More Blog Posts

How to combine your social media with SMS marketing

From brand profiles to personal influencer pages, incorporate SMS into your social media strategy to build stronger, faster connections with your audience.

Share
Featured image for the article

Peanut butter and chocolate, Dolce and Gabbana, Garfield and lasagna. Some things are just better together. Text marketing and social media happen to be two of those things.

A study by Nielson estimates that the average American spends a little over 4 hours (or 240 minutes) on their phone daily. The same study shows that 148.16 of those minutes are spent texting and scrolling social media. That’s more than 70% of daily mobile activity!

So what does all this mean for mobile marketers?

The short answer—a cellphone, and the social apps on it, are where you want messages delivered if you want them to be read.

5 ways to combine social media networks with SMS marketing

The very first step in total mobile marketing domination is learning the ways you can create your SMS social media strategies. 

1. Post notification text alerts

If you run a personal page or business profile you’re familiar with the social media algorithm struggle. Just because someone is following your page doesn’t always mean your content will show in their feed. To circumvent this struggle you could use texting as a way to send Instagram post notifications to followers.

Simply put your number and keyword in your bio and invite your followers to subscribe and stay notified to be the first to know when your posts are live!

Image for sending MMS
Hey LaBrant fam! Our Christmas family photos are up. Check out the full post on our page now. https://txt.tl/mJPLPLM

2. Virtual gifting

More than five years ago, TinyBox went viral for their virtual gift-giving app that allowed you to send photo boxes with personalized messages to friends and family via SMS. You simply designed the box on the app and clicked send!

This model of virtual gift-giving via SMS can also be an incredible way to connect with your social media followers. And the model isn’t hard to replicate.

Simply collect contact information from your social media. And send out photo, video, or audio clip “gifts” to your followers to boost engagement outside the app!

Photo Credit: Tech in Asia

3. SMS fan club

As an influencer, your network is how you monetize. And as brand specialist Lindsey Eryn has noted, phone numbers are a valuable currency to marketers. To be able to advertise your contact list as a channel of influence, you can potentially bring in more money to your brand!

An SMS fan club is a great way to further strengthen the virtual bond between your page and your fans with bonus content, and exclusive updates just for them!

Image for sending MMS
Hey followers! Some Friday inspiration from your girl Liza. XOXO

4. Influencer text codes

It’s common for brands to team up with influencers who share their custom discount codes with followers to receive various deals. These influencer codes are specific to each person and are used to track the revenue each influencer brings in. They can also be used as a tool to provide compensation for the influencer based on sales.

Of course, the goal isn’t just to make one new sale per influencer. It’s to add their followers to marketing pipeline. Enter influencer text codes.

Instead of having people enter a code at checkout, give each influencer their own custom SMS keyword. When that keyword is texted in to your number or short code, it can send the discount or a follow-up message from the influencer automatically. After they subscribe, these new contacts can receive your future marketing messages via text.

While your influencers may get new faces in the door, texting can help to retain them!

5. Set up text alerts for mentions or new followers with Zapier

If you want to combine social media and SMS, one of the simplest ways to get started is to combine your text marketing software with your social media pages through Zapier.

Create triggers, or “zaps” between popular social media platforms and SimpleTexting without having to write a single line of code. For example, set up a text alert when you receive a Twitter mention so you can log in and reply right away!

Your customers are out there accessing your brand 24/7. Create your social network with SMS to take control of the conversation. Now that’s what we call some pretty powerful marketing.

Meghan Tocci
Meghan Tocci

Meghan Tocci is a content strategist at SimpleTexting. When she’s not writing about SaaS, she’s trying to teach her puppy Lou how to code. So far, not so good.

More Posts from Meghan Tocci
Share

Send Your First Message in Minutes

Start a text marketing campaign or have a 1-on-1 conversation today. It's risk free. Sign up for a free 14-day trial today to see SimpleTexting in action.

Try Us Free

No credit card required