Automate It and Get Back to Work!
If you’ve jumped into social media for the purposes of internet marketing– kudos to you! This is a forward thinking action which could have important results to your business (and to leapfrogging ahead of your competition, as well.)
Perhaps you’ve already noticed that it seems to take much more time than you anticipated? Or that switching from one site to the next to check your engagement gets old quickly? Or that you cannot think of what to tweet or post on any given day?
Automated social media to the rescue!
Thumbonomics Chapter 13 gives the lowdown on the current, most effective crop of automation tools you might need to successfully manage a social media marketing campaign– while still having time to run your business. The keyword in that sentence–“successfully.”
Automated Social Media: What Is It?
These are online sites you create an account with, that allow you to monitor exactly what is happening online without endlessly jumping back and forth between Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. Using one of these “tools” can help you build your online communities faster, and more quickly and easily feed that community with highly relevant content.
- Wouldn’t you like to jump onto one site and see your tweetstream, your twitter interactions, your Facebook page, any Facebook comments or messages, or even comments on your blog from one single interface? How simple might that be?
- Wouldn’t you like to load a couple of weeks’ or even a month’s worth of tweets into the program, and have them sent out automatically for you on a preset schedule? Ahh, sweet relief!!
- Wouldn’t it be great to get a report on traffic for all your social media sites, written in a way so that you can actually grasp what’s going on?
But how does this help you if you can’t think of what to tweet?
We recommend sitting down with your marketing team, and brainstorm a month’s worth of tweets, or an informational campaign, or build up interested for a new product launch–and automate it. Check out Thumbonomics Chapter 8- Twitter Findability for more info.
There are various tools offering different features, depending on your needs and the size of your business. Some are free, and most offer a “professional” version which is not free, but might offer you features you absolutely want.
Automated Social Media: Tools for Every Size & Budget!
If you’ve got a small to midsized company and are just starting with social media marketing, Thumbonomics profiles these three tools:
- Hootsuite – We use it!!
- Social Oomph – similar & highly recommended
- TweetDeck – For launching major twitter campaigns.
Chapter 13 also gives you the skinny on some tools for bigger companies, with bigger marketing departments and higher budgets. You know, the kind of companies where you need to report on your campaign to the CEO, and you’d better have a good report!
Automated Social Media: Reporting Tools
Automated Social Media: Level Three Productivity Tools
You can order your copy of Thumbonomics: The Essential Roadmap for Social Media & Mobile Marketing or perhaps check out what other people have to say about the book.
If you have any questions about automated social media, contact Mary or Carly in our social media department to get your questions answered.