Participating in social media is extremely time consuming. I'm often asked how I work with clients when I'm online all the time. The answer is simple. I'm not online all of the time. It only looks like I am. Shared content tweets are scheduled in advance. Tools help me monitor community participation so I can respond in a timely manner.
Social media is a marketing and networking channel for my business. The three keywords here are marketing, networking (as in making the net work for my company), and business. If you follow me on Twitter (@wilsonellis), you may see some banter between me and my friends, but mostly it is all about the business of growing companies and serving customers.
Tweeting, posting, and commenting can quickly consume a day. Since I am the voice for our company, I need to be as effective and efficient as possible. Participation in social media cannot detract from my duties as the President of Wilson & Ellis Consulting. I use tools to help me do this. The tools listed below work well for my Twitter needs. I hope they help you, too.
TweetDeck - Following almost thousands of people makes your head spin if you try to do it using the Twitter website. The timeline zips by faster than you can read it. TweetDeck allows you to create columns so you can see what you want when you want to see it. It takes a bit to configure it, but once the setup is done, you can manipulate it on the fly. (I also use TweetDeck's little sister UberSocial on my Blackberry.) Cost: Free
ObjectiveMarketer - Sharing content with my followers is a key component of my online presence. ObjectiveMarketer allows me to invest my time in reading the articles instead of the tweeting process by providing the ability to load a tweet with just one click. Once it is loaded, you can send it immediately or schedule it for a later time. OM has other features that are covered in my Best Kept Secret in Social Media post. Cost: $34.99 per month for an individual. Agency rates available.
Bit.ly - 140 characters isn't much when you are trying to make a point. Adding a link can use most of those characters if you don't use a URL shortener. Bit.ly shortens the URLs and provides tracking information. Adding the bit.ly API information to TweetDeck provide auto-shortening and metrics. Pretty cool stuff. Cost: Free
NutshellMail - Who has time to watch Twitter all day to see if someone is responding? Maybe some people do, but I'm not one of them and I'm betting you aren't either. NutshellMail monitors the activity for you and sends an updates email. I have mine scheduled for every hour to let me know about new followers, quitters, and tweets. Cost: Free
Refollow - Communities need management. People come and go. I follow almost everyone that follows me. (If a new follower hasn't tweeted within the last week or is obviously a bot or spammer, I don't follow back.) Refollow allows me to screen accounts and manage my community without spending hours clicking through to profiles and activity. Cost: Free for visibility; $5 up for action.
Occasionally I receive criticism for how I participate in social media. My way is different from most and may not work for your needs. Many of my conversations that begin on Twitter move to email or telephone calls. As mentioned before, social media is a marketing and networking channel for my business. It is secondary to our primary objective of creating growth and customer retention strategies for our clients. If you are looking to be a rockstar, my strategy won't work. Given the choice of tweeting or conversing in real life, I always opt for the later. You won't find me updating my status during meetings because the people I'm with deserve better.
Note: The tools in this post are only a few of the ones I use on a daily basis. Future posts will include others.