Last year we published a list of 20 Social Media Monitoring Tools. One of the more popular tools on that list is Hootsuite. Today we give you a deep dive into Hootsuite:  what it is and how it can make you more productive with social media.

If you are looking for a tool that lets you manage all of your social media accounts and presence in a single place, and collaborate as a team on them, then Hootsuite should be at the top of your list to investigate.

Hootsuite is a Web-based tool (although it also can be used on popular mobile devices- see screenshot above).

You take a few minutes to set up a Hootsuite account;  then connect your various social media profiles.  After this one-time setup, you will be able to use it.  Here are 4 essential functions that Hootsuite performs:

1. Manage Your Social Accounts in One Place

You do this from the Hootsuite dashboard, without visiting each site separately or using a multitude of different mobile apps.  This includes replying to others, retweeting, “liking,” sharing and responding to private messages, and otherwise carrying out activity on your social accounts.

The activities that you can perform vary by social media platform. You won’t be able to do every single thing for your Facebook Page, for instance. But we’ve found that we can do 90% of our day-to-day social activities from within Hootsuite.

You can manage Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, LinkedIn, Google Plus, MySpace, WordPress and Mixi — individual profiles and business pages.

2. Schedule Updates

The built-in calendar is one of the most important features. Use it to schedule posts to your social accounts.  In other words, you can keep your accounts active. More importantly, you can be efficient by scheduling all your social updates at one time for, say scheduling once a day or once a week. In other words, you can “batch” your work. Then you aren’t constantly interrupting other activities to update social accounts throughout the day or week.

There’s also an auto-schedule feature that will automatically schedule your tweets and updates to go out at optimal times.

Running a marketing campaign and have a lot of updates to make over a period of say, two weeks?  You can actually upload a CSV spreadsheet for all the messages.

If you prefer “set it and forget it” automation, you can add RSS feeds to automatically update social accounts every time a new article goes out from your company blog, for example.  You can set it to post one item at a time (recommended) or more.  You can direct it to check for new items in the feed and post them, once per hour or up to once per day.

3. Communicate and Collaborate as a Team

You can assign tasks, such as responding to a tweet or a private direct message, to a team member, as seen above.  No emails or separate instant message instructions needed. Assignments are right there within the Hootsuite dashboard.

Also, because multiple users can use Hootsuite, everyone can “see” what activity is completed or hasn’t been done yet.  Again, no communicating via email or messaging programs to find out if someone followed up on that Twitter customer complaint yet, or not.   How many users you can have depends on which product level and upgrades you have purchased.

4. Get Analytics and Reports

Fragmented results here and there don’t do much to help you analyze and understand how well social media is working — or not.  For that, you really need to see a bird’s eye view of activity over a period of time, and be able to compare it.

Many social media platforms now offer analytics.  But who has time to run and grab those analytics from Facebook Insights, or a multitude of other social sites?  Hootsuite’s built-in analytics and reports  give this kind ability to track your progress and understand what’s working best, in one place.

Best of all, you can get weekly reports emailed to you.  These are extremely helpful.  For instance, here at Small Business Trends we review the analytics reports in staff meetings from time to time.

What I Like About Hootsuite

The company keeps investing in enhancements to its platform.  Hootsuite just keeps getting better.  And that’s not always true with products.

Here are two aspects that are particularly impressive:

Integration / Interoperability With Other Marketing Applications

You’re not limited to managing just the 8 social media platforms Hootsuite currently covers. You can extend capabilities to other social media sites and even other programs, by adding “apps” from the Hootsuite Apps Directory.

For instance, you’ll find apps for social sites such as Instagram, Tumblr, Flickr, Scoop.it, YouTube and several more (see screenshot below).

Then there are apps that offer some level of integration or interoperability with popular marketing and CRM programs that businesses use.  There are apps for ConstantContact, Nimble, HubSpot, Salesforce, ZenDesk and more.  What exactly the apps allow you to do with Hootsuite varies by app.  For a description of one such app, see our write-up about the Batchbook and Hootsuite integration.

Most apps are free.  Some, like the app for Salesforce, require an additional monthly fee. But even the paid premium apps are relatively inexpensive. Apps usually cost less than $5 per month per premium app.

I like the fact that Hoosuite has been open to allowing these kinds of apps, through its developer program.  It makes Hootsuite more useful as a central dashboard and management tool.

Different Pricing Levels to Meet Different Needs

Another positive aspect of Hoosuite is that it offers different pricing and feature levels.

There’s a free level, for a single user to update 5 social profiles.  This is good for a really small startup or sole proprietor.  It’s also a risk-free way to try out Hoosuite.

The Pro version, currently $8.99  a month  – the price recently went up — can be used with a small team of two users.  Additional users can be added for a fee.  The added users can vary — anywhere from $10 to $15 for the third user, and $15 to $30 each additional after that.  It all depends on whether you are under the “new” pricing or old.

Note that some of the features in this review may only be available at the Pro level.

With Pro you can manage an unlimited number of social profiles.  You receive an enhanced analytics report, and can choose an unlimited number of apps.  There’s a 30-day free trial of this version, too.  The Pro version is what most small businesses likely will use.

The Enterprise version is for, well, large enterprises.  Pricing is not even available on the site for Enterprise.  The Enterprise version adds advanced features, such as advanced security, geo-targeting, advanced customer support. It also adds Hootsuite University, an online training program for social media and learning to use Hootsuite.

There’s a discount of 10% for annual billing instead of monthly, for some savings.

What I’d Like to See Hootsuite Do Differently

While I like the different levels of Hootsuite, some small businesses may consider it expensive to purchase certain add-ons ala carte.  The cost can really add up.

Hootsuite University is one such add-on I’ve heard people kvetch about.  Ala carte it’s $21 per month.  Small business teams really could benefit from training. But the pricing model poses a challenge.  Small business owners I’ve heard from are concerned that once you sign up for a monthly fee, if team members don’t use it, you could find your organization a year later paying for a service that’s rarely been used – just because somebody forgot to cancel it.  A one-time fee per user would solve that issue.

Another pricing issue is the limitations and expense of using vanity URL shorteners for brand enhancement of your links shared.  For instance, at Small Business Trends we’ve started using our own URL shortener of http://SBT.me.    Hootsuite allows custom URLs — but only if you sign up for Owly Pro.  That costs $49.99 per month.

Small businesses will be very cost sensitive about social media tools. Just 39% of small businesses say they get ROI from social media. Of those the majority isolate the dollar value to under $1,000 per year.

Still, at the base price of under ten bucks a month, Hootsuite Pro delivers excellent value. The base price should be affordable by most small businesses.  Just be careful about those add-ons!

At Small Business Trends we are paid customers of Hootsuite. We did not get any special consideration for this review.

More About Hootsuite

As mentioned, Hootsuite is a Web-based based app, and can be used from most modern browsers.  There are extensions (“hootlets” or “hootbars”) for Chrome and Firefox browsers.

Hootsuite offers mobile apps so that you can manage your social presence from an iPhone, Android devices and the iPad.

HootSuite Media, Inc. was founded in 2008 by Ryan Holmes, who is also the company CEO. Its headquarters is located in Vancouver, BC, Canada.  It has over 6 million users, who send 3 million messages a day through the dashboard.

Overall, Hootsuite is the gold standard today for managing your social media accounts.  It offers a strong affordable mix for small business users.

The post Review of Hootsuite: Manage Social Media From A Single Dashboard appeared first on Small Business Trends.

If you’ve been curious about the new Twitter advertising platform, you may have a good reason to try it out soon. But you’ll have to be a small business customer using one of Chase Bank’s financial products first. Twitter announced a partnership with Chase Bank last week aimed at trying to encourage use of its little more than a year-old advertising service.

Twitter advertising was launched on an invitation-only basis to select users in March of 2012 and was opened to all U.S. users in April of this year. The new program would award $1 million worth of free Twitter advertising credits in $100 increments to “eligible” Chase small business customers.

As part of the partnership between Twitter and Chase, the bank’s estimated four million plus small business customers, including those using Chase’s Business Banking, Ink from Chase credit card and Chase Paymentech (a system for merchants to accept credit cards on mobile devices, will get other benefits too. Some of those will include access to research, best practices and workshops about using Twitter to grow a business. No word yet on how many of these customers will be eligible for the free small business advertising credits, but Twitter has promised more details early this fall.

The popular social site will also be sharing customized content through a new @ChaseSmallBiz Twitter account.

On the official Twitter blog, Russ Laraway, head of small business for Twitter, wrote:

Our goal is to help small businesses build better customer engagement, increase sales using direct response techniques, and engage more followers with compelling content. We’ll be posting videos, infographics, white papers and a how-to guide developed by Chase and Twitter to help small businesses learn more about the value of Twitter.

This isn’t the first time that Twitter offered advertising credits underwritten by a sponsor.  Another program was rolled out in 2012.

Bottom line: the advertising credits from Chase won’t be available for several months yet. Stay tuned and we will update you when they are rolled out to small businesses.

Twitter Photo via Shutterstock

The post Twitter Announces $1 Million in Ad Credits for Chase Small Business Customers appeared first on Small Business Trends.

If you’re trying to learn more about the impact you have on Twitter, some basic Twitter analytics are now available for free from the site.

The new Twitter analytics feature was first spotted this week by at least two online marketers who posted about their findings. We’ve seen no official notice of the feature on the Twitter blog so far.

Christopher Penn, vice president of marketing technology at SHIFT Communications, and Danny Olson, a digital strategist at Weber Shandwick, both posted about it, but we couldn’t find any official announcement.

The Twitter analytics tool can be found with a few quick clicks from your main Twitter dashboard.

To get there, simply use the pull down menu on the right side of your task bar on your Twitter account page and look for the Twitter Ads link under Edit Profile. (We’ve heard that some users are having difficulty accessing the new feature because the proper buttons don’t yet appear on their task bar.)

Once you click through to the Twitter Ads section, look for the Analytics tab near the top of the page and choose “Timeline activity” on the pull down.

That’s it.

A timeline along the top of the page graphs out your mentions, follows, and unfollows in six hour increments over a several week period.

Below this, a history of recent tweets shows you a more detailed analysis with the number of Faves, Repeats and Replies each tweet has received. It also gives notifications of the number of times that links in your Tweets have been clicked.

Twitter also provides notification for tweets that have received above “normal reach” and how many times over your normal reach each tweet has gotten. (Though there’s little explanation of what this actually means.)

There’s also a button allowing you to download a customized history of your Twitter analytics over the past two days, 7 days, 30 days or 90 days as either a CSV or XLS file.

Pick the “followers” selection under analytics in the Google Ads section and you’ll get a brief overview of your Twitter history, wrote Penn. But be aware, some users may get a notification there is not enough data to display these analytics yet, perhaps because the feature is new.

Of the service, Penn comments:

That’s all you get for now from Twitter. It’s a good start, but it’s not nearly enough if you want to go crunching serious numbers to find out Twitter’s impact on your marketing efforts. For that you’ll still need to heavily rely on third party tools.

What do you think? Will you find the new Twitter analytics helpful in measuring your impact on Twitter?

Twitter Photo via Shutterstock

The post Twitter Now Provides Free Analytics Feature appeared first on Small Business Trends.

In an announcement on the official Facebook Newsroom blog last week, Fidji Simo, product manager at Facebook, wrote the company would streamline its advertising products from 27 different choices to about half that in the next six months.

The company says it decided to simplify its advertising offerings because of customer preference. In her post, Simo wrote:

Over the past year, we have been gathering feedback from marketers about our ads products. One point we heard loud and clear is that we need to simplify our product offering. As the services we provide to marketers have grown, so have our new products; while each product may be good on its own, we realized that many of them accomplish the same goals.

Though Facebook was not specific about all the advertising products likely to be eliminated, Simo did mention some that would be disappearing. And some sponsored posts associated with Facebook business pages will be affected.

Questions

One of the sponsored products scheduled to disappear is a feature called Questions. The special post offers a multiple choice question about a product or service users can respond to if they wish. But in the post, Simo said business customers would prefer to just add a question in a post and get a response in the comment section.

Offer

Another kind of sponsored post set to disappear is the Offer, wrote Simo. The Offer post includes a simple product description and “get offer” button, allowing visitors to take advantage. Again, Simo said advertisers felt using an ad explaining the offer with a link to the company Web page was simpler and more effective.

Sponsored Stories

Another type of ad post that will not so much be eliminated as consolidated is the sponsored story post. Up until now, Facebook advertisers have had to buy a separate product for the best “social context” on their sponsored posts. Often this includes information on friends or fans who have “liked” or “commented” on a sponsored post.

The added product is called “sponsored story” and is a separate purchase in addition to the post. From now on, however, Simo says Facebook will be eliminating the extra steps and adding social context with each ad purchased.

It’s unclear from Facebook at this time whether this means advertisers will be paying less for the additional social context in their ads or whether the cost of a sponsored ad will simply be part of the new advertising package. However, Simo claims data from sources like Nielsen and comScore show social context increases return on advertising and brand awareness.

A New Look

Changes are expected to make ads more consistent in appearance and to make the advertising process on Facebook simpler by reducing the number of potential ad formats. Below is Facebook’s vision of a more consistent ad format.

Most of these changes will begin in July, Simo wrote. She was less specific about what other changes the company might be making in its advertising products and services or what cost changes, if any, might be associated with the consolidation.

Reaction from the Facebook marketing community has been fairly calm.

“It’s going to be OK, don’t panic,” wrote Laurie Cutts, Director of Marketing for Nanigans, on the company blog last week. Nanigans is a social marketing agency specializing in helping clients with Facebook advertising.

“Yes, Sponsored Stories have been a part of our lives as marketers for quite some time now,” Cutts added. “As we’ve come to learn, though, social ad units, especially on Facebook, have a shelf life. For Sponsored Stories that time has come.”

What do you think? Will these changes improve your efforts to market to customers on Facebook, make them more difficult, or have little or no effect?

The post Facebook is Trying to Make Advertising Simpler appeared first on Small Business Trends.

I remember the first time I saw the Twitter blue Bird “chirping” image after I launched my business in late 2007. I loved it from first sight and use.

The idea of short 140 character comments and microblogging was brilliant. I don’t think any of us could have seen  the impact Twitter would have, in it’s real time, immediate ability to distribute breaking news and information. But it has transformed how fast we see it – and get it.

Says Digital Expert, Brian Solis, about TNN, the Twitter News Network:

Once again, we were reminded that…news no longer breaks, it Tweets.

Not only do we Tweet, but we follow the Twedia, have our own Twitterverse, read Twitorials, think some people are Twitless and yes, there is a Twitionary.

Social media, especially Twitter, is changing the game of journalism and allowing anyone to potentially break a story and take on the role of journalist. I learned about Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston and Osama Bin Laden’s deaths from Twitter. Other breaking stories include the Hudson River plane crash, the royal wedding announcement, Hurricane Sandy and the Moore Oklahoma tornado.

Twitter wants you to know a few stats about how brands use it, as it continues it’s mission to be considered as a major media company, which it is already well on it’s way to becoming:

• 200 million people are active on a 30 day basis.
• 95% of conversations about TV happen on Twitter.
• Mobile users are 78% more likely to re-tweet a brand.
• 50% of  Americans see, read or hear a tweet daily.

Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched in July as an online social networking service and microblogging service that enabled its users to send and read text-based messages of up to 140 characters, known as “tweets.”

Twitter got it’s name, from the word twittering, which is the sound birds make when they communicate with each other. This turns out to be an apt description of the conversations and activity that happens on Twitter.

Twitter provides people with real-time public information. Even more profound is how it also helps groups of people to mimic the effortless way a flock of birds move in unison.

As I work with small businesses, entrepreneurs and professional consultants on their social media plan and messaging, I recommend Twitter as an integral part of  that plan. Twitter is an integral tool, resource and community. Especially now that smart phones, mobile and texting are exploding.

As an early adopter on Twitter (2008), I have learned much about etiquette, useability, utility and results. Amazingly, the top 15% of Twitter users account for 85% of all Tweets.

Below are 5 Twitter do’s and don’ts that can highlight or hinder you in how you stand out, get noticed and are remembered on Twitter.

5 Twitter Do’s and Don’ts

5 Twitter Do’s That Highlight You

1) Consistency

Be consistently authentic and deliver daily value.

2) Thankfulness

Thank people and show gratitude.

3) Genuineness

Tweet like you think and speak.

4) Respect

Respect the etiquette of the community and space.

5) Positivity

Vibe positivity, optimism and brand your own style.

5 Twitter Don’ts That Hinder You

1) Over Sell

Don’t over sell, over automate and under serve.

2) Spam

Don’t spam people, be disrespectful or be rude.

3) Over Tweet

Don’t over Tweet, overwhelm and under engage.

4) Vague

Don’t have an unfinished bio, bad avatar and no legitimate contact information.

5) Steal

Don’t post, re-tweet or steal content without acknowledging the source.

Although I have had some unfortunate interruptions in error on Twitter lately, I remain a staunch advocate, dedicated user and fan of the platform. If you get suspended or have any problems with Twitter, don’t panic. Here’s everything you need to know to get reinstated.

You don’t have to be on Twitter to be successful, but having Twitter in your media mix and using it strategically can enhance your business brand, reach and social media fun.  Learn more about how and why to use Twitter in these infographics.

What are your top Twitiquette do’s and don’ts?

Blue Bird Photo via Shutterstock

The post 5 Twitter Do’s and Don’ts That Highlight or Hinder You appeared first on Small Business Trends.

If you haven’t heard yet, Vine is now available on Android and is now surpassing Instagram in total Twitter shares, reports MarketingLand.

Vine  is an app that lets you creates 6-second videos. The app’s description invites you to “Create short, beautiful, looping videos in a simple and fun way for your friends and family to see.”  You then can load your Vine videos on to Twitter or other social accounts.

Vine was previously available only to Apple mobile device users (iPhone, iPad etc.), where it was downloaded by 13 million people and became so popular that Twitter acquired it in October 2012.

According to Twitter, 12 million Vine videos are posted to the microblogging site daily.

Some might doubt the marketing power of a video that lasts only seconds.  But the same doubts might have been raised about photo sharing app Instagram a year ago before Facebook paid a billion dollars for it.   Here are some tips from the community for marketing using Vine videos.

Marketing With Vine

Animate Your Images - Social Media Today

Vine provides an easy way to create animation on a mobile device. By stopping and starting the video while recording, you can make creative animated videos like Lowe’s video of ants invading a sandbox and Urban Outfitters’ dancing sneakers, writes blogger Julie Blakely.

Keep Your Story Short - YayaConnection

With the perceived short attention span of the younger generation, ages 18 to 24, and the busyness of the average Web surfer or mobile user, Vine is seen as an ideal way to tell your company’s story these days. Analytics specialist Bridget Kelly introduces us to the 6 second history of denim at The Gap or a six second love story between a pineapple and a bottle of Malibu Rum.

Get Your Customers Involved - Big Ideas Blog

There’s no reason to stop with just making your own Vine video clips either. In this post, Megan Totka, chief editor for ChamberofCommerce.com suggests the ease of use of the Vine app makes it perfect for encouraging fans of your business or brand to get creative too. For example, create a contest for your customers to send in a video using your product in imaginative ways and give prizes to the winners.

Start With a Plan - Smart Insights

Just because a Vine video is incredibly easy to make and is only six seconds long, doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be planned out, says Mark Donington, Lead Designer of Higher Ground Creative. Donington suggests starting with a narrative and planning what you want to say before you start recording.

Think Elevator Pitch - Silicon Beach Training

It might sound strange to think about a video this way. But just as an elevator pitch forces you to share your business idea in less time than it takes to reach the executive suite, a short video requires focus. Think about what you could do to demonstrate the greatness of your product in 6 seconds or less.

Make a Lasting Impression - Hubspot

Six seconds may be too little time for a lengthy marketing message, but it’s enough time to create a lasting impression with a truly creative video. Think about a way you could use those six seconds to create a memorable impression of your brand with a story or series of images customers will never forget. Here are 15 real world examples from branding expert Hannah Fleishman.

Focus on Visual Elements - Reel SEO

Focus on the visual elements of your brand. This could be easier for some businesses than for others. For example, later this month 20th Century Fox released the highly anticipated film “The Wolverine” starring Hugh Jackman, and two months ago issued a Vine teaser of the new film, generating buzz. Your business may not be as visually stunning as a Hollywood blockbuster, but look for ways to tell your story in an exciting and visual way.

Remember Your Marketing Basics - Hyperbot

Vine may be a new marketing tool, but in the end, it’s not so different from other tools that have come before. Though blogger Clyde Smith is talking specifically about how musicians can use Vine to market their work online, the principles are the same. Consider what techniques have worked in previous online video platforms like YouTube and don’t forget to be creative.

Always Remember the Social Aspect - Social Media Examiner

Yes, Vine is an app allowing you to easily create six-second videos. But it is also one of a new breed of social media tools acquired by Twitter and similar to other social tools like Instagram. When shared via Twitter or on other sites, Vine can be a powerful way to engage with your customers. Kristi Hines gives you some ideas on how to do it.

Be Sure You Have a Strategy in Place - Mittcom

You can use Vine to market your brand or business in so many ways. From giving customers a look behind the scenes in your business to giving a preview of new products to heighten anticipation. Remember, though, that like any marketing campaign, you’ll want a strategy in place first to make your efforts more effective.

The post Marketing With Vine: Leveraging the Power of 6-Second Videos appeared first on Small Business Trends.

Foursquare is following the lead of other social media sites with more promoted posts,  this time courting small businesses. The pilot program allows small businesses to pay for promoted listings which would appear to Foursquare users when those users are near a business’s location.

Based on a report about Foursquare Local Updates we published last year, the service appears similar to one the company rolled out then — with some obvious differences. The existing feature allows small businesses to send messages about deals, specials, new items or any other pertinent information to Foursquare users who were already loyal customers.

Now, for a fee, under this new program, small businesses will be able to reach Foursquare users who might not be customers yet.

One difference, of course, is the new Foursquare promoted listings would allow small businesses to reach out and lure in new customers more  proactively. This way, you can make potential customers aware of your business for the first time.

And of course, the new service is fee-based – you have to pay for promoted listings.  The fee is cost-per-action based, meaning the merchant pays only if someone taps on the promotion or checks in.  The existing Local Updates and Specials are free.

The new promoted listings are marked with the word “Promoted” next to them.

So far the new program appears to be a test or pilot program.  Foursquare is already working on promotions with select small businesses in the New York City area.

AdAge.com reports Foursquare is allowing small business advertisers to select certain criteria based on user account profiles. That way, a fine dining restaurant, for example, could find customers who express an interest in restaurants via their profiles or through their previous check-ins.

KFC, Radioshack and several other national brands have been using this form of advertising on Foursquare for some time.  This latest Foursquare promoted listings advertising feature is now being rolled out to small businesses in a limited fashion in New York City, according to AdAge.com.

Over 1,000,000 businesses use the Foursquare merchant platform today — a ready pool of potential advertisers for Foursquare to tap into.

The post Foursquare Jumps on Paid Promotions Bandwagon with Small Biz Pilot appeared first on Small Business Trends.

The social media landscape and its importance in the larger marketing strategy of business are growing all the time. It’s not just the Big 4, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+, that are acting as branding mouthpieces of B2B and B2C brands. Other social media channels are also making their presence count. Case in point being Pinterest, YouTube and Instagram.

The number of active users across different social media channels boggles the mind. As of September 2012, Facebook had 1 Billion active users and a relatively new social media phenomenon like Pinterest has over 20 million active users and counting. You know where I am heading. Businesses can no longer afford to pick and choose from the various social networks available. Each one of them has its own unique selling proposition.

While Twitter is a great platform for professional branding using personal communication, Facebook helps businesses provide a comprehensive social media message replete with pictures, videos and all kinds of textual content.  If you want to directly take your brand to industry professionals, a presence on LinkedIn is a must and Google+ is a coming together of tremendous benefits that Google brings to the table. If you are looking for sales ready users, Pinterest is the platform to beat.

Monitoring Social Media Channels

Use Multiple Social Media Channels

Today you can’t do without well-rounded social media presence. All channels are interrelated and each of these channels is a touch point in your customer conversion funnel. There are social media channels that support traffic generation, while there are others that manage your business’s reputation, and there are still others that help you identify potential leads.

You can’t afford to ignore any one of them. The mix of social media channels that you prefer to work with can differ depending on your business’s niche but there is no doubt that you can’t ignore the use of multiple social media channels to drive business profitability.

Social Media Overload Photo via Shutterstock

Problem of Plenty

If you want your social media presence to deliver value, you need to be able to make sense of all the turbulence and frothiness associated with social media. Social media can offer incisive customer insights, identify critical buying behavior patterns, improve customer services and increase customer retention. But only if you are able to monitor social media and track all your social media channels and analyze and evaluate their results. You must be able to organize and manage your social accounts seamlessly to ensure the continued success of your social media presence.

The idea is to control your social work flow, identify the actionable intelligence from the word clouds and automated reports that are more of distraction than anything else. This is a huge challenge.

It’s a challenge because your business’s presence is spread across diverse social media channels. Your presence on different social networks like Facebook, Twitter etc. will be tracked using diverse metrics and will yield different results.

For example, if you are evaluating your YouTube presence, performance metrics like video views, audience retention (amount of video watched by target audience), number of subscribers, ratio of views to number of user interactions come into play. On the other hand, the performance of your Twitter presence is dependent on metrics like follower count, number or retweets, comparison with peers and others.

The sheer diversity of metrics makes monitoring a real challenge.

Does the Answer Lie in Social Media Monitoring Tools?

The simple answer is that it does.

But, there is a problem here. No, the problem isn’t the quality of the available tools but the sheer number of different social media monitoring tools available in the market. Most of us end up using different tools for different social media channels. In such cases, what we are essentially doing is using different dashboards to track different results, a recipe for disaster, if there was one.

To keep track of all the results and social data pouring in from different dashboards is a situation made in hell and something that cannot be kept up with for any amount of time. So should we use them or shouldn’t we?

Of course, we should and this isn’t a debatable point but the focus must be on using a single dashboard for keeping track of all your social media channels and monitor social media from one place.

Social Media Hub Photo via Shutterstock

Benefits of Following the Single Dashboard Strategy

Monitoring social media business metrics from a single command center allows you to take control of all your business data from one place. You don’t have to access different tools every morning to see how your business is doing. You can simply create a customized dashboard to track all the information you want.

A business analytics tool like Cyfe is a good example of a one-stop dashboard that helps you track business performance form a single place. Apart from getting brand-specific Facebook Insights data you also get access to YouTube Analytics, Twitter Analytics, Google Trends information and a range of other social and search data and all this from a single location.

As the assimilation, evaluation, and analysis of all information about your brand performance on different social channels takes from one place, you get a clearer picture of your brand presence and its engagement with its target customers at various levels. You can make better sense of all the actionable intelligence at your disposal. You spend less time monitoring social media results scattered all across the Web, and more time using this data to improve your social media presence.

It Just Makes Good Sense

You don’t have to be a genius to realize monitoring social media data using a single dashboard is way better than using different social media monitoring tools to track your social media presence. It just makes better sense.

The post Monitoring Your Social Media Channels From One Place is a Good Idea appeared first on Small Business Trends.

The first step in influencer marketing is identifying those influential people who are already interacting with you: Those are your most effective targets because you have already managed to get their attention.

Below are 7 free tools I am using to interact with influencers who know me or are familiar with what I do.

Find Twitter Influencers Interacting with Your Content

1. Who Tweeted Me

Influence measure: Number of followers

Who Tweeted Me is a new tool from Hubspot that finds all people who tweeted your pages and sorts them by number of followers. You can thank them with one click as well:

2. Topsy

Influence measure: Topsy influence

Topsy is another good tool to try here especially since its browser bookmarklet has made it so easy to get the data: Topsy Trackbacks (to install, simply drag it to your browser bookmarks toolbar) – simply click it when you are reading the page you want to analyze and you’ll be taken to Topsy results. Now scroll through results until you see “Influential” or “Highly Influential” flags:

Find Twitter Influencers Interacting with You

3. Commun.it

Influence measure: Ratio of followers / following

Commun.it is an absolutely awesome tool for keeping track of Twitter users who have recently interacted with you:

• You will see the list of *recent* interactions with Twitter influencers.
• You will be able to see if you interacted back (track “unreplied status”).
• You will see if you follow that Twitter influencer.
• You will be able to load more information on each Twitter influencer in the next column.
• You can rate results by “Highest rating” to see MOST influential users who have ever interacted with you.
• You will be able to see how much impact each of the influencer’s tweets made (number “interactions” of the tweet = replies + retweets).

That’s one of the most robust influencer-management Twitter tools I have ever used.

4. Klout

Influence measure: Klout score

New Klout “Moments” feature is another interactions manager you need to look into. You can control which “Klout” score users who have recently interacted with you have.

You can interact with your influencer’s interactions (I know that sounds funny, by the way) by replying (e.g. to thank) and retweeting right from the Klout page:

5. Kred

Influence measure: Kred score

Kred is another free tool that will list your recent interactions and sort them by its own score called “Kred.” To thank users you can “Kred” them:

Find Twitter Influencers Following You

6. Friend or Follow

Influence measure: Number of followers

Friend or Follow is an interesting tool that, among other features, grabs all your “fans” (people who follow you but who you are not following back) and sorts by the number of followers. You can follow them back right from that page as well:

I like it that it shows “verified icon” overlaying the Twitter avatar which makes it easier to find “real” influencers following you.

7. Fruji

Influence measure: Number of followers

Fruji is another great option here. What I like most about this tool is that it breaks your followers into groups by the number of followers. Another cool thing is the YAS Factor (You Are Special), indicating a higher chance of that person noticing your tweets.

What other free tools are you using to interact with Twitter influencers in your network?

The post 7 Free Tools to Find Twitter Influencers Who Interact with You appeared first on Small Business Trends.

A recent survey shows 39 percent of small businesses are now seeing a return on investment from their social media use. The survey also shows that almost half (49 percent) of the more than 1,200 businesses surveyed by Manta increased their time spent with social media in the first quarter of 2013.

Despite this, the mainstream media continues to focus on the 61 percent of businesses that have seen no return on their social media activities.

If you’re in this second group, experts and social media marketers say there could be many reasons why. Below are 10 possibilities.

10 Reasons Social Media Is Not Working for You

You’ve Got Other Problems in Your Business - Inc.com

Some companies complain because many of their social media comments are negative. But Carrie Kerpen, co-founder and CEO of Likeable Media, argues there may be a good reason for that. Social media acts like a mirror reflecting back your company’s image as customers see you. If you don’t like what you see, change the things your business does that create that image.

You’re Not Using Social Sites Effectively - Socialized Communications

For example, Shane Gibson insists LinkedIn alone includes over 200 million professional listings, including every Fortune 500 company and government organization. You should be using this social network to grow your business through increased sales and customer retention. If you aren’t doing so yet, Gibson and his team have put together a step-by-step video to show you how.

You’re Not Using Social Media to Forge Connections - Blondish.net

Web designer Nile Flores of Centralia, Illinois, argues social media is not always just about making sales. Sometimes it is about forging connections with others who have an interest in what you do. For example, building a relationship with others online who find you trustworthy can boost your reputation. And connecting with other business owners who offer services that compliment yours can lead to profitable partnerships.

You’re Ignoring the Facebook 80/20 Rule - Small Business Trends

One of the most popular social media networks online is also one of the most misunderstood, at least by small businesses. Mari Smith, often called the “Queen of Facebook” has this simple advice – always use the 80/20 rule when engaging with your audience. This means 80 percent of the time sharing a mix of other people’s and your own content with no sales agenda. Then spend just 20 percent of your time asking for the sale or lead.

You’re Not Measuring ROI to Find Out What Works - Urooj Kazi

Even though you may not use social media primarily for sales, it’s true some businesses do. If you want to figure out the return on a sponsored Facebook post, for example, there are some easy ways to do it. Business writer Kazi has some simple suggestions to measure and gauge response.

You’re Getting Distracted by the Metrics - Easy M6

Social media sites from Facebook to Twitter provide huge amounts of metrics that can prove quite helpful when measuring response to your social media efforts. But Lithuanian blogger Liudas Butkus recommends avoiding too much preoccupation with these metrics. The real question is whether your social media sites are driving traffic to your website, resulting in sales.

You’re Not Answering the Right Questions - SteamFeed

If you’re new to social media marketing, there’s no need to go it alone. There’s plenty of experience out there to draw from, so start by looking at what’s worked for others. DJ Thistle shares this post with responses from top social media marketers in his community to some of the most often asked questions. Check out the post and see if yours are answered here.

You’re Not Being Consistent Enough - Jenn’s Trends

If content is king, consistency is queen, says marketing expert Jenn Herman. Consistency will increase the effectiveness of your social media efforts. But how do you develop that consistency with so many other things that need doing in your business? It may be a challenge, but Herman suggests five tips for becoming more consistent in your social media efforts.

You’re Not Focusing on the Right Tools - Idea Sprouts

Not all social media platforms are created equal. Some will provide better results for your business than others. In this post, social media marketer Allison Semancik makes the case for Pinterest. Semancik insists the social site known for its highly visual content is responsible for 28 percent of the leads she has received through social media. Take a look at the overall breakdown.

You’re Not Tailoring Your Message for Your Audience - SearchBlogger

It may make sense to broadcast the same content over all the social platforms where you have a presence. Sharing the same content over multiple channels assures it is seen by all, builds momentum on all your channels and maximizes the use of content it may have taken you time and effort to create. The downside, says blogger Jamie Fairbairn, is that you annoy your followers and aren’t really tailoring your message to the very different audiences of each community.

Social Media Photo via Shutterstock

The post 10 Reasons Social Media Isn’t Working for You appeared first on Small Business Trends.