Social media, social media, social media blah blah blah…

Ok – so I bet you’ve heard a lot about social media. By now you might be totally in love with it or sick and tired of hearing about it. Possibly a little of both.

Regardless of where you are with it, social media really is just ‘the internet’. The internet itself has morphed from a monologue into a dialogue and now more than ever information, news and rumors spread at a fantastic rate. Easily defined it’s a conversation, a dialogue, it’s the world connected in ways that have never been possible before. That’s why you need to at least understand what social media is and how it affects your business – and your email list.

People can either love you, hate you or know nothing about you. Of course you want to use social media to get people to love you. And you can also use social media to get people on your email list.

Two of the big players in social media are Twitter and Facebook. Millions of people flock to these two sites daily.

Here are just a few examples of how you can use social media to advertise and market your email list and make it news worthy so people will spread the word:

–        offer a limited time bonus for those who sign up by X date

–        give away a valuable report

–        give away a product in exchange for feedback (may need to be limited!)

–        offer a valuable ecourse

Just make sure you’re getting the word out on social media – and giving others the opportunity to do the same by including ‘Share this’ ubttons on your blog posts. You can even network with others on this. Ask friends to Retweet your announcements in trade for Retweeting theirs.

Another way to use social media to build your list is to use that ‘splash page’ we talked about in the website lesson from earlier this week. Instead of leading people to your main site, lead them to a sign-up page where the only thing they can do is sign up. Then, in all your subsequent social media interactions, provide value time after time after time. Here is a great tool to design a splash page – Optimize Press.

Here’s something that many people won’t tell you: There is no ONE way to build your email list overnight. A clear goal, a focus and small steps bit by bit by bit will get you there. This is GOOD news because now all you do is to do ONE THING, right now, to be on your way to a bigger list. Then do something else, then repeat, and repeat and repeat. Before you know it you’ll be wondering how you build such a quality list and a devoted following!

The next lesson is about one of my favourite techniques – using teleseminars, webinars and events to build a list, fast!