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I wanted to share with you some tips and tricks for sharing to your social networks. While we will be discussing this as it pertains to Twitter, LinkedIn, and FaceBook, Google+ will likely have to be added to future discussions. This also raises the issue, and it is a valid one … just how many social networks do I want or need!? I’m asking myself that very question and the answers will vary by individual. Myself, I am perhaps less concerned with the number of networks than I am with making the best use of my available time on each and concentrating my efforts on what works best for me personally. And, different networks are better designed for different purposes. While you will need to decide this for yourself, let’s talk about social networking “do’s and don’ts” in general …
- Sharing consists of providing content in the form of links to helpful articles AS WELL AS original thoughts or your own
- Sharing also includes re-tweeting and @ replies to others as well as comments and “likes”. This is called “engagement”
- You can share too little or you can share too much. It is best to pace yourself throughout the day
- Cross posting – IMHO, cross posting (simultaneous posting of the same update to more than one social network) is becoming a huge issue. I will look at somebody’s entire social stream and see the exact same post on their Twitter, FaceBook, and LinkedIn pages. If they have Google+, I am seeing it there also. Why do I, or anyone, want to go to 3 or 4 sites just to see the exact same information? I don’t. But, with the tools we have at our disposal, it is so damn easy to check the little boxes, it allows me to be active on all the networks, and it makes the best possible use of my time! Yes, I do it too but, let’s try to minimize it. See #5
- Quality trumps quantity. Post appropriate and original content to each network where possible. This also means that you don’t talk about what you had for breakfast on LinkedIn. Add comments to re-tweets if possible. Take the time and effort needed to make as many updates as you can something special. You do this at the sacrifice of quantity. It will pay off!
So … with all this in mind, let’s talk about just a few of the tools that are available to you to assist you in these efforts. I might first suggest that your choice of browser, and I can only talk about PC vs. Mac, is important. I prefer Chrome or FireFox over Internet Explorer. The neatest tools are developed for these browsers first and are often for these browsers only. Chrome offers extensions and FireFox has add-ons. They both serve identical purposes in allowing you to integrate additional applications into the browser. And away we go!
Nimble – Nimble allows you to interact with your social networks from multiple locations. From within the Contact record, you can reply, re-tweet, comment, or send original message to your contacts.You can do the same thing from the Messages tab and also create original updates to your social networks and can selectively send to any or all of the big 3 as one single update (cross posting). The Social tab also provides all of these capabilities. Nimble excels at allowing you to engage directly with your network without ever having to leave Nimble. It is, however, not particularly strong for sharing original link content from outside sources. It is not designed for that. It is designed to build relationships with your contacts.
HootSuite (also TweetDeck, Seesmic, and several others) – These applications also allow you to monitor and engage with your social networks. HootSuite has what is called the Hootlet which is a bookmarklet that can be dragged to your browser toolbar. The Hootlet allows you to be on a web page and, if you like the content of that page, click on the button and it creates the tweet for you complete with a shortened link. You can then choose which of your networks to share to. HootSuite also allows you to delay-send individual updates which allows you to space your sharing out over time. See #3 above.
Buffer – Buffer is very similar to the Hootlet button but currently works with Twitter only. They will soon be introducing the same capability for FaceBook. You can choose to tweet now or to add your tweets to your Buffer and it will then send them out in doses over a given period of time automatically and all on it’s own. Buffer also works very well with your Google Reader (see below).
Twylah – Twylah is another Twitter tool and it comes with it’s own unique twist. Twylah actually aggregates your tweets and puts them into categories by topic and then creates a web page that becomes your “Twitter Branding Page”. Tweets created with Twylah are called “Power Tweets” and it works very similarly to Buffer or the Hootlet in that you can create these on the fly or automatically have Twylah create the tweet for you based on the web page that you are on. Here’s's the twist, the link that Twyla creates sends people to your brand page where they can first learn about you and then go on to read the actually link you originally sent. It’s quite cool. See my page here. That being said, I would suggest that you use this tool sparingly as people may become annoyed at being consistently directed to an intermediary site if all they wanted to do was read the original article that you tweeted about.
Visibli - Visibli also has a bookmarklet that will create a tweet from whatever web page you are on. When people are directed to that page, a status bar will appear on top of the page that you can use to share a little more info about you. It is a nice step below Twylah in that it encourages folks to follow you but takes them directly to the content they had expected to see. StumbleUpon, another application, features a similar status bar.
Google Reader – Most of my original content comes via my Google Reader which is a compilation of article sources that I subscribe to. Form within the reader itself, I can share directly to Twitter, FaceBook, or LinkedIn. I can also send something to the Hootlet for cross posting or, I can even use Buffer to share now or share later.
iGoogle – My home page is iGoogle. It is my main source for local and national news, sports, weather, searches, the stock market and .. I can also monitor my Twitter and FaceBook feeds. These are all accomplished with what Google calls “gadgets”. I use my TwitterGadget and my FaceBook to send off quick comments and replies. Make things quick and easy.
Well, that should keep you busy! Thanks for reading and please be sure to let me know if I can assist you in any way!
Craig
Related articles
- Cool Tool: Buffer App Saves Time with a Single Click (converstations.com)
- Meet Twylah, Brand Pages for Twitter. (thenextweb.com)
- Twitter queueing app Buffer hits milestone: One million tweets ‘buffered’ (thenextweb.com)
- 6 Tools To Help Measure Social Influence (outspokenmedia.com)
- 10 Apps for More Efficient Tweeting (freelanceswitch.com)
Craig M. Jamieson is a lifelong B2B salesperson, manager, owner, and a networking enthusiast. NetWorks! Boise Valley is a business to business networking organization for the most serious sales and marketing professionals only.
