Social Forward from Exact Target

Social media is becoming more and more important in all facets of the online marketing industry. While there is no standard for how much or in what way to utilize social media in conjunction with an email marketing campaign, it’s obvious that email social media campaigns are a growing trend.

A recent survey from Ball State University and the Email Marketer’s Club about email social media campaigns found that just 13% of email marketers currently include social media into campaigns- the study also found that 46% of those same email marketers intend to add social media to their campaigns this year.
Exact Target has a great option for email social media campaigns called Social Forward.

First unveiled earlier this year at ad:tech, Social Forward is an email social media service to help subscribers engage with email messaging and share it with their social media networks.

Social Forward has three basic pieces: ShareThis Integration, Direct to Social, and Forward to a Friend.

ShareThis Integration combines Exact Target services with ShareThis capabilities- namely that people who receive your emails can share that content to over 20 other online networks. They also provide metrics so you know where things are shared and can tweak your strategy.

Direct to Social enables subscribers to put the content directly onto social media networks like Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn (among others).
Forward to a Friend does just what it sounds like- it empowers subscribers to forward on an email with a personal message to their friends and lets you know how your list grows as a result.

Email social media services like Social Forward from Exact Target are the wave of the future. I recommend checking them out to see how they can help your email marketing campaign become a social media campaign.

Email Social Media, Social Forward from Exact Target

Scott
email marketing blog