Facebook continually makes updates to its features to make things more consistent and user friendly for its users.

Whether you like these changes or not, it brings up the issue of how you as an email marketer can best keep up with the changing world of social media.

Social media is a natural partner for email marketing. It gives us the opportunity to listen to our customers, instead of simply talking at them. It's clearly evident that the more you listen, the better you'll be able to refine your marketing efforts.

Here are some tips on how to keep social marketing current so you can keep listening to your customers:

Get people to follow you on social networks. Include links in your emails, on landing pages linked from your email communications, on your website, and in any other marketing efforts that reach your customers.

All of your email messages should contain links or icons that allow recipients to connect with your social media sites, and to post items from your emails on their pages if they feel that their online friends will find them valuable. Think of email as the opening line in your conversation with customers, and social media sites as a place where they can expand on those conversations.

Th!nk EmailGenius features a forward feature where your customers can easily forward your email to a friend, thus increasing the reach of your communications. And, if you use a social network widget that makes links, you can easily put those links into EmailGenius to increase social sharing.

Talk about yourself, let everyone know you have a social prescence online. One of the most effective ways to do this is to share information about discussions on your website, or include postings from members in email campaigns. You want to create enough interest for others to feel the need to get to your site to learn more.

Make it easy for people to join the club. Anytime you post content, be sure there's a way for them to opt-in to your email list.

Vary your approach between different social channels, but keep your branding message consistent. Your audience needs to be able to recognize you and know that all of the messages are coming from the same place. This strengthens your brand and creates synergy among the many points of contact.