New StrongMail Survey Shows Social Media Is Emerging as a Direct Marketing Channel

Based on these findings, it's clear that social media has grown to the stage where it needs an owner and a purpose within marketing. StrongMail believes that the intrinsic interconnection between social media and email make it an ideal direct channel. Email continues to drive engagement in social networks by alerting members of new content and updates, and the ability to communicate relevant messages within social networks is critical to a business' success in the medium.

In order to help direct marketers integrate social media into their email marketing programs, StrongMail has developed a social media framework that consists of the following three core capabilities:

Social Share
Social Share enables direct marketers to increase list growth and acquire new, highly valuable targets by allowing email recipients to share branded email content across the most popular social networks, blogs and email. Marketers can leverage Social Share to provide targeted offers to their email list that ignite a natural sharing response, inspiring others to opt-in for additional special offers.

Social Direct
A natural extension of email marketing, Social Direct puts the marketer in control to send targeted and personalized messages to vibrant and fast-growing social communities. Direct marketers can leverage new email technologies to communicate directly to social networks on Facebook via messages, status updates or wall posts.

Social Programs
Social Programs enables direct marketers to create powerful direct-response programs that leverage social media as the next generation of forward-to-a-friend. Social Programs integrates email, the Web and social networks to create true viral marketing programs in which consumers spend their own "Social Capital" to drive your brand, helping marketers finally deliver on the vision of viral marketing.

StrongMail also offers a suite of strategic and creative services designed to complement these capabilities and help email marketers maximize the effectiveness of the social media channel, including rewarding advocates for evangelizing brands and programs, as well as identifying, targeting and leveraging those recipients most active within their social networks.