5 Essential Tools for Your Social Media Toolbox - By: ronknight84

At this point, social media has gotten too big for even traditional marketers to ignore. Whether or not your company has already built a dedicated social media marketing campaign, the following are 5 essential tools that should be a part of your social media toolbox.

1. Twitter

Everyone and their mothers are buzzing about Twitter, currently the hottest social media site out there. Twitter is similar to instant messaging, except you can talk to many people at once. You can control whose messages you see and your messages cannot be any longer than 140 characters.

Twitter is a powerful social media tool because it enables you to communicate with your customers and prospects in real time. People share ideas and collaborate on Twitter and it is often referred to as word of mouth on steroids. It is important to monitor what is being said about your company on Twitter so you can join in the conversation about your brand. When you monitor Twitter on a regular basis, you can quickly address customer service issues before your competitors get to them first. Twitter also offers an easy way for you to conduct market research because you can use it to see what your customers and prospects are discussing.

2. Facebook

With over 300 million members and growing, Facebook cannot be ignored. However, don’t think that your social media marketing efforts will end simply by creating a Facebook fan page for your brand. It’s important to understand and be able to use the features of Facebook. Determine what groups specific to your industry have been created and investigate your direct competitors’ presence on Facebook. Check if your current customers are already using Facebook and if so, use it as a space to interact with them. Since Facebook is the primary social site for internet users under 40, it can certainly pay off to use Facebook’s features to market your business.

3. Google Sidewiki

Google Sidewiki is a new add-on for Firefox and Internet Explorer that enables users to leave comments and information about any webpage. As such, Google Sidewiki makes any website social, even if it doesn’t allow comments. So if users receive good or bad customer service on your website, they can comment about it on Sidewiki and then share their comments via email, Facebook, or Twitter. With the advent of Sidewiki, you can no longer control the conversations about your brand. Your best bet is to download the add-on and start monitoring conversations and comments about your website. You have to decide how you will respond to negative comments and use Sidewiki as a platform for connecting with your customers and prospects. Bear in mind that your unscrupulous competitors may even use Sidewiki to bad mouth your company. In order to provide customer service and prevent your reputation from being tarnished, it’s recommended to build a strong presence on Sidewiki. Other similar tools are likely to come out since Sidewiki is very new, so stay on top of them as well.

4. Feedburner

Feedburner is a leading feed-management service that enables you to track and manage the feed of your website or blog. Feedburner is a great tool for monitoring the popularity of the content you create. You can track which content gets clicked on most, monitor the number of subscribers, and more. You can also add a code to your website for an email subscription option for Feedburner and track the number of people that subscribe.

5. Google Reader

Google Reader is not only a feed reader. It also has several elements of social media built into it. You can share any items that come through your Google Reader with followers and then share those items on popular social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. You can also use Google Reader to see how the content you create is resonating with others, by checking how many people “Liked” your content and wrote comments about it.

Keep the above tools in mind when implementing a social media campaign. Social media is constantly changing so what works today may be obsolete tomorrow. Stay on top of the latest advancements in social media so your social media toolbox stays effective and up-to-date.

About the Author

Ron Knight is a US based Internet Solutions consultant with many years of experience helping people and businesses out in establishing a stronger presence on the web. Many http://empoweredseo.com/social-media-marketing-services.html” target="_blank">Internet Marketing Services India companies have benefited immensely from his advice.

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