Hello. If you re a MailChimp user, you probably already use social networks for yourself and your business. MailChimp seamlessly connects with those social features to which you re already familiar. We also give you access to valuable information about your subscribers that can help you connect with them. Social media is a two-way street, after all and simply posting links to your campaigns on Facebook isn t enough to establish real relationships. Listen to your subscribers. Learn about their interests, preferences, and social media presence, so you can tailor your email campaigns to the people reading them. That way you can share relevant information with your readers, and they won t be overwhelmed with useless content. At MailChimp, we use Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, and our blog to connect with our community of fans and users. We send email newsletters, too. (Surprising, right?) We ve found that using email and social networks together provides a greater benefit than just using one or the other, and we have lots of features that simplify that process. Talk to your subscribers, listen to them, and engage them like the human beings they are. They ll appreciate it, and you ll see the positive results in your campaign reports.
Social Sharing Sharing your campaigns on social networks helps you reach a larger audience, and shows your fans you're willing to interact with them on the channel that suits them best. Social sharing is a great way to attract new subscribers too and they're often actively engaged readers. You can set up your campaigns so they automatically post to your preferred social networks (more on that in a minute), but if you forget, it's easy to remedy. After sending a campaign you want to share, go to the campaign's View Report pull-down menu and choose Social share. Facebook
Add a MailChimp signup form to your Facebook page Facebook fans that aren t on your mailing list might be missing out on your newsletter content. Adding a MailChimp signup form directly to your Facebook page is more effective than linking them to an outside form, because sometimes it s more comfortable for people to stay within Facebook than be directed to an unknown website. Here s how to do it. (Note: the Facebook signup form will only work on the pages where you are the admin. It won t work on groups or personal profiles.) Before you start, make sure you ve set up a list in MailChimp and have designed your forms. In the Account tab from your MailChimp dashboard, click Integrations and choose the Facebook integration. Here, you ll have the option to select one of the pages that you administer and link it to one of your MailChimp lists. In the Page to use page dropdown, choose the page you wish to use. In the List to use dropdown, choose which list s form you want on this page. If you don t want a form on this page, choose No list connected. Once a list is selected, you have options to customize how it appears on the page. You ll also be asked to label the signup form tab. If you choose My List s Theme (default), your signup form will look like your MailChimp-hosted signup form. If you select Facebook-esque, your signup form will blend more into Facebook s overall look. Click Save and wait for confirmation that your changes have been saved. Now, you can navigate to your page and verify that the form has been added and looks as expected. Auto-post As far as we re concerned, every email marketer who has a Facebook account should be sharing their campaigns this way. But first, you have to connect your MailChimp and Facebook accounts.
In the account panel of your MailChimp dashboard, click Account Settings, then Extras, then Integrations. Choose Facebook. We ll redirect you to Facebook, where you ll be presented with a request for permission to allow MailChimp to access your data. Click Allow to give MailChimp access to the specified Facebook information, and wait just a moment while we redirect you back to MailChimp, where you ll see the confirmation message displayed on the integrations page. Now you re ready to set up the auto-post option. In the Setup step of the Campaign Builder, check Auto-post to Facebook (find it under Tracking, Social Networking, and More). MailChimp will automatically share a link to the online version of your campaign with your subject line. It ll show up in your Facebook news feed, so all your friends and fans can check out your campaign (and pass it along to their friends).
For more about MailChimp's Facebook integration, visit this Knowledge Base article. Twitter Auto-tweet Much like auto-posting to Facebook, tweeting links to email campaigns is a simple and effective way to share your newsletter with people who might not otherwise see it. It allows your Twitter followers who may not subscribe to your list to see the awesome content you re sending out. If you know you want to tweet every time a campaign goes out, we make it easy for you with Auto-tweet. In the Account tab from your MailChimp dashboard, click Integrations and open the Twitter integration.you ll be redirected to Twitter, where they ll ask if you allow or deny the integration. Allow. Now you can authorize the connection. Once the account s set up, you won t have to re-authorize it.
Now that it s connected, you re ready to set up Auto-tweet. In the Setup step of the Campaign Builder, check the Auto-tweet campaign *box (find it on the *Tracking, Social Networking, and More form).
MailChimp will automatically send a tweet with your subject line and a link to the online version of your campaign. And don t worry about having your tweet cut short we ll shorten the link using our EepURL tool. If you d prefer to write a clever tweet yourself instead of using your campaign s subject line, then use our Social Sharing options instead. You can only authorize one account at a time. If you need to change the Twitter account you use to tweet your campaign, go back to Integrations. Choose Twitter and then Authorize connection. Instagram and Pinterest MailChimp's Instagram and Pinterest integrations help you simply and elegantly share your inspiration boards and recent photos with your newsletter readers. Social merge tags
Merge tags are handy little tools for including dynamic content in your emails. Here are a few of MailChimps socially inclined merge tags. Social share merge tags If someone reads your newsletter and likes what you have to say, all they have to do is click a button to show it to all their friends and followers across the social networks they use. Simply place the * MC:SHARE * merge tag anywhere in your template, and MailChimp will automatically add links to more than 20 social networks to your campaign. If you re overwhelmed by all the icons, or want to customize the sharing options according to what s most popular with your subscriber base, easily limit the number of networks that appear. Use * SHARE:SITE_NAME1, SITE_NAME2 * to specify which sites are included. (For example: * SHARE:Facebook,google,Linkedin *) The * MC:TOPSHARE * tag will pull in icons for our top six sharing sites: Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, Digg, StumbleUpon, and Delicious. Facebook Like merge tag Our Facebook Like merge tag allows your readers to like your campaign and share it with their Facebook friends. Simply place the * FACEBOOK:LIKE * merge tag anywhere in your campaign, and it ll turn into a handy little image that says Like. When a subscriber clicks the Like button, they ll go to your campaign archive page. A window will pop up, showing the friends in their network that have also liked the campaign. They ll have to confirm here that they do indeed like it in order to pass it over to Facebook.
Google+ merge tag Google+ app aims to make sharing on the web more like sharing in real life. When users click +1, it lets them share that content with the circles they ve set up in Google+. It s a great way to reach a broader audience with your campaign. Our Google +1 option lets your subscribers +1 the campaign and share it with their circles. Simply place the * GOOGLE:PLUSONE * merge tag anywhere in your campaign, and it ll turn into the +1 image. When a subscriber clicks the +1 button, they ll be taken to the campaign archive page. A window will pop up showing how many times the campaign has already been shared on Google+. They ll have to click the +1 button here to confirm and send the information to Google+.
The Google+ merge tag can also be added to any RSS campaigns that you ve set up to allow your readers to +1 individual items. Simply add the merge tag * RSSITEM:PLUSONE * to the campaign. Tumblr merge tag Tumblr is a great resource that lets you effortlessly share things with a broad range of users. It provides a different way to reach out to a group of readers and followers that may not be linked to you through any other social networks. To add an option to share the campaign on Tumblr just add the * TUMBLR:SHARE * merge tag to the body text of your campaign, and you ll see the Tumblr icon appear.
Then, when a subscriber clicks the icon in your email, they ll be taken to campaign archive as they were with the Facebook like and Google+ buttons. Clicking the icon again brings up the share dialog box, which allows them to confirm that they do wish to share the campaign on Tumblr.
The post on Tumblr can be customized with a name and description of the campaign archive link. Once the Create post button is clicked, it ll be added to their Tumblr feed. For more information and tips about merge tags, visit MailChimp's Social Merge Tag Cheatsheet. Social stats Now that you re sharing your MailChimp campaigns on social sites, and giving your readers the option to do the same, you probably want to know how many other people are tweeting and liking them too. This info helps you
understand what kind of content excites your readers and their friends. It can show you who your loyal fans are and what social networks they use the most. Tracking likes and comments MailChimp s Social Stats allow you to watch your campaigns make their way around Facebook. To find out how many people like your campaigns, click Reports in your MailChimp dashboard. Select a campaign and click Social Stats. The Like stats are located under Facebook Activity and organized by subscriber. You can see how many times each subscriber liked your campaign, and how many other likes they generated. For example, if Gary liked your campaign once, and five of his friends saw your campaign in his feed and liked it too, then you ll see one Like for Gary, and five Friends Who Liked by his name. Tracking tweets MailChimp s Twitter stats allow you to watch as your campaigns gain momentum in the Twittersphere. The Twitter stats are located in the same place in the reports as the Facebook stats. Click the Reports tab in your MailChimp dashboard, and you ll see a list of all your campaigns. Select a campaign and click Social Stats. You can see how many times your campaign has been tweeted and retweeted under Twitter Activity on the Social Stats page. You can also see who did the tweeting and a timeline of all tweets generated for the campaign. Note: only tweets that include our EepURL link for your campaign are included in this report, so you might have even more tweeting going on than you realize.
Connect With Your Subscribers There are real people behind the email addresses on your list. MailChimp can help you get to know those people, connecting with them based on their interests, location, social networks, and more. If you know who your subscribers are, you can send them stuff that s actually useful. Pro-tip: People really dig on useful stuff. Chimp Chatter Chimp Chatter gives you all your email news in one place. From customized campaign updates to seeing your subscribers' actual faces, from unsubscribes to Facebook comments, Chimp Chatter conveniently keeps track of your campaign and subscriber activity in your MailChimp dashboard. Every time you log in to MailChimp, you ll see a news feed that s customized for your campaigns. We ll let you know about new subscribers, unsubscribes, comments, and more. The best part is you ll see your subscribers faces along with the updates, to make the experience a little more human.
Chimp Chatter keeps track of a lot of stuff, some of which you may not care about, which is why you can customize it to your preference. Does it hurt your feelings when someone unsubscribes? Uncheck the box. Do you enjoy obsessing over every Facebook comment? Check the box. Make Chimp Chatter work for you. SocialPro SocialPro is an add-on feature in your MailChimp list. It helps you learn more about your customers so you can write better, more relevant content for them. You ll be able to sync your lists with social and demographic data to enhance your subscriber profiles. As new users sign up, their information will be added to your account as well. To purchase SocialPro and start gathering information in the Account tab from your dashboard, click Add-Ons and find SocialPro.
Click Select list, and choose the list to which you'd like to add SocialPro. Once you ve purchased the SocialPro plan, you can go to the Lists tab and get to work under the View list option. With the information pulled in by SocialPro, you can send targeted campaigns to customers who follow you on Twitter and Facebook or segment by age, gender, social network usage, influence, and more. Tweet Trends With MailChimp's Tweet Trends feature, you can see how many of your subscribers are following you, who else they're following, and what they're tweeting about you. With this bird's-eye view, you can can better understand the tweet-happy humans who read your campaigns.