Companies getting started in Social Media are looking for tools to help streamline their efforts and workforce.  So we have put together a short list of tools that can help B2B companies in their marketing efforts.

Salesforce

A web based CRM, Salesforce has led all CRM companies in integrating Social Media to its platform. Some the nice contributions for B2B companies is the Twitter & Facebook integration allowing you to monitor multiple accounts.

Jigsaw (now part of Salesforce)

Jigsaw is the world's largest database of up-to-date, downloadable, and complete contact and company information. Every Jigsaw business contact is complete with a phone number (over 70% of which are direct dial), position, company, mailing address, and business email address. Jigsaw also offers free tools for researching companies as well as a user generated company research wiki pages.  These contacts are then cross-referenced with the social media platform LinkedIn which has over 70 Million plus professionals using this tool.

Hummingbird

Hummingbird is a great application to grow your companies Twitter following in a very targeted way using mostly automation.  It can take a lot of man hours growing a targeted following on Twitter, through Hummingbird that process can be dramatically shortened.  You can even automate your un-following of those who do not follow you back, again saving you’re team a lot time.

Hootsuite

A great tool for managing multiple Twitter Accounts.  In addition now Ping.Fm has integrated the ability to post to Hootsuite.  Allowing even more social media account integration including LinkedIn, Facebook, and WordPress.  Best of all HootSuite cost nothing.

There are multiple other tools available that get more specific to each companies needs.  You can learn more by contacting us.  We work with B2B companies in developing and managing their social media strategy.  You can contact us to learn more.

Have you seen the reality shows, coming into help those over-packed home owners who collect everything in sight and never throw anything away.

Have you noticed how many people have become great at generating large followings through auto-follow programs?  Just one important ingredient is missing, engagement.

It’s not just about growing your following, it’s about engagement.  When you think about collecting followers you should be asking what do you know about them?

Do you know where they are?

Do you know what they like?

Do you know what they don’t like?

What are their interests?

What are their beliefs?

One thought you may want to consider is to create folders that identify the specific characteristics or demographics of your followers.  Twitter, Linkedin, and Facebook allow for this type of filing through various applications.

So what do you think, are you just hoarding followers? What is your engagement process?

Here is a short video I did sharing how business professionals can search Twitter for targeted prospect pools and begin to grow their twitter followings in a very targeted manner.

Let me know what you think.

When it comes to the field of journalism, the ability to communicate as well as being passionate about it is very important. With all of the stress and meeting of deadlines, its hard to throw in the use of social media when coupled with all of the other demands. In this crazy world we live in, things are changing for journalists.There are many different ways of distributing the news today and one of the big keys has always been to stay ahead of those who are your competition. Now throw in Twitter for example. Its instant. Lightning fast.

It seems that more and more news stories are breaking first on a social media site like twitter, which leaves many in journalism filled with anger and frustration.  One thought would be to use the search application of twitter to leverage your ability to break news across media channels outside of Social Media once confirmed from Social Media Channels.  Check this twitter search link out http://search.twitter.com

Are you looking for ways to measure the success and power of your status updates?  Do you want to shorten your URL’s along with tracking live data?  Do you want to see how viral one of your links can go?

I have put together this short video to show you a little “bit” how I do it.

Have you found other ways to measure your status updates ROI?

When you get into the realm of the small business owner, you will find that social media is truly creeping in at an amazing pace. The majority of this can be found by the usage of social networking sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. Some of the basic benefits of using these sites would include the ability to make business contacts and maintain the links that you need between yourself and them.

The sites that I mentioned can be utilized in several different and very beneficial ways.

With Facebook, both an account for yourself as well as for your business can be created. By developing good communication with customers and contacts, you can eventually get people to just opt in to get messages from your company.

Creating a LinkedIn account is an amazing way of finding and communicating with professionals all over the world, even those who are already in a field specific to your own. This is a great way to share ideas with someone who already knows about what you do because they do the same thing.

Finally, when using Twitter, remember the great benefit that you get of promoting your business in such a few short words. You will find that when you look at other tweets from business owners that they are short, sweet, and to the point most of the time. This is yet another way of bringing customers to you.

Always remember that it’s the content of what you have that is most important. Useless and boring information will get you nowhere, but the opposite will provide for a truly strong and growing business as you head into the future.

Learn more how you and your small business can get started on Linkedin: LinkedIn Power User Strategies Webinar every Thursday at 4pm EST with live Q&A

When you are a small business, the idea of using social media can be scary. It is certainly not the traditional means of marketing and it places so much more of the communication into the customers hands.  Another way we like to put at MyCorporateMedia is that it puts the power back in the hands of the people and has democratized marketing. However, don’t worry because when the many available services of social media are used wisely, all the risks fade away as you realize just how great the benefits become.

One of the more noticeable benefits would be an increase in the loyalty your customers have for your business. A product of this type of loyalty would be noticed when you see that the exposure your business receives is coming from those same loyal customers who are raving about you and convincing others to check you out as well.  This only comes however if you monitoring your message and the conversations that are taking place about you online.  Additionally, it lends to have some sort of brand advocate on staff working on your behalf in the social space.

Some of the best and most common advice when it comes to the use of social media for small businesses is this: Its not about using social media to sell your services, it is about using it to converse with your customers and keep them engaged while doing so. Oh, and one more thing. Social media is also much cheaper than traditional advertising as well. Use it wisely and watch your business rise above the small category into something bigger and better. This great wealth of service is not to be shunned but embraced by all, especially in a world that is online now more than ever before. This isn’t something that will decline and will continue to be a crucial avenue for all businesses, large or small, in the future.

***Grab This Complimentary eBook to specifically see how to begin***
to engage, capture, and create buzz around your company
Grab our complimentary eBook:
How Your Company Can Begin to Profit Using Social Media