What happens when you add a "tweet this" link to your emails?
Latest posts | By Mark Brownlow | 11 Comments | Licence this content
Social media is still uncharted territory. We’re like some 16th century European sea captain, staring wide-eyed at the seemingly unlimited potential of the “new” continent before us.
Like many I’m enthused by the prospect of integrating social media with email, but still think we have a lot of questions that need answering.
One such question is what really happens when you add, for example, a “share this on Twitter” link to an email?
Nothing
Silverpop recently produced a benchmark report on “Share to Social” performance in emails (well worth reading).
Almost half the emails studied generated a CTR on “share” links of less than 0.1%. The average was 0.5%.
People have always had ways to share content and marketers have long sought to score viral marketing hits. Usually without success. And “share” links in emails don’t magically turn everything viral.
The mechanism for passing on content is a key facilitator, but the motivation for doing so is far more important.
So “share this” links make it easy to share and to a wider audience than with email “forward-to-a-friend” links. But you still need to give people a reason to use them.
Don’t despair though. Some emails looked at by Silverpop hit double figure CTRs for those share links. And the way social media works means just a handful of mentions can multiply quickly across a network, improving reach and driving action.
Changes in perception
While increases in views, clicks and other actions are important, don’t forget the implication of share links for recipient perceptions of the sender. This hardly ever gets talked about.
It’s very easy to add a “tweet this” link, either through an automated feature provided by your software or ESP or simply by using a link like this:
<a href=”http://twitter.com/home?status=See%20this:%20URL”>Share on Twitter</a>
So easy, in fact, it barely takes thinking about.
But should we consider the wider consequences? Are there, in fact, any wider consequences beyond the possibility of some kind of viral spread (however limited)?
What does a Twitter link say about the sender?
Does adding “share on Twitter” links come with an obligation to be on Twitter yourself?
Does a Twitter user seeing the bird logo in your email rush online to find your account?
And are they then disappointed if you’re nowhere to be found?
Does a “share on Twitter” link make you look cutting edge? (I actually joked about this in my talking newsletter video.)
[In my case, I put a "share on Twitter" link in my emails even though it hardly gets used. I am active on Twitter and as someone expected to be up-to-date on marketing trends, it doesn't hurt to advertise the fact.]
If it does imply “cutting edge”, is that a good thing for you? Is that bolstering a true image or opening up another gap between expectations and reality?
Does a Twitter link imply that you’re social-media savvy…that you’re happy to engage in online conversations with your readers?
Are you?
How does that look if your sender address is do-not-reply@?
Can you handle your message, content or offer heading out into public space (Twitter) with little control on what people actually say them?
What if the tweets are all negative? Are you able to respond elegantly to criticism? Do you have a plan in place for a Twitter-driven PR disaster?
Do you monitor Twitter to see what happens when people do share your email? Do you have appropriate tracking mechanisms in place?
[At a basic level (which I use), for example, your "share on Twitter" link lets people post up a URL that goes to a unique landing page. Visits starting at that page can then be attributed back to that share link. See here for more explanation.]
What if the email gets a massive positive reaction? Are you setup (on Twitter and elsewhere) to cope with the resultant views, inquiries, leads and even sales if you land a big Twitter hit?
Does the link imply your content is worth tweeting about?
Does it add a touch more psychological value to that email, enhancing people’s perception of your content and offer?
Or does it set an expectation that your content does not actually meet, disappointing the recipient?
Should you be more selective about when you use it, rather than adding the link automatically to every outgoing message?
What about people who don’t use Twitter? Or never heard of it?
Does it make them feel left out or rejected? Does that matter?
Can you collect a recipient data point “uses Twitter” so you can put more prominent calls to Twitter action where you know the recipient is an active twitterer?
So many questions, and not many with answers right now.
I always prefer to provide answers rather than raise new questions. But in all the excitement of searching for social media gold, perhaps exploring the questions is a necessary task as we map out the way to further email success?
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11 comments on “What happens when you add a "tweet this" link to your emails?”
i love Twitter-simple and functional but not the e3nd all but an impt. part of the marketing mix
What I notice, at least with the examples I have, from Silverpop clients is that they are using the "share to social" feature to share the entire message and not just a portion or single link from the message.
Personally I'm more inclined to share a URL from a message over twitter, facebook, etc… then just a web hosted version of an email I received – how does that make it relevant to my audience when I only want to share one thing – considering I have to do it in 140 characters (link included) or less.
A different example is with the IAB publications, they have the "share to social" setup to share a single story/article, which is much more useful in my opinion. I'd be curious to see the uptake stats on that method of the "share to social" usage.
ps. Happy New Year Mark!
Matt
@emailkarma
Great observations guys. Two months ago we moved this function from the header to specific bits of juicy content. Yet the stats remained the same, little to nothing.
I'm optimistic that they'll tic up as our subscriber base grows. I'll keep you posted.
Scott
@indiescott
I think the question is one leverage. A single retweet can easily reach thousands of followers; it's potentially as effective as hundreds of "forward to a friend" clicks.
A useful comparison would be between FTAF and "Tweet this" clicks and the click throughs each created.
Scale matters and simple CTRs on the originating link can't measure it.
My gut tells me that the content shared should be part of a conversation. Whether the item shared is put out there to start a conversation or to participate in one. To that end, 'sharing' a link to a multi-article email campaign seems overwhelming in context. I have, in the past, shared a link on twitter to a new website that I discovered – but those tweets are generally in context to a new resource that I think others might like to take a look at rather than part of a conversation about a specific topic that I want to contribute to.
I think what drives twitter the most is content that is timely, current and engaging. Keeping that in mind will help people to decide what in their email is best suited to tweet about – or more importantly, what is more likely to be tweeted about by others.
I suppose that, like with email subscription forms, the best approach is to make 'share this' links available to readers in more than one place. Let your readers decide what is worthy of sharing.
@messagingtimes
Good points Tom. I corrected it now, but I was guilty for a while of having "share this" links on the email teaser copy and no "share this" links on the landing page with the actual (valuable – hopefully) content…
I read with pleasure your article thanks
I agree with Matt, I'm more likely to tweet sections of an email rather than the whole thing. I've seen a few newsletters like, 'The Toilet Paper' do this:
http://thetoiletpaper.com/2010/01/less-than-a-feeling-g-spot-myth/
What's great about their emails is that the content is bite sized, perfect for Twitter…little stats and quotes.
- Anna
A very interesting topic indeed. I agree that giving users the choice to tweet on certain sections of an email, especially a newsletter is the way to go.
However, the one thing that hasn't really been discussed here is "tweetable" content. I am sure if Dell offered up a free computer to the first person who "tweeted this" we would see an entirely different CTR.
That said, considering the fact that Twitter is viral, comparing "tweetable" statistics and results might need to enter into this discussion of the great unknown.
Personally, I am an advocate for distributing content through all possible channels – especially twitter.
Hi Michelle. Yep, I think that's the real crux of this issue. SWYN links are just a mechanism, it's the content that really drives sharing.
always follow your blog, I wish I thank