Managing my own social media
As promised in the wonderful Dana Larson’s post on time management, I’m going to fill you in on the rough process I use to manage my own (and Wax Marketing’s) social media accounts. Because I work on social media campaigns for some of my clients, people tend to think it’s really easy stay engaged in my own social media accounts. Unfortunately that’s not the case. Like most people, I either get totally sucked into goofing off on Twitter ( lately it’s @pharm84 who is a bad influence ) or I get so busy on client work I ignore it. But for the most part I have a routine I follow, and tools I use, that seem to work well for me in terms of staying consistent. I hope it gives you some ideas, and PLEASE – let’s get some good comments going on favorite tools and tips for making social media less overwhelming.
What exactly do I keep up to date? On top of this blog, I frequent LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter on a regular basis (please do follow/friend me that would be awesome!). I am still figuring out FourSquare although I must admit it’s killer for finding the closest Starbucks if I’m in unfamiliar territory. I use all the various networks (Digg, StumbleUpon, etc) to spread the news of my blog posts as well. Here’s how I attempt to keep it together.
For Twitter, I’m a huge fan of TweetAdder. This tool has all kinds of automated functions including following back people who follow you, unfollowing those who don’t, making lists of people who tweet certain keywords and then following those lists…it goes on. I don’t schedule tweets, but it can do this too and I hear people love that feature as well as automated direct messages (which I also don’t do.) For $74 you can manage up to five Twitter accounts. But the thing that’s really genius, is I set it up to do all the automated functions and I don’t have to worry about it. This is especially great for my dog Bart’s Twitter account, as he adds followers much faster than I do. (Yes, I have a resentment against my dog, that’s how mature I am.) On a side note, I’ve been using Listorious as well for finding people to follow. About once a week I’ll go in there and find some interesting new folks.
Also for Twitter, I use Quitter mainly because I’m a masochist and I want to see who’s unfollowing me. Although it also will show you what posts tend to make you lose people. I still haven’t figured out any trends – there is one woman who suggested me for #followfriday and I lost 35 followers at once.
As for my dashboard I am on team Tweetdeck. I don’t know if it was the first one I used, if it’s because my social media mentor told me to use it, but I can’t stand Hootsuite or the other one I can never remember the name of. I like the vertical columns, it’s what I’m used to. And now you can all blast me in the comments for being an idiot and not liking Hootsuite. Or the other bajillions out there now.
Some people wonder what to post…my Google home page is filled with RSS feeds from blogs I like. I pull ideas off of those on a daily basis and tweet them, always trying to give credit where credit is due. I also use my “friend” column in Tweetdeck to RT interesting stuff from my faves like @newmediajim @marketingprofs @bethharte
I always tell my clients the key to managing social media is to determine what networks to use, what kind of content to post, and then identify the frequency in which you post. For me, I’m in Twitter about 3 times a day, Facebook a couple times a day and LinkedIn once a day. I have everything on the crackberry as well – that way if I’m waiting for someone, or I can’t get to my computer I can pop in on my phone. I don’t have email notifications set up as I found it too disruptive (Like I said, I’m still in junior high in my mind so I HAVE to go see who just mentioned me in Twitter or my newest Facebook friend request RIGHT NOW)
I’m sure I’m missing something here, but these are the tools that keep me sane. Really, please comment and let us know what works for you. And if I’ve totally missed the newest hottest tools (which I’m sure I have) go for it and let me know!
PS If I still have your attention and you didn’t figure out that I linked to my social network accounts in the above post on Twitter I’m @waxgirl333 LinkedIn you can find me as Wax Marketing and Facebook is also waxgirl333 Cheers!
Tags: Bonnie Harris, Facebook, linkedin, listorious, managing social media, process for social media, social media, twitter, Wax Marketing
May 24th, 2010 at 8:06 am
I like tweetdeck, too. Still struggling to find an app on my droid that I like for twitter. The one I’m using now is all buggy lately.
My social media tip for the day is to share different content on the different mediums you play in… it gets boring to follow people if all they do is link to their blog posts. I want to hear random thoughts and links to other places on twitter, and other content on facebook – mix it up to show the depth of your brand and keep your readers interested.
May 24th, 2010 at 9:27 am
Go on, we’ll follow you!
I like HootSuite and TweetDeck, if I’m honest. One I use at home, and the other in the office.
Missy’s right too about sharing different stuff. It’s the best way to keep people interested.
May 24th, 2010 at 10:04 am
That’s a great tip for using posting different messages on different media, thanks Missy!
May 24th, 2010 at 12:00 pm
[...] 24, 2010 · Leave a Comment Smart, funny WaxGirl333 has this to offer about keeping current with all your various social [...]
May 25th, 2010 at 1:18 am
Great this is very informative article. Thanks for the great post.
May 25th, 2010 at 3:50 pm
I haven’t really gotten into Twitter tools yet, but Quitter sounds like something I would be interested in as well. It would be great for learning trends, and I also like to see all activity – positive and negative.
May 27th, 2010 at 5:58 am
It becomes annoying people if they follow the links to their blog posts. I want to hear the random thoughts and links to other places, singing
May 29th, 2010 at 8:00 am
I manage my own social media accounts. I use socialoomph for Twitter along with Tweepi. I regularly socialize in Facebook as well.
June 2nd, 2010 at 5:36 am
Big thanks for this article, now a can manage more better my social media.
June 27th, 2010 at 5:30 am
I also use Tweetdeck on rare occasions. I prefer Socialoomph as well. I also make use of Tweepi. With Twitter’s strict rules on automation, one needs to be careful and well-informed before using any of these tools.
August 16th, 2011 at 1:32 am
Hay… social media is a best way to get enjoy. I like it…
November 19th, 2011 at 6:17 am
But when you really think about it isn’t social media anti-social. A good old fashioned phone call is much more social.