Social Smarts: Integrating Email and Facebook

Let's face it - Facebook has seen hockeystick growth over the last year - over 175M active Facebook users last count, if you are a consumer brand, you are probably, like many figuring it out as you go along. Email can be a great channel for spring-boarding your social media campaign on Facebook. Then again, Facebook can be a great way to grow your email list organically. Here's a few great best practices in integrating social media and email.

1. Email - When you Go Big: Drive Exclusive Offers for Facebook Fans. For French Connection, they offer exclusive news and offers- and track these offers uniquely. Recently, French Connections and others started doing this with Twitter as well.

2.: Use Navigational elements in email to drive awareness of your brand's social footprint. You can see below in the footer from Peet's there's a clear list of social media sites: Blog, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube - plus a viral element to forward to a friend.

3. Message via email - and Facebook. If you are looking for a last minute Valentine's gift - it's okay to post updates on Facebook, and with an email campaign - just make sure you track both uniquely.

4. Like email, mix it up, and keep it relevant. Whether you are CPG product which has a Facebook recipe contest, or a fashion retailer with Facebook fans decked in your finest, fans can help your Facebook presence say isn't about just promotion, - it's about the fans.

5. Test. Track. Test. Repeat. Make it part of your practice to uniquely tracks text and logo for Facebook to see which users originated from which email - and which linked from email to Facebook or other social destination site. Having unique email and Facebook offer codes, and link tracking to help you evaluate how well these integrated campaigns work for your business, and which integrated campaigns worked best for your brand.