A recent survey by MarketingSherpa says that email marketers don’t find social sharing that effective. In fact, a mere 10% find social sharing buttons very effective; 52% find them somewhat effective, and the remaining 38% find them ineffective.
Maybe that’s it, and social sharing isn’t an effective marketing method?
There are a number ways you can look at it. However, while I don’t like dissing people, maybe some just don’t get social email marketing.
What everyone keeps telling you about social sharing
Many say that adding social sharing buttons to your emails is, like, the best thing there ever is. That is not necessarily true.
Social sharing buttons surely don’t do a lot of harm, but when it comes to actual numbers, the efficiency of social sharing relies on how you present your content to the socially active readers.
An article with nothing but a promotion has poor “sharing” value although it could be very pleasing to the subscriber. I mean, there’s no real reason to share a promotion, unless you have to have other people involved in it, right?
On the other hand, an article with fun or glamour has sharing value, because it speaks directly to the social instincts that we possess as human beings.
Marketing specialists seem hooked up on new things, but they often forget about value to the subscriber and the tone they use when referring to their subscribers. If you have a Facebook fan page — great, but what you should worry about is how to utilize it and keep your existing fans content.
Psst, and here’s a quick tip: emails with brand names in the title seem more shareable for some reason.
How to go on about email sharing, then?
Not every social website will work for you, and you shouldn’t blindly present the user with sharing your email in hundreds of social websites. Choice is great, but too much choice is a turn-off.
The answer to finding your sweet spot in social media is A/B testing.
Send the users emails with different social marketing sites in which to share your content, and deduce which social networks generate the most “shares” or “likes”.
Make a list of social sites your subscribers use to connect, then try building your presence on those sites with “Facebook campaigns” and things that make people want to become followers of your social marketing channels.
For example, B2B email marketers tend to get good results with the LinkedIn network, wherease B2C marketers will often get lucky with Facebook and the likes. Tech and niche campaigns should seek for success on Reddit, Slashdot, delicio.us. And so on.
How to keep your followers interested
As this article at Email Marketing Reports creatively suggests, you ought to offer value beyond your products — you have to become personal. But not to an extreme, as your online “fans” are still… online fans. Even Justin Bieber, who of all people should get away with posting self-serving tweets, doesn’t tweet anything (or much) of the sort.
If you are experiencing success in social sharing, enjoy it while it lasts, and don’t hang up on the idea of being an “online star”, as remaining one requires a lot of work with the content you ought to present, and perhaps even with yourself.
