Sazbean

Software Development Management

Main navigation

You are here: Home / Archives for Marketing / Social Networks

Social Networks

/

SocialToo – Automate Twitter Following & Unfollowing, Send Surveys

socialtoo_logoIf you’re of the mind to follow everyone who follows you on Twitter, SocialToo can save you time and effort by automatically following anyone who follows you.  You also have choices on how and whether you unfollow anyone who unfollows you.  There are also options to block automatic DMs (direct messages) from other services and to send you a daily email with statistics about your followers.

Most of SocialToo’s services are currently free, but they also offer some paid (although cheap) services. For $5 (each), they offer services to unfollow anyone you’ve manually followed who aren’t following back and to catch up on following people before you started using their services.  For $25, you can delete all your followers.

For users interested in tapping into the collective intelligence of their followers, SocialToo gives the ability to create a one question survey (with an option for comments) through it’s SocialSurvey service, which can then be sent to a Twitter account.  All of SocialToo’s services seem to be setup to eventually intergrate with multiple social networks, similar to Ping.fm, but for now, just Twitter and some Facebook integration is possible.

Technorati tags:  , , , ,

Liked this post? Consider subscribing to our RSS feed or our weekly newsletter.

/

Twitter Tip – Automate Sending Articles to Twitter from Google Reader

automatejurvetsonI used to mark articles in delicous to be automatically sent to my Twitter feed via Twitterfeed.  Now, I am able to mark articles from anywhere with my iPhone and have them sent automatically to my Twitter feed using Google Reader.  This method requires both a Google account on Google reader, and an account on Twitterfeed (both are free).

  1. In Google Reader, in the upper right, click on Settings
  2. Click on the Folders and Tags tab.
  3. Click on the checkbox next to “Your shared items”
  4. Go up to the box that says “change sharing…” and select Public.
  5. Click on View public page (it’ll be empty right now).
  6. Now go back to the feed in Google Reader.  At the bottom of any post you want to share, click “share”.
  7. If you refresh the public page, you’ll see your items show up.
  8. On the right side of the public page, you’ll see an item that says Atom feed.  Click on it (it’ll probably show a bunch of code stuff.)  This is the feed to the items you want to share.  Copy the URL at the top of the window
  9. Goto twitterfeed.com and sign up for their free service.
  10. Login to the service. Click “my feeds”
  11. Click “Create new feed”
  12. Enter the username and password for your twitter account (you can then test to see if it’s working)
  13. Paste the URL of the Google Reader public page where it says “RSS feed URL”
  14. Feel free to mess with the other options, but they should be fine if you want to leave them, so click “Create”.

Twitterfeed will automatically check what you’ve marked as “Share” in Google Reader every hour (or whatever you set as the frequency) and then send it to your twitter feed for you.

(photo by jurvetson @ Flickr CC)

Technorati tags:  , , , , , , ,

Liked this post? Consider subscribing to our RSS feed or our weekly newsletter.

/

Using Social Media to Create Great Experiences for Your Customers

relationshipwroteCreating great experiences comes from listening, respecting and getting to know your customers.  Think about a satisfying purchase experience you’ve had recently.  You probably had some personal interaction with the company, they listened and were helpful in guiding your purchase decision.  You felt like they really understood your needs and what you were trying to do. Many of us no longer have in-person interactions with our customers, but we can still use social media to accomplish many of the same touchpoints.

  • Listen – Join social networks where your customers are.  Listen to what they are saying, both in general and about your company.  You’ll gain insight into what your customers really think and what their needs are.
  • Help – Help your customers anyway you can.  Advice and assistance, even if they are not related to your products will be appreciated and will help build trust.
  • Build a Relationship – Reach out to your customers.  Say hello.  Have a personality.  Have conversations.
  • Respect – Don’t shout at your customers.  Don’t spam them.  Don’t send them uninvited email or advertising.  This can be difficult, but asking your customers to take action occasionally is different than bombarding them with marketing.

You’ll find that once you have built relationships with your customers it is much easier to understand what they need and want out of your products.  You’ll spend less time with inefficient marketing and advertising and more time giving your customers the experiences they want with your products and company.

(photo by Wrote @ Flickr CC)

Technorati tags:  , , , , ,

Liked this post? Consider subscribing to our RSS feed or our weekly newsletter.