Social Forward

Prerequisites

Social Forward and Portfolio must be enabled on your account in order to use its functions. In addition, Social Forward uses AMPscript to create the links used to share content with Social Forward. You can use the ExactTarget application to create the AMPscript for you, or you can manually add the AMPscript yourself. Therefore, you should be familiar with AMPscript if you wish to manually add these links to your email. Contact your ExactTarget representative for more information.

What Is Social Forward

Social Forward creates content areas in an email message that can be shared to different social networks by the recipients of that email. Tags outline the information to be included in those content areas, and links to social networks in the email message allow the email recipient to click and share the information. You can determine which social networks are represented in the email in those links, and you can include multiple social networks depending on the needs of your recipients.

Social Forward uses links in the email to share predefined content areas, and you can use this function in a variety of situations, such as:

• Sharing a Direct Link

Click an enclosed link in an email to share content with your contacts on your individual social networking account. The social network requires you to log in and view a preview of the form to be shared on that network. You add any comments or changes you want to make and submit the item, which posts it on your wall, bookmark list, or other shared forum.

• Sharing a Content Listing

Click an enclosed link in an email to share content with your contacts on your individual social networking account. On an intermediary page, you choose the link. The social network requires you to log in and view a preview of the form to be shared on that network. You add any comments or changes you want to make and submit the item, which posts it on your wall, bookmark list, or other shared forum.

• Sharing Content via ShareThis

Click an enclosed link in an email to share content on ShareThis. Choose the social network from a ShareThis widget on an intermediary page. ShareThis requires you to log in and view a preview of the form to be shared on that network. You add any comments or changes you want to make and submit the item, which posts it on your wall, bookmark list, or other shared forum.

NOTE: Using Social Forward in conjunction with ShareThis requires some additional configuration. Read How to Configure ShareThis for and Social Forward for more information.

• Once the Content is Shared

After the content is shared on a social network, the content can be shared from contact to contact. You can also provide the option for others to sign up for your email newsletter or add additional content to their accounts.

Why Use Social Forward

Social Forward creates a streamlined process for your subscribers to share content with their friends and contacts via social networks. You can determine which content will be shared and how that content will appear in the social networks, allowing you to preserve your branding and promote a message of your choosing. Social Forward also allows you to specifically target certain social networks that might better receive your message or information.

How to Use Social Forward Tags

The ExactTarget application wraps shared content in tags that indicate which sections of the email are shared to social networks. Tags also designate the link used to share the content to those social networks.

<!-- RegionStart[ socialslot:"Shared content region 1",

    title:"First shared email content",

    description:"This is an example of shared content",

    csskey:"portfolio css 1"] -->

<!-- RegionEnd[ socialslot:"Shared content region 1"] -->

How to Share a Content Area using the Advanced Content Editor

1. Create your email content and choose the section or sections you want to share. You can paste in HTML, use AMPscript, or share the contents of an entire email message.
2. Click Edit and select Social Properties.
3. In the Content Area Properties window that appears, check the Allow Content To Be Shared checkbox and enter the information for the Shared Content Slot, Title and Description text fields. The Shared Content Slot field contains the ID for the shared content, and you can use whatever name you wish. It is the only required field in this section - the others are optional.
4. Choose the CSS file to use in conjunction with the published content. This file applies to the content after it has been published to a social network. You can use CSS to modify the following elements in Social Forward:
   • Font familes and sizes
   • Headers, footers, and sidebars
   • Simple text injection (non-HTML)
   • Show and hide DIV tags
   • Conditional logic
   • Inserting rich content or content from Portfolio
   • Adding links to the page
   Social Forward does not allow CSS to modify the following elements:
5. Click OK to close out the Content Area Properties window.
6. Click the Insert menu and select Social Forward.
7. In the Insert Social Forward window that appears, check the checkboxes next to the links for the social networks you wish to include in your email content area. Click the checkbox at the top of the screen to add all social networks displayed in the window.
8. If the social network requires additional information or parameters, click that network and add the information in the text field directly below the social networks list. For example, you can enter the ShareThis Account ID by clicking the ShareThis entry and adding the ID number in the ShareThis Account ID text field that appears in the window. See How to Configure ShareThis and Social Forward for more information.
9. Select the content area you wish to associated with these networks from the Associate with Shared Content Slot dropdown menu. You may also manually type in the name of a shared content slot you wish to create later.
10. Click OK to close the Insert Social Forward window and insert the appropriate icons into the content area.
11. Click a social network icon to bring up the Image Properties window. In the Link Properties tab, you can alter the following properties for the social networking link:
    • The location of the link by type and URL
    • Whether or not the link is a conversion tracking link
    • The link tooltip
    • The link's tracking alias
12. Click OK to accept your changes and close the Image Properties window.

How to Share a Content Area using the HTML Only View

1. Create your email content in the HTML view of the ExactTarget application.
2. Click Insert on the menu bar and select Social Forward Area.
3. In the Content Area Properties window that appears, check the Allow Content To Be Shared checkbox and enter the information for the Shared Content Slot, Title and Description text fields. The Shared Content Slot field contains the ID for the shared content, and you can use whatever name you wish. It is the only required field in this section - the others are optional.
4. Choose the CSS file to use in conjunction with the published content. This file applies to the content after it has been published to a social network.
5. Click OK. The ExactTarget applications adds HTML tags to the content area that you can use to mark your shared content area.
6. Click Insert on the menu bar and select Social Forward Links.
7. In the Insert Social Forward window that appears, check the checkboxes next to the links for the social networks you wish to include in your email content area. Click the checkbox at the top of the screen to add all social networks displayed in the window.
8. If the social network requires additional information or parameters, click that network and add the information in the text field directly below the social networks list. For example, you can enter the ShareThis Account ID by clicking the ShareThis entry and adding the ID number in the ShareThis Account ID text field that appears in the window. See How to Configure ShareThis for and Social Forward for more information.
9. Click OK to insert the social network links you selected.

How to Share a Content Area using Paste HTML and Social Markup

The HTML code in this example shares a static piece of content from an email to Facebook. The first commented part of the pasted HTML names the content area "Shared content Region 1", and the second commented part of the pasted HTML contains the creates the Social Markup link using the GetSocialPublishURL() AMPscript function.

<!-- RegionStart[ socialslot:"Shared content region 1",
    title:"First shared email content",
    description:"This is an example of shared content",
    csskey:"portfolio css 1"] -->
  <table width="100%" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" border="0" bordercolor="" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0">
    <tr>
      <td style="font-family:Arial; font-size:13px">
        <img  src="http://example.com/images/logo.jpg"
              title="logo" align="left" border="0" />

        <p id="text-placeholder" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;">
        This is an example of a shared content area!&nbsp; Please feel free to
        pass on this information!<br />
        <br /></p>
 
        <!-- Creates a link to share this content with facebook -->
        <a href="%%=GetSocialPublishURL('1','Shared content region 1')=%%" 
            alias="Social Forward to Facebook" 
            title="Publish to Facebook">
            <img 
                src="http://images.members.exacttarget.com/lib/ffcf14/m/1/social_default_facebook_icon.jpg" 
                alt="Facebook" 
                title="Facebook" 
                border="0">
         </a>

      </td>
    </tr>
  </table>
<!-- RegionEnd[ socialslot:"Shared content region 1"] -->

How to Share a Content Area using Paste HTML, AMPScript, and Social Markup

The HTML code in this example shares a dynamic piece of content from an email to Facebook. The first commented part of the pasted HTML names the content area "Shared content Region 1", and the second commented part of the pasted HTML contains the creates the Social Markup link using the GetSocialPublishURL() AMPscript function. The AMPscript inside of the table refers to a data extension called Offers, and it pulls the content for each subscriber based on the subscriber key contained in the CustomerID column of the Offers data extensions. The content shared by the subscriber remains the static content and doesn't change, no matter who opens the shared content.

<!-- RegionStart[ socialslot:"Shared content region 1",
    title:"First shared email content",
    description:"This is the first test of ExactTarget's social forwarding",
    csskey:"portfolio css 1"] -->
  <table width="100%" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" border="0" bordercolor="" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0">
    <tr>
      <td style="font-family:Arial; font-size:13px">
        %%[ var @row, @rows, @cnt
         set @rows = LookupRows("Offers","CustomerID",_subscriberkey)
         for (var @cnt = 0 to RowCount(@rows)) do
        ]%%
        %%=Field("Description",Row(@rows,@cnt))=%%
        <br /></p>
         %%[ next @cnt ]%%
        <!-- Creates a link to share this content with facebook -->
        <a href="%%=GetSocialPublishURL('1','Shared content region 1')=%%" 
            alias="Social Forward to Facebook" 
            title="Publish to Facebook">
            <img 
                src="http://images.members.exacttarget.com/lib/ffcf14/m/1/social_default_facebook_icon.jpg" 
                alt="Facebook" 
                title="Facebook" 
                border="0">
         </a>

      </td>
    </tr>
  </table>
<!-- RegionEnd[ socialslot:"Shared content region 1"] -

How to Share an Email using Paste HTML and Social Markup

The HTML code in this example shares the content of an email to Facebook. The first commented part of the pasted HTML names the email "Shared content Region 1", and the second commented part of the pasted HTML contains the creates the Social Markup link using the GetSocialPublishURL() AMPscript function. In this case, the Social Markup link refers to the aggregator ShareThis.

<html>
<head>
  <title></title>
</head>
<body>
  <table>
    <tr>
      <td>
        To view this email as a web page, click <a href=
        "%%view_email_url%%">here.</a> 
        <!-- RegionStart[ socialslot:"Shared content region 1",
                        title:"email",
                        description:"The monthly hot offers newsletter for Company X.",
                        csskey:"companyx"] -->
        <table width="100%">
          <tr>
            <td>This is a great newsletter!!!<br />
            
            <!-- Creates a link to share this content with ShareThis -->
             <a href="%%=GetSocialPublishURL('10','Shared content region 1','_stid','publisherID')=%%" 
            alias="Social Forward to ShareThis - email" 
            title="Publish to ShareThis">
            <img 
            src="http://images.members.exacttarget.com/lib/ffcf14/m/1/social_default_facebook_icon.jpg"
            alt="ShareThis" 
            title="ShareThis" border="0" /> ShareThis</a> using Facebook, email and more.
            
            </td>
          </tr>
        </table>
        <!-- RegionEnd[ socialslot:"Shared content region 1"] -->
        <table cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" width="600" id="Table5" border=
        "0">
          <tr>
            <td><font face="verdana" size="1" color="#444444">This email was
            sent to: %%emailaddr%%<br />
            <br />
            <b>Email Sent By:</b> %%Member_Busname%%<br />
            %%Member_Addr%% %%Member_City%%, %%Member_State%%,
            %%Member_PostalCode%%, %%Member_Country%%<br />
            <br /></font></td>
          </tr>
        </table>
      </td>
    </tr>
  </table>
</body>
</html>

How to Share an Email using Paste HTML Templates and Social Markup

The HTML code in this example creates an email with three separate content areas, each one defined by the "@@ContentArea" lines. The first commented part of the HTML email names the email "Shared content Region 1", and the second commented part of the pasted HTML contains the creates the Social Markup link using the GetSocialPublishURL() AMPscript function. In this case, the Social Markup link refers to the aggregator ShareThis.

<html>
<head>
  <title></title>
</head>
<body>
  <table>
    <tr>
      <td>
        To view this email as a web page, click <a href=
        "%%view_email_url%%">here.</a> 
        <!-- RegionStart[ socialslot:"Shared content region 1",
                        title:"email",
                        description:"The monthly hot offers newsletter for Northern Trail Outfitters.",
                        csskey:"northerntrail"] -->
        <table width="100%">
          <tr>
            <td>
            @@ContentArea
            @@ContentArea
            @@ContentArea
            
            <!-- Creates a link to share this content with ShareThis -->
             <a href="%%=GetSocialPublishURL('10','Shared content region 1','_stid','publisherID')=%%" 
            alias="Social Forward to ShareThis - email" 
            title="Publish to ShareThis">
            <img 
            src="http://images.members.exacttarget.com/lib/ffcf14/m/1/social_default_facebook_icon.jpg"
            alt="ShareThis" 
            title="ShareThis" border="0" /> ShareThis</a> using Facebook, email and more.
            
            </td>
          </tr>
        </table>
        <!-- RegionEnd[ socialslot:"Shared content region 1"] -->
        <table cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" width="600" id="Table5" border=
        "0">
          <tr>
            <td><font face="verdana" size="1" color="#444444">This email was
            sent to: %%emailaddr%%<br />
            <br />
            <b>Email Sent By:</b> %%Member_Busname%%<br />
            %%Member_Addr%% %%Member_City%%, %%Member_State%%,
            %%Member_PostalCode%%, %%Member_Country%%<br />
            <br /></font></td>
          </tr>
        </table>
      </td>
    </tr>
  </table>
</body>
</html>

How to Track Social Forward Activities

Clicks from an email to either a social network or an aggregator like ShareThis are displayed in the standard ExactTarget tracking information. Use a query activity to view the raw data of how shared content is viewed and forwarded once that content is already on a social network. You can find sample tracking queries at Appendix: Sample Tracking Queries for Social Forward.

How to Configure ShareThis and Social Forward

If you share Social Forward content via ShareThis, you must get some additional information from your ShareThis account in order to properly share your content. Follow these steps to properly set up your ShareThis account for use with Social Forward:

1. Navigate to ShareThis.
2. Click the Get the Button in the top-right of the page.
3. Make your selections and click the Get ShareThis Code button at bottom of the page.
4. Complete the form with your information, leaving the Domains field blank so that the ShareThis application will capture traffic from all domains
5. Click the Create Account button to see the HTML code for the button. Copy the string that appears after publisher= and before the first & (the publisher ID).
6. In the ExactTarget application, expand the ShareThis selection.
7. Paste that publisher ID into the ShareThis button's publisher ID field when you insert the Social Forward ShareThis button.

Use Cases for Social Forward

Review the documents listed below for Social Forward use cases to see how you can implement Social Forward in your emails.

ExactTarget Application Emails

How to Change the Default Social Network Icons in Social Forward

How to Assign a CSS File from your Portfolio to Shared Content

How To Share Content to Different Social Networks Dynamically in Social Forward

How to Share Content Using Standard and Custom Icons with Social Forward