Blogs

So, is Social Media Marketing for real? Do social media channels (Facebook, MySpace, Twitter) really offer marketers extended reach and enhanced program conversion? At StrongMail, we are convinced they do, but only for those marketers that understand how to leverage social media within their marketing mix.

The road is already cluttered with brands that have embarked on failed social marketing strategies. This blog will be dedicated to sharing the proven practices of marketers blazing the trail to social media marketing success. Stay tuned for topics in upcoming posts focusing on such topics as:

• The proper application of social capital
• The proper application of social motivation
• Testing within social influence programs
• Targeting your most likely influencers and the impact on program performance
• Social influencer marketing as a direct marketing opportunity
• How the interdependence of email and social influencer marketing drives conversions
• Understanding the most viral social channels vs. social channels that provide the highest conversion metrics

Each topic will share actual program data that will help you justify the investment in social influence marketing. I look forward to sharing my experiences in the exciting new space. In the meantime, below is some interesting data around social marketing and its growth as a key part of email marketing programs.

Last week, I had the pleasure of participating in a panel at ad:tech New York 2009 titled: Email 3.0. The panel, hosted by Bill McCloskey of Email Data Source, focused on new trends in email marketing with a special emphasis on social Influence marketing and rich media. As it turns out, Email Data Source has exceptional insight into what email marketers are doing within the email campaigns they deploy (check them out at http://www.emaildatasource.com/)

Specifically, if you have been wondering what your competition is doing as it relates to social media and email, consider the following trend data compiled by EDS:

• In Q4 of 2006 there were only about 230 links to social networks within email marketing programs. All of them were to MySpace or Linked-In.
• In Q4 of 2007, MySpace links in email campaigns more than doubled, to just over 500. While links to a new social network site, Facebook, appeared in over 400 programs. Links to a new micro-blogging site, Twitter, begin to appear with…wait for it….100 links from email programs during the quarter.
• In Q4 of 2008, Facebook links in email campaigns take off with over 6,000 appearing during the quarter. What about MySpace? Just over 2,000…And Twitter, about 1,500.
• In Q3 of this year, (are you sitting down?) Facebook links appeared in over 35,000 email campaigns. Twitter links appeared in over 40,000.

So what do we know based on this data? We know that direct marketers (and email marketers in particular) understand the importance of allowing their customers to share their brand message with their “social graph.” What we don’t know is how to optimize this opportunity to drive revenue and brand extension for our businesses. This blog will help demystify social influence optimization. I look forward to sharing our journey with you.