Cool Social Media Marketing Tools That I Use

I am often asked which programs or social media tools I am using that have increased my reach, branding, or productivity.

Here are a couple for today.

 

• First, I always use FireFox as my browser. I find it much more user friendly and useful than the other browsers. I love finding the widgets and tools that add to my productivity. They are easy to install on FireFox. I will let you know when I come across great new ones such as AddThis (see below).

• Second, I use tabs. Lots of tabs. Often, I have had 20 or more tabs opened at one time.

As an example of how this makes my life better, in the morning I launch my browser, click on the bookmarks icon at the top, pick a bookmarks folder such as Social Networking, choose the “Open All in Tabs” option and immediately my 12 social networking sites that I am active on pop up.

While they are loading for a minute, I an grabbing a steaming hot cup of joe (with vanilla creamer and blue sugar). I come back down and everyone of my social networking sites are pre-loaded, waiting for my attention.

Here is a partial screen shot of what that looks like for me when I open my social networking tab.

I simply go from tab to tab, seeing what my friends are up to, sharing what I am up to, commenting on their walls, posting to Twitter, promoting chamber members and events, etc….

No random hunting a pecking of social networking sites that I am going to look at that day. The same set always pop up and I begin networking.

This creates a lot of consistency in my efforts. That is very important.

It doesn’t do much good to randomly visit your sites. Much better to do fewer sites with consistency than a plethora of sites every so often. The best approach is to do all of the important sites consistently.

Some more tips you might consider:

• Try to comment/interact 20 times each day on your sites. It can be as simple as a “Like” click  on Face Book or a full response to a blog question. I first heard this goal from Mindy Byers at one of her Internet social networking classes and I loved it. She made it a point not just to lurk but to interact. Her style of interacting usually brings a smile or a laugh to a friend. Try it. Interact daily with 20 different people by commenting on their posts. There is a reason she had more than 800 friends on Face Book.

• Get the AddThis widget (orange icon with the + symbol on screen shot). It will allow you to post to Twitter, Facebook, Blogger, etc….hundreds of social networking sites, with just a click of your mouse. Come across a cool article that you want your friends to see, simple click the AddThis icon on your browser and it gets sent to Twitter, for instance. Very powerful tool. Totally free, of course.

• Did you know that by holding down the Control button when you click on a link you will launch a new tab? It makes you much more productive. I sometimes launch more than 20 tabs of my chamber members pages so I can get caught up on what they are up to. Productivity.

What programs, widgets, tools, etc…are you using to increase your productivity or social networking success?

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