Should Strategies Be The Same for Email Marketing Campaigns as They Are For Social Networking?

Email marketing and social networking continue to become more tightly integrated as the World Wide Web turns.  Today, they are considered two of the most popular and effective communications channels in existence.  And while social networking has shown that it can  compliment email marketing very well, the strategies you employ for these techniques should not be exactly the same.  The reason?  Because they are so fundamentally different.

There are many traits that attract marketers to social networking.  Among them is the ability to monitor the discussions occurring in a given community to uncover important conversations, keywords, and topics related to products or services a brand is trying to market.  Establishing a presence in the social realm makes it possible to identify the top influencers and even evangelists who are willing advocate on behalf of your brand.  However, the key difference is the manner in which you must approach prospects with your marketing message.  Unlike email campaigning, social networking is more about having conversations and building relationships than throwing sales pitches.  If you are entering this arena thinking you will generate quick sales, you could be in for a rude awakening.  

During its very short stay, social networking has quickly gained a reputation for being an effective viral marketing channel.  In the process, it has reminded us just how powerful word of mouth recommendations still are.  The downside is that even though you are able to stream your marketing material through this channel, that content often becomes user-generated.  Sure, the connections you have made can help you get the word out, but it can also get to the point where your content is shared by so many people that you actually lose control of the conversations and activities associated with it. This is why social networking strategies generally call for you to monitor your community and react accordingly, rather than delivering your marketing message and waiting for your audience to respond as you would do with email.  

As a communications platform, email is more direct than social networking, and this also makes it a much more efficient tool for getting people’s attention.  With an email campaign, a compelling subject line and relevant content is often enough to get people to open and read your message.  Similar tactics can be applied to social networking, but potential readers are often distracted by news feed comments, bulletins, apps, and other elements that compete with your marketing message.  Build a good rapport with your audience and deliver something good on a consistent basis, and you just may find that email is far more effective at generating sales and growing your business than social networking. 

Email marketing and social networking do indeed have a lot in common.  However, it just wouldn’t be wise to employ the same strategies because they are simply two different channels. 
If you try to approach them in the exact same manner, you could end up with very disappointing results.