Email Design

With CoTweet joining the ExactTarget family, we see the convergence of the power of social media and email communication; an Internet Marketing Hub to maintain relationships on both platforms.

In Guy Kawasaki’s blog post, he wrote, “ExactTarget’s acquisition of CoTweet heralds the beginning of the growth of Social as an integrated marketing channel and is nothing short of being historical.” At the Twitter Conference (#140tc) on March 8 in Seattle, WA, I had the opportunity to listen to panelists and professionals talk about Twitter. The two words that kept coming up were relationships and influence. I’d like to share two personal Twitter stories in regards to relationships and influence.

Xbox Support

During a visit home last December, my Xbox 360 received the infamous “Red Ring of Death. Upset, I announced this loss on Twitter:



I received an email notification from Twitter moments later, reading: “Xbox Support is now following you on Twitter!” In my Twitter reply stream I saw a tweet from @XboxSupport:



What followed was a series of conversations between myself the the Xbox Support team. They provided me a link to instructed me how to get my machine sent in to be repaired. Xbox Support followed up a few days later with a direct message to see if everything was taken care of and also included a survey for me to provide feedback. After filling out my request form and sending in my machine, I received my Xbox 360 back, good as new, with a complimentary 1-month Xbox Live membership card.

Xbox Support uses CoTweet to manage relationships and reach out to users on the Twitter stream. The Xbox Support team does a great job of monitoring posts to reach out to customers who need help. After a pleasant experience with Xbox support on Twitter, I decided to subscribe to their email as another way to be reached. I also refer @XboxSupport to users I see needing help with their machine.

Many thanks to the Xbox Support Elite Tweet team!

The Alyssa Factor

On March 3, I mentioned actress Alyssa Milano in one of my tweets; as I do with anyone that I know is on Twitter. I did not expect a response, but merely to make my tweets more searchable, similar to using the hashtag. Moments later I received a response from Alyssa.

For the next few days, I received retweets (about 53) and connected with about 150 new followers; likely from people who saw the tweet. The number of site visitors to my website increased nearly 650 percent! Most importantly, I was able to make a connection with someone via Twitter. With 734,899 followers, you can see Alyssa’s influence on Twitter, who with one post connected me with 150 other users.

Though we can’t always expect a retweet of that magnitude, we can communicate with people on Twitter to build connections and influence; both influencing and being influenced.

Relationships & Influence

This validates the importance of having a social presence. In the social stream on Twitter, you are able to reach to the unfollowed and unsubscribed; a real-time dialogue with the potential of building into relationships.

If you liked "Twitter’s ROI: Relationships & Influence," check out these other blog posts about social media and email: Email, Meet Social, Email Design Tip of the Week: Social Media in Email and ExactTarget Acquires CoTweet.

Connect with us at @ExactTarget, @CoTweet and @ETDesign. You might want to follow our CEO @ScottDorsey as well.

See you on Twitter!

David Hoang
ExactTarget Campaign Solutions Team