photo credit: Marc_Smith

Here is a quick follow-up post to the post from last week on What is your definition of Social Media .

This question is one that is being asked and answered in a variety of places lately.  Over the week-end Mashable collected the top 20 responses to the question “What is Social Media” What is interesting about how they collected the answers is they were via Twitter so the answerss were all 140 characters or less.

Here are some of the top buzz words that came from the answers:

• Collaboration
• Network
• Conversation
• Sharing
• Relationships
• Multi-dimensional
• Inclusive
• Information
• Community
• Personalization
• Empowering
• Real Time
• People
• Content
• Dynamic
• Power of the Crowd

The full post can be read here: What is Social Media

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Twitter is a great tool for businesses to use in their overall marketing strategy.  There are many ways a business can use Twitter ranging from customer service to all out marketing and promotions.

We have seen a lot of companies use Twitter to share special deals with their followers.  This is a very effective strategy because in most cases these deals are not available anywhere else.  This encourages active followers who will watch for the special promotional tweets from the business they are following.

One of our local clients A-1 Custom Trophies has begun using Twitter and will periodically tweet a special just to their Twitter followers.  You can follow A-1 Custom Trophies on Twitter (@A1_Trophies).

This strategy of posting special deals on Twitter has also been used successfully by several other businesses.

Corner Coffee in Minneapolis MN is now using Twitter to send special deals to their customers.  (@cornercoffe)

Dell Computers is an example of a company added a very large additional revenue stream by using Twitter for special promotions (over $2 million a year) (@DellOutlet)

StarBucks is using Twitter very effectively and is communicating special Twitter deals on a regular basis (@starbucks)

Naked Pizza has also been using Twitter for special promotions – and in fact last year a special Twitter promotion brought in over 15% of the daily business for that day. (@NakedPizza)

As you can see businesses are using Twitter to send out promotions and specials to their followers and are having success in doing so.  As a business owner this is something that you do not want to miss.

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Social Media and Social Networking are great ways to establish, build and grow your business and if you are not using Social Networking yet it is time to do so.

I have found though that often keeping on top of managing your Social Networking can be very overwhelming and often time consuming.

Over the last several weeks however I have been researching, testing and implementing tools and process that can assist you in managing your Social Networking activities so that it only takes approximately 15 – 30 minutes a day.

Your largest time commitment is going to be in setting up your profiles and structure in order to streamline your Social Networking.

If you haven’t done so already a good place to start is by setting up profiles on a few of the top Social Networks.  The ones that I would suggest you start with are:

• Twitter
• Facebook Personal Profile and Facebook Fan Page
• LinkedIn
• YouTube if you are going to be using videos

There will be several more that you will want to integrate into your Social Media plan down the road but for today start with setting up profiles on the 4 sites listed above.

SourceOne Technologies is available to assist you with your Social Networking Profile Creation if you would like to have this handled for you.

In the next posts we will discuss more on tools that are available to help you manage these accounts.

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Image via CrunchBase

As you jump into Social Networking and Social Media I am sure you will see that there are hundreds of tools that you can use to manage your activity and there are several new tools surfacing every day.

I have tried several of these tools and use a handful on a daily basis.  I have however found a few that I would consider my favorite tools.  HootSuite is one of my favorites.

HootSuite is a web based tool that I have been using for several months to mange my twitter account and the accounts that I mange for others.  Here are a handful of reasons of why I originally selected HootSuite as a client to use:

• You can manage multiple accounts:
  HootSuite allows you to manage multiple Twitter Accounts from the dashboard.  You are able to add multiple accounts and even set them up with their own tab so that they are easily organized.  This is very helpful for those of us that have multiple Twitter accounts or mange accounts for others.

• HootSuite allows you to authorize multiple editors:
  This is a great feature.  HootSuite allows you to add people to your HootSuite account so that they can help manage your Twitter account, without you having to provide direct userid and password access to your Twitter Account.  This feature makes it really easy to set-up a business Twitter account and share the duties with others in your office.

• HootSuite allows you to schedule tweets:   (one of my favorite features)
  HootSuite allows you to set up your tweets to be tweeted at a scheduled time.  This is a great feature and it really helps you manage your time on Twitter.  This allows you to schedule a block of time during the day where you find great content to tweet and then you can set it up in HootSuite to be sent at a pre-scheduled time.

• HootSuite Offers Link Tracking: HootSuite has a built in tool to shorten links  ”ow.ly”, but in addition to just shortening your links you can also track who clicks on your links.  This is a great tool and it allows you to see what tweets are the most interesting and valuable

• Keyword Searches:
  HootSuite is great for monitoring keywords.  You can add a search to a tab and this will allow you to monitor tweets in real time on the keywords that you have selected.

• Nice Dashboard Interface:
  HootSuite has a nice dashboard that is set up with tabs.  You can select which tabs you show and also have groups of tabs.  I have one group of tabs for one profile that contains my home feed, my @replies, my dm’s and then the keywords I am watching as well as my scheduled tweets.

• Management of those you follow:
  HootSuite may not handle the follower management the best, however it is easy to select someone and either follow or un-follow them from HootSuite.

The features above are the main things that attracted me to start using HootSuite, however recently HootSuite has added several new features that are fabulous.

HootSuite now supports Twitter Lists as well as the ability to  update other Social Networks from HootSuite.  HootSuite has added support for Facebook, LinkedIn and Facebook Pages.

I am still testing out the new features for LinkedIn and Facebook, however from what I have seen so far I am really impressed.  I can now schedule posts to the Facebook Fan Pages I manage – this is a great time saver!

I will report back more later on my results of using HootSuite for Facebook and LinkedIn.

I would encourage you however to check out HootSuite and then stop back by and post your thoughts and results.

Here is a great video tutorial of HootSuite from HootSuite

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Recently I have had the opportunity to meet with individuals that are just getting started with marketing their business online.  In working with this group one question that has been surfacing lately is what does my basic set of tools look like for getting started using Social Media and Online Marketing in my business?

I have told them that there are literally thousands of tools that they could use, however that doesn’t mean that they should use all of these and in fact many of them will not be effective for what they want to accomplish.

That being said here is what I usually suggest as a basic Social Media and Online Marketing Basic Tool Box:

A Company Website – This would be the static site that provides information on your products and services, hours of operation, location, etc.  This would also be where you sell products or services from if that is a component of your business

A Blog – A blog is becoming one of the top items that a business should have in the basic Social Media and Online Marketing tool box.  This is where you discuss your thoughts on topics related to your business and topics that are of interest to your target market.  This is your place to post content and to share and in some cases interact with your target market.

Tracking Tools – Once you have your website and blog set-up it is important that you know where your traffic comes from.  There are several tools that you can use out there that will provide you with that information.  One of those tools is from Google, Google Analytics.  Take the time to make sure you have this in place so you can analyze where your traffic is coming from and how people are finding you.

E-Mail Marketing – In order to build the relationship with your target market you need to begin collecting their information.  You can do this by offering a newsletter or a free report from your website and blog.  Your visitors will choose to opt in to your list.  This will allow you to stay in front of them from time to time via email.

Twitter – Twitter is a must have for all businesses.  This is where you begin to connect with others interested in your market and interact.  Twitter can also be used to listen to your target market’s needs and wants as well as use as a customer service outlet.  Twitter is also a great tool to use to drive people back to your blog.

Facebook – Facebook is another place to connect with your target market.  I would suggest you have a Facebook Fan Page where you can connect and learn more about your target market.  Interact with your friends and do things like wish them Happy Birthday and share information they can use.

LinkedIn – LinkedIn is a great tool to use to connect with those that may need your product or service on the professional level.  This is one tool that should be in every consultant’s tool box.  You can join and participate in groups with others that are your target market.  LinkedIn is great for many businesses; however I would have to say that it may not be the best tool for businesses that deal directly with consumers (such as restaurants, retail stores, etc).

As I stated there are thousands of tools that can be used for Social Networking and Online Marketing, this is just a bare minimum to start out with in your tool box.

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Twitter is becoming more an more mainstream and several companies large and small are jumping on Twitter and many of them are achieving great success.

Here are some videos from some of these companies sharing about Twitter.

Dell Computers

Southwest Airlines – Interview with Christi Day

Comcast

Comcast CEO – Twitter Changed our Company

Starbucks

Brad Nelson of Starbucks talks to the PSAMA

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Hopefully you are now active on Twitter, if not I am hoping you are getting ready to take that plunge.  One thing you will want to do once you are on Twitter and have posted a few tweets is to select those that you wish to follow.

There are several ways to select who you want to follow on Twitter.  One quick and easy way is to follow your friends or those that you know to start with.  After you have followed your friends however it is time to get down to business and start to find and follow those that are talking about what you are interested in or who are your target market for business.

Here are some ways to locate those individuals on Twitter that fit the criteria of either they talk about what you are interested in or they are your target market for your purpose for being on Twitter.

Search for individuals talking about what you are interested in

There are several ways to find people to follow that are interested in what you want to hear.  I am only going to cover a few today, so please keep in mind there are many more.

HootSuite- Hoot Suite is a web based Twitter client that can be used to do many things (manage multiple twitter accounts, reply to people, follow people, schedule tweets, and more).  The focus on HootSuite today however is the ability to use it to search.  You can search in HootSuite for tweets that contain key words that you are interested in.  Once you find the people that are sharing tweets of interest to you from within HootSuite you can select to follow them.

Search Twitter – You can use good old fashion search Twitter and search on the keywords of interest and follow those individuals directly from Twitter

Tweep Find –  TweepFind allows you to search for a key word and find the top individuals based on user rank for that key word.  ( a similar tool is TweetFind, however this one is based on the Tweets instead of Tweeps)

Nearby Tweets – Nearby Tweets is an excellent way to search for those that are in a particular location and tweet about a particular topic.  This is an excellent tool if you are building a local list for people that may be interested in what you have to offer.

Browse a Directory with Twitter Users Listed

One great way to find people that you wish to follow is to use a directory.  The directories have people grouped based on their interests and what they tweet about.  Here are a list of a few directories to use to search for people to follow:

Twello – Twello is one of my favorite directories.  Individuals are grouped by basic categories as well as very well defined categories.  You can also search for people that contain certain words in their profile.  One thing I really like about this directory is that you can login directly and as you are browsing you can select those that you want to follow without having to move back and forth between the directory and Twitter.

TweetFind – This is a new directory that looks very promising.  It groups individuals into categories and it also ranks users.  One worth checking out.

GeoFollow – this is a directory that allows you to do a few different searches to find what you are looking for.  Another great tool to build a local list.

I am hoping that these tools with give you a place to start to find those to follow that are of interest to you and that you may be an interest to as well.

Good Luck finding and adding followers

-          Stefanie

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Over the last few days I have seen several friends and colleagues of a large company that I do some work for face new challenges in life due to being laid off.  I am very sad to see many of them go.

Many of these individuals have had some advance knowledge that this was in the works and they could be impacted.  This knowledge and the availability of tools such as Facebook and LinkedIn had a large impact on actions that were taken pre-layoff.

Over the last couple of months several employees at this company reached out to others that they worked directly with and those that they knew from association to become “connected”.  Several of these connections occurred on LinkedIn where a person can become connected to other business and career minded individuals.  Many of these connections also resulted in a mutual exchange of recommendations (which can be very helpful when looking for new employment).

There were also several connections made between colleagues on Facebook, however these were of a different nature than those on LinkedIn.  The Facebook connections are more of a fun connection on the personal side than the business and possible job search nature that was created on the Linked side.

In years past when someone was impacted by a reduction in force or a layoff usually you patted them on the back and wished them luck and maybe exchanged phone numbers and possibly an email address.  This is no longer the case.

In Today’s changing world where we have tools and avenues to reach out and connect with others saying good bye after someone is impacted by a lay off is not the same.  In most cases you say good bye in terms of your every day working relationship, however you can and should be connected in other ways so that you can continue to be “linked” and hopefully support one another.

The access we have to each other and each other’s networks in today’s world can really make an impact on how we approach things.  We really are no longer a lone wolf in a lot of cases if we are willing to reach out and connect with others.

If you are one of my friends or colleagues that were impacted I am very sorry to lose that relationship I had with you, however I do not consider it as a good-bye, just a change in our connection.  Please be sure to reach out and connect with me on LinkedIn or Twitter or even Facebook. I would like to remain connected with you in some manner and hopefully play a role in your search for new employment opportunities – please reach out and feel free to access my network if it will help you.

- Stefanie

P.S.  Here are some additional links that reference using Social Networks for job and career tools

• Social Networking Mistakes that Can Break Your Career
• Brazen Careerist – A Career Management Tool
• Social Network Basics For Job Hunters
• How to Turn Social Networking into a Job Offer

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Twitter is currently one of the top Social Networking tools that I use multiple times a day to connect with others and share my brand and direction.  I think the reason that it is on the top of the list is due to the ease of use and the efficiency as well as the tools that are available to work with Twitter.

There are literally thousands of tools available that can be used in some manner with Twitter, from clients to search to ranking to lists you name it they are available.

There are too many tools currently available so I can list all of them in this post, however I would like to give you a list of a handful of helpful tools at this time.

Twitter Trending Tools

Twit(url)y – list the top urls that ae being discussed on Twitter and does a nice job of breaking them down into Everything, News, Pics and Videos

Tweetmeme – is another Twitter tool that helps you see trends.  It lists the hottest links on Twitter

Twitscoop – is another tool to help you stay on top of Twitter.  Twittscoop also lets you update your Twitter from it’s interface

Twitter Tracking Tools

TweetStats – a tool to use to graph your tweets

Hoot Suite – This is a Twitter client that also has tracking and stats available

Twitter Unfollow Tracking and Automation

Qwitter – this tool will email you when someone quits following you after a tweet

Twitterless – this tool you who stops following you and graphs your follower history over time, making this info available in a variety of useful views.  At this time however this tool is in Beta still so I can’t give my honest opinion yet, but I am very curious to test it out.

Twitter Karma – This is one of my favorite tools.  It is a great way to see who is and who isn’t following you and it offers a way to mass follow or unfollow those users.

BuZZom – is a new tool for managing your followers and looks very robust.  I will be testing this one out over the next several days.

Twitter Search Tools

Search Twitter – This is Twitter’s built in search tool and it works very well to search Twitter for topic so interest

TweetScan – this tools works very similarly to Twitter Search but displays slightly differently

Twitter Local – this is a great tool to search tweets posted in a local location

Chirp City -  A tool to check out those Tweeting Near You

If you have a favorite Twitter tool either on this list or not please be sure to post a comment and share it.

Thanks

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Here is a great video from Loic Le Meur who took some time to answer questions for the 140conf Twitter Conference in LA.

He shares 30 Predictions for the Future of Twitter.

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