Two ways, the first of which is by using Social Media. Your brands Facebook and Twitter pages work as a direct line to your audience. Use that community that you've grown over time and tap into them. Run promotions that require the audience to get involved, and this will spread among their friends and followers, garnering you more eyes on your campaign. Your consumer base is more likely to enter contests around this time of year because it's been hardwired into our society to think of giving and gifts, so design your contest to look the part.

Check back next week for part 2, where we will discuss email marketing!

As marketers find opportunities to build audiences, conversation and conversions with clever cross-promotion between the two mediums, e-mail and social media tactics are becoming increasingly popular and intertwined.

Incentives Drive Clicks and Conversions

Dingo, a pet food company in Ohio, created a promotion that rewarded customers with a $20 coupon if they signed up for the company’s newsletter and “Liked” its Facebook Page, with the catch being that the page needed to get to 5,000 fans (from a base of around 300) for the promotion to kick in. Mike Halloran, the owner of Dingo, says it reached its goal within three days, as pet owners found out about in the Dingo newsletter and forwarded it to their friends and “liked” Dingo on Facebook.

Of all channels, e-mail marketing and social media go hand in hand better than any other, getting your customers to share your message with friends is the most effective way to grow your business.

 

The company’s e-mail newsletter — which has more than 100,000 subscribers – recently featured a promotion to win a free bike, helmet and messenger bag to fans of the company’s Facebook Page. So far, the opportunity has driven more than 6,500 clickthroughs to the giveaway, versus just nine clicks (yes, nine) to the company’s prompt that encourages e-mail subscribers to become Facebook fans.

 

Promotion Works Both Ways

These promotions can also work the other way, however. Shoe retailer Crocs not only promotes social media through its e-mail newsletter, but also promotes its e-mail newsletter through social media. For example, the company will inform its Twitter followers or Facebook fans about a special offer that’s only available to newsletter subscribers. The company also lets Facebook fans sign up for its e-mail newsletter from an app that’s built into its page, something that Andrea Stow, senior global eMarketing manager for Crocs, says has resulted in a “gigantic leap in our e-mail subscribers.”

 

Stow continues, “Our strategy is understanding and knowing that there might be duplicates [subscribers to multiple mediums] — but the more customer touch points, the better conversion we’ll have.”

That reach, says Stow, gives Crocs the ability to stay in touch with customers year round — important for a company that only expects its average customer to buy new shoes two or three times per year at most.

E-mail Will Only Get More Social

Although companies like Crocs, Timbuk2 and Dingo are still relatively early movers in the integration of e-mail and social media.

Concludes Schmulen, who was also a co-founder of NushellMail, “What we’re seeing today [is the] social call to action [becoming] the primary call to action inside of newsletters.” Expect that trend to continue as marketers start to realize the benefits of doing so and technology providers continue to integrate e-mail and social tools into one package.

However, social media offers a lot more than just discounts and deals when it comes to food and beverage. Restaurants and bars are giving social media users a backstage pass to the food and the people who make it. Chefs and restaurateurs are using social media to reveal how their dishes are made, generate familiarity with chefs and provide a means for diners to share feedback.

Revealing How A Dish Is Made

You can blame it on the rise of celebrity chefs or the success of The Food Network and shows like Top Chef, but now more than ever, people want to live vicariously through others who cook. Many restaurants, including Chicago’s Piccolo Sogno and The Bristol, are posting videos to YouTube or Vimeo of new dishes being prepared. “The general idea is to pull the curtain back,” says Phillip Walters of The Bristol. “Allow people at home to feel more involved and engaged with that you are trying to deliver.”

Getting To Know The Chefs

Instead of attracting customers with deals, many restaurants strive to use social media for a tailored, personal experience. “People love to go into a restaurant or bar and know the owner or the chef,” O’Keefe says. Think of it as instantly becoming a regular.

That’s why chefs like Joanne Chang of Boston’s Myers and Chang and Flour Bakery personally tweet photos of the kitchen staff at work. “If you’re in a PR firm, you’re not going to get the same feel,” O’Keefe says. “It’s her and you know that it’s her.”

Grant Achatz, the man behind Chicago’s Alinea — named best restaurant in America in 2006 by Gourmet — also does his own tweeting. “Who would you rather hear from?” he asks. “Me directly or some weird person I paid to represent me?” When Achatz is not in the restaurant, he continues to tweet — from where he’s eating in Chicago to where he’s visiting in Japan. It lets people get to know him better and maintains a base, he says. “I’m not a celebrity, but I have a following.”

Achatz’s approach to helping his audience learn more about him is spot on. “Who we are” is the primary message of any effective marketing campaign, says Syeed Mansur, CEO of Sentrana, a firm that uses mathematical models to determine the most effective marketing strategies for companies.

Do you follow your favorite chefs or restaurants? Share your thoughts in the comments.

While this seems to suggest everyone should target their messages to the end of the week, that also isn't always the case. If you are a B2B company, this would be a terrible time to reach out to your audience since they're no longer thinking of work. Now if you're a B2C company, then go ahead and reach out and get some good conversations going with your audience.

One thing is for sure for every company though, Monday is the WORST day to reach out to users. It's the "noisiest" day on social networks so your message will probably be lost in the static.

Social media is a quickly evolving field, and sometimes this gives people the impression that a contest should only last a week or two. Unfortunately, unless you're managing a massive brand, you need some time just for the contest to get some traction and have some visibility. This can be a slippery slope if not done correctly. Be sure to give your campaign a full month at least, as well as a week before hand to start promoting the contest.

Facebook as a platform is trying to evolve to better fit each individual user, filling their feed with friends and pages they have recently interacted with, which is why it is always a best practice to consistently keep your audience engaged. This way they will see when you start promoting your new contest. Another way to get around this new feature  is by getting  your fans to tag you in a post, that way it shows on their friends news feeds, not just your fans.

Follow these rules and your contest will generate the buzz you need and the results you want.

What is "News Feed Optimization"?

The news feed is the #1 most visible real estate on Facebook. It is customized to each user based on their network and their patterns of activity, like which of their friends they interact with the most. The news feed shows the top posts from a user's network, filtering out more than 99% of content. So, the question is, how do you make sure your content makes it into that <1% of content securing real estate in the news feed?

Facebook's Algorithm: EdgeRank

Facebook, unlike the super-secret Google, has shared their algorithm for ranking content on Facebook and filtering what appears in the news feed. The algorithm consists of three components:

1. Affinity - the number of times 2 people (or a person and a page) have interacted

2. Weight - the number of times users have interacted (commented, liked) with the content in question

3. Recency - the time since the content was posted, note that Facebook moves and changes very quickly, and my news feed, for example, never has content more than 24 hours old.

20 Tips to Get Your Content Seen on Facebook

With the understanding of how Facebook ranks and filters content, what can you do to make sure your content makes the cut? Here are 20 ideas.

1. Post a variety of content to attract interactions from a higher percentage of your users, raising your affinity score.
2. Focus on positive and fun content on Facebook. Sex sells.*
3. Talk about Facebook - Facebook is the number one most shareable topic on Facebook.*
4. Respond to comments that your fans post on your content to increase the number of interactions per post.
5. Respond to comments that your fans post on your wall to increase your affinity score.
6. Experiment with targeting posts to get a higher feedback score (percentage of impressions that turn into interactions).
7. Post regularly, but not too frequently (more than once a day) to give each post a good chance of gaining traction.*
8. Post content outside of main work hours - Facebook users interact more when they're off the clock.*
9. Include images on blog posts you publish to create a more eye-catching post.
10. Don't forget to write an appealing meta description for any links you post, because Facebook automatically pulls this in for links.
11. Use share links on your blog articles and landing pages to encourage users to post your content directly.
12. Integrate landing pages within Facebook to get higher conversion rates - Facebookers don't like to leave Facebook.
13. Post videos directly instead of links to articles with videos, so users can watch the video within Facebook.
14. Include links in video descriptions to drive traffic back to your website.
15. To share photos but protect your copyright and get better analytics, use Flickr integrated with your Facebook account.
16. To share photos for maximum interactions, post photos directly to Facebook.
17. Refrain from using complex language or jargon in your posts for maximum response.*
18. Ask questions and specifically ask for feedback from your fans.
19. Use Facebook Insights to measure which content performs the best on your specific page.
20. Encourage user-generated content, including user-created photos, comments, or links.

Read more: http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/9875/20-Tips-to-Get-Your-Content-Seen-on-Facebook.aspx#ixzz1EnHBPM43

See Ellie's slides from Social Fresh: http://www.hubspot.com/social-fresh-tampa/

The Obvious Social Network Route

As the movie The Social Network hit screens, the time came to reflect on the phenomenal success of Facebook and other social media sites. Facebook has an estimated 500 million users and this is likely to increase even further. Twitter now has well over 100 million users and is attracting an average of 300,000 new users a day. This makes it plainly obvious as to your main 2011 social media strategy. Facebook seems to attract users in the ‘right’ age group for marketing purposes, so dedicate a considerable amount of your budget towards setting up campaigns both on Twitter and Facebook.

Video Kills The Behind The Times Company

Yet it is important to push yourself to the front of the queue when it comes to jumping on the video marketing bandwagon. A recent whitepaper by Cisco suggested that more than half of all web traffic will be video-related by 2014. The days of the 30 second advert are dying out with more and more consumers skipping these dull and unimaginative productions. Sites like YouTube need to used more frequently with thought provoking and lengthier adverts the key to success. If you want someone to buy your cereal, don’t depict a happy family with 2.4 children eating the product by the kitchen. Edgy, new and deep will sell in future where fast, predictable and cheesy once ruled.

Email And Mobiles

As one might expect, email marketing is moving with the times. An extraordinary 97% of American households use email so a well constructed email campaign will reap dividends. It is a fact that social networks such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter are being integrated with email. The smartphone, Android and iPhone are linking even more users to their mail. The challenge facing digital marketers is to find a way to tailor their campaign for customers who view their email on a mobile device. The best strategy is to use a tool such as Litmus to find out more about your audience and tailor your campaign to them. This is necessary because it is difficult to find a current strategy that will work well for all mobile users.

SEO Is Still King

Believe it or not however, despite the huge budgets set aside for the all of the above, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is still top of the list when it comes to 2011 digital marketing tactics according to a poll carried out by Top Rank. Yet in order to get your content to the top of the search engine ladder, you still have to know your targets and audience. If you know your audience but not their triggers, start surveying. If you know what you want to market but have no idea to who, check out sites like eMarketer for market statistics. It should be remembered that no amount of marketing will work if your content is poor, sort it out. Oh, and avoid those nasty “please stay on my page and click on cancel for something special” pop-ups, these REALLY annoy consumers!

So where will this leave your marketing strategy for 2011?  All four of these pieces will make your marketing plan come together and keep up with the ever-changing trends for digital marketing.

Are you hiding under your desk scared of what social media could mean for your company?  Remember thinking that you are "safe" if you don't get involved?  If there is one thing we hope you realize is that disasters aren't caused by social media!  Social media is what lets you SURVIVE them!  No matter how small or how large your company is, your customers are still talking about you!  Avoiding the conversations makes you look like you aren't interested in connecting with your customers.  When taking a look at social media, don't only think about Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or MySpace.  Think about using these tools to connect with your target audience...social media is about people.

So are you ready to take that leap of faith into the social media world?  The only way to start is by developing a social media plan.  No plan?  Well, let's get you started - no one is successful without a plan, right?

Define Your Success

You shouldn't enter into social media unless you know what you want to get out of it!  If you aren't sure what defines "success" for your company, then you aren't ready!  Some examples of metrics are:

* Building buzz and conversation around your product
* Gaining more traffic
* Knowing how your customers view your brand
* Better overall brand awareness
* Leads or blog subscribers

Once you know that, the next step in the planning process is to figure out how you will measure it!  Be sure you understand your challenges and goals to determine how "buzz" will be quantified.  Are you looking at blog comments, conversions, links, Twitter conversations, or better brand recognition?  No measurement = not meeting goals!

Tell Your Story

The best way for you to connect with your customers is to use social media tools to tell them who you are!  What are the values your company holds?  Are you known for anything in particular or do you have something you want to be known for?  Marketing is telling a company story!  When your story is being shared by your customers, you know you have been successful because they WANT to be associated with you!

Building Communities

Make sure that you understand who your customers are and where they are located.  If you aren't sure, start some research to find out.  Starting with Twitter, search for your brand name, your competitors' names, your keywords, industry, etc.  You will then need to decide if there is enough conversation to start engaging.  With Facebook, see if there are Business Pages dedicated to your company or industry.  If there aren't, are there a lot of people who list it as an interest and possibly interested in joining a community on that topic?  You can also check out Yahoo Answers to see if people are asking or answering questions.

Rules for Engagement

There might be some times where your company is called names and have some negative comments come from customers, but make sure you set up a strategy for dealing with them!  Having ground rules is a must!  You also need rules for not just what you will say, but WHO will be in charge of saying it and what their role is.  Better to create the rules before you get started and not while the fire is flaming!

Check Your SuccessYou can't set up your account name on your social media accounts and then just wait for things to happen.  You have to make sure that you are engaging with your community, but then also taking a look at your efforts to make sure you have been successful.  If you haven't, what are you going to do to fix them?  Make sure you give it time....  Social media efforts start showing their effects about 2-3 months into your plan.  When you begin, you start looking at Twitter followers and Facebook fans, but those aren't the metrics you should be evaluating all the time.  You should really be looking if your rankings have increased based on traffic and links, if social media users are actually engaging or converting, and if you have increased awareness about a product that has led to a sale.

Whatever you had outlined as determining “success” before, now is the time to see if you’ve gotten any closer to that goal.  If you have, congrats. Keep on doing what you’re doing. If not, figure out what’s broken and fix it. If you can’t do it yourself, you may need some help!  I'm sure you know where we will point you -----------> Digital Street!

Here's Zuck explaining what the coming changes will mean for users (don't worry, it's not a big deal)...