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Bring Your Social Media Under Control With HootSuite
What is HootSuite? According to the HootSuite website:
Save your time and your sanity. Improve productivity by managing all of your social networks within HootSuite. The dashboard is designed for you and your team to listen, engage and measure all from one simple interface.
I would say they summed it up very well. HootSuite is a social dashboard designed to make your social media life an easier one. Read on to see how to get started on this amazingly sanity saving service.
Check Your Accounts in One Window
One of the coolest features of HootSuite is you can keep up with your social media accounts in one window. Rather than logging in and out of your various accounts you can view them all from one program. HootSuite allows you to manage your Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, Foursquare, WordPress, MySpace, and Mixi accounts. That in and of itself is pretty impressive. Keep in mind that with a free HootSuite account You can add only five connections to your networks and advanced features such as analytics won’t work. For most of you this very adequate for your needs.
Post to All in One Shot
Another benefit of HootSuite is that it allows you to post to all of your added networks at once. Posting is easy:
- Click inside the field at the top of the webpage that says “Click to select a social network”.
- Choose the networks you want to post to.
- Where it says “Compose a message…” type your post.
- Click the Send Now button.
Easy peasy so far huh?
How-To
How do you get started? Just follow these simple steps:
- Go to http://hootsuite.com/.
- Bookmark the HootSuite page so you can return quick and easy.
- Under “Sign Up Today – Free” either sign up using Facebook or fill out the form.
- Add your profiles.
- Set up your streams so you can keep track of the information you wish to use HootSuite to follow.
- Explore your new HootSuite set up.
Pretty simple, and you didn’t have to download and install a single program. If you have any questions please comment below and let me know.
Tell me about your HootSuite experience.
33 Social Media Web Tools That Will Rock Your Online Marketing
The right tools can make any project easier. Whether you are working on a computer, building a deck, fixing your car, or doing electrical work the proper tools will make all the difference in the world. The same holds true with your social marketing. With the correct tools, your online marketing will work faster, easier, and more effectively. In this post I am giving you 33 tools that will rock your online marketing. Check them out and enjoy.
Posting
SlideShare
Post your presentations online. This is one very cool service. You simply create your presentation on your computer as you normally would with your presentation software, then you use SlideShare to upload the presentation to the Web. It works pretty slick and can help you in using more variety in your posting.
Quozio
Post beautiful quotes. Just go to Quozio, type in your quote, and let Quozio do the rest. Make the quotes you post more attractive.
Buffer
Schedule your posts. This can be very handy if it isn’t abused.
PlagTracker
Make sure your content is original. This service is an excellent way to make sure your work is originally you.
Google URL Shortener
Easy to use URL shortener from Google.
Listly
A list maker. This is social list making at its best.
Brainy Quote
Find quotes. If you are looking for quotes you will be impressed with this huge database.
Organization
HootSuite
Your social media dashboard. This app makes your social media services much easier to manage.
Save websites to view later.
Tweepi
Manage your Twitter account. This is a multifunctional program that does what it does very well.
Tagdef
Look up hashtags to discover what they mean and other useful information.
Google Reader
Make the blogs you follow more manageable. With Google Reader all of the blogs you follow can be read from one window.
JustUnfollow
Manage your Tweeps. Very useful.
Paymo
Manage your business from the cloud. The functionality of this one will surprise you.
Monitoring
Monnitter
Tweet search engine.
StatMyWeb
Many website statistics. The features are truly mind-blowing.
TweetReach
How far does your tweet reach?
Klout
See how influential you are.
PeerIndex
See who you are influencing.
Facebook Insights
Valuable information about your Facebook Page.
SocialMention
A social media search engine.
Topsy
A conversation search engine.
Google Analytics
Social media analysis.
Google Alerts
Get the information you want.
LikeAlyzer
Master your social stats.
Keyword Tools
Google Keyword Tool
Find great keywords from the company that is the king of all search engines.
WordStream
Find profitable keywords from a trillion-keyword database.
Translation
Google Translate
Translation between languages
Cloud Storage
Dropbox
One of the best out there.
Email List
MailChimp
Work your email list like a champ.
Online Publishing
Webs
Your free website. You don’t even need to know how to code. You are pretty limited to their templates but it is easy and free.
Formatpixel
Publish like a champ. Check it out and you will be surprised.
WordPress
Start your blog today.
These are some of my favorite tools. Give them a try and let me know what you think.
What are some of your favorite online marketing tools?
How to Start a Blog On the Free
This one is for those of you that want a blog but don’t want to spend money to have one. Blogging is bigger than ever and is very favored by Google. On top of that it can be fun. Without further delay, here is how to start your own blog completely on the free.
Choose your topic
This is one you should put some thought into. This will be what you are going to share with the world. What is your passion? What are you into? Need some tips to figure it out?
Ask yourself these questions:
- What do you do professionally?
- How do you spend your free time?
- What do you have an obsession with?
- What is your hobby?
Now take these steps:
- Write a list of at least 20 blog post topics for each of the answers you just gave.
- Discard any you can’t come up with at least 20 posts for.
- Out of the survivors, which one inspires the most passion in you?
I am not promising that this process will give you the golden blog topic for you. I do promise that it will very likely make the choosing easier.
Choose your platform
Here are the top free contenders:
- WordPress.com
- Blogger
- Tumblr
Yes there are many others to choose from. At this point these are the three popular top dogs. Lets take a look at the good, the bad, and the ugly of each:
WordPress.com
WordPress.com is the free hosted version of WordPress. When it comes to features it has its limitations in comparison to Blogger and Tumblr. Though it does have its virtues as well. In the overall spectrum I believe it can provide you a better overall user experience and a larger community.
The Good
- It’s free.
- You can follow other blogs. Following others can be a great way to get followed back.
- You can re-blog, share, and re-post.
- Easy mobile management.
- SEO optimized.
- You can use Google Webmaster Tools.
- You can manage more than one blog from a single account.
- Free themes provided.
- Nice User Interface.
- Built-in tracking of stats.
- Huge community.
- Powerful tools available.
The Bad
- There is a charge for using a custom domain name.
- You can’t run your own advertising.
- There is a cost for using a custom theme.
- You can’t use Google Analytics.
Blogger
Blogger is free, easy to use, and you will be able to publish your first post in no time at all. That said, the interface isn’t as pleasing as WordPress.com or Tumblr. Also it lacks the powerful tools available in WordPress.
The Good
- It’s free.
- You can run your own advertising.
- You can use Google AdSense.
- You can follow other blogs.
- You can re-blog, share, and re-post.
- You can use your own custom theme.
- Easy mobile management.
- Google Analytics are allowed.
- SEO optimized.
- You can use Google Webmaster Tools.
- You can manage more than one blog from a single account.
- Free themes provided.
The Bad
- There is a charge for a custom domain name.
- Dated looking User Interface.
- Sub-par tagging/category system.
- Labels have spaces in the URL which is not good for SEO.
Tumblr
Tumblr is a good choice in and of itself. On the downside though, it doesn’t have as big of a community or the professional reputation that WordPress does.
The Good
- It’s free.
- Free custom domain name.
- You can run your own advertising.
- You can follow other blogs.
- You can re-blog, share, and re-post.
- You can use your own custom theme.
- Easy mobile management.
- Google Analytics are allowed.
- SEO optimized.
- You can use Google Webmaster Tools.
- You can manage more than one blog from a single account.
- Free themes provided.
- Nice User Interface.
- Full HTML customization.
The Bad
- Lacking content-highlight techniques such as featured posts and related posts.
Learn the Features of Your Platform
Take the time to go through the tutorials available in your chosen blogging platform. Look through all the available settings and tools. This way you will know what you are doing, as well as what you can and can’t do when publishing your free blog.
Make it personal
Think colors, images, and even videos. The visual really sells. Set it up with your personal look and feel. Pick a theme that you like. People like and trust the genuine. Make it you.
Get a content based start
I know it has been said before countless times but it still holds true that content is king. You can’t have good SEO without quality content. Your readers are there for content. Without content why should they read your blog. Give them what they are looking for. They deserve good content and you deserve to be heard.
Promote your new blog
Want some simple tips to promote your new blog? Here they are:
Social Media: Announce your blog in all your social networking accounts. Post your blog updates. Let groups you belong to know about your blogging.
Stumble: Check out StumbleUpon. It is nothing less than cool. It is a free social surfing service in which you pick the topics you are interested and click the Stumble button. You are then taken to the sites that match your interest. One very cool feature is you can thumbs up sites that you like. If you thumbs up your site it will be added to StumbleUpon’s database of sites. The great part is that it is completely free.
Reddit: Reddit calls itself the front page of the Internet. That is not far from the truth. It is a social news site. It is also a great place to list, for free, your blog and blog posts.
Digg: Digg is another social news site. Both Digg and Reddit have huge followings. The nicest thing is they are both free.
Email: Put a link to your blog in your email signature. That was whenever you send out an email you are also promoting your blog. Another trick is to include an email button on your blog that your readers can use to get updates.
Friends and Family: Let all of your friends and family know about your blog. It will cost you nothing and could help lead to some initial followers and networking.
Yes there can be much more involved with a promotional campaign but these are some good basics to start with. The point is: Get your blog out there and keep it out there.
Do you blog? If so, what do you blog about?
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