If you are a follower of this blog and the Social Media MBA series, you will recall we have discussed social media platforms and their potential uses for businesses and consumers. This month, I want you to be thinking about the technology that is enabling social media and how it drives new business.
Social media has changed the way people use the Internet and it has shaped the technology used to deliver it. It has created new ways to drive business and it has changed the way brands market products and services. While enabling social interaction and the creation of new communities for both businesses and consumers, social media has strengthened the connections between brands and consumers.
Social media has also shaped technology that can help drive business. For example, Apple’s iPhone has become THE digital device for nearly every task one needs to accomplish, and as a bonus – you can make phone calls with it! As mobile technology keeps advancing, new Apps are being developed daily and are simplifying everything from depositing your paycheck, to setting your DVR, to counting down the days until your summer vacation. You name it, there is an App for it. App developers are eager to provide the social consumer and the social media marketer with the tools to accomplish daily business and personal tasks. Let’s look at some popular Apps geared towards the marketer.
Top Apps for Social Media Marketers:
Analytics App gives you mobile access to your Google Analytics data. For every social media effort, we want to be able to measure our successes, or ‘near’ successes. Focus: Measurement
Facebook allows you access to your Facebook account on your smart phone. Facebook allows brands to engage with consumer via posting photos, videos, sending direct messages, and posting on ‘timelines’.
Focus: Engagement
Hootsuite is a web-based dashboard that can manage multiple Twitter accounts, allow multiple users to access an account, and manage multiple social networks (LinkedIn, FaceBook, Twitter, WordPress). Additionally, Hootsuite allows you to schedule messages on different days and different times. This is an exceptional time management tool! Hootsuite also enables the user to track links and click-throughs. The HootSuite App complements a HootSuite web account. Focus: Engagement and Measurement
LinkedIn allows you access to your LinkedIn account on your smart phone. LinkedIn is a business oriented social network that allows you to post a photo, career history, education, and skills while offering a search function to network with existing colleagues and the opportunity to establish more connections.
Focus: Connecting and Collaborating
Spout provides a steady stream of news, tweets, messages, comments from your Facebook, and other RSS feeds. What is enticing about this app is the presentation of the media and visuals. It is quite pleasing to the eye. You may like Feed.ly as well. I have recently started using Triberr, check it out!
Focus: Engagement, Connecting, Learning and more.
Tweetdeck is a desktop and mobile application similar to Hootsuite in that it helps manage your social media accounts. However, it does not offer the analytics that Hootsuite does. The Tweetdeck App compliments the Tweetdeck dashboard.
Focus: Engagement
Read the entire article at WindmillNetworking.
photo credit: Robert Scoble via photo pin cc
Jessica Rogers, PhD. 