Smart Up Your Social Media Management

Social media has been around for a few years now, and marketers are still trying to work out how to monetize it. I gave you a few Facebook tips on my last post that might help you out, but most marketers will tell you, however, that you can’t make money via this medium – because people don’t like being sold to in social situations, real or virtual.

Businesses are also having a hard time – working out how to provide the numbers that show an ROI. Having a return on your social media investment is important, but that’s almost impossible to do.

So why are we all spending so much time using social media? Well, it’s a perfect platform to build relationships on, but building relationships takes time.

Ever wondered, “Who has time for all this tweeting, Facebooking and Linking In? As you might expect having some time saving tools in your social media tool kit makes a big difference. I have used, and still use a mix of software and web based solutions – Hootsuite, Tweetdeck, and others [watch my video on three Twitter apps that rock.]

But one of my preferred finds for social media management for about 18 months now has been MarketMeSuite. I paid for the software when it first came out, and now it’s free! This program consolidates all your interactions with Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn into a single desktop interface, making it easier than ever to be active in your social circles.

With MarketMeSuite you can:
• manage multiple accounts on each of the big three social sites.
• track keyword usage across all platforms to stay on top of what’s happening in your field.
• store “canned” responses, then quickly and easily reply to relevant posts.
• upload tweets and status updates in advance, and schedule them to post at pre-set times in the future.

Actually there are a ton of other features that make this app rock. Keep reading.

Platform Independence
Whether your office is Windows-only, Mac-based, or a multi-platform mish-mash, every computer can run MarketMeSuite. The program runs on Adobe Air, which makes it truly cross-platform. Adobe Air must be installed first, but the overhead is negligible. There’s even a version you can use on your smartphone, giving you the power to interact with your fans while on the road.

With MarketMeSuite’s multi-user capability, you can open up your social media accounts to other people on your team, yet remain in control over who can do what with which account. Give your assistant permission to send out tweets on the company account, let your business partner write on your Facebook pages, and keep the power to update your LinkedIn status all to yourself.

A Wealth Of Other Features
I’ve barely scratched the surface of what this tool is capable of. If you haven’t tried MarketMeSuite yet, give it a try. I think you will be very pleasantly surprised – especially if you use Google calendar. MarketMeSuite might just make a huge difference in your ability to strengthen and promote your brand across the Internet.

Tweet This Post

Facebook Advertising – A Quick Intro

Many Internet Marketing folks have been looking for ways to monetize Facebook over the last few years. To be honest – it’s hard to monetize social media, because that’s the medium people are using to be sociable on! How would you feel if you were at a party and someone there, who you didn’t know, started trying to get you to buy stuff?

Advertising on Facebook can leave folks with that kind of feeling. However, if you do it right, you can get results.

And you can take advantage of the approximately 800 MILLION people on the mega network to get people over to your Facebook page, your website, or other online offer.

Before you start placing ads, you had better have a good understanding of what you are getting into so you don’t turn a potentially lucrative advertising campaign into a serious MONEY PIT.

Below is a simple list of the things you must know before getting started with Facebook ads so you don’t lose your shirt and make your campaign as cost effective as possible:

• Define your target market
  If you don’t clearly define your target market, you will likely display your ad to people who don’t have any interest in your offer. Make sure to clearly define who you are looking for by their location, gender, their likes and interests and their connections. You can then select this info when creating your ad so it is displayed ONLY on the profiles that meet this criteria.
• Define the GOAL of the ad
  Do you want people to LIKE your page? Visit your website? Simply know that your business exists? You must clearly define the action you want the person to take and include this in your ad text and link the ad to this action.
• CPC or CPM?
  Facebook allows you to pay either by CLICKING the ad (cost per click or CPC) or simply by the number of impressions (cost per thousand or CPM). If you want someone to click the ad and take an action, use CPC, if you are just looking for branding exposure, then CPM may be the better option.
• Make sure your ad is compelling
  In designing your ad, use a graphic and accompanying text that will engage the viewer and get them to notice the ad and take action. Special offers, coupons, and contests are great ways to do this.
• Pay attention to your stats
  Once your ad is live, make sure to view your ADS MANAGER regularly to see what kind of action your ad is getting. This is the best way to know if you need to tweak and change your ad for even better results.
• Split test for best results
  One of the best ways to optimize your ad campaign is to launch several ads at once, each with slightly different info and/or pictures to see which results in the most activity. Once you find out which one performs the best, maximize your ad spend on that one going forward.

The bottom line is, Facebook ads, like any advertising, requires a bit of trial and error in order to ensure the maximum result. Use the steps above and the helpful suggestions provided by Facebook to get the maximum exposure and activity for your Facebook ads campaign.

Good luck!

Tweet This Post

Three Twitter Apps That Rock!

Do you feel like you are drowning in a social media tsunami? Whether your daily dose is mainly from Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or the gazillion other social media outlets that seem to be propagating at a viral level, it feels overwhelming when all that data just keeps coming, and there seems little you can do to stop it – short of throwing your computer out the window.

Watch this video because the text below is not a transcript!

Since everyone is talking about Twitter [almost all the time] let’s concentrate on the little blue bird of microblogging. I spend much of my day digging around in social media so I have a few tools that I use that help me make sense of it all and I thought I would share three Twitter Apps [that rock] with you. (more…)

Tweet This Post

Boomers Getting Sweet on Tweets

In March of this year there was a 131% traffic growth spurt for the micro-blogging site Twitter with tweets nearly doubling from the previous month and almost reaching the ten million mark. That’s a whole lot of tweeting going on!

But why did Twitter suddenly become even more popular earlier this year – with its popularity continuing to grow?

The elders of our nation are now getting on the Twitter bandwagon, that’s why.

Not only has Twitter been all over the media of late, [cast your mind back to the day Michael Jackson went to moonwalking heaven] but it has been embraced by the media as a channel of communication. (more…)

Tweet This Post

Behold the Power of Twitter

Finally the day has come – Oprah is now on Twitter, tweeting long with the rest of us. It took me a good while to get into Twitter. I just couldn’t believe that anyone outside my circle would be the slightest bit interested in what I have to say, but they are, and the power Twitter now has is a testament to all our continually inquiring minds.

Yes, Twitter is a great vehicle for us all, not just celebrities. But it works very well for celebrities and their much needed buzz. Now that Hugh Jackman has offered 100K to a charity who can “sell” their need to him in a mere 140 characters or less, I guess we have really reached the pinnacle of micro-sizing the important, as well as the unimportant. (more…)

Tweet This Post