One is Silver, the Other is Gold

Make new friends, but keep the old.
One is Silver, the Other is Gold.

This was one of the very first things I learned as a little girl in Girl Scouts. Every so often I find myself humming the tune and singing a few of the verses that I now just barely remember. I stood around a circle and sang this song with 20 other girls so long ago and yet I still remember the lesson learned in the lyrics.

Silver shines bright. And Gold does too.
Keep them both. And they will shine for you.

Even though as young girls we were taught this lesson in friendship, as adults we can apply this message in many aspects of the business world. As I quietly mumble the words, I am thinking of how so many companies are starting out in their social media endeavors. Social media marketing initiatives are valuable, but the email marketing can still shine for you.

You have one hand, I have the other.
Put them together, We have each other.

Now that you are finding new friends in Facebook and Twitter, remember that you still have a mature friendship with email marketing. If you can put the two together you’ll increase both of their values.

You help me, and I’ll help you.
And together, we will see it through.

Just a few simple steps can have have your email marketing and social media outlets working together:

• Include your social media chiclets in your email campaigns.
• Tweet your most recent subject line with a bit.ly link to the full email campaign.
• Share images from your most recent email message with people that “like” your Facebook page
• Ask your customers to “follow” or “like” you in your transactional emails.
• Store usernames in your customer profiles to optimize multichannel user experience
  (you can respond to an @customername feedback on Twitter with a quick response and provide a more detailed resolution via email).

Create new marketing, but optimize the old.
One is Silver, the Other is Gold.
Social Media shines bright. And Email does too.
Keep them both. And they will shine for you.