I recently completed B School – an online business training program for modern entrepreneurs taught by Marie Forleo. One of the main points the program focuses on is teaching you how to maximize building your email list through social media.

Before I enrolled on B School, I thought having more followers on social media is what my business needed the most.  Truth is, having more list subscribers translates to direct sales for my business. Email list is where sales happen – where deals are closed. Another big reason to get the likes and followings into leads is that your list is yours – you own it no matter what. If you have been around for a while you are aware of all the changes on the social media platforms. What would happen If people stopped using these social media platforms?  You have no ways to connect and contact these people/fans anymore. You don’t own your followers on Facebook. You don’t even have a way of contacting them outside of it. Facebook and other social media sites are valuable sources to generate leads but you can’t rely on them as the single source for your business. With that said, I wanted to give you a few tips on how to use social media to increase your list subscription.

FACEBOOK

1. Ask simple questions – This means be specific and to the point every time you post a question on Facebook. Your followers are busy people and you might not have their full attention. A simple question requesting a simple answer will take you far.
2. Give non-complicated calls to action – This requires for you to ask people to “share”, “like” etc, your post. Give directions to increase engagement as well as understand what your fans want.
3. Be part of the conversation – When you ask a question/opinion, stick around to answer questions and follow up with updates. Engage in the conversation and respond back to people.
4. Entertain, inform and inspire for greatness  – You should keep these in mind every time you post something.
5. Tease your fans – Show sneak peeks of your work to your fans. This will get them engaged and anticipate what you have to offer.
6. Embrace Facebook marketing – Attract new fans and leads by marketing to the people that matter most to your brand (and this doesn’t mean everyone!)
7. Use custom apps (previously known as tabs) to build your email list - These are the small rectangles right below your cover image (you can have up to 12, but 5-6 is plenty and proven to give great results). Notice how I use Call to Action on naming these apps – such as “SIGN UP NOW!”, “GET INSPIRED”, etc.

 TWITTER

1. Tweet teasers of content – For example “I just finished writing tomorrow’s newsletter. Want it?  http://bit.ly/100Q8aD”
2. Post links to your Email Promotions – This will urge fans/followers to sign up for your newsletter and receive promotions. They can even view past month’s newsletters prior to signing up.
3. Add email opt-ins to your profile -You can now add a link to your email subscription right on your twitter profile along with the link to your website. Here’s how mine looks like.

YOU TUBE

1. Direct people to follow you on social media – Through your videos you can direct people to follow you on social media as well and subscribe to you channel,  sign up for email list.
2. Use video overlays – These are mini advertisement in forms of graphics that direct traffic to various platforms. Marie Forleo does a great job with her videos by asking people to share her content on various social media platforms as well as subscribe to her channel.

Here is a great tutorial by James Wedmore on how to create these video overlays: www.socialmediaexaminer.com/3-ways-to-use-youtube-to-drive-traffic-to-your-website

Additional Resources:

If you want more in depth information on building your list via Facebook you must check out Amy Porterfield’s How To Boost Your Business Online With Facebook Advertisement (I recently completed Amy’s course and would highly recommend it!)

The infamous B School will open its doors again this summer. To receive more information and updates click HERE.

As usual I would love to hear from you! Do you have any tips of techniques that have proven to work on your list building? Please share in the comments area below.