Your email list can be a potent tool for building your social media audience. People who are already on your email list are people who already like and trust your brand. They’re much more likely to want to be involved with you on social media than someone who just lands on your website.

So how do you use email to build your social reach and audience?

==> Add Social Media Icons to HTML Emails

Create social media icons for your various social networks and place them in your HTML emails. You can even place code in your emails that will display your follower count or fan count to build social proof.

==> Offer a Discount through a “Like Wall”

A “like wall” is a fancy term for asking people to like you before giving them something. You put content on the fan-only portion of your Facebook page, so people have to like it to see it.

Putting a coupon code, a discount, a special report or some other prize that people are likely to really want behind a like wall is a fantastic way to get a lot more likes.

Promote this through your emails. For example, you might offer a 20% Christmas special, but people have to like your page to see the special.

==> Comb Your Email for People’s Twitter Accounts

This technique is really simple, really common sense and really effective – yet few people do it. This technique allows you to add almost everyone in your market whose email you have to the people you follow on Twitter. A lot of them will follow you back.

Go into your email autoresponder service and export all the emails you have. Then just plug them into Twitter. Follow everyone that comes up.

==> Run a Contest on Social Media; Promote It with Email

Social media platforms make running contests really easy. The inherently viral nature of social media can make contests really take off. But you do need to have an initial audience to launch a contest with.

That’s where email comes in. Use social media platforms to host your contest, but use your email list to launch your contest.

==> Want Likes or Follows? Ask!

Surprisingly, one of the most effective ways to use email to get more customers is to just ask. At the end of your emails ask people to like you on Facebook or follow you on Twitter. Every once in a while, you can even send an entire email designed specifically to increase social media engagement.

These are just some of the many ways you can build your social media reach using email. Marketers often treat these two mediums as if it were one or the other. The most effective strategy is often both.