Tweet, Retweet...What’s all the Chirping About.

Twitter 101 exclaims, “Every day, millions of people use Twitter to create, discover and share ideas with others. Now, people are turing to Twitter as an effective way to reach out to businesses too. From local stores to big brands, and from brick-and-mortar to internet-based or service sector, people are finding great value in the connections they make with businesses on Twitter.”

Twitter will prove to be a valuable social network to most companies, you just have to give it a chance. Twitter is a platform where you can quickly connect with your customers.  For example, some of the marketing implications for businesses to use Twitter include the following: Improve Customer Service, Hold Inexpensive Focus Groups, Follow Customers, Manage Customer Expectations , Recruit Employees, and Perform Inexpensive Market Research.

Once you are on Twitter, it soon comes time for you to prove to your boss that your use of Twitter has been successful. Similar to Facebook likes, you can’t judge a Twitter account by the number of followers it has. If you have 75 followers that you are engaging and interacting with on a regular basis, you are in a better position than a company that has thousands of followers but doesn’t pay attention to anything they have to say. 

If your followers aren’t the most important metric for you to measure your Twitter success, then how should you be measuring your Twitter influence? Following are a few of the many available websites that you should explore, they will help you uncover just how influential you are on Twitter.

Klout—Klout.com (understand and leverage your Twitter influence)

PeerIndex—PeerIndex.com (a snapshot of what you talk about on Twitter)

Tweriod – http://www.tweriod.com/ (best times to tweet to reach your audience)

Bit.ly –https://bitly.com/ (track your links, see who is reading them)

Tweet Stats — http://tweetstats.com/ (graph your Twitter Stats)

Twitalyzer—http://www.twitalyzer.com/ (in depth information on your followers)

Retweetrank—http://www.retweetrank.com/ (see how many retweets you get)

Twentyfeet­­— https://www.twentyfeet.com/ (all your online stats in one place!)

Tweetlevel— http://tweetlevel.edelman.com/ (Twitter measurement tool)

Happy Tweeting!

An Editorial Calendar Will Save Your Sanity!

Social media tasks, marketing tasks—an editorial calendar will save your sanity. Do you sit down at the beginning of each month and lay out your plan for your social media and marketing efforts? If not, I would HIGHLY recommend that you start. You will be organized and your social media and marketing will be streamlined. Below is a sample Social Media Editorial Calendar.  You can adapt this to your needs—marketing or social media. An excel spreadsheet would be a great tool to utilize when creating your calendar.

Here, There and Everywhere...Where in the Social World Should You Be?

There are so many different social media platforms out there, that I thought I would summarize and suggest a few of my favorites. See the table below to see where in the social world you might fit in!

Facebook Interests - The Latest Change to Facebook

If you are familiar with Twitter, then chances are you are familiar with making lists to categorize people that you follow. Good news...if you are also an avid Facebook user, Facebook will be rolling out a similar feature entitled, "Interests." You can now organize all of the pages and people that you follow on Facebook.

Below is a glimpse at how the new Interests section on your Facebook profile will appear. (It will show up in your sidebar on the lefthand side of your profile). You can either create your own Interests lists or you can subscribe to lists that other users have created and made public.

Below is a screenshot of what will appear if you click on the word interests (in the screen shot above). Here you can organize, edit and delete your interests categories.

Do you want to learn more? Rather than reinvent the wheel, I thought instead I would share this great article from Digital Brand Marketing, which give an in-depth description about the new Interests capabilities on Facebook! Enjoy. http://digitalbrandmarketing.com/2012/03/16/what-interests-you-facebooks-new-interest-lists/

Recommended Resource - Digital Brand Marketing

Digital Brand Marketing - www.digitalbrandmarketing.com

This is a new blog that we just discovered (Thanks to Social Media Examiners list of Finalists for the Top 10 Social Media Blogs 2012.) Digital Brand Marketing’s blog “serves as a continuing education tool in the ‘Read, Write & Share’ philosophy covering subject matter in digital branding, marketing, business and more.”

Some subjects they’ve covered on their blog, in the past month, are;

1. The Recipe for a Social Media Enhanced Resume

2. The Price of Social Media. It’s Not Free.

3. The Buzz About Pinterest

In addition, If you are so inspired, Digital Brand Marketing allows readers to submit their own articles for publication on their blog as long as they fit topics related to digital media, brand and/or marketing.

Visit their website to sign up to receive their daily blog post right to your email inbox. I look forward to receiving my daily email from Digital Brand Marketing and I know you will too!

Facebook Timeline Images [CHEAT SHEET]

As I mentioned in my blog post last week, starting March 30, 2012, whether you like it or not, Facebook will be converting all business Facebook Pages to the new Timeline layout. Here’s a quick checklist of things that you have the next 21 days to complete:

1. Design an eye-catching cover photo (851 px wide x 315 px high)
2. Correctly size your logo to fit in the new “profile picture” position (125 px wide x 125 px wide)
3. Design custom pictures for your “favorite” apps that will show on your timeline (111 px wide x 74 px high)
4. If you have created custom tabs, you’ll need to resize them to 810 pixels wide 
5. Dig up old photos (or as Facebook refers to them, Milestones), upload them to Facebook and include in your timeline. This could include a picture of your original building, a product or service launch, when a new employee was hired, etc.

Now for your challenge: for the next 21 days, you will have the option to preview what your page will look like in the Timeline format before you take it live. This gives you a great chance to play around with different designs, photos and layouts. 

Men or Women...Who is More Likely to Share on Social Media?

Have you ever thought about who might be more willing to share their opinions, reviews, etc. on social media?

Finally an answer....WOMEN are more likely to help your social media campaign go viral. A recent study was completed by uSamp, which found that 78% of women and 74% of men were happy to share what brand they prefer.  According to Gaelie Normand, MD of uSamp, “This is good news for retail brands trying to harness social media as a marketing tool. Those targeting a female audience are likely to see more success with viral campaigns, as women recommednd their favorite products to friends and followers more readily. Those brands with a male following might find it slightly harder to create a buzz through social channels.”