Marketing with social media? Take a lesson from your e-mail campaigns

1. It's not actually free. There are plenty of free social media tools out there. You can certainly set up a Facebook page or LinkedIn profile for free. However, no social media program will succeed without spending considerable time, resources and expertise.

Lesson learned: Email marketing is still considered free or almost free. The inexpensive price tag can be pretty tempting. But more often than not, a mediocre e-mail campaign manager is left alone to blast out message after message without the creativity, data analysis or technical support needed to really engage their readers (let alone to grow loyalty or to drive additional revenue). It's important to invest time to test new ideas and learn about the audiences these messages serve.

2. Having a profile is not enough. Put up a Facebook page with business-like language and see if anyone visits. Not many, eh? But a Facebook page that has a purpose and is interesting or helpful will become meaningful and engaging to your customers. Think of it like dating -- just because you're at the bar, doesn't mean anyone will approach you.

Lesson learned: E-mails are so easy to blast out, even my dog could do it. It's the technology that makes it easy and cheap. To get responses, however, takes much more time, energy and creativity. Again, like dating, responses are driven by engagement, relevancy, and good timing.

3. Be genuine. Your customers know when they're being sold. All they care about is "what's in it for me?" Being relevant, honest, and truly helpful to your customers is more effective and will create value to them. Simply replicating your website on Facebook or posting your offers on Twitter will quickly avert followers. Selling products may not be the best objective for your social strategy. Knowing what will help your customers the most will lead to better posts, which then lead to more traffic to your site and eventually more leads.

Lesson learned: Too many e-mails with less-than-special offers will cause subscribers to click "unsubscribe" faster than you can say "Wait! There's more!"

4. Become a friend of a friend. Social media exists in a messy, wild, and unpredictable community. But through all these online conversations come brand advocates. Those who follow you may inspire their friends to follow you, also.

Lesson learned: Beyond a sale, the best endorsement you can get in e-mail is to be forwarded. Content is only forwarded because it speaks to the subscriber and he or she aspires to be a finder of good information and share it with others who may also benefit.

5. Measure, analyze, then measure again. All investments in social media must be linked to a business goal. Check your Google Analytics every day. When you post something new on your blog, Facebook or Twitter, watch in real time to see if your post converted visitors to your website. Notice if people are clicking through or just wandering away from your site. Over time, you'll be able to figure out what posts are popular or produce the most discussions. Find out which Social Media outlets are converting the most people to your website. You can even see if you're a good Twitter-er with sites such as Twittergrader. It's also important to keep track of how much time you spend each day updating your accounts, and realize which ones you should spend more time or less.

Lesson learned: After sending out an e-mail campaign, you must read the report to see if it was successful or not. Then, you'll be able to improve on the next go-around. For instance, test out different subject lines in your e-mail newsletters to see which ones get opened the most. Or maybe, change the time of day or day of the week you send it to see what's best.