Social Media Optimization (SMO) is a formal name for something that many brands do at least in part, even if they are not aware they are doing it. In its most basic form, SMO consists of such things as RSS feeds from your blog, a tweet button and Facebook “like” button. You should also be using such things as blog tags and optimized titles and meta descriptions to make your content “discoverable”.

What’s the difference between SEO and SMO?

SEO is aimed at driving traffic to a specific website, while SMO builds a web of interactions around your content. This is done via people sharing the content on multiple social networks. Done right, SMO means people will carry your content and your message beyond your site. No one is saying that SEO is less important or becoming less so compared to SMO, but you do need to have an overall strategy which encompasses both.

If your corporate blog is running on WordPress then you have tons of free plugins available to help with Social Media Optimization. With a few clicks of the mouse you can add sharing buttons to your blog and make it easier for your community members to carry your content to others.

Here’s a great list of WordPress plugins which can help with your SMO and SEO efforts.

Make it easy for people to share your content

Most people won’t go out of their way to share your content. Make sure you have social sharing buttons at the top and bottom of your posts and pages or use a slider which keeps those buttons handy for each page and post.

Be sure it’s easy for people to share content in your email marketing newsletters too! Making it intutive for people to share your content socially in your email marketing can boost CTR up to 115%! Take a look at this stunning infographic we put together to demonstrate the power of social sharing in email marketing.

Never underestimate the power of social sharing

Don’t underestimate the power of social sharing sites either. Doing so could cause unexpected and perhaps even unwanted results.

Today a regional promotion might be picked up by contest sharing sites and go viral globally. You could find yourself totally overwhelmed by the response and way in over your head such as one Canadian coffee shop chain recently.

Be sure you can deliver what you promise people!

Learn from others

Take a moment to look at how other successful brand blogs are using social media optimization. You probably have some brand which you envy for their ability to get people sharing their content via such channels as Twitter and Facebook. It’s likely you’ll see some common factors among those sites which are having success with social sharing.

So what about you?

What are you doing to leverage social media sharing in your email marketing and on your website?

Has the subject of SMO ever come up in your organization? What are you doing now and what could you be doing better?

Are you operating in a vacuum or are you looking at what your competition is doing with social media? Do you have a plan/strategy to monitor their efforts and compare them to your own?

Have you got any good SMO tips or resources you want to share?

Social Media Optimization Basics is a post from: Email Marketing Tips - Blog GetResponse

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Before you actually proceed to check out the striking results revealed in the report, ask yourself one simple question:

Do I share?

If yes, proceed to the infographic to get sound, physical proof of the effectiveness of your social strategies.

If no, proceed to the infographic to see what you’re missing, and ask yourself the second question:

Why don’t I share?

The major finding of the GetResponse analysis is that the number of users who include social sharing buttons in their emails increased to 18.3%. Compared to last year’s results, that’s an increase of 40%.

But that level is still comparatively low, if contrasted with the exceptionally high performance results for newsletters that included social sharing buttons. Those emails had an average click-through-rate (CTR) 115% higher. Check out yourself:

Highlights of the infographic

• Facebook, included in 91% of social emails, outdistanced Twitter, becoming the most popular sharing option. Its popularity increased by 10% compared to 2010. That’s a huge jump, compared to Twitter’s 25% drop.
• LinkedIn sharing buttons are less popular than last year. The number of emails that include it dropped 25% since last year. This drop only emphasizes the jump in effectiveness of the LinkedIn link. The CTR for emails that include it has soared by almost 400%, making LinkedIn the top performer in CTR – that’s a result worth fighting for.
• The outstanding CTR results for social emails (115% higher) contrasted with the comparatively small number of actual shares per 10,000 emails (Facebook: 23, Twitter: 7, LinkedIn: 4) only further punctuate their extended viral impact.

What does it all mean?

Sharing is power.

Facebook has over 800 million active users worldwide, each with an average of 130 contacts. All are potential ambassadors of your brand. Just imagine the buzz one single campaign can create… or the damage from one publicized complaint.

This sheds a completely new light on customer-brand communication. Brands need to assume a more personal tone, respect individual voices and react in real time to all sorts of feedback. Brands that create a true relationship with their customers and respond to their needs with relevant and timely offers will benefit greatly from the enthusiasm of their fans.

All of that, just by providing sharing options in emails. And the best part is that with GetResponse there’s no added cost to include social media sharing, so it’s pure ROI.

If you still don’t believe us – get the infographic, print it, and come back to it now and then to remember that the stake’s high.

And now let me ask you one more time:

Do you share?

Social Sharing Boosts Email CTR Up To 115% [INFOGRAPHIC] is a post from: Email Marketing Tips - Blog GetResponse

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A while ago we decided to perform an experiment and ask our new subscribers to share the GetResponse “Subscribe” landing page on social media. We were pleasantly surprised with the results and want to share our findings with you.

How it works

After a new person signs up for our newsletter by filling in the sign up form at our homepage . . .

. . . they are redirected to a custom Thank-you page.

The idea for the creative was really simple. We wanted our subscribers to share and promote the information about our GetResponse Newsletter.

To make it quick and easy for them, we placed social sharing buttons with suggested text for retweets.

Both social sharing buttons link to a special landing page promoting our newsletter campaign.

Surprising results

We were thrilled to discover that the link to our landing page got an impressive number of social mentions:

Share: 556

Likes: 53

Comments: 25

Because Twitter searches only a 7-day history and does not monitor every tweet, we used http://topsy.com to calculate tweet mentions. Topsy found 96 tweets of our link.

Here are just a few of the retweets about this link:

Results of the viral sign-up form

In the time period of our analysis, we estimate that there have been more than 3400 unique visits to our thank you page. This means that approximately 18% of new subscribers shared the link to our newsletter sign-up on social media.

This wonderful social-sharing response of our new subscribers helps us to generate new leads and subscribers for our newsletter.

Will this idea work for you?

If it worked for GetResponse, it will work for you. Here’s why.

The perfect time to ask someone to do something for you is immediately after you have received a favorable response from them.

The favorable response you received was when they signed up for your newsletter. Your very next opportunity to ask them to do something for you is your Thank-you page. Perfect timing!

Two easy-to-use resources

To create a viral social-sharing Thank-you page similar to ours, create a Twitter “retweet” button and a Facebook “like” button.

1)   Go to this resource page on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/about/resources/buttons#tweet

Just fill in the blanks as they request then click the “Tweet” button on the right side of the page. That generates a snippet of HTML code you can copy-and-paste into your Thank-you page.

2)   Go to this resource page on Facebook:

http://developers.facebook.com/docs/reference/plugins/like/

Again, fill in the blanks then click the “Get Code” button to generate a snippet of HTML code you can copy-and-paste into your Thank-you page.

The two snippets of code you just created must be placed on a special web page that you or your webmaster will create on your website or blog. You should include some language, similar to the text on our Thank-you page, shown above.

Then log into your GetResponse Dashboard, select Web Forms in the menu, and find your current sign-up web form.

Click “settings” on the right side of the web form listing then click the “Custom Thank-you pages” button and enter the URL for your custom Thank-You page.

Click “publish” and you’re all done!

And if you get stuck, our Five-Star Customer Service Representatives are experts on this little procedure and will be happy to help you.

What a Viral Sign-Up Form can do for you

This little idea could add new subscribers to your email list, maybe just a few, maybe a whole bunch.

It costs nothing but a little setup time. And once it’s done, it keeps working forever!

Are you going to do it? Make your commitment by posting a comment below, then come back and let us know your results.

We can’t wait to hear about your successes!

How to Make Your Sign-Up Form Go Viral is a post from: Email Marketing Tips - Blog GetResponse

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We constantly get new tips on how to expand our mailing lists by attracting new subscribers from social media accounts. However, there are two sides to email-to-social-media integration, and you can engage your subscribers in other channels of communication too.

How? The migration can work the other way too – your active email recipients can become engaged followers, ready to spread the word enthusiastically by liking, sharing, following and retweeting.

This is not just about collecting fans and followers.

There are at least two more reasons for email-to-social-media integration:

• You already have the attention and interest of your email subscribers – and addressing them via other channels, each with a different offer, can help build true brand loyalty.
• But more importantly – paraphrasing the old adage – their friends can become your friends. Customers engaged across several channels create  “buzz” that circulates virally through their contacts, increasing their brand awareness – even though their contacts are not (yet!) in your circle of contacts.

So, if you think your collection of fans and followers needs fresh blood to extend your reach even further…

… here’s what you can do.

1. Analyze who and where your targets are,

so you don’t waste your time and resources on social media that will give you no ROI. Depending on your subscribers’ profile, you can reach out to limitless new audiences. Facebook and Twitter are only a start. Offer content via LinkedIn, Digg and as many others as you can manage. GetResponse offers 6 social media share buttons for your newsletter – integrated in the newsletter editor with just a click.

2. Make sharing intuitive.

The buttons need to be visible, and definitely “above the fold.” The click needs to be a natural and logical step – a clear call to action can encourage sharing.

3. Make sharing worth it;

Incentivize. Offer participation in a contest, survey, charity, etc. – anything that’s entertaining or promotes something that you believe is important.

4. Don’t repeat yourself;

Define the functions and objectives of each email and social media account strictly (e.g. newsletter for offers, FB for announcing events). But make sure that your subscribers know the advantages of participating across all of your channels of communication – e.g. inform them in an email that they will find listings of upcoming events on Facebook.

5. Make your Facebook offers exclusive

for fans, and don’t duplicate them for email recipients.

6. Generate two-way communication.

Send a newsletter inviting your subscribers to share comments, ideas, and opinions on your social media channels. Your subscribers will welcome the opportunity to become recognizable individuals (and not just another address on your list).

7. Promote your social media walls

as a place for a more relaxed style of communication. This is especially important in B2B marketing, where official style and format sometimes limit email communications.

8. Add a personal touch

by providing links to the accounts of real people behind brands, such as Zappos below. Just make sure the person is the true and recognizable face of the brand. Being able to exchange views with brand’s “decision makers” can be a real buzz booster.

Remember

None of these tips will help you if your soon-to-become-fans aren’t informed directly – so send an email to all your new subscribers letting them know about the advantages of liking and sharing. Otherwise it’s a no-go.

Email and social media now go together – complementing each other and reaching audiences previously inaccessible.

Now it’s your turn to optimize their integration and explore the new possibilities they offer.

So, are your emails optimized for the new challenge, yet?

Create More Buzz with Email-to-Social-Media Integration is a post from: Email Marketing Tips - Blog GetResponse

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As we informed you some time ago, we’ve been working on improving our Facebook sign-up form application. So here it is. Since a few things have changed, here are updated A-Z instructions for you so you can add it to your Facebook fan page and start collecting sign ups right away.

Here’s how to install the app on your fan page.

(Note, if you’ve installed the app previously, it will update automatically, so there’s no need to install it again.)

1. Log in to Facebook and go to the application:

http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=113349772082971

2. Click “Add to Fan Page”

3. From the list of fan pages for which you are the admin, choose the one you want to add the sign up form to and click the “Add Page Tab” button.

4. Now go to your fan page, and you’ll see a new “Sign up” tab on the left.

5. Click the tab and you’ll see a box to log in to your GetResponse account.

Log in with your GetResponse account details. You’ll see the Settings box where you can:

• Choose the web form from a dropdown window.
• Add text you want to be displayed on the tab – a message to encourage visitors to sign up and to explain what they will receive. Note: basic HTML tags are allowed: <div> <p> <span> <a> <br> <h1> <h2> <h3> <style> <b> <u> <i> Adding images is not allowed.
• Align the form.
• Adjust the position of the additional text.

7. Then click “Save” and you’re done. You can also preview your tab at any time and make necessary adjustments.

If you try to put a sign-up form on your Facebook page but haven’t yet created a sign-up form in your GetResponse account, you’ll get the following information after logging into the app:

Go to your GetResponse account and create a form for your campaign, then go back to the fan page and click “Go back to Settings”. You’ll now be able to choose the form and adjust the settings of your sign-up tab.

And if you see this message:

Try refreshing the page. If that doesn’t help, contact GetResponse Customer Support, providing the details of your GetResponse account and the fan page address. We’ll help.

A few extra tips

Read our previous post to learn how to change the name of the tab to anything you want, how to make it the default landing tab, and a couple of other tricks.

Also, watch out for any external graphics you’ve added to your sign up form.  Since it is now mandatory to use secure browsing (https) for all Facebook apps (including ours), all content must be added via https also, which means you’ll need to host it on services that uses the SSL protocol. Otherwise Facebook will keep warning you that you’re trying to access unsecure locations while using the application.

We really hope the new app will make setting up your Facebook sign-up forms much easier. Do let us know if you have any questions or problems – and we’ll be glad to help!

Facelift for our Facebook Web Form App is a post from: Email Marketing Tips - Blog GetResponse

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With the launch of our Facebook sign up form app, we’ve given you some technical info on how to embed a form on your fan page. Successful setup is merely the beginning. How to make it work for you? And how to incorporate it in your list building strategy? Here are a few tips.

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So you’ve managed to add a nice sign up form to your fan page and created a separate campaign to which your Facebook contacts will be added.

Tip: The form looks best if you make it 510 pixels wide, so it takes up most of the tab’s width. Our app doesn’t yet include an option to center the form or align left or right.

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Important: We’re currently working on a new version of the Facebook sign up application that will give you many more options to choose from. Look for a detailed announcement very soon.

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Now What?

Where do you find new contacts and get them to sign up?

First of all, you need to attract fans to your fan page. Then you need to let them know they can sign up for a newsletter.

The first thing you can – and should – do is to designate the sign up tab as the default landing page on your fan page. People who are not yet your fans will see this tab first when they arrive on your fan page. You’ll find instructions on how to do this in this post.

This option won’t work for those who are your fans already, so be sure to let them know on your wall that you’ve added a sign up tab to your page. And remind them every now and again, linking to the sign up tab.

You can also give the tab a distinctive name to attract more attention (described here).

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Incentivize to Get More Sign Ups

How can you encourage fans to enter their email addresses on your fan page? Think for a moment whether you want to add them to one of your regular campaigns or create a special campaign dedicated to your fans.

Either way, offer attractive content that they won’t want to miss. Perhaps you can offer a special discount for your products—a discount dedicated only to those who signed up via Facebook.

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Advertise

If you haven’t considered promoting your fan page using Facebook Ads, it might be worth taking a look. They could become a valuable element of your strategy and help you reach a larger audience with your offer. There are a few things you probably should consider:

• Make the Ad Attractive – Use eye-popping design and a catchy title, with equally catchy content; (you’ll find guidelines for creating ads here.) Use a clear call to action that will make people want to click your ad.
• Target, Target, Target – It’s the same rule as with email campaigns. Facebook gives you plenty of possible ways to target a specific audience. Instead of targeting keywords, you target people. Specify preferences, targeting people with certain hobbies, language, city and many other criteria.
• Link the Ad to the Landing Tab – Or link it to your sign up tab, for that matter. Remember to relate the content of the ad to the tab where the prospects will land.

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Promote Your Fan Page Elsewhere

Direct people to your Facebook page – AND your sign up form – from other places around the web (and not just the web). Place links to Facebook on your website or blog. Print QR codes on your leaflets or receipts, sending the users straight to the sign up tab.

Remember, your Facebook sign up form can be just another channel to get contacts for your campaigns, or you can create a separate campaign with exclusive “fan-only” content. It’s up to you – whatever you choose, the main rule stays the same. Don’t forget to make it worthwhile. 

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Make Your Fan Page Interesting

If your fan page is just another place for a sign up form, you can’t expect it to work. Fans are inclined to be more loyal customers, so it’s definitely worth fighting for their attention. Don’t just set up the form and leave it; provide interesting content on the fan page itself, so people will want to visit – and sign up for your newsletters, too.

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And one more thing – consider where your potential customers hang out. If Facebook is not the place, search for other means of communication. Remember, you have plenty equally interesting options.

Tip: Remember – the fact that someone “likes” your page doesn’t mean they’ve agreed to receive emails from you, even if you can see their email address on Facebook. Only when they’ve opted-in via your sign up form and confirmed can you start sending newsletters and follow ups.

Let us know how you’re doing with your sign up forms. Are they working for you? Have you got any advice for others? Comments welcome!

How to Use Facebook to Build Your Email List is a post from: Email Marketing Tips - Blog GetResponse

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Late last year, we were happy to announce that you could share your newsletters on both Facebook and Twitter. Of course, we already had more planned for you, and now, we have another cool update to present.

Since your fan pages are where most of the “action” is, we wanted you to be able to share your newsletters not only on your Facebook profile, but also on your Facebook Fan Pages. As with all GetResponse features, this one’s as easy as 1-2-3.

Let me walk you through integrating fan pages with your GetResponse account.

First, go to My Account -> Social Media Integration–> Facebook. Previously, this was where you found your Facebook account. Now you can also add your fan pages to the integration options. Just click “reload fan pages” and it’s done. How easy was that?!

Next go to Campaign Settings -> Social Media and add or choose which Facebook account and fan page should be connected with each campaign. If you have more than one Facebook account (and fan page), you can choose the best combinations to integrate with the various campaigns in your GetResponse account

Now it will be much easier to choose the FB account you wish to integrate as the last step of creating and sending your newsletter. All you have to do is make your selection, turn on Facebook integration and hit Send.

Finally, with these social media updates, you can not only choose which FB account and fan page to integrate, but you can also post a message about the newsletter or offer on your FB wall. You can even preview your message before going final.

Now you can get more publicity for your email marketing campaigns and reach not only your subscribers, but also your FB fans. And that means your campaigns will be more effective with only a few clicks and no extra money.

So give your newsletters more social power and extend their “lives” across the global web. And remember to let us know how it works for you!

Share Newsletters on Your Facebook Fan Page is a post from: Email Marketing Tips - Blog GetResponse

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Contests – not only do they engage your audience in a friendly and fun activity, but they can deliver a bonanza of customer data and feedback you can use to improve your campaign ROI. And when you run your contests via your blog and social media channels, you minimize costs, maximize returns…  and increase the volume of your email list!

Now, whether you’re a contest rock star and or still a tad wary, let’s talk about the basic steps needed to run a successful contest. First of all, planning is of the essence:

Set goals

Pick one or several and design your contest around them, for example:

• Promote a sale or new product.
• Build online brand image.
• Capture feedback.
• Gather testimonials.
• All of the above.

Great, now scope it out, meaning decide if you want a short, simple contest with a small prize, or a blockbuster with a huge prize. Let common sense rule.

Pick a theme

This can be fun, but it actually requires quite a bit of strategy. You need to pick a theme that will engage your audience, so ask yourself: Are they Internet savvy? Do they spend much time on social media sites? How about video chatting? Or are they more conservative, perhaps more literary?

You just need to find that perfect mix of creativity and customer data to attract your target audience. Here are a few ideas to get you started:

• Most creative use of your product in video, photo, or animation formats.
  
• Best customer-generated advert for one of your products.
• For service offerings, best personal experience story.
• Funniest photo contest related to your product or service.
• Best idea for new product, service, or enhancement.

Eyes on the prize

You can go top drawer or basic, for example: offer one of your products or services, a useful e-book, a bouquet of discount coupons, a spa day or weekend stay at a local resort.

Another smart option is to call on one of your subscribers or partners and see if they’d be interested in donating a prize in exchange for free advertising on your promo sites. It doesn’t ALWAYS have to be an iPad (though awesome!). The bottom line is your prize has to excite everyone enough to fill out your entry form!

Create the rules

This is important, especially if you’re using third-party sites that may have their own rules and restrictions. Before you draft your policies, review the rules on any sites where you’ll be promoting your contest.

It’s always a good idea to summarize the rules, policies, and restrictions on the entry form and/or provide a link to the detailed policies, just to be safe.

Important tip – let participants know exactly how and when the winners will be chosen and announced.

Capturing email addresses

If you want to communicate during the contest – and after – it’s really “a must” to require the participant’s email address to enter. And don’t forget to include the following on your entry form:

“By providing your email address, you give [[your company]] permission to email you with product updates, articles and news. You can unsubscribe at any time”.

Take a look at the example below:

Promote, promote!

Remember that your email list is king! Send an engaging newsletter to your subscribers and make it easy for them to share your promotion on social media or by forwarding to friends.

So the rule of thumb is: begin with your existing database via emails, your blog and social networks. Online contests are really easy to take viral and link up with your social marketing activities, especially with GetResponse social integration.

You might also make it an entry requirement to re-tweet or share, so remember to add sharing icons everywhere!  Make it easier and faster by encouraging “copy/paste” sharing using the Bit.ly URL shortener for the links to your online contest sites. Finally, create a schedule and promote regularly via Facebook, Twitter, your blog, and other social channels, as well as traditional media.

The grand finale!

Contests are all about anticipation, so don’t let yours drag on too long. Four weeks is good, but it depends on how complicated it is. For example, if it’s a commercial for your new product, give them at least 6-7 weeks. Next thing is that everyone loves a winner, so do an extra BIG push just before the winner is chosen or drawn.

Use Facebook, YouTube and Twitter to get things to a fever pitch, then create the Ta-da moment with a picture or video of the happy contestant holding the grand prize.

Reap the benefits!

Doesn’t this sound like buckets of fun? But it’s more than that. According to Jupiter Research, companies that run contests have twice as many fans on their social network pages as those that don’t.

So let’s summarize the benefits, then close this page and start working on your first contest for 2011! Oh, and don’t forget to let us know what you think of our tips!

Social Media Contest Benefits

• Increases brand awareness
• Builds your contact list.
• Promotes new products.
• Drives traffic to your site & store.
• Captures customer data & feedback.
• Makes people happy.

Use a Social Media Contest to Grow Your Email List is a post from: Email Marketing Tips - Blog GetResponse

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With the brand new GetResponse functionality, you can add multiple Facebook and Twitter accounts to your campaigns and automatically share your newsletters with your friends, fans and followers. It’s practically effortless! Let me explain.

• In your campaign settings, you can now add multiple Twitter and Facebook accounts in the Social Media tab.

• Once you’ve authorized a social media account, you’ll never have to do it again. And the best part is, during the authorization process, you’ll be instantly redirected to the exact same step in your campaign settings. Imagine how much time and irritation that will save you.

• If there’s no account to add, GetResponse will direct you to the social site you’re interested in and let you set one up from there. Once again, you’ll be redirected back to GetResponse after you’re done. Now that’s convenient!

• When you set your newsletter delivery time, choose the Facebook and Twitter accounts you want instantly updated with your newsletter link, once it’s sent. If your Twitter/Facebook integration is turned on, this is all you have to do to “socialize” your newsletters!

• Want to type in a message to display with your link? The editor will count the characters for you just like Twitter does.

• At this stage, you can also add a new Facebook or Twitter account if you haven’t done so yet, or switch the integration on and off. What could be simpler?

There’s more good news – your newsletters can now also be easily shared to your Facebook fan page – here’s how: http://blog.getresponse.com/post-your-sign-up-forms-on-facebook.html

From now on, tweet out your newsletters and share them on Facebook automatically. Or…auto-magically! Extend the reach of your campaigns to non-subscribers (or at least not yet) across the Internet. Just imagine how powerful this could be at driving deeper engagement and growing your list!

After all, social media depends on email at its most basic level – you can’t even have a social profile without and email address. But using them together really maximizes their effectiveness. The trick is to learn how to use them as a team.

So give your newsletters more social power and let them extend their “lives” across the global web. And don’t forget to let us know how that’s working for you!

Share your newsletters on Facebook and Twitter! is a post from: Email Marketing Tips - Blog GetResponse

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For example, I was approached with this the other day: “Can I export my Facebook contacts (in this case, people who have joined a fan page) and add them to my mailing list?” The first answer that comes to the mind of anyone who believes in the permission-based way is, of course, NO.

But then, you might ask, if they’ve expressed enough interest to become fans of my company, why not send them a newsletter every now and then? On top of that, a quick Google query will point you to a plethora of resources that let you export Facebook friends/contacts along with their names, email addresses etc. Sounds like they don’t mind getting emails, right?

CAN-SPAM and email marketing best practices aside, let’s see what Facebook’s Terms of Service have to say about this:

• 3. Safety

2. You will not collect users’ content or information, or otherwise access Facebook, using automated means (such as harvesting bots, robots, spiders, or scrapers) without our permission.

Anyone want to “keep in touch” with their social media contacts via email? Check out this one:

• 8. Special Provisions Applicable to Developers/Operators of Applications and Websites

2. You will have a privacy policy that tells users what user data you are going to use and how you will use, display, share, or transfer that data.

5. You will not include data you receive from us concerning a user in any advertising creative.

6. You will not directly or indirectly transfer any data you receive from us to (or use such data in connection with) any ad network, ad exchange, data broker, or other advertising-related toolset, even if a user consents to that transfer or use.

Pretty clear, I’d say. Let’s face it – “exporting” contact info from social media profiles is just another way of harvesting email addresses. The friend-to-friend or fan page admin-to-fan relationship does not give anyone legal rights to initiate commercial communication via email without explicit consent. Think about it… does the fact that someone follows you on Twitter give them the right to invade your inbox space with their offers? Nope. And the fact that the Internet is brimming with black hat software that can help automate such tasks does NOT mean that they are legal.

Furthermore, don’t forget about all those “friendly” and “sociable” folks out there who are in the habit of sending out friend request invitations en masse. Or those groups uniting people who are willing to express their hatred of mosquitoes… or whatever. Add the export feature to this mix and you’ve got a volatile combination that gives the bad guys tons of opportunities to spam mailboxes. The fact that most Facebook users provide an active and valid email address on their profile makes it all the more attractive.

That being said, there are two bulletproof reasons to support the thesis that sending commercial emails to an exported list of Facebook contacts is a big no-no.

1. Not only will this lump you in the spammer category because you have not obtained explicit permission to do so, but
2. you’ll also run the risk of attracting the attention of Facebook’s lawyers. And, as we all know, they have a pretty good record of chasing down abusers and making them pay.

Any “outside of the inbox” relationship, by which I mean there is a lack of explicit consent, will lead to sending unsolicited mailings and all the negative baggage that goes along with it. In the case I described, it was certainly not a matter of the sender’s deliberate ill will to spam. Rather, they erroneously assumed that being someone’s contact on Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. gave them the right to add him/her to a mailing list without obtaining permission. I’m pretty sure those friends would instantly turn their backs on the sender and use the spam button to abruptly break up the relationship! It’s just bad form, after all.

Interested in learning how to integrate your GetResponse account with a Facebook page and capture sign ups in compliance with industry best practices? There’s a blog post for that!

Maciej is an Email Solutions Specialist for GetResponse, focused on optimizing email deliverability, improving conversion rates, and increasing email marketing ROI for our customers.

Mailing your Facebook Contacts? That’s a no-no! is a post from: Email Marketing Tips - Blog GetResponse

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