Conversion Series Extra: Social Engagement Campaigns

Welcome to the last installment of our conversion series. After detailing a series of methods to convert audiences through email and text message, today we will dive into another converting marketing channel: social media.

The key to any successful campaign is to use multiple mediums to reinforce your organization’s message. Marketing through multiple channels not only compounds your message, but also allows for conversions on whatever medium audience members feel most comfortable on, leaving the “power to the people.”

Direct and Indirect Marketing

We all love a good Tweet, “Insta pic,” or Pin, especially when it fosters audience conversation. But in order to promote your events, content, or initiatives to a wider audience, your strategy must include direct channels like email and text messaging. Even Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram send emails to engage or re-engage their user base.

Use indirect channels to generate awareness and compound your message, then lead your audience to a direct marketing channel. Social channels rarely convert, but they are amazing for driving social activity and fueling social town halls, two-way interactions, and event promotions. Let’s dig into some specific examples.

Social Town Halls

Promoting a Facebook Town Hall or Twitter Q&A through email allows organizations to reach the entirety of their intended audience. Plus, these social activities foster greater social engagement, and you don’t have to pay a pretty penny to advertise or worry about complex social media algorithms.

Real-Life Example

The National Institute of Health (NIH) created a campaign promoting the awareness of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). It hosted a Q&A on Facebook to engage audiences and fight misinformation about the disorder. NIH leveraged a highly targeted email campaign – optimized for social sharing – to promote its Facebook event. Using an existing email list and the GovDelivery platform, NIH was able to communicate to the right audience in a variety of ways to maximize convenience for audience members.

Automated Social Engagement Campaign

Another highly converting social media action is through an automated social engagement campaign. With this type of campaign, organizations send automated social messages – like Tweets, Facebook posts, and YouTube videos – on a daily or weekly basis through email. The goal: informing an audience and providing an opportunity to view and engage with social content, even if they are not on a particular social network. This way anyone, regardless of social media savviness, can stay up-to-date.

Real-Life Example

The Missouri Department of Conservation deployed a successful automated social campaign with a weekly digest of videos from its YouTube channel. When this video highlighting deer season regulations was published, it had 136 views. After its email promotion went out, it had thousands. With only around 2,000 YouTube channel subscribers, building an email audience and leveraging that audience to promote YouTube content drastically extended the department’s reach and potential to engage. All in all, automated social engagement campaigns aided its goal of greater public participation in resource-management activities, and drove awareness around the less glamorous topic of hunting regulation to make an impact on its bottom line.

The U.S. Department of Education (DOE) offers another great example. Faced with the challenge of “storytelling” major education initiatives, grants, and information, the DOE regularly Tweets to drive email subscriptions. Additionally, each email message cross-promotes its Twitter channel, recapping the best tweets of the week and month.

Though many think of social media as an outlet of leisure, it can be a strategic part of the marketing mix. Using automated social media campaigns and town hall forums backed by robust digital outreach can provide the conversions you need to hit your organizational goals.

For more information about social media, download our 5 Steps to Government Success in Social Media Checklist!