So, Pat, how do you do it?
Well, I eat right, get plenty of sleep, exercise and take that daily vitamin per the doctor’s orders. Oh, wait, you mean how do I manage all those social media accounts?
Well, that takes more than a vitamin.
If you are a company that wants to connect with and engage your customers, you are undoubtedly using multiple social media and Internet marketing platforms. A majority of my clients are running Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn as well as email blasts through MailChimp or Constant Contact. How do you keep them all straight, or know who’s doing what?
First back to basics. Let’s hope you have created a strategy and determined measurable objectives for your business on which your social media presence is based. Then, social media accounts are easy (and fun … no, really they are!) to use to promote products/services, to gather customer feedback or establish a general presence. However, managing multiple sites can be tricky and overwhelming.
There are several different sites you can use to help manage multiple online accounts. Many offer free trials of their services (usually for a period of 30 days). Other sites are free up to a certain number of gigabytes or they have a set fee per month. No matter which plan your business decides to use, it can help you be less stressed online. Each of these sites helps you to improve productivity and see all of your accounts on a single dashboard.
- HootSuite: Our manager of choice here at Pickett&Associates. It’s compatible with Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Foursquare, WordPress, MySpace, and also features the App Directory which allows you access to YouTube, Constant Contact, Tumblr, Flickr and Mailchimp. The free profile allows up to 5 accounts and the $8.99/month profile features unlimited accounts! A word of caution … if you have chosen to “link” accounts (does your Twitter push to Facebook?), don’t “double post.” Only enter your post at the “primary source” for your feeds or you will end up with (annoying) duplicates.
- TweetDeck: compatible with Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn , Google Buzz, Foursquare, and MySpace. This site is free and allows you to manage unlimited accounts!
- Media Funnel: compatible with Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Tumblr, WordPress. $5.95/user/month for the basic package which includes up to ten accounts.
- SproutSocial: compatible with Google+, Facebook, Twitter. The standard packages starts at $39/month.
There are many other ‘platform’ sites you can use to manage all of your online accounts. Make it easier for you or your business to interact with customers and get the most out of your social media experience!
