Build Your Email List on Social Media Site

Social media sites offer exciting new ways to showcase your newsletter content and invite people to sign up for your email list. But it's not about adding your voice to the din just for the sake of increasing exposure. It is about making new connections.

The key is demonstrating that you have valuable content to share with new subscribers and then turning those connections into customer relationships -- and additions to your mailing list.

Archiving to Extend the Life of Your Content

Before we discuss where to share your content, let's quickly discuss how you can prepare your newsletter to be shared. The easiest way to do this is to archive your issue. When you do that, not only will you be extending the life of the valuable content you've written, but you'll be provided with a URL that will link people directly to the issue.

After you've archived your issue, take the URL you are given to www.tinyurl.com, where you can turn a long web address into a miniature, easily-linkable version that you can use on any social media site. (For more information, click here to see our tutorial about using Archive with social media sites.) Just make sure that your archived page includes a Join My Mailing List box so anyone who clicks on the link can continue to hear from you.

Twitter

One of the most popular social media sites right now is Twitter. This is a social media site where you communicate with contacts using short messages of 140 characters or less. People sign up for the site, and they can choose to follow what you have to say.

Need a hot topic to Tweet about? Look no further than your own newsletter. Twitter limits "tweets" to 140 characters, so that challenges you to be concise when you write an article teaser. You can tell your followers, " just wrote a newsletter on [insert your topic]. Find it here [insert your tiny URL newsletter archive link]."

Facebook

Facebook used to be a place to share photos of yourself and your family with friends. Now it's also about communities of people who share common causes and passions -- and businesses, organizations, and public figures who hope to reach them.

Tell all your Facebook friends and fans about your newsletter by putting a link to your latest issue in your Status message, just like you would on Twitter. Spark up a timely discussion on your Wall about something relevant to your audience. Post interesting snippets of content that make people want to subscribe and suggest your Facebook page to their friends.

Most importantly, include a link to invite people to subscribe to your newsletter if they'd like to read more from you (click here to learn how to do that). Show visitors that by signing up for your newsletter, they are joining the community of people that you serve with your products, services, and expertise.

LinkedIn

How many past and present business colleagues do you have in your LinkedIn network? Of those people in your network, how many know you have an email newsletter? How many have signed up for it? You can use LinkedIn's Send a Message feature to reach out to up to 50 contacts at a time and invite them back to your website to subscribe. If you belong to LinkedIn groups, use the Discussions feature to inform people about your newsletter and the topics you cover, and tell them how they can sign up.

Other Social Media List Building Hints

1. Follow up new signups immediately with a Welcome email and a sample newsletter. Consider using an auto-responder to send an email to new subscribers, informing them of your content and your promotions.
2. Provide newsletter content that is valuable and worth forwarding and linking back to.
3. Archive your newsletter on your website so bloggers, Tweeters, and other social networkers can link back to your content, spreading it virally.
4. Make sure to read the Terms of Use before promoting your content on any website.
5. Invite readers to follow you on Twitter and Facebook from your newsletter.

Social networks offer potential for expanding your reach. But you need to create genuine customer relationships that go beyond the links you make. It's up to you to translate those new signups from casual connections into customer relationships that generate business. The opportunity for a real relationship starts when your email newsletter arrives in their inboxes.
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Reaching the facebook generation – Innovative ways of using facebook

Reaching the facebook generation - Innovative ways of using facebook

200,000. This is the approximate number of the new users who create new accounts on Facebook every day. For many of the Kenyan people who use the internet, facebook has become a way of life. It has become a platform where people meet new people and become friends, get to know of various events that are happening and get to catch or the latest gossip, tips, upload photos, write on someone’s wall, tag friends in photos,…….. Facebook is a gateway to the virtual world that Kenyans are being introduced to. In facebook, people can kiss, chat, send messages, send flowers, poke, throw strawberry at someone, track what friends are doing and do all sort of things that are done in the real world. Facebook is fast building an interconnected web of networks that are joining people all over the world with over 150,000 people joining facebook every day. Facebook is going to transform the way people behave and relate.

Facebook is very flexible and can be used innovatively by different people and organizations to achieve different objectives. Below are some innovative ways that people can use facebook.

Branding through Facebook

Social web has become an integral part of marketing plans in organizations that want to stay ahead of the curve and facebook has played a big role. Companies such as Coca-Cola, Adidas and Mazda have used facebook to advance their brands. For example, Coca-Cola launched a Coke Tag on facebook that people can use to promote themselves. Mazda invited facebook users to design a new concept for Mazda car during the Mazda Design Challenge. Mitsubishi has created a profile on facebook for its innovative electric vehicle(i-MiEV). The Adidas celebrate originality brand campaign was supported by facebook and youtube videos. Mars snackfood has used facebook in a very innovative way. Using the Facebook Celebrate application, people can give each other virtual gifts like candy bars. If they give a Mars candy bar, the recipient gets a virtual gift and a coupon for the real thing. Clinique, Harley Davidson, East Africa Breweries and more use free gifts as ads. When a user sends a virtual gift of a product with their brand name on it, their brand gets a nice bit of advertising. The possibilities for brands to leverage the social web, including social networking sites such as Facebook, are incredible. Is your brand on board yet? Don’t get left behind!

Improving recruitment experience through facebook

Human resource managers are now using facebook to investigate prospective employees before they hire them. Careerbuilder.com recently did a survey of American hiring managers and their use of facebook. Of the 3169 hiring managers who were surveyed, 22 percent said that they screen potential employees using social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace. Of those 22 percent, a little over one third of them have found content that made them drop the candidate from consideration for jobs for content ranging from drug-taking, excessive drinking and sexual promiscuity. Do you check candidates out via social networking sites before you send them on to your clients? How often has a Facebook profile or a MySpace page made you change your mind?

Non-profits can use Facebook

Non profit making organizations can use facebook in many innovative ways for instance, fundraising campaigns, communicate with potential supporters, to stir and broaden support for important social issues, to empower members to engage in their own actions, to organize, promote and manage events, to promote your organization's blog, latest news and meetings, to raise public awareness and money for advocacy efforts, to find and recruit volunteers, to create a single branded page of your organization's work and to stay in touch with core audiences on an ongoing basis. Dollars for Darfur, the brain-child of high school students Nick Anderson and Ana Slavin, is a nationwide fundraising competition among high schools to raise money for the advocacy efforts of the Save Darfur Coalition and humanitarian assistance for Darfuri refugees. The Facebook page encourages students to post ideas for fundraisers and talk about the crisis. It also encourages students to visit the organization's website and create a personal fundraising page for their school. With Facebook pages application, nonprofits can create a single branded page. The best thing about these new pages is the ability to post videos focusing on the work of your organization.

Facebook for Musicians

Musicians at every level have been eager to find a way to promote themselves to the millions of music fans. Any musician, whether signed to a label, independent, or just starting off in college or high school, can promote themselves inside of Facebook’s highly personal and highly viral environment. Through “My Band”, an innovative application designed to help artists promote their music on Facebook, artists can post unlimited songs, band info, show schedules, and even a “join the mailing list” function directly to their Facebook profile page. Their friends can play and share full-length tracks, add them to their own pages, and even buy the music and tickets. “My Band” even provides artists with stats about how their music is spreading. Over 750,000 artists are using “My Band” application on facebook to promote themselves and their music.

Facebook and the Church

Churches are taking advantage of this new community created by face book. The facebook Page for your church is a good way to get your church into social networking scene. With Facebook being so popular, having your church where people are having your church involved where your members and others are involved is a great way to connect with people. The Facebook Page allows your church, as an organization, to have an official presence in Facebook. You customize the Facebook Page even use HTML and Flash.

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