Internal Vs. External Tools: Determining the Best Approach to Social-Media Marketing - Page 3 of 4

By Robin Fisk

“As 2009 comes to a close, nonprofits and associations should look to use each marketing channel to its fullest, complementary advantage over the next year,” Tyler says. “Social media can be used to build brand awareness and share information, while e-mail can help organizations maintain those conversations and market to donors and members.”

When thinking about e-mail campaigns, and how organizations can get the most for their marketing dollars, one thing should come to mind — leverage exposure. With the increased adoption of social-media marketing, the promise of exposure for nonprofits and associations is tenfold. So, how can organizations leverage all of the tools available to complement one another?

Integrating internal and external social media, especially with an e-mail strategy, allows nonprofits and associations to develop more personal relationships with their audience, resulting in more successful marketing campaigns. Tyler offers a few ideas on how organizations can best utilize e-mail — the driver to a nonprofit’s or association’s social media pages:

Include links to all of the relevant Web sites in every piece of e-mail marketing sent. Also, be sure to use the standard, social-media icons to make the links recognizable.

Add e-mail opt-in links to the social-networking pages. Always provide a clear and simple way for new readers to subscribe to e-newsletters or other forms of online communication.

Look for content for e-newsletters on the social-media sites. Organizations can find some great trends and pass on a summary of the online discussions to their readers.

Allow e-newsletter subscribers to share the mailings to their own contacts on social-networking Web sites, like Twitter or LinkedIn. All it takes is one click — followers can take care of all of the viral marketing, making it effortless for nonprofits and associations.

E-mail marketing should come into play when planning the launch of a social network (whether developed internally or using Web sites like Facebook and YouTube) and supporting that network once it is live. Nonprofits and associations are becoming better educated on the power of these marketing forces working in unison. Over the course of the next year, organizations that focus on using a combination of internal and external social media tools — as well as complimentary marketing techniques — will benefit significantly.