Social Media Tools for Work & Self Promotion
Social networking is a method of interaction between people who share the same background, interests, activities, or real-life connections; social media tools make it easier for individuals or businesses to find, and maintain these relationships. Professionals use these tools obviously to connect with people, but secondly in order to build their own reputation. Because social media is so widely accessible, a person with a strong following on social media will be deemed reputable, and have a very positive brand image. Besides building brand recognition, businesses use social media for customer service. Because of globalization, and the creation of the internet, customers are able to ask questions, and make complaints at all hours of the day, and from all parts of the world. Because of its popularity, and ease of access, social media is a very effective tool in customer service (combining near-instantaneous response times with a global reach). Some job recruiters use social media as a recruitment tool (social recruiting), but it is mostly used for pre-interview screening.
1) Hootsuite
Hootsuite is a tool used for integrating all your social media into one central hub. The centralization of all your social media accounts allows for a user to easily manage all of them without having to visit each social network’s website; increasing efficiency. This tool also allows you to monitor emerging conversations, incoming messages, comments, and analytics for 7 of the top North American social networks. The main selling point for hootsuite, however, is it’s social marketing ability. It helps you build a loyal following by delivering content that is both relevant, as well as timely, and tracking how well your social media strategy is performing.
2) Bit.ly
Bit.ly has a very simple function, and it does it remarkably well. All it is used to do is simply create shorter urls. Links can be custom branded so as to show consistency in the content you provide (increasing your click-through rates), and to turn your audience into brand ambassadors. Lastly, click data can be retrieved from each of the links individually so you can gain intelligence on what your audience likes to share.
Google alerts is a very simple, useful tool to monitor your brand. You can insert queries for your name, company, product, etc. and ask google to check it as frequently as you’d like (all results are emailed to you). It also allows for you to connect with people in the same industry as you, with shared interests, and monitor competitors as well.
4) ExactTarget
ExactTarget is a newsletter creation tool that allows for you to send bi-weekly emails to a list that you can manage. Even with the rise of social media marketing, most analytics still show that email marketing is superior in terms of driving sales (article). In addition to creating the newsletter, ExactTarget allows you to track, and optimize them as well.
5) Klout
Klout measures the amount of influence you have over you audience, and suggests connections to other influencers. Influence is important, because 92% of people trust their peers. Klout allows for the creation of original, compelling “earned” media that can build your brand 4 times better than paid ads.
This is a video of MC Hammer giving a a presentation at Stanford on the Role of Social Media on Marketing
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