News and Features

Brian Kirschner, Senior Director of News and Public Relations at University of the Sciences in Philadelphia, uses TweetDeck.

The business case
for social media, Part 3:

Tools of the trade simplify and
enhance new media marketing

By Pam George

Like the stock market ticker tape, the information on Twitter and Facebook changes in an instant.

Posting a Tweet or a status update, therefore, is a bit like putting a message in a bottle. Unless your followers and fans go to their homepages and news feeds fairly soon after you post, they can easily miss it. As a result, some marketers recommend posting the same message three times a day, eight hours apart. But who wants to spend time in the evening posting to Twitter or Facebook for work?

Debra Harrsch, Chief Branding Officer of Lansdale-based Brandwidth Solutions, a marketing firm, found the answer with HootSuite, a Twitter reader that allows you to schedule posts for Twitter, along with other social networks.

Brian Kirschner, Senior Director of News and Public Relations at University of the Sciences in Philadelphia, also has seen the advantage. “I was going to a workshop for two days, so I put a couple of things in the queue,” he says.

HootSuite is just one of many tools that can simplify the social media experience. These tools also make it easy to include features that enhance your social media marketing.

Follow the leaders

HootSuite and its competitor, TweetDeck, allow you to search using terms and companies to find out what’s happening. The search function is useful to businesspeople like Jim Pennypacker, President and CEO of Dance Communications in West Chester, a custom publication and business-to-business content marketing company. “I listen,” he says. “I don’t Tweet yet.”

Harrsch also uses Twitterfall, another free program. “It’s a way for you to search for a particular topic and in real time, see the dialogue going on about it,” she says.

Type in “Rehoboth Beach,” for instance, and the center screen begins to scroll Tweets that mention the Delaware resort. But the program casts a wide net. Search for “Fish On,” the name of a restaurant in Lewes, Del., and you’ll get any post with “fish on” mentioned, including “fish on the grill.”

“If we are looking for information on Ford Motor Co., we don’t need to know about Betty Ford,” notes Kevin Jurrens, an account supervisor with Garfield Group, a marketing communications firm in Newtown, Pa.

To get quality over quantity requires a paid subscription program like ListenLogic, which tracks everything from Twitter to blogs to forums to Facebook.

Instead of 10,000 results, you might get 3,000 along with a notation as to whether the mention comes from an influential Twitterer or blogger. “The free stuff is nice, but this brings it to another level,” Jurrens says.

All together now

Sites and programs that let you view more than one social media platform at once take posting to another level.

• Seesmic traditionally downloaded onto your computer, but there is now a Web version. The drawback: Seesmic only features Twitter and Facebook.
• TweetDeck allows you to post to Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and LinkedIn in any combination. But you can’t schedule Tweets, and like the standard Seesmic, it requires a download.
• The Web-based HootSuite gives you access to all those channels plus Wordpress, a blog site, Ping.fm and Four Square, and you can schedule Tweets and Facebook status updates.

Your preference may depend upon the functionality that the platform presents or your reaction to the interface. Pennypacker, for instance, prefers HootSuite. “It’s subjective,” he says.

Kirschner usually uses TweetDeck, except when he wants to schedule his posts.

Making the link

These programs are more than time-savers. They also give users a way to create a cohesive message for several audiences at once. Or you can stagger the information, if you choose to schedule your posts. “They should all relate to each other,” Harrsch says of Facebook, blogs and Twitter posts.

But whether you post a 140-characters-or-less Tweet or a Facebook news feed, “it’s all about links,” says Matthew Donaruma, Account Supervisor with Garfield Group. “It’s about spreading the discussion and telling people about the conversations.”

So, what do you link to? Consider a YouTube video of a product demonstration or interviews with customers or staff. A polished, professionally produced webinar or video is nice, but not always necessary. “It depends on the product and the audience,” Donaruma says. “You might want that man-on-the-street, guerilla feel to it.”

Thanks to small digital camcorders like the Flip, it’s easy to achieve that effect. But there are limitations. University of the Sciences uses a Flip to capture some student events, but for pieces with interviews, Kirschner uses a camera with a wireless microphone.

“Even with a little background noise, you can’t get close enough to the person to hear them clearly” on a Flip video, he explains. “Or you have to get so close that the framing of the shot is lost.”

Kirschner also posts links to Flickr, a photo-sharing site to which he uploads photos of campus events. Garfield Group posted photos on Flickr of its philanthropic holiday project, which involved a makeover for a children’s indoor playground in Kensington. Companies can also put a Flickr link in press releases.

Facebook, TweetDeck and similar programs make it easy to insert photographs, video and links. Many will automatically shorten a long URL. Or, you can use URL shortening services like Bit.ly, TinyURL or Ow.ly. TinyURL gives you the option to write a custom alias. With bitlyPro you can customize short links, and track how and where the link appears.

On Twitter, leave room not only for the link but for a possible re-tweet. Kirschner keeps his character limit to 120 instead of 140 so re-tweeters can add comments. If they have to edit your message to fit, they might not re-tweet it.

The right landing

Along with links, social media is about content. “It’s the age old marketing strategy — it’s about building relationships and not the hard sell,” Donaruma says.

That’s particularly true for business-to-business marketers. Pennypacker recommends that his clients join or start groups on LinkedIn. “It helps position you as an expert,” he says. However, make sure you offer value. “Some groups are so inundated with consultants who push their services that there are no longer conversations going on about issues.”

On any social media platform, offer helpful information about your product, service or industry without flaunting it — and don’t forget a link for further information.

Harrsch suggests a landing page for a campaign. Sometimes the page is embedded on the company site; on other occasions, it is a micro sub-site of the overall site. Either way, creating a devoted site or page lets you track media response. The link can also carry over into print advertising and online banner advertising.

“A lot of companies start throwing themselves into social media,” Harrsch says. “They are great tools, but you have to make a marketing and communications plan.”

Remember, even with new social media, the fundamentals still apply.