Tips for Integrating Social Media and E-mail Strategy

Some keys to making e-messages more socially friendly are:

• enabling people to share content through various channels, not just a "forward to a friend" button;
• sending only well-crafted messages;
• segmenting and testing how social media audiences respond to different kinds of e-mail messaging;
• keeping messaging true to your brand; and
• making it possible for e-mail campaigns to go viral, moving from your inbox to being tweeted in real time.

Social media is great for getting traffic to your site, but make sure you are ready for visitors when they arrive, Johns stressed. Some ways to do that are:

• keep e-mail capture above the fold on your homepage;
• include e-mail capture on the homepage and interior pages; and
• keep the sign-up form short and simple.

Organizations also should engage new and existing supporters. Some ways to do this are after they sign up for an e-mail on your official Web site, or adding "share this" and bookmark tools to existing landing pages and blogs.