Oct
06
2010

5 Tips for Protecting Your Privacy on Facebook

privacyEveryone is on Facebook — so is everyone’s business (and mother and aunts, etc.) Connecting with your business network on Facebook is nice, but not everyone wants to mix personal and professional.  There are some ways you can segment who gets to see what, so you’re not sharing your spring break pics with your business contacts, but can still keep in touch with your family.
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Sep
27
2010

Review: Postling for Social Media Management

Postling is a web-based application for monitoring and managing brands on social media. It connects up to a variety of social networks, as well as provides tracking of keywords on the web, and tracking of RSS feeds (which can be hooked up to Google Alerts or searches). Postling is specifically targeted to local businesses who need to keep track of what people are saying about their business.  Here’s my thoughts…
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Sep
24
2010

How-to: Use Netvibes for Social Media Monitoring

Keeping track of everything that’s going on can be a challenge — especially with social media which moves at the speed of light. Netvibes is a great way to get an eyeball on what’s going on, all in one dashboard.  Plus, it’s super easy to set up and also offers customization options if the default isn’t quite what you want. Better yet, you can easily setup a dashboard for each subject you want to monitor, making it simple to switch between.  Here’s how to setup Netvibes for your own social media monitoring…
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Sep
21
2010

What is a Twitter Hashtag?

Hashtag ArtIf you’re on Twitter you may have seen people put a # in front of a word in their post. That’s what’s called a hashtag, and it makes it easy for other people who are interested in a topic to follow all the posts about it. Hashtags are similar to tagging a photo in Flickr… they help other people understand what the tweet is about, as well as applications that try to help make sense of the overall Twitter stream. How can you use Twitter hashtags for your business?
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Sep
17
2010

Twitter Measurement Tools

Yellow-rumped Warbler (Audubon's) Dendroica coronata bird in Morro Bay, CAIt’s important to measure your social media efforts so you can find out what’s working and how they’re helping you reach your business goal. If Twitter is part of your social media strategy, then there are a number of tools which can give you some Twitter statistics and measurement. Take a look to see if any of these can help you measure success in your social media strategy:
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Sep
13
2010

How-To: Setup Monitoring in HootSuite

A vitally important part of achieving success with social media is responding when someone does reach out to you. When you’re just starting with social media, this may seem like a pipe dream, but if you’re not watching for responses, you may miss them when they happen. As your social media presence grows, it’s equally crucial to monitor for mentions and responses so they do not become lost. I use HootSuite as my main Twitter application, which not only has monitoring, but also stats and scheduling.  Here’s how to setup HootSuite to monitor Twitter for mentions, responses and keywords…
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Sep
08
2010

Social Media in an Hour a Day

rows and rows of cowboy hats..You’re busy.  You’re trying to run your business and you probably are wearing multiple-hats — marketing, accounting, sales, operations, etc. You want to use social media, but you don’t have a lot of time to spare. While social media can take a lot of time, you can get quite a bit out of it just by devoting an hour a day.  Here’s how…
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Sep
02
2010

8 Ways to Increase Social Media Interaction

Interaction Design Summer School 2007 - IstanbulIf you’re just getting started with social media, it can be very frustrating if you’re not getting a lot of interaction. You may feel like you’re putting a lot of effort into creating great content and no one is responding. Unfortunately there isn’t a magic wand that can make you instantly Internet popular, but here are some tips for improving your interaction and getting on the right path.
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Aug
30
2010

Review: SocialSeek for Social Media Monitoring

One challenge with social media is keeping track of all the conversations and times that your name or company name is mentioned. SocialSeek provides real-time results for news, topics, brands or keywords in a specific location or anywhere from either a desktop or mobile application. Search by keyword and location, or just one or the other. Save searches and view updated results automatically every 30 minutes. SocialSeek makes it easy to keep track of what’s being said about your company and brand.
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Aug
26
2010

Is Social Media a Waste of Time?

Tunnels of TimeAhh, social media.  The golden ticket to increased profits and a life time of wealth. All you have to do is setup a Twitter and Facebook profile and start sending updates and magically people will start following and responding to you.

If you believe this, you’ve been lead down the wrong path. While social media may cost less than other marketing methods, it still requires planning, time and patience. If you just jump in without knowing what you’re doing and what you’re trying to accomplish, you may not get the results you expected, leading you to believe it’s all a huge waste of time.

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