I’ve blogged about HootSuite several times already over the past two years, but this latest release is just amazing.  Having always been a fan of web based apps of client apps, with Google’s push for HTML5 and HootSuite’s undying commitment to building the best social media management app on the market, I’m even more on board with transitioning to a nearly 100% virtual tool set.

On to HootSuite5 featuring HTML5:

HootSuite users will see significant changes to the social media dashboard today beginning with a completely refreshed HTML5 user interface, plus geo-located search, native Twitter ReTweets, and integrated Google Analytics.

For all you Google Analytics users that are tired of double coding and multiple stats repositories:

Google Analytics users no longer need to switch screens to analyze site traffic and performance because all the data is now available in HootSuite’s dashboard. Using OAuth secure login functionality, you can track conversion to sales, lead generation, or other metrics from your Google Analytics, using advanced URL functions.

All in all this new version of HootSuite is amazing and I truly enjoy using this tool above all other social media management apps.  I hope you will give this unique and rapidly growing social media dashboard a try!  If you are already using HootSuite5, tell us what you think about it

All quoted text and imagery was obtained from: http://blog.hootsuite.com and is the property of HootSuite.

Last June I reviewed six distinct twitter tools for use in small business and since then I’ve had a lot of time to work out kinks in the process of leveraging social media tools for business. 

Today, I’m going to share with you two very powerful (and free) tools to use for not just Twitter, but all of your major social networking sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace and more!

I’ll keep this very short and sweet, so stay with me a bit

The first social media tool is Ping.fm

Ping.fm is a social media distribution application.  In simple words, you can type your message once and it goes to every social media site you have associated with your Ping.fm account.  The beauty here is you can associate nearly every major social network with this application, allowing you to spend more time focusing on the message you’re sending out rather than worrying about getting that message into all of your social networks.

The second social media tool is HootSuite

HootSuite, like Ping.fm allows you to associate your social networking profiles, but here’s the part that makes HootSuite shine over all others: not only can you associate multiple Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter and even Ping.fm accounts, but you can schedule your status updates for weeks or even months out in advance and the built in reporting is simply amazing.

The conclusion of the matter is this: social media can be very powerful, but it can also be extremely time consuming.  By leveraging these two social media tools, you can get more content out to more places in far less time!

I plan on producing some tutorials to help you get started in the coming months, so stay tuned!   Reply with your questions or comments about Ping.fm and HootSuite.

Since Twitter API hit the scene, there’s been a huge influx of new Twitter tools on what seems like a daily basis!

It can be confusing at times, not knowing which tool to use and, more importantly, how to use it.  I’ve tested nearly 50 Twitter tools that have had at least decent reviews, but I want to share the top 3.

First and most impressive, in my humble opinion, is HootSuite:
http://hootsuite.com/

For Twitter tools, this one is a stand up tool – it allows you to manage and distribute tweets across multiple twitter accounts. That’s just for starters – it also has a built in URL shortening service ow.ly (cute name too). Last but certainly not least, you can setup your tweets for timed distribution.

Since having niche twitter accounts is a great strategy for making money on twitter, you can really leverage this tool, together with the two below, to grow your online business or rise awareness for your cause fast!

Next, is Twollow:
http://twollow.com/

Twollow is a neat app, as it allows you to save hundreds of hours of searching for people tweeting about the things that interest you most. You can set the process up for each of your twitter accounts and assign niche phrases for the service to automatically follow. The more phrases, the better you results will be.

When it comes to following people, you want to spend your time communication with a list of followers that care about your content and with whom you can engage in conversation with. It may take you a week or so to find out just how powerful this tool is – but you can also take the shortcut can check your phrases against the twitter search (search.twitter.com) to see how many and what kind of results are coming up.

Lastly, we’ll look at TwitterFeed.
http://twitterfeed.com/

While at times this thing can be annoying, due to high frequency – you can setup twitter feed to post once an hour, or even better, 4 times a day (every 6 hours). This allows you to have relevant and valuable content flowing through your twitter accounts. Just like HootSuite, you can manage all of your twitter account under one Open ID login, which is very cool!

Imagine, having 10 twitter accounts for differing niches and keeping relevant content flowing through each of them, daily.. this tool is more for the twitter fanatic and it truly takes some common sense, otherwise you can fall into that spammer category real fast.

Five words of caution: Low Frequency, Nice Feed Content.

There are a ton more tools, as I mentioned I tested nearly 50 of them this past year. These are the cream of the crop to me. There are some honorable mentions though, and in no particular order, they are:

TweetLater – Great service for sending automated and timed direct messages and managing follower karma. http://tweetlater.com

TwitterCounter – A useful tool for doing some research into your new followers, competition and sharing your twitter profile on other websites with it’s embedded tools. http://twittercounter.com

Twellow – A twitter yellow page directory that allows you to seek out and follow people – it also has a great expanded profile feature when you confirm your twitter profile listing. http://twellow.com

I hope you got some value from these 6 tools and my brief review of them. I encourage you to test out new and emerging twitter tools as well, and post a comment with anything spectacular you find!

Joshua

PS: Follow me on Twitter, will ya?

In part 1 of twitter explained we talked about the account information you enter that allows you to connect with users that will be looking at your profile.  In this second installment, we’ll look deeper at the atual tweeting you do and the ideal way to go about doing it.

Why Should You Tweet?

I’m sure you asked yourself this when someone asked you if you were on twitter yet.  It’s a simple question to answer though.. you want to tweet value of some sort.  Now this value can range from keeping friends informed about your date to getting feedback on a new product or service.

You are going to eventually have tens, hundreds or even thousands of followers on twitter, responding to and retweeting your tweets, precisely why we’re on twitter in the first place.

So let’s talk about tweets and their anatomy.  We already know we have 140 characters to fill in to get our point across, so be specific and use URL shortening services like (CLI.GS) so you can link to larger messages, like on your personal or company blog, or an industry report or campaign landing page.  There are also some neat interactive features to your tweets arsenal.

Your Timeline

Your timelnie is what you see once you’ve logged into your twitter account.  It’s the tweets of all of the folks your following as well as your own tweets (aka ‘updates’).  This is also where you can interact with the tweets of others by sending them direct messages, replies, etc.

Your Direct Messages

Direct messages are often overlooked as a method to connect with new and old followers alike.  It’s a great way to break the ice and lay the ground work for your tweets to spread far and wide.  The basic premise of direct messages is neither list can see them (ie: they don’t show up in a public timeline) and neither user can retweet (RT) or publicly @reply to them, thus making them somewhat private and personal.

Your @ Replies

Let’s say you are following me and I tweet something of value or interest to you and you want to respond to me  and allow your list of followers to see your message, kudos or critiques.  You could simply tweet ‘@JoshuaAJones Great message, thanks for sharing!‘  The beauty here is your reply to my message shows up in your public timeline, allowing your followers direct access to me.  The @  also serves as the link to other twitter users which we’ll talk about in the retweet section.  Replies and retweets are much like the ‘joint ventures’ of twitter.

Your Retweets (RT)

Sometimes one of the users you are following tweets something that may be of value to your followers, so in order to pass along the same message and give credit to the originator you would tweet like this ‘RT @JoshuaAJones Focus more on the things you have and lesson the things you don’t.‘

This kind of interaction does a number of things for both users.   The originator has his message and link to his profile embedded and passed around multiple timelines.  The users tht retweet the message are able to increase their timeline and pass valuable information to their followers.

Your Hashtags (#)

Hashtags are practically synonymous with ‘tags’ in most social media platforms.  The idea with hashtags is to build communities and timelines around topics of interest in the twitter community.  So by adding the hashtag proceeded by the hash symbol, you are addind your message to the ‘hashed category’.  For example, if I was to tweet about the swine flu or preparation for it, I might simply add ‘#swineflu‘ to the end of my tweet (positioning in the beginning or end is a matter of personal preference).

While it certainly isn’t necessary to use these tags in your everyday tweets, getting to understand them and how they can help you connect with the twitter community is worth the effort.

I hope you got a good feel for what twitter is and how you can interact with the community.  Please pass this along to new twitter users so they can become educated and participate in the community most of us enjoy!

At some point in the future I’m going to review some addons, interfaces and other tools for twitter, so be sure to subscribe!

Joshua Jones

Although there is quite a bit written about twitter, not all of it is clear concerning the usage, meaning and purpose of its elements.  I’m going to break down some of the basics so that even a new twitter user can get cranking, from day 1.

This overview will be broken into the main categories of twitter interaction: the account information and the tweets, which we’ll cover in part 2 of this series.

Your UserName

When you sign up for a twitter account, one of the first things you want to consider is the name you will be using to login with (which is different from your ‘actual name’ which you can change once you’ve setup your basic account information).  Sometimes tweeters choose to use several aliases/accounts to cover a variety of niches in their market space, while it may have advantages in some respects, it just adds to the already frustrated task of managing all of your social media outlets.  Stick with one good username for each of your ventures, including your own personal twitter page.   For example, my company, TUPOS, focuses in on several niches of small business marketing, I simply use TUPOS Marketing.

• NOTE: Your username is what users will see on your profile URL (http://www.twitter.com/YOURUSERNAME).

Your More Info URL

Your more info URL is not accessible until you’ve completed the initial setup of your new twitter account.  Once inside, you can click on ‘settings’ in the upper right hand corner of the page.  In this view you can scroll down and see the space for your link.  Make sure the link goes to a website that captures the visitors information or at the very least attempts to provide value to the users that click on it, because it will get clicked.

• NOTE: Much like other social media outlets, you want to track the traffic coming from each channel, so be sure to add a Google Analytics code to your landing page or website.

Your One Line Bio

This is where users will be able to identify you as potentially valuable for them and encourage them to follow you on twitter.  Use this space (160 characters currently).  Tell people what you do and what you are about, or your company, of course, depending on the account.

• NOTE: Be as clear as possible, use some of your industry keywords and keep it short (not like you have a choice on twitter!).

Your Location

An often misunderstood tool is your location.   You want to be using the closest metro area as your location for optimal visibility.  It’s not necessary, but studies show that  as much as 40-50% of searches are made with local keywords in them.  Food for thought, and that’s enough for your account items.

• NOTE: One last note on Account Settings.  Please, for the love of pete, don’t protect your updates.  Updates are your tweets, and if you are using twitter to get out into your target market and provide value then why shoot yourself in the foot from the get go?

Speaking of tweets, we’re moving on over to that subject now in part 2 of this series on twitter basics.

I hope you’ve gain some perspective as a new twitter user.

Joshua Jones