• Hubspot - Although Hubspot isn’t free, it’s one of the better Social Media Marketing tools. It’s easy to create and manage a website or blog without having much technical prowess or IT specialist. Your content is garnered for the greatest SEO and link rankings. Lastly, and probably most importantly, is Hubspot’s analytic monitoring. It’s able to collect data across multiple channels and generates great visual reports, which are also excellent for research.
• Dynamic Tweets - This program is for scheduling tweets. One of the greatest aspects of Dynamic Tweets is that it’s very basic and easy to use. There’s a free option, which is reasonably sized for small to mid-size businesses, as well as larger paid options. You can program all your scheduled tweets to follow predefined conditions or rules.
• Hootsuite - One of my favorite programs, Hootsuite does it all. You can manage several Social Media channels from one dashboard. You can follow trends, lists, and/or hashtags, as well as your home stream, all at the same time. You’re able to set up email notifications for any action (i.e. new followers, re-tweets, direct messages). Hootsuite also provides analytic tools that graph your engagement – more in depth measurement resources are available for a fee. One of my favorite aspects, however, is the ability to add team members to an account. You can see what your team members have responded to and when.
• Storify - Storify is great tool for saving and aggregating information on Social Media. You can search for terms, tweets, YouTube videos, RSS feeds, Google, other Storify articles, Flickr, Facebook, etc. Then you create your own Storify “article” where you compile your search results. You can personalize the title and add sound, too.
• Google+ Hangouts - I just started playing with this relatively new tool. A Hangout is basically a group video chat (for free). Whomever starts the Hangout can set the title, which is great for adapting to different audiences and topics. There is a chat sidebar where anyone can share links, questions, comments, etc. Google has already integrated YouTube videos into Hangouts so you can share a video with the members. Up to 9 people can join a hangout, making it a great option for pitches, internal meetings, telecommuting, promotions, and the list goes on. Since it’s still young, I expect a lot more to come from this new, creative tool.

Related articles

• Storify Makes Its Move: A Social Web News Site Starring You (readwriteweb.com)
• #Hub140 – @HubSpot Acquires Social Media Marketing Company @oneforty – http://bit.ly/Hub140 (hubspot.com)
• Twitter Curation Grows Up: Storify Becomes Blog & SEO Friendly (readwriteweb.com)

I attended a tweetchat this week regarding ethics in the field of Public Relations. Hosted by PRSA, the discussion was lively and generated an abundance of interesting points, most of which need their own debate. Here’s the transcript:

Related articles

• The State of Ethics in Public Relations (prsay.prsa.org)
• Ethics Awareness Month Comes to PRSA in September (prsay.prsa.org)

In several recent campaigns, mobile technology proved to be an important tool. It’s easy, fast, and accessible features make it extremely valuable for any campaign. Whether it’s holding a contest, fundraising, petitioning an issue, or updating followers on the status of a campaign, mobile technology is simply the ultimate way to connect.

These days, everyone has a mobile phone (or cell phone). In fact, they’ve become so commonplace that, if they’re not chock-filled with the newest gizmos and gadgets, people won’t buy them. Cell phones have gotten so technologically advanced that they’re called “smartphones” instead. Cell phones aren’t used just for phone calls anymore, too. They can search the web, stream video, connect to social networks, message each other via SMS (text messages), and play music.

Social networks are increasingly being used various PR and Marketing campaigns. Social media, in general, has become a standard tool to increase the reach and visibility of campaigns. So, it’s not surprising that utilizing mobile phones, which easily connect to a multitude of social media outlets, would become popular. But I doubt anyone knew how popular this would get. People have begun to use their phones to perform the tasks computers used to do. Campaigns have become innovative in their attempts to engage via mobile access. Geo-location programs, like Foursquare, let companies reward consumers for their loyalty. Non-profits, such as the Red Cross, have been able to raise substantial funds from SMS donations. Even more recently, QR Codes (scannable squares – like barcodes) offer information, discounts, as well as many other innovative uses.

Companies can align Facebook, Twitter, a website or blog, mobile marketing, and traditional PR and Marketing tools to create a seamless, user-friendly campaign. Mobile technology should be seriously considered as a useful, cost-effective, and sustainable tool. It’s ability to go anywhere trumps every other method of reaching an audience. In order to reach your target audience, you need to find where they are. Well, look no further – it’s probably in the palm of your hand.

Related articles

• New Technologies as Social Media Tools (icemanbaldy.com)
• 10 Ways to Leverage Mobile Technology for Marketing (hubspot.com)
• New QR Codes Emulate ‘Hobo Symbols’ Of The Past (newyork.cbslocal.com)

Happy Social Media Day! I felt it was appropriate to reach out to my followers via social media in celebration. Let’s talk brass tacks…

Do you think social media is helping or hurting your day-to-day?

What would you add/subtract from the various social platforms?

What advice would you give to someone just starting to use social media?

How are you celebrating Social Media Day?

Related articles

• Happy Social Media Day! Free social media consultation (fletcher-prince.com)
• Happy Social Media Day 2011 from Lahore, Pakistan #SMDay #SMDayLhr (waqasaday.wordpress.com)
• Are you responding to posts on social media sites? (smartblogs.com)

The world of social media is a vast expanse of seemingly infinite information. It’s impossible to be everywhere at once but there are some great tools to make life easier. Whether it’s monitoring multiple platforms, visualizing metrics, or filtering through the clutter, there’s a tool to help. Here are some time-saving and helpful tools to make your social media experience a bit easier.

BackType – This site measures the social impact of a site, topic, or person. It’s similar to Klout, focusing on Twitter influence. BackType shows who you influence and who is influenced by you. You get statistics on the number of followers and other metrics in a clean, intuitive image.

TweetAlarm – This program allows you set up email alerts when a keyword or topic (whatever you want to follow) is mentioned on Twitter. Saving you from spending too much time monitoring the clutter on your Twitter feeds, this tool gives you the freedom to get work done and manage your brand or service as needed. 

Social Mention – One of my personal favorites, Social Mention provides free daily email alerts of your brand, company, CEO, marketing campaign, a developing news story, or a competitor. It searches the universe of online content to bring you real-time updates on the site or via email. An additional perk is the availability of a widget for a blog or site.

Twoolr – Although it’s not free ($9.90/month), this is probably the most in-depth Twitter analytic program. It gives a comprehensive visualization of your account growth, which you can break into segments based on dates. View the activity of your content, followers, and influencers. You can monitor the frequency of posts and the effect it has among the Twitter universe. 

CrowdBooster – This tool is still in the works but it looks so good I had to add it. By using colorful visualizations, CrowdBooster shows your most effective Twitter messages and the impact they have. It will recommend the best timing and content to boost efficacy. Detailed insight into your audience and how to build and grow your community. All of which can be put into a well-done report. I’m excited to see this in action! 

Summify – Similar to the popular Post.ly, Summify composes a periodical of relevant news stories from all your social networks. It has the ability to reduce the clutter by cutting out duplicates and only showing the top 5 or 10 stories. It’s a true time-saver, that’s for sure. 

Proxlet – Proxlet is filter for Twitter. It can block certain applications, mute users, and filter hashtags. It’s available for several desktop and mobile clients and filters about 9 tweets per minute (so they say). 

Check these out yourself, or take my word that they’re worth utilizing. I’d love to know what you think of these tools and if you have others to add to the list.

Related articles

• Expand your website through Social Media (netlz1.wordpress.com)
• How Authors Can Use Social Media to Reach Their Niche Markets (lauraleewalker.com)
• Milwaukee Social Media Workshop with Sonny Ahuja (philgerbyshak.com)