Twitter tools — lots of different Twitter tools

Leave a reply

Twitter is truly one of my favorite social networking platforms and tools to use. I have found it is quick and easy to use and a great way to learn from others, share and connect. I have also found that there are several tools available that can be used with Twitter.

The tools that work with Twitter seem to be increasing on a steady rate as well. There are tools for business, fun, tracking, to make twitter do more, tools to manage your followers and your tweets and much more.

I started to put together a list of all of the Twitter tools available the other day and in doing this I found a great mind map already completed that broke down the Twitter tools available. I will be putting this list together still, however this is a great starting point:

If you have tools that you love and don’t see them on this list I would love to hear from you.

Writing Things Down can be powerful

1 Reply

I wanted to share some information on my thoughts today regarding writing things down and how this can impact the outcome. I know it isn’t directly related to Social Media and Social Networking, but I feel it can have an impact in these areas.

Now that we are almost into the 5^th month of 2011 I have started looking back at what I have accomplished so far this year and begin to look at what I need to do the rest of the year to be on target with my goals I set. One key difference I have made this year is really spending time to write things down on a regular basis and in some cases daily.

I have my goals for the year written down and review them regularly, I also have broken these down into smaller chunks and have focused on them in monthly, weekly and sometimes daily pieces. I also have been 100% faithful about making a daily to do list.

I have found that my daily to do list is a critical part of my success in terms of my longer term goals. This list also helps me see how I am spending my time on a regular basis and to make decisions and weed out what isn’t effective.

This list has also helped me keep on track with my Social Media activities. On my list I include these activities on a daily basis and have started breaking them down further into measurable chunks, how many connections did I make, did I share links, information, write blog posts, etc.

In conclusion, try spending some time writing down what you need to accomplish for the day, both in your personal and professional lives and see what impact it has on you and your ability to get things completed.

Stefanie

Being Professional in a Transparent World

Leave a reply

In today’s world Social Networks are a part of life and can be accessed by almost anyone – including your current employer, business associates and future employers or business associates.

This being the case it is time to ensure you establish and maintain your profile so that it is personal but professional. One way of looking at this is that it isn’t necessarily a business profile, but a positive online presence.

I am sure that you have heard tales of people losing their job because of work-related remarks they have shared on social networks. You really can still be yourself without adding status updates that reference hating work, or attending a boring meeting or playing sick – I am sure if you stepped back you would see that these comments don’t really represent who you are.

Here are a few key things that can help you establish a personal but professional or positive profile.

Pay attention to the photos posted – It is great to be able to easily post and share photos online, however you really need to think about what photos you share online or have associated with your profile. You would not want a prospective employer or business associate seeing a picture of you after a night of partying.

Segregate your friends – On Facebook and other social networks it is possible to segregate your friends into lists. This is a great feature and one that you should use. It will allow you to select if you want a photo or a status update to go to all or just a sub-group of your friends.

Watch your language – Watching your language on social networks is very important. You really don’t want to portray the image of someone with a mouth of a sailor. This really can and will turn off potential employers or business associates.

Don’t update your status in the heat of the moment – Think before you update your status and don’t post a rash comment in the heat of the moment.

Keep in mind that that content that others see you post on Facebook and other Social Networks forms their impression of who you are. Be sure to put your best foot forward and don’t post content that will make others see you in a light you rather they don’t.

How has Social Media and Social Networking tools changed your life

Leave a reply

How has Social Media and Social Networking tools changed your life

I wanted to post today about a conversation I had the other day with a business associate. He has recently started to get on board with Facebook and Twitter for his business, but wondered if Social Media is just hype and if it will go away in the next couple of years. I know part of his concern is due to implementing it into his business and the time it does take to implement and manage – but it was also from a personal side.

I can’t remember his exact words, but he made a comment something like – does everyone really care what we eat for dinner and where we go? I had to laugh and say yes you have a point, but there have been a lot of changes in how people connect due to Social Media and maybe sharing what you eat or where you go on a regular basis is not the best use of it.

I shared that I read an article recently (unfortunately I can’t recall the source) that was about how experts , whoever they may have been, predicted that as we spread out into the suburbs and worked remotely more that we would become a very disconnected society – but just the opposite has happened due to Social Media and Social Media tools. We are much more connected now than they thought we would be.

I also mentioned that Social Media tools have changed a lot of people’s lives. I know that there are many people with disabilities that have experienced huge changes in the quality of life with these tools. They can now connect online with others that share similar interests and have relationships online even if they can’t leave their home very easily.

Another associate chimed in and said how these tools allow her to stay connected for friends across the country. Facebook in particular has allowed her to connect with friends on an almost daily basis and know what is going on in their lives. She indicated that she doesn’t always have the time to pick up the phone, but this tool allows her to quickly connect and regularly too.

I know I use Facebook to connect with my family and friends and it is great. It doesn’t mean that I see them less, but I am able to touch them and their live more than I would be if we were not connected with Social Media tools.

So – how has social media changed how you connect with others?

What are Your 2011 Social Media / Social Networking Goals?

Leave a reply

Now is the time of year that everyone is thinking about goals and plans for the year. Often some of the typical goals include lose weight, get in shape, get out of debt and become more organized. This year however I think you should also focus on goals for your Social Media and Social Networking activities.

I brought this topic up the other day with a friend and they looked at me a bit puzzled and then asked me, what do you mean by Social Media and Social Networking Goals? What should these goals look like?

I went onto explain some of the key items that I have set as my goals for Social Media and Social Networking this year. Below are the goals that I will be working on when it comes to Social Media and Social Networking:

Build Stronger Connections

I have been using Facebook for years and have used it to build connections with friends, family and people that I have done business with or that I want to do business with. This year I want to focus more on these relationships and build stronger connections with my friends. I want to make my connection know I care and take the time to learn more about them on a regular basis.

Currently I have my Facebook friends grouped into groups or lists that make it easier to manage and connect with. In almost all cases I know why I am connected with all of my friends on Facebook, however there are a few that this may not be the case with. One goal that I have and this may seem counterproductive to some is that I am going to verify my connections and those people that I don’t connect with and we don’t really have a reason to be connected I will probably drop the connection. It isn’t because I don’t value them as a person or connection, but I am not sure I can give them what I feel I should as a connection.

I will be moving some of my connections over to Facebook Pages – depending on what the interest is and why we are connected.

Locate Strategic Partners

I want to strive this year to build some strategic partnerships with people on Facebook and Twitter that would be beneficial to both of us. There are so many talented people in the world and tools such as Facebook and Twitter help open the door to these connections. To accomplish this I plan on reaching out and connecting with the people that I admire and read their blogs or writings on a regular basis. I will probably reach out on Twitter first so that I can learn more about them and start interacting and then work on figuring out what value I can provide them so that we can create something together.

Help Others

I want to strive this year to reach out to others when I can via Social Media and help them out in any way I can. This may be answering a question, sharing a resource of just providing a compliment. There are so many ways to do this with the tools that we have available to us now. I will more than likely use Twitter for this activity since it is a fast way to reach out and there are many tools available to search for topics that I can help with, or even for the word help.

I have several additional goals for this year and a few more that are social media related, however I think if I focus on these three the rest will come.

I would love to hear what your goals are this year for Social Media.

- Stefanie

Social Media and Marketing Integration

1 Reply

The way that we search for information and do business has drastically changed over the last few years. It is not enough for a business to run a television, radio commercial or a print ad and expect to get the results that they used to get. It now takes the integration of several marketing channels and many of them are Social Media channels.

Most businesses now have a presence on Facebook and Twitter and many also have a presence on YouTube as well and for those that work in the B2B arena they also typically have a presence on LinkedIn.

One thing that you must keep in mind however is that you need to integrate your Social Media Marketing with your traditional Marketing. What does this look like?

Social Media and Marketing Integration can take on several different formats. The key items that I would like to stress however are the following:

Use your Social Media profiles to direct connections back to your website and/or bog

You want to have a home base which is your website or blog and you want to entice prospects to find out more about you and visit your home base.

Integrate Social Media into your blog or website

There are many ways to integrate Social Media into your home base. This can be done with using Facebook Connect and tools like Twitter Tools. This will allow you to share your Facebook and Twitter streams on your home base as well as share information from your home base on Social networks.

Publish your Social Networking connection information on your print and television marketing

When you do use print and television marketing always include information on how your target market can follow you on Facebook and Twitter (at minim).

Your goal is to be sure that you are making it easy for customers and prospects to find you via Social Media as well as find your Home base through Social Media.

You will also want to embrace Social Media and utilize it to build an active following and supports for your business or product.

Here are other posts I came across this morning that talks about integration:

Top 10 reasons to integrate in 2011

The power of converging social media with display advertising

What is your definition of Social Media?

Leave a reply

I spent some time today catching up on some of my Social Networks and in doing so read an interesting post on LinkedIn regarding how to do you define Social Media. This post had some great insights and definitions that I felt really hit the nail on the head.

I think when you think about Social Media and how it is defined it can be very broad. The definitions may include the sites or platforms that are used for Social Media such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and many more. It may include activities such as blogging, creating videos, posting tweets, adding friends and connections, sharing links and more. It also may refer to using a medium to market to your niche market.

However you define Social Media it is something that is here to stay and something that you can’t ignore – it is definitely a way to connect and communicate with others regardless of which platform you use and what you share while you are doing it.

Here is a link to the discussion for further reference:

http://www.linkedin.com/groupAnswers?viewQuestionAndAnswers=&gid=1245667&discussionID=11314932&sik=1275866238156&trk=ug_qa_q&goback=.ana_1245667_1275866238156_3_1

As well as a couple of great videos on the subject:

I would love to hear how you define Social Media …..

New Privacy Controls from Facebook

Leave a reply

: Image via CrunchBase

Facebook’s privacy settings have been an item of concern for several people recently – even driving some individuals to delete their account and quit Facebook.

Today Facebook unveiled an update of the privacy controls available to users. I guess you could say they listened and took action.

The number one thing that Facebook executives heard was that there needed to be simpler way to control your information and who could access it. This being the case the number one change is a simpler way to control your information. There will now be a single control for your content and more powerful controls for your basic information as well as an easy control to turn off all applications.

With the new privacy controls being added to Facebook starting today Facebook will:

Provide an easy-to-use “master” control that enables users to set who can see the content they share through Facebook. This enables users to choose, with just one click, the overall privacy level they’re comfortable with for the content they share on Facebook. Of course, users can still use all of the granular controls we’ve always offered, if they wish.

Significantly reduce the amount of information that must be visible to everyone on Facebook. Facebook will no longer require that users’ friends and connections are visible to everyone. Only Name, Profile Picture, Networks and Gender must be publicly available. Users can opt to make all other connections private.

Make it simple to control whether other applications and websites access any user information. While a majority of our users love Facebook apps and Facebook-enhanced websites, some may prefer not to share their information outside of Facebook. Users can now opt out with just one click.

The video below is the statement that Mark Zuckerberg released to the press outlining the new privacy controls

Be A Social Networker

Keeping a pulse on Social Tips and Tools for you

Twitter tools — lots of different Twitter tools

Writing Things Down can be powerful

How has Social Media and Social Networking tools changed your life

How has Social Media and Social Networking tools changed your life

What is your definition of Social Media?

New Privacy Controls from Facebook

FREE 5 Day Twitter Crash Course for Professionals
Name:
Email: