the event.

Then, use branded emails splashed with images and teasers from the event to funnel traffic to your Facebook page where they can find all the thrilling details. Send 3 emails over the course of the event – a kick-off email, a jump-into-the-fun email at the height of the event, and a wrap up email. Try doing one event per month!