Posts Tagged ‘social media’

10 Ways to Use Twitter Lists [Infographic]

Monday, May 13th, 2013

10 ways to use twitter listsWe’ve already explained how to create and edit Twitter lists, as well as suggested a few tools to make doing that easier. But we have yet to go into much detail on the most important part of Twitter lists: how you use them.

You could use the handiest tool out there to create a Twitter list of everyone you follow, but that isn’t the best use. The stream for that list would be exactly the same as your timeline on the homepage. The effectiveness of a list depends on how you use it.

Instead of just explaining how our company uses Twitter lists, we wanted to be able to suggest uses that go beyond our own needs, so that you can find ideas that will really help you.

So we turned to a few people that use social media professionally, day in and day out, since it’s their job to know how to use Twitter lists effectively.

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3 Tools for Better Twitter List Management

Monday, May 6th, 2013

3 tools for twitter list managementLast week, we brought you a little Twitter Lists 101: what they are, how they can be used, and how to create them.

But we have a confession: we may not have told you the easiest way to manage Twitter lists. In our defense, we told you the most basic way, and the way that Twitter intends for you to make lists.

However, Twitter’s methods for creating and managing lists can be time-consuming and tedious. Thankfully, a lot of services have been created to make using lists easier for you. From creation to completion, there are tools that make Twitter lists and their management much more quick and efficient.

To understand how Twitter lists work, it is a good idea to use them on Twitter.com. But once you have a few lists to your name and it’s become time consuming to manage them, these three tools should come in handy.

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Introduction to Twitter Lists

Monday, April 29th, 2013

introduction to twitter listsMy personal Twitter account doesn’t necessarily have a large network, I follow a mere 314 users. Yet I’m still overwhelmed with content as I scroll through my stream throughout the day.

Log in to your Twitter account. What kind of tweets pop up on your timeline? After pulling up my account, I encountered tweets about food, daily complaints, promotions and gossip.

If only there was a way to separate the small businesses tweets from large corporations blasts, or connections I’ve made at conventions from college classmates. Oh wait, there is! If you’re not familiar with the Twitter lists feature, you have been missing out on connecting more efficiently.

We have a few posts coming up soon about how to make Twitter lists work for you. But first, you need to know how to use them. Here’s a little introduction on what a Twitter list is and how it functions.

So what are Twitter lists?

Twitter lists allow you to curate groups of users, so when viewing that list you’ll only be able to view their tweets. The list’s stream will appear just like any other stream on Twitter. In addition to creating your own lists, you can subscribe to public lists created by other users.

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10 Super Useful IFTTT Recipes

Friday, April 26th, 2013

best ifttt recipesTechnology can make us crazy. It makes our lives so much easier in so many ways, but it can also complicate them. So when a service’s slogan is “Put the internet to work for you,” I get excited. I first signed up for IFTTT (which stands for “if this, then that”) about a year ago so I could schedule MyPermissions.org reminders, and I’ve been hooked ever since.

Think of IFTTT as a shortcut creator for different online services. Whenever a certain action (called a trigger) occurs, IFTTT automatically sets another action in motion. “If this, then that.” There are 60 services, called channels, that integrate with IFTTT, including Facebook, Twitter, email, RSS, SMS, and more. For each channel, there are several triggers and actions. You use these triggers and actions to create recipes, or the actual “if this, then that” sentence. Sometimes recipes have other ingredients or pieces of data, like an email subject line or text of an SMS message.

I’ve been spending some time lately mining for the best IFTTT recipes and trying to create some gems of my own. They range from the best lifehacks I’ve ever seen to truly random and bizarre, yet awesome. We also have a guest post over on the Formstack blog with 5 IFTTT recipes for social media.

But every time I write one list of great IFTTT recipes, I find more. So here are 10 recipes I think you’ll find helpful:

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Grouped In: 5 Tips for Networking in LinkedIn Groups

Friday, April 19th, 2013

tips for linkedin groupsAre you in any LinkedIn Groups? If you answered ‘No,’ or ‘Yes, but I don’t really participate,’ then it’s time for a change.

LinkedIn Groups are arguably one of the professional social network’s best features, yet also one of the most underutilized (Tweet this).

They’re a place to find help, information, and meaningful connections. One of the best perks, from a networking perspective, is that sharing a group with someone allows you to view their profile without being connected and even send them a message without being a first-degree connection. Have I drawn you in yet?

I could go on to explain exactly why you should join groups on LinkedIn, but several people have already done so: Miles Jennings convinced people on the LinkedIn blog, HubSpot talks about LinkedIn Groups in their guide to LinkedIn, and Power Formula has shown you how to find relevant groups.

This post is for LinkedIn users who have already joined a group or two, and are looking to make more out of their memberships.

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What Facebook’s Graph Search Means for Online Marketers

Friday, January 18th, 2013

Facebook Graph Search for MarketersJust a few days ago, Facebook announced a revamped search feature for the site: Graph Search. While in limited beta right now, it will change the way we use the social network once it’s rolled out to the masses.

The search bar will no longer be a way to quickly find a person or page you’re already connected to; it will be more focused on discovery. For example, you could search for your friends’ favorite restaurants or people in the area with similar interests as you.

But in addition to changing the way we use the network, it will change the way we market our businesses. Graph Search is focused on discovery, so obviously you will want to do everything you can to make sure your business is being discovered.

So how exactly will Graph Search affect online marketers? This is how we see it:

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Facebook’s Graph Search – What You Need to Know

Wednesday, January 16th, 2013

Facebook Graph SearchHave you missed the big changes Facebook frequently makes? If so, we have good news for you! There’s a new one, and its potential is great. Yesterday, Facebook introduced a new internal search engine called Graph Search.

The current Facebook search functions are basic and, at times, frustrating for users. Basically, it was helpful for quickly finding friends and pages, but that was it. Here is all you need to know about the new Graph Search:

How Does It Work?

The Graph Search box will replace the current search box in the blue bar at the top of its pages. You can enter what you’re looking for in “natural language,” such as “friends that live in New York.”

The results will consist of any content or information you have permission to see on Facebook. This includes your own content and info, things your Facebook friends have shared with you, as well as public content on the network.

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Manage Your Privacy with MyPermissions.org

Wednesday, January 9th, 2013

How many of you made a New Year’s resolution to be more organized? Well, shouldn’t that organization extend to your online identity, too? If you’re trying to clean up your digital footprint, or if you care about who has access to your personal information from your social media accounts, you should definitely check out MyPermissions.org.

MyPermissions is a website that gives you easy access to the app permissions settings hidden deep in the preferences caves of your personal accounts. The simple homepage acts as a dashboard for permission pages on various networks.

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Mobile Monday – How Businesses and Brands Use Foursquare

Monday, January 7th, 2013

Foursquare isn’t just for check-ins anymore – it’s moved far beyond mayors and badges and expanded it’s location-based social network into a strong platform and local search engine. A lot of online marketers don’t realize how powerful a presence on the social network can be. It’s not even just for brick-and-mortar businesses anymore.

So, even though we’ve briefly blogged about Foursquare for businesses before, we didn’t go into nearly enough detail and several new features have been added.

So for the next several weeks, the “Mobile Monday” column will look at the different ways brands and businesses can establish a presence on Foursquare.

Today, we’ll simply explain the basics of Foursquare for business and how different types of businesses can use the platform appropriately.

The two different offerings Foursquare offers for businesses are the Foursquare Merchant platform for brick-and-mortar businesses like restaurants and retail stores, and brand tools for companies without a physical location for customers to visit.

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How to Optimize Your Website for Pinterest

Friday, January 4th, 2013

Let me start out this post by presenting you with a few facts: Pinterest is one of, if not the, fastest growing social network ever. Shareholic found that it’s the 4th largest traffic driver worldwide, even beating out Yahoo organic traffic. It also drives more revenue per click than any other social network.

Now that I’ve gotten your attention, are you thinking about how you can harness the power of this giant social network? You should be.

Some marketers and internet users once wrote Pinterest off as a place for crafters, bakers, and brides-to-be, but that’s no longer true. All sorts of brands, from The Weather Channel to Major League Baseball, are on Pinterest now, reaping the benefits.

Any retail or e-commerce brand, especially, has no excuse not to be working Pinterest into their marketing strategy. But having a Pinterest account is only one element of a strong Pinterest presence.

Businesses also need to make sure that their websites are optimized for pinning. Users can pin images themselves from any URL, either through the Pinterest website itself, or any of the network’s apps, bookmarklets, or plugins. If you have interesting pictures on your website (which you should), you need to recognize that some visitors may want to share them. Make it easy for them to do so.

To get started with optimizing your website for Pinterest, make sure that images are able to be pinned, add “Pin It” buttons to your most “pinnable” pictures, and add prices to product pins. These steps are the first ones to a more “Pinteresting” website.

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