Recently, I’ve been hearing ads on the radio for a national company that provides email distribution software for small businesses. This company has made a name for itself by spending big bucks on traditional advertising promoting their online software to send email newsletters. Now I’ve heard their ads before, but this one stuck out in my mind, for one big reason.

The leading statement in the commercial says something along the lines of “Now we can help you harness the power of social media to really give life to your email newsletters.” Well this sounds pretty great, until you listen to the explanation of their “social media integration”.

The commercial goes on to explain that this breakthrough new technology allows you to “place a button directly in your emails that lets your users share your newsletter with all their friends on Facebook or Twitter.”

Really?

That doesn’t sound like social media integration to me. It sounds like copying and pasting the code from Facebook for their “Like” button into the body of an email. What they’re missing is that most people are comfortable enough with online services/software to achieve this on their own. Copying and pasting a snippet of code from page to another is a tangible skill that anyone should be able to quickly master. And just putting a “Share” button in your content is no guarantee that anyone will find your content worth sharing. What about the intangible aspects of integrating social media with email marketing? Those areas are much more valuable to your business and overall marketing success.

How much time do you spend crafting a compelling subject line for your email, to encourage more opens?

How long do you dedicate to writing intriguing content that will encourage your readers to share?

Are you spending just as much time developing relationships with your community on Facebook or Twitter, so that when you do send out a newsletter, you’ve become a trusted voice to them?

These are just a few questions to consider which, I would argue, are much more valuable to your business than a technology feature. New features and functionality are easy to put into commercials, because they can be condensed down into a bullet-point list. But most of the time the more abstract concepts, and the real expertise that comes along with understanding them, are infinitely more valuable to your business.

We’ll cover the concepts listed above in future blog posts. In the meantime, consider the strategies and methods you can employ to encourage better integration between your social media and email. You won’t hear them promoted in a commercial, because they’re much more valuable than a “Share” button!

While we aren’t purporting to have a magic wand that will solve all of those challenges, we did recently gain insight into an interesting study that shows not only where effective PR is taking place, but also where great marketing is taking place.

Read on to find out where…

A recent study by Chadwick Martin Bailey and iModerate Research Technologies found that 60 percent of Facebook users and 79 percent of Twitter followers are more likely to recommend brands that they are fans of or following on those networks. What does that mean?

It means you need to develop and implement a Facebook and Twitter strategy today… Like, now. Don’t wait!

It doesn’t matter if you’re a tire dealership, a day spa, or a law firm- you can benefit from actively participating in social media. Millions of companies are already doing it, and their bottom line is increasing as a direct result.

A word of warning though: Don’t just start a Twitter account and post one update, then forget about it. Social media works best as a long term strategy. Not only that, but if your social media plan (you do have a plan, right?) only includes Twitter, then you’re missing out on most of the benefits of social media.

In upcoming blogs we’ll discuss the key components to an effective social media strategy, as well as methods for developing your goals for your social media plan. Until then, why not break out the calculator and see how your business would benefit from a 79 percent increase in brand loyalty?

Here’s a great (and easy way) to fix that:

Solicit testomonials

Asking people for a few sentences about how satisfied they are with you, or why they continue to do business with you is a great way to get people thinking (thus talking) about what makes your company so great.

“But I already solicit testimonials”

If you’re already soliciting testimonials, we’ll share a secret to solicit testimonials that will turn a happy customer into a raving fan:

Time your solicitation right.

Every customer has a moment where they couldn’t possibly be any happier with your product or service. Marketing-types call this the “moment of maximum satisfaction”. It may be the first time they used your cleaning product and mopping the kitchen took half as long as it used to. It may be that someone used your tax software and saved $1,000 this year over last year.

Whatever that moment is, you need to identify it, and then ask for a testimonial immediately. This has two benefits:

First, you’ll have some great marketing material to use on your website, blog, radio ads, or other mediums. Countless studies show that testimonials from real, live, actual people are some of the most effective marketing tools available.

Second, you’re literally having people come up with a sales-pitch for your company in their own words! Then, you’re having them put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) and actually write it down! Your customers will be thinking long and hard about why you’re awesome, and then articulating it! From that moment on, they’ll have an “elevator speech” in the back of their mind.

Now imagine that a mom is talking to a friend, who is complaining about how long kitchen cleanup takes- or, an exasperated, overworked employee is complaining to a coworker about how much he owes in taxes this year. The mom and the coworker will have sales pitches ready to go when they are made aware that someone else needs your product or service.

It’s hard to imagine a more effective sales situation than this – and it’s as simple as paying attention to your customers and asking for a testimonial!

*Did we mention this method is FREE?!

But the answer isn’t what you might think.

In the previous post, we cited a study by Sysomos that revealed that only 4% of Facebook pages have 10,000 or more fans. That same study revealed that there is very little correlation between the frequency or subject matter of wall posts and number of fans. But, there is a strong correlation between the amount of other content like notes, photos, and videos, and number of fans.

So, if you want to grow and engage your fan base, thus leveraging Facebook users into actual paying customers, focus less on wall posts and more on posting videos, photos, and notes.

Remember, the key to success in any kind of content-based marketing is delivering valuable or relevant information to your audience. Focus on that, and the results will flow in.

Read on to find out why…

Many businesses make the mistake of focusing so hard on gathering more and more followers/fans, that they neglect the one thing that will turn the followers into paying customers: Content.

Now, we know you probably have heard the (old by now) adage “Content is King”, but there’s a reason it’s said so much. It’s because it absolutely is true! Spend one week focusing on putting out quality, relevant content on your Facebook page, and you will see more results!

Check back on Friday of this week for Part 2 of this series, where we’ll discuss exactly what kind of content you need to focus on to get more from your Facebook pages- the answer may surprise you!