You can stay married to your current strategic development plan if you want the last bone. Unless the content in your emails, provided to subscribers is share-worthy, it’s probable that the content won’t leave that inbox.
Why you post information to social sites, the content within, and how frequently you engage in social media participation, all have to do with the motivation behind it. If you can apply those motivations to your audience, and provide material that perks their little ears, you’ve got yourself a social-email strategy.
The ruling motivators for social engagement include self-interest, self-expression or status-achievement. “What’s in it for me?” Include promotions, advice or interesting facts and media sources – no one will post Company XYZ’s mission statement and boring ongoing rates to their Facebook Page. Make me want to “tell 5 friends”.
Give your subscribers a way of self-expression. A brief example of this could be providing a link to a social site (Facebook is best for applications) that would allow for the creation of a personalized profile graphic to show off, and show support.
In the online world, it isn’t the brand of your shoes, or the model of your car that symbolizes your status. It’s numbers. Your audience—and people in general—want to feel like they have authority, reason to brag or just own a feeling of accomplishment. How can your brand capitalize on that motivation? Do something like this, for example… Whenever a subscriber shares the email content with someone in their social network, they get a point… or two. The more people that they share that information with, they more “points” they get. This could in turn, be used for pulling in subscribers for special events, all while raising awareness and creating a social-email strategy.
So get sharing!
Tip: Do your research. Recognizing what exactly motivates your subscriber base will help you develop email content that is share-worthy.
image: Back in the Pack
Tags: Email marketing, Social Media
