Staying on top of an ever-changing social media landscape

As a child, my relationship with our television led my dad to often remark that I would one day have square eyes. He said this for two reasons: one, I was sitting too close to the television screen, and two, I spent a great amount of time watching TV. Fortunately, the distance between my body and the television did increase along with my age. Now, however, I am more concerned that my eyes will sooner become rectangle than they do square.

Being online all day means I split my time between two communities – the physical world and cyberspace. And, as it happens in most communities, I interact with other community members in both of them. This will be true for most people who are online 9 to 5. I’m fairly sure that the majority of these people will have either a Facebook or Twitter account, or both.

With the wide variety and popularity of online communication platforms available today, many people, not just those who are online all day, belong to multiple social networks and many of these people are managers of multiple accounts as part of their business.

Social media networking as a marketing strategy – Foursquare

Before I discuss tools we can use to keep track of the various social media networks available today, I’d like to reinforce the value of social media for business owners and the use of social media as a marketing strategy by using the example of Foursquare.

Foursquare is a location-based social media network service. It’s not the first of its kind, but it is one of the more practical ones, as can be seen by its recent use in the marketing strategies of world renowned companies.

The concept is pretty simple. Users will “check-in” at various locations (this is verified by their GPS-based smart phone) and will be rewarded for the number of times they check-in, the number of locations they visit, the more to-dos they complete and the more tips other users try. Checking in to the same location enough times can make users mayors of that spot. When users check-in to Foursquare, or become mayor of a certain place, this information is broadcasted onto their Twitter and/or Facebook stream.

Since rewards motivate Foursquare users to visit certain places more often and these places are broadcasted on multiple social media networks, Foursquare is good news for business.

A recent campaign by Starbucks landed Foursquare with its first-ever nationwide mayor special. Previously rewarding frequent customers with the Barista badge, Starbucks now offers mayors of individual Starbucks $1 off a however-you-want-it Frappuccino blended beverage of any size. Foursquare has also been connected to other major partners, such as Marc Jacobs, Diesel, Bravo TV and the Wall Street Journal.

Aggregating social media networks – Hootsuite

So, if your business is the type that can benefit from using Foursquare, it means you have yet another social media tool to think about. With an overload of social media networks and tools available today, how can one keep track of them all?

Using a social media aggregation tool which provides users with a single location from which to manage social media networks is an option.

Hootsuite is an example of this. Managing various social media networks using an easy-to-use layout arranged in tabs, each with a maximum of six columns, Hootsuite users can organise and customise their social networks. With Hootsuite, users can update all social networks at once, upload images and files into messages which are instantly converted into shortened links for easy sharing, monitor their brand, track statistics, schedule tweets, embed search columns in their websites and more.

Hootsuite is ideal for companies or organisations receiving hundreds of messages a day, such as support desks and customer service groups. Multiple users can be added to one account and the manager of the account can allocate different privileges to team members without sharing log-in information. The assignment feature can help teams to assist clients quickly and efficiently.

Teams can simultaneously view data using shared columns, which are used to monitor keywords, track conversations and more. The owner of the account, i.e. the team manager, can assign messages from these columns and track responses. Once the task has been taken care of, it is marked as resolved.

Only enough time for a daily summary of your social media feed – Paper.li

So what option is there for those that want to monitor their daily stream but can’t be online 24/7? They can, of course, simply log into their social media network and scroll back as far as they need to go, but this can become a long and tiresome process.

For Twitter users, Paper.li offers a solution. Drawing content from links shared by users and those they follow, Paper.li provides Twitter users with a customised summary of the day’s most interesting topics (presumably by calculating the number of times links are retweeted) in a neat, newspaper-like layout.

Users are notified by email when the next edition of their newspaper is available. As Paper.li is currently in beta, scalability is effecting their output but I usually receive mine every 48 hours. Newspapers can be shared amongst Twitter users via the retweet button. Tags help users to browse through all newspapers that have been created.

Nowadays, you no longer have to be in the company of the person you’re talking to. Businesses don’t have to have a physical conversation with their customers in order to persuade them that their latest deal is worth investing in. With the dizzying pace at which the Web is advancing, it isn’t difficult to imagine a world where every physical need can be met online.

Perhaps one day, instead of turning the pages of your daily newspaper, you’ll be scrolling down your Paper.li, during which time you’ll find a handy new application you want to inform your friends and colleagues about. You won’t have to get up or even reach for your phone to spread the news. Since all of your friends and colleagues are part of the social media scene, you can simply send out a post to your various social media networks via Hootsuite. Of course, if you’re wanting to land the title of mayor at your local coffee shop, you’re going to have eventually tear yourself away from that computer screen.

About Margot

Margot Knight has written 8 post in this blog.

Margot is the newest member of the WebGrowth team. She is passionate about copywriting and has an inspired desire to grow her knowledge of online marketing.

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