2009 in review

As we wrap up the year and set aside some time to focus on our friends and family and celebrate Christmas and prepare for the New Year I wanted to take a minute and reflect back on 2009.

2009 in my opinion and many others is the year that Social Media and Social Networking came to life.  This year we saw many individuals and businesses jump into the Social stream and start using Social Media and Social Networking as a way to grow and market their products and services.  This movement also created a lot of success stories and cases to take note of.

Since 2009 is the year in which Social Media and Social Networking has come to life and jumped into mainstream marketing there was a lot of wonderful content shared.  This content was shared and spread with the following tools; blogs, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and several other tools.

Here are some of my favorites for 2009:

50 Ideas on Using Twitter for Business

Freebies for Social Media Marketing

101 Ways to Promote a new blog

50 Social News Websites from DoshDosh

Social Media ROI: Socialnomics

This is why HootSuite is one of my favorite tools

If you Have an Extra Half Hour

Here are some great links to posts from others that are highlighting some of the top posts from the year:

Adam Vincenzini shares the top 99 of 09

SimplyZesty shares Top 50 Social Media Stories of 2009

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This is why HootSuite is one of my favorite tools

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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Social Media and ROI – Is it there?

One question I see asked a lot about using Social Media and Social Networking as a strategy for marketing and consumer engagement is …..  Will I get a good return on my investment or am I wasting my time?

My friends at Socialnomics have produced a great video that does a wonderful job of answering this question.  I think once you watch it you will see that there is a significant ROI on using Social Media and Social Networking as a strategy..

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• Feeding Your System (chrisbrogan.com)

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Social Media and ROI – Is it there?

One question I see asked a lot about using Social Media and Social Networking as a strategy for marketing and consumer engagement is …..  Will I get a good return on my investment or am I wasting my time?

My friends at Socialnomics have produced a great video that does a wonderful job of answering this question.  I think once you watch it you will see that there is a significant ROI on using Social Media and Social Networking as a strategy..

Related articles by Zemanta

• Feeding Your System (chrisbrogan.com)

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Scott Monty Shares Maintaining Your Brand in Social Media

Scott Monty  holds the role of Head of Social Media with Ford Motor Company and also writes a regular personal blog on Social Media at The Social Media Marketing Blog.  Scott’s blog is one that I visit and read frequently and often gain a lot of great insights from.

I came across this video of a presentation that Scott Monty did the other day that I wanted to share with you.  It is about 50 minutes long, but it is well worth it.  Scott covers a lot of history and information on Ford and the use of Social Media and then he shares some great nuggets on Using Social Media to maintain your brand.

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Scott Monty Shares Maintaining Your Brand in Social Media

Scott Monty  holds the role of Head of Social Media with Ford Motor Company and also writes a regular personal blog on Social Media at The Social Media Marketing Blog.  Scott’s blog is one that I visit and read frequently and often gain a lot of great insights from.

I came across this video of a presentation that Scott Monty did the other day that I wanted to share with you.  It is about 50 minutes long, but it is well worth it.  Scott covers a lot of history and information on Ford and the use of Social Media and then he shares some great nuggets on Using Social Media to maintain your brand.

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Are companies really embracing Social Media and Social Networking ????

Social Networking and Social Media is a very hot topic right now and one that you really can’t ignore, but is it being embraced?

Many smaller businesses and organizations often question if it is really something they need to add to their marketing mix and communication streams.  When this question comes up they will often ask something like, “Are companies really using this?” and typically when this is asked they also want to know who and how.

There are several companies that are using Social Media and Social Networking in their marketing mix and communication streams.  Some big names are Dell, Southwest Airlines, Comcast and several others.

But how many really are using Social Media and Social Networking

I think you will be surprised when you realize just how many businesses are.  To give you an idea here are three thinks that provide you with over 1100 examples of Social Media being used by companies:

http://wiki.beingpeterkim.com/

http://wiki.beingpeterkim.com/page-2

http://wiki.beingpeterkim.com/master-list-3

You won’t find 1100 companies, but you will find examples of what companies are doing.  These examples contain some of the following methods:

• Twitter
• FaceBook Fan Pages
• Blogs
• Photo Sharing
• Podcasting
• Video Sharing
• Content Aggregation
• Widgets
• Complete Social Networks

Here are a few fun examples of what companies have done:

Fidelity created this mashup for users to play with: http://personal.fidelity.com/misc/buffers/labs/index.shtml

Ford is Sponsoring this Wiki: http://wherearethejoneses.wikidot.com/set:home

Rubbermaid Has a pretty neat YouTube Chanel: http://www.youtube.com/user/RubbermaidOnline

Rubbermaid is also building a nice FaceBook Fan Page: http://www.facebook.com/RUBBERMAID

Toys R Us ( A favorite of my kids) has a sharp looking Facebook Fan Page: http://www.facebook.com/toysrus?ref=nf

Newspapers are learning they need to generate content from readers – The Wall Street Journal has over 40 content blogs available: http://blogs.wsj.com/

Wells Fargo has launched Stage Coach Island that is an interactive online virtual world: http://blog.wellsfargo.com/StagecoachIsland/

This is just a handful of examples of companies using and embracing Social Media and Social Networking tools.  To see more great examples take the time to look at the three lists and see what others are doing.

One key item that I see on these lists and I always tell people is that a Blog MUST be part of your mix.  This is where you communicate and share and this helps generate regular content.

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