If you’ve already taken the leap of faith into the daunting, scary world of social media, then you will know that not only is it a very busy environment, but that it can suck a LOT of time out of your busy day. Not only do you need to think of something engaging to say, but you need to figure out the best way to get your message out to as many people as possible. All the while, making sure you don’t bombard your audience with 50+ updates a day.

Whether it’s to discuss industry news, some great new tool or technique you’ve discovered, or even to liveblog at a press conference or tradeshow you’re attending, the world of social media continues to offer a fantastic way to connect with your audience. That audience can consist of existing customers or subscribers who are eager to hear what you have to say, but it can also be those sitting on the fence wondering if they should take that incredibly important ‘next step’.

When I say next step, I am talking the conversion of interest to engagement. That could mean your Facebook page receiving a new fan, your Twitter account receiving a new follower or a retweet, but at the end of the day, your ultimate goal is a sales lead. This is what everyone hopes to achieve from social media, but it’s how they manage, interact and engage with their audience that determines if it will pay off in the end.

With so many avenues with which to reach out to customers, it can be difficult to choose which to use. There are the staples: Facebook, Twitter and to a lesser extent LinkedIn and Foursquare. But there are others that may appeal to your demographic. For instance, if you are in the entertainment industry, Myspace or Stumbleupon might be worth looking at. If you are in the news or media industries, aggregation sites such as Reddit or Digg would be highly beneficial. The point is, there is something for everyone, but not everything will work. Stick with the basics first and branch out as you see fit.

Management

So… you’re social media campaign is now underway. You’ve got a few blog ideas ready to go and have a handful of Facebook fans and Twitter followers (so what if most of them are colleagues and friends at this point). Now what? Litter their walls with non-stop information? Sure, unless you want them to actually read and share your posts.

Scheduling, or at least timing your posts strategically will help ensure you get the most eyeballs for the buck. Late Friday afternoon is statistically the busiest period of the week, but you can’t always hold your breath until then. To start, sticking to 2 or 3 Facebook updates per day will suffice, and the same goes for Twitter updates. You want to display to your audience that your identity has a heartbeat, but isn’t going into shock.

Once you get into a rhythm, you might become overwhelmed with the number of screens open, and go cross eyed looking at statistics from a handful of different sources. This is where social media management tools come in handy. There are a handful of them available, and range from free, to ad supported, to freemium, to enterprise level.

• Tweetdeck.
  A fantastic desktop application tool (and Google Chrome App) that allows for the posting of Facebook (Profile and Page), Twitter (multiple accounts),  LinkedIn and Myspace status updates, and even Foursquare geo-location updates. The ability to integrate with Bit.ly (for shortening URLs and tracking interactions) and to schedule updates for future, timed posts is also available and is very easy to implement. It is also available for nearly every mobile device.
• Hootsuite A very robust web-based management tool, mainly web based (with a mobile app). Highly customizable stream views, and built in monitoring/tracking with custom reports.
• Seesmic
  Very similar to Tweetdeck, featuring web, desktop and mobile based management, it streamlines the social media implementation process. Depending on your UI preference, you may prefer this over Tweetdeck.

Tracking and ROI

After all of that hard work, it would be great to see how effective it’s been. Tracking, analytics and ROI measurement will be able to provide this. Making sure the tools necessary have been installed and are correctly tracking all available data is the first and most important step.

• Facebook Insights
  Enabled by default, Facebook’s Insights provide analytics and the data necessary to display the interactions between you and your Facebook page audience. Accounts are FREE (obviously).
• Tweetmeme
  Allowing users to quickly retweet your articles, blog posts or site content is possible by integrating the Tweetmeme button into your site. Most popular CMS systems have a Tweetmeme plugin available.
• Bit.ly
  The ability to track how many times a link you’ve shared is valuable, especially to gauge the clickthrough rate and effectiveness. Services such as Bit.ly also shorten a link, to make it easy to share and so it won’t take up as much real estate in the notoriously small Twitter update window. Example : http://bit.ly/iAYUzM links directly to this article. *ahem* Feel free to share! Also, bit.ly accounts are FREE.
• Sproutsocial
  A feature rich web based tracking tool. Integrate your Facebook pages, Twitter accounts and Foursquare account into one centralized system for very easy to view reports and statistics. The ability to manage multiple accounts is very handy as well. Accounts start at $9/month with a 30 day free trial.

Check out our other related articles :

• How to run a social media campaign in 4 hours a week
• No time for social media? Think again.
• How to build your social network.

The world of online social media has exploded during the last few years, with good reason. People can connect with hundreds of thousands of others to discuss and share nearly anything. Whether it’s used to spread the word about a great new promotion or product, to inform customers of some relevant industry news, or if it’s to simply share a funny image you found while browsing, social media allows for a type of connection with customers and visitors in a way that traditional marketing cannot match.

The tools have become more user friendly and robust, allowing anyone with something to say, to have their message heard. Below you will find a list of some of the benefits of using these social media tools and which ones may not appeal to your business model. Have a look, think we’re missing something, let us know!

Blog

Examples : WordPress, Blogger, Tumblr

Pros

• Unlimited space to work with. (No 140 character limit here!)
• Ability to offer feature-rich content, such as video, flash, images, etc.
• Will work on anyone’s web browser and most mobile devices.
• Most blogs offer RSS feeds which can be used in RSS Readers, to populate other websites with content, etc.

Cons

• You’ll look at the clock and wonder where the last 2 hours went.
• Writers block exists, even when writing for a blog. Trust me.
• Some HTML knowledge is a must, especially if you want to add any advanced functionality.
• Set a schedule for your posts, because you will need to regularly update.

Facebook

Website : www.Facebook.com

Pros

• 400 million users.  ‘Nuff said.
• Word-of-mouth is the most effective form of advertising, and is a very large component of Facebook, with its ‘fan’ and sharing system.
• Ability to connect with potential customers on a more personal level, through the Discussion Boards, Wall and Comments.
• Integration of Facebook with a blog or website is becoming easier and easier.

Cons

• Frequent moderation is required.
• Don’t disappear for a few weeks, or you might find everyone else has as well.
• While not incredibly important, having a solid friend base will help grow your presence quickly, at least at first.

Twitter

Website : www.Twitter.com

Pros

• Updating your Twitter status from nearly any device imaginable makes it incredibly versatile.
• Analytic tools allow for very robust tracking.
• Integration with Facebook, among hundreds of other websites and tools.
• Nearly instant updates to your ‘Followers’.

Cons

• Limit of only 140 characters, which can be restrictive, especially when including URL’s.
• Fine line between not updating enough and being annoyingly persistent.
• Still regarded as a more tech-savvy tool.

Social Bookmarking

Examples : Digg, Stumbleupon, Fark, Delicious, Reddit, MANY more

Pros

• Potential to reach thousands of viewers instantly, and more through sharing. (Liking, Digging, etc.)
• Certain websites, such as Su.pr (via Stumbleupon) offer their own analytic tools allowing for more detailed information than other analytic packages.

Cons

• Potential time wasters. Spending 5 minutes ‘stumbling’ can turn into 30, VERY easily.
• There are well over 300 similar websites, linking to every one of them can obviously be very time consuming.
• Time spent keeping track of accounts, posts and comments can also add up, fast.
• Links can get overlooked easily.  Make sure you post with an interesting title, and in a relevant subject (if available).
• Unless your website or link can handle it, an influx of thousands of visitors can bring down a server.  This is a nice problem to have though!

LinkedIn

Pros

• The audience is very focused towards business.
• Ability to network with other local industry professionals.

Cons

• It’s very easy for your message to come across as spam. Keep conversation light.

Try it out, you are only denying yourself the potential for something great if you don’t.

The benefits of adopting social media is still new to a lot of businesses, so we thought it would be a good idea to provide a beginner’s guide to the tools available for various aspects of social media. Below you will find some of the more widely used tools and websites in order to reach out to your audience in the most effective, yet efficient way possible.

It is unlikely that you will require (let alone be able to maintain) all of these tools, but use what you think will work.

Instant Messaging.

Many businesses view tools such as MSN, ICQ and Google Talk as time wasters, or applications that stifle productivity. They are very much the opposite. Not a day goes by that the Glacier-Digital staff doesn’t use instant messaging in order to quickly ask a co-worker or colleague a question. The recipient can answer immediately, or at their leisure, making instant messaging a very handy tool, especially when a full email is not necessary. Some tools, such as Digsby, even have Facebook, Twitter, and various other social media functionality built in.

• Windows Live Messenger
• Google Talk
• Digsby

Twitter.

Remaining the most popular service no one asked for, Twitter continues to add functionality and prove itself as a viable method to inform hundreds, thousands, or even millions of people of up to date news. Many businesses have found success, with Twitter-exclusive promotions, providing links within Twitter to other websites and advertisements, and more. Frequent and business-relevant updates are the key to growing a loyal following. Speaking of which, why not check out Glacier-Digital’s Twitter account right now?

Facebook.

If you have EVER used the internet, you’ve either heard of Facebook, or have your own account. While it is undoubtedly focused towards personal use, advertising through the website can be very effective. The ability to have Facebook Pages (basically, like a personal profile, but more business related : Glacier-Digital’s page), the highly targeted advertising campaign management tools, as well as the ever growing popularity make it a popular destination for nearly everyone.

Besides Facebook.com itself, there are some great desktop applications that can be used for accessing and updating your own account.  These include :

• Tweetdeck
• Seesmic
• A Facebook mobile app for iPhone and Android is also available.

Blogging.

Blogs are not so much a direct social networking tool, as they are a means to quickly and easily inform a large group of individuals with relevant and important information. From the moment the Submit button is pressed, hundreds or even thousands of subscribers can be instantly updated with a company press release, a list of new resources, or even some helpful tips. The ability to create RSS feeds with blogs also means that they can be easily integrated with newsreaders and even other websites. Two of the most popular blogging tools are :

• Blogger
• WordPress

Social Bookmarking.

Need to reach a lot of new users, fast? By utilizing the various social bookmarking websites, a press release, new product launch or blog post can reach hundreds, even thousands of visitors within hours. With many of social bookmark and bookmark sharing websites, analytic tracking is also included.

• Delicious
• Stumbleupon
• Reddit
• Digg

By now, everyone has signed up for a Twitter account to give your status updates, Flickr to share your images or photos, YouTube to share your videos, WordPress or Blogger to post articles or further status updates and then Digg/Reddit/Fark/etc. to post links to your blog. The list go on and on, with literally hundreds of these types of sites offering social networking services.

The question herein lies, is this of any use to your business? The answer is, potentially, yes. The ease of which these services allow you to create content is incredible and is one of the driving factors behind their explosive growth. The other being the extensive reach they have, with the ability to reach potentially anyone in the world with the click of a button.

Jumping in head first is never a good approach, this being no different. If you don’t have anything interesting to talk about, I hate to say this, but don’t bother, your time can be spent much better elsewhere.

If your company deals with recreation, technology or entertainment on any level, social networking becomes much more relevant, as those industries generally have a steady stream of new and interesting topics.

Last but not least, unless you plan on updating these services on at least a somewhat frequent basis, again… don’t bother. Gathering new viewers is difficult enough, give them something to hang around for.

- The Glacier-Digital Facebook page
- Glacier-Digital on Twitter
- The Glacier-Digital Blog