Newsletters and Social Media Aren’t the Same

Does this sound familiar? You create an eNewsletter, send it to your mailing list, hoping for a 25% open rate. Then, you post it on social media as a way to reach other audiences. Could you be doing more to marry these two channels to further your communication strategies? Chances are you could be.

Just remember: Social media and newsletters are effective tactics to complement your communication strategies. If you need help with honing your communication strategy, consider checking out Advocacy & Communication Solutions (ACS) tools: 10 Tips for an Effective Communication Approach or pointers to Leverage Social Media.

A recent article, “Newsletters and Social Media Aren’t the Same- So Why Do So Many Marketers Treat Them That Way?, offers suggestions on how to make newsletter content and social media work hand-in-hand. Below are some highlights:

Pay to reach the hard-to-engage: Many social platforms including Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn give you the ability to upload subscriber lists and target those specific individuals. You can target content to all of your eNewsletter subscribers or to the segment that has not opened a particular article. If you want to grow the size of your subscriber list, you can upload the same subscriber list and have Facebook create a “lookalike” list that shares characteristics and target these individuals with paid content.

Create Complementary Social Content: Don’t expect the same piece of newsletter content to be pulled verbatim and work well in social media.  When it comes to social, the audience expects content to be visual and engaging. Pull out an interesting quote from a newsletter article and create it into a visual graphic to share on your social media channels. Have an article filled with statistics? Pull them out and create a graphic for your social audience to react to!

Spotlight Social Sharing Opportunities: You can utilize high-performing social media content to feed your newsletter. Have a post that was particularly well received? Pull it out and put it in your newsletter! Encourage your readers to share on their own social media channels.

Reach your audiences most effectively by thinking through your communication strategies first, taking into account your purpose, target audiences, and core messages. Use the tips above to allow your target audiences the ability to engage with your content in different ways across multiple platforms. Please feel free to contact us anytime to discuss how ACS can help you with your communication!