Hootsuite – Learn it, Use it, Love it!

I am a big advocate of Hootsuite.  I have tried other Social Marketing dashboards and I like Hootsuite the best.

Let me tell you why:

It can be simplistic, yet somewhat complex, you the user can decide how in-depth you want to go with it.  The dashboard is very easy to navigate, (once you have figured out what you are looking at) it can easily be used to post to your Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Blog in a single click. Integrating your social networks onto the dashboard is a no-brainer, they take you through it step-by-step. It’s as simple as choosing the account (FB-Page) and logging in to merge the 2 networks.  You can schedule posts out for days, weeks, and months at a time. You can easily write a lengthy post for Facebook and your Blog with a nice shrinky link back to your website with a thumbnail pic that shows on your wall or blog and in your newsfeed; BUT…before you hit “send now” or schedule it out a few days to post, copy it, go ahead and send now to your FB & Blog accounts, click into the posting area again, paste the message and shorten it to 140 characters add an image (or not) and post it to your Twitter & LinkedIn.

I have set up many busy business owners with Hootsuite accounts and have found that it is the best platform for the do-it-yourselfer social marketing business owner, they just need a good tutorial on the program and some practice.  It saves them a ton of time!

Here is the super fast and easy to follow – Hootsuite Quick Start Guide
OR If you prefer a video tutorial – Jay Nines Social Media (bear with Jay’s audio, it really is the most up to date and comprehensive  beginners Hootsuite video tutorial).

New Twitter Interface Video Tutorial- The Best One Yet – Mari Smith

This is by far the best video tutorial I have seen on using the new Twitter Interface.  Mari Smith, the Facebook and Social Marketing Queen with The Social Examiner, runs you through the new Twitter with ease, wit, and her absolutely lovely scottish accent.  Enjoy!

The New Twitter – Take a quick video tour to prepare yourself!

By now you’ve all heard about the new Twitter facelift project. Well, don’t get caught by surprise the next time you log in to Twitter and don’t recognize a darn thing. Take a quick peak at their new videos (click on picture)  for a brief tour of how it will look when they get around to updating all of our accounts. Watch both videos, the 1st one is a little lengthy with music and flowery pictures and Twitter birds everywhere (ahhhhhhh) the 2nd video is a charming deep throated Brit, that can read me the phone book if he likes.  Changes over the next 1-2 weeks…remember, change is a good thing.

Twitter Babble – Don’t Pull A Kanye!

If you needed any more proof that Twitter has transformed how we absorb information and communicate, look no further than Kanye West.

Just a few hours ago, the superstar rapper let loose a barrage of 70+ tweets, starting with a declaration of his love for Twitter and ending with an apology to Taylor Swift. His apology refers to last year’s VMA incident, where West rushed onto the stage and interrupted Swift’s acceptance speech for best female music video. The incident has since turned into an Internet meme. More importantly, the 33-year-old rapper was vilified by music fans, the media and even President Obama.

Yes, the rapper apologized on national TV and on his blog, but he has never been able to shake off the 2009 VMA incident, and if his Twitter is any indication, there are a lot of people that (understandably) won’t let him live it down.

For whatever reason though, Kanye West decided today to make his case, and he used his brand new Twitter account to do it. Whether you think his “stream of consciousness” is the rambling of a broken man or his most heartfelt attempt yet to put the incident behind him, you can’t help but appreciate the rawness of each tweet. There is no filter or middle man between his thoughts and the rest of the world.

I won’t repost all of his tweets (check out his Twitter stream if you want the whole thing), but I do want to highlight a few of the tweets that encapsulate the raw nature of today’s barrage of tweets:

- “Had to let employees go… for the first time I felt the impact of my brash actions … I felt the recession from an ownership side”

- “How deep is the scar… I bled hard.. cancelled tour with the number one pop star in the world … closed the doors of my clothing office”

- “That’s when you realize perception is reality. I’ve been straying from this subject on twitter but I have to give it to you guys raw now.”

- “If you google Asshole my face may very well pop up”

- “I’m the guy who at one point could perform the Justin Timberlake on stage and everyone would be sooo happy that I was there”

- “When I woke up from the crazy nightmare I looked in the mirror and said GROW UP KANYE … I take the responsibility for my actions”

- “These tweets have no manager, no publicist , no grammar checking… this is raw”

- “It starts with this…”

- “I’m sorry Taylor.”

A few months ago, we would never have heard something like this from Kanye West. That’s because his publicity team would never have let him say these things. Then he got a Twitter account, giving him an opportunity to talk to his fans and to the rest of the world directly, without anybody to say “no.”

Social media has changed the way we communicate. Information has never traveled faster. It has created frank and transparent conversations. It has given people a chance to directly express their thoughts to the rest of the world in a mater of seconds.

For years we’ve chronicled the amazing impact Twitter has had on our world here on Mashable. In 2008, a Berkeley grad student used Twitter to tell his friends he was arrested in Egypt, leading to a mobilization effort that got him out of jail. Last year, Twitter rose to prominence for its role in the Iran Election crisis. Earlier this year, Twitter showed us the devastation in Haiti in a way that has never been possible.

These are just a few examples of what Twitter has done. While Kanye West’s tweets don’t come close to the level of importance these events carried, his raw line of communication is another shining example of just how Twitter has changed our lives. Information has been set free.

VS – “His poor followers! They probably un-followed immediately”.

Will You Push The New Tweet Button? You should…

Twitter is great for sharing interesting things you find on the web. In fact, close to a quarter of all Tweets include a link in them. Despite the high volume of sharing, there is plenty of room to make it easier. Copying and pasting, link shortening, and bouncing between browser tabs just to share a link in a Tweet is too much work.

Today they’re launching the Tweet Button to make sharing simple. It lets you share links directly from the page you’re on. When you click on the Tweet Button, a Tweet box will appear — pre-populated with a shortened link that points to the item that you’re sharing.

Discovering Who To Follow

With more than a hundred million users on Twitter, there are sure to be at least dozens of accounts out there that will reflect your interests. The trouble is finding all of them. Today we’re beginning to roll out a simple, but powerful new feature to help address that — “Suggestions for You”. The algorithms in this feature, built by our user relevance team, suggest people you don’t currently follow that you may find interesting. The suggestions are based on several factors, including people you follow and the people they follow. You’ll see these suggestions on Twitter.com and the Find People section. If you like a suggestion, click “follow”; if you don’t, click “hide,” and we’ll try not to suggest that user again. read more…

5 More Mistakes You’re Still Making on Twitter – Twittercism – For Fun

Brought to you via Twittercism - (All READ MORES lead to the same place, so don’t make yourself crazy clicking back)

Your Twitter Background Is Free And Off The Shelf – Here’s the thing – customized Twitter backgrounds are largely a waste oftime…read more

Your Avatar Is Animated – You do this because you think it makes you stand out, but believe me – it just makes your avatar annoying. Which makes you annoying. Hee Hee, makes me laugh…read more

You Flood Tweet - Lots of brands and power-users update their profiles usingTwitterfeed, which allows them to feed their blog posts, Facebook updates, news releases and everything else to their profiles.read more

You Share Way Too Much - And I don’t just mean in the tweets-per-hour way, although that can also be an issue for many people. I mean tweets about what you ate for breakfast, lunch and dinner (and snacks in between), every little thing your toddler, cat or puppy does, every fleeting thought you have, comments on every single TV show that happens to be on at the same time you’re on Twitter, and XXX read more

You Tick The ‘Send Updates To Twitter’ Box On Every Single Social Network, Game And App On The Planet – Please… don’t. Only people on Foursquare care about updates from people on Foursquare, and even then it’s a bit one-way. Sending those updates to Twitter verges somewhere between mad and pointless. So you’re at Starbucks. Again. read more

Twitter News – Finding Friends and Followers Improved

Many Twitter users follow their favorite celebrities, sports heroes, or brands. They often find and follow even more nearby businesses or experts in their industry. And, of course, people also follow friends, family and associates so that they can keep updated on what’s happening with them. In fact, one of our most frequent requests from users is how they can find and follow the people they are connected to on their social networks.

Today, we’re improving our Find Friends section to make it easier to find and follow the people you already know — your friends on Facebook and connections on LinkedIn — who use Twitter.  Read more…

Twitter News! – Its Follow Friday on Twitter

If you are an avid tweeter you probably know all about Follow Friday.  BUT…for those of you that are not familiar with this term, here is what all those funny looking tweets followed by #FF are all about today.  Friday is the day that you can recommend your fellow tweeters and hopefully they will in turn recommend you.  Your tweet should include #FF which is the hashtag to track the tweets (we will cover this in another tip) followed by @ with the name of the twitter account you are recommending.  It is also a great add-on if you say why you are recommending them, or just mention as many accounts as you can within 140 character limit.  Don’t forget to thank the people that mention you with a DM!

Here’s an example of what your Follow Friday tweet might look like; Happy Follow Friday, #FF Check out these great Tweeters @virtuallysavvy @katiekaydotcom @switchyourswag (and send)

How Often Should You Post?

For most fan pages, there is a direct correlation between frequency of posts and number of fans. Frequency is king, but there’s a fine balance – you don’t want to overwhelm your fans.

If you’re just starting out with your fan page, I would suggest a minimum of one update per day and increase from there to several times a day (mixing up the types of posts – see below) if you’re getting a good response from your fans.

Daily posting (at least Monday through Saturday) should yield daily comments and engagement.
You’ll find the right rhythm with your fans. Better to start with once a day than several times a day and have your wall filled with only your own posts.
Also, keep in mind “high traffic windows.” Depending on your time zone and the time zone of the majority of your fans, you’ll probably want to post sometime between 8:15am PST and 2:00pm PST.

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