Basic Social Media and Online Marketing Tool Box

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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Cut your costs on purchases with Social Networking

Great video on using Social Networking to Save Money !

Watch CBS News Videos Online

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Facebook and Privacy with Friend Lists

I have talked to many people who want to jump online and start using Facebook but are afraid to do so because they want to keep some privacy around their life.  In a lot of cases I have encountered someone who has been using Facebook to keep in touch with family and friends and then all of a sudden they receive a friend request from their employer or a client.  This often throws them for a loop because to a point people do want to keep their personal and business lives separate – even though in today’s world they are quickly merging.

It is possible however to use Facebook for staying in touch with both your family and friends as well as your employer, co-workers and clients and keeping the level of privacy that you desire.  Lucky for us Facebook users, the team at Facebook saw this as a potential issue and created some privacy features that allow you to choose who sees what information.

The feature that is being covered today is Friend Lists

Friend Lists

One of the top ways to separate what information you share with who on Facebook is to use Friend Lists.  This feature in Facebook allows you to privately group your friends into lists.  This helps for organization as well so that you can look at a particular list and only see the status of those on that list.

You can add people to multiple lists if they belong in more than one.  I have several lists and I use them in various ways.  Here are just a few ways that I use my lists:

Family – this is where all of my family members reside and if I have something that is family related I select this list as the list that can see it

Photos – This is the list that I allow access to my photos.  For me since I use Facebook for both personal and business reasons I don’t want everyone seeing photos of my kiddos.

Buddies – These are my close friends that I do things with on a regular basis

Co-Workers –  This is where I list those that I work with on a daily basis

Real Estate – This contains others that share a passion of Real Estate

Marketing – This group contains those that I get and share marketing info with

One way to use these lists for privacy is to select which list or lists you want to see what you post and share on Facebook.  If you are posting a status update and you only want certain groups to see this then you tell Facebook that.

Here is what you will see when you are updating your status:

If you click on the arrow by the lock then you will have the option to select who you want to see your post.  To select a particular last you will need to select the customize option and pick the lists that you want to see it.

Here are some additional resources for information on Friend Lists from Facebook:

Facebook Help Center: Friends: Friends List and Limited Profile

Organizing Your Connections on the New Friends Page

HOW TO: Create Friend Lists on Facebook (via Mashable)

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Past Newsletters

Here are links to our past newsletters:

November 18, 2009

The Online Connection November 18.2009

Why you need a Facebook fan page

As you begin using Social Networking and Social Media tools to market your business and connect to your customers and prospects you need to include a FaceBook Fan page into this mix.

A Facebook Fan Page will allow you to engage your target market on Facebook and reach out to them to share more information on your business as well as connect with them.

Here are several reasons that you need to create a FaceBook Fan Page and begin connecting with your target market via this tool:

• Facebook Fan Pages are free – Facebook allows you to create and maintain a fan page for free

• Search Engine Optimization or Link Love – Google and the other search engines like Bing love Facebook because it is one of the top visited sites.  Having a fan page will allow you to obtain another link in the search engines back to your business

• Instant Mailing List – You can communicate with all of your fans with one message, it provides you with an instant mailing list

• You can have an unlimited number of fans – Facebook doesn’t limit the number of fans you have

• Community – a Fan page allows you to build a community with your fans and engage them.  Often fans will contribute content and provide information so that you can determine their needs and provide them.

• Exposure – A fan page will allow for more exposure for your business

• Viral Marketing – Fan pages are a viral tool because often people will share and invite others to become a fan

• Increase influence – a fan page will allow you to share information and in doing so will increase your influence and help build your credibility

• Natural Promotion – by having a fan page and sharing information you are able to promote your business naturally without truly advertising

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Insights from Top Brands on Twitter

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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Are You Paying Attention To What is Being Said Online About Your Brand or Business ?

Social Media and Networking tools have changed the way people share and obtain information.  Social Media and Networking tools have opened the door to content publication for anyone to be a publisher and share information with others.  These tools can be wonderful in spreading the word about your company and the products and services that you provide, however they can also be used to spread information that can be damaging to your brand or business.

Part of effectively using Social Media and Networking is to monitor what is being said about your brand and business and to keep a pulse on your market or niche.

Adding a monitoring component into your Social Media and Social Networking efforts will help ensure that you never miss a compliment or a complainant written about your brand or business.  If you know what is being said then you can be proactive in handling any complaints or potential bad press as well as highlighting any compliments that are being written about you.

The following are several FREE tools that you can use to monitor what is being said about your brand or business online:

Twitter Search – http://search.twitter.com/

Use Twitter Search to search for “Tweets” related to your company or those needing your products or services

Google Alerts – http://www.google.com/alerts

Google Alerts allows you to set up an alert that will let you know each time there is a new entry on the web with information related to your company, product or service or a topic you are interested in

Technorati – http://technorati.com/

Technorati is a great place to check out what is being covered in the blogosphere

Trendpedia – http://www.trendpedia.com/

This tools allows you to search for names and topics and compare how they rate with other topics or names

Social Mention – http://socialmention.com/

This tool is similar to Google Alerts, but focuses on social media

Twendz (Beta) http://twendz.waggeneredstrom.com/

This tool allows you to monitor twitter conversations in real time on the topic or key words of your choice

Effectively using Social Media and Social Networking tools to monitor mentions of your brand or business will help you stay ahead of the curve and be able to effectively deal with any bad press as well as highlight any positive press that you may receive.

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How to find people to follow on Twitter

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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• Three steps to getting started in Twitter (socialwebschool.com)

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Social Networking’s Impact on Career Connections and Changes

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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• 8 Ways to Network Effectively Online (socialwebschool.com)

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Twitter Tools

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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