AirdrieNOW.5 - Social Media

Social media is quickly emerging as one of the 21st centuries most active marketing channels. Big companies from Dell to Starbucks are using various forms of social media to engage their markets and sell their brands. The best part of social media is you don't have to be a mega-billion dollar company to be successful. Airdrie companies are popping up on Facebook, Twitter and other social media networks reaching out to customers and sharing information.

How do companies manage social media? Here's 5 great applications (including a few we use) to efficiency run a social media campaign:

1. Hootsuite: My personal favourite, Hootsuite is a professional social media client that allows you to manage multiple accounts (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn) in one easy to use interface. Hootsuite is especially useful for Twitter users with pre-scheduled tweets and the ability to track and measure success. Too many followers? Let Hootsuite's customizable columns track topics and people you care about most - http://www.hootsuite.com
   
   
2. Tweetdeck: Is a similar product to Hootsuite. The minor difference between the two is TweetDeck is launched via your computer's desktop and Hootsuite is a web-based application. Both are awesome and fully compatible with iPhones for our more mobile readers - http://www.tweetdeck.com/
   
   
3. TwitterFeed: For Twitter users I suggest using an automated tweeting application called TwitterFeed. Simply set-up any RSS feeds you may have (blog, YouTube videos, photo-sharing such as Flickr) using this application to automatically populate your Twitter. Great for sharing information across multiple social media applications - http://twitterfeed.com/
   
   
4. WeFollow / Twellow / TweetFind: A great way to gain more followers is by creating an account using a public directory service such as WeFollow, Twellow or Tweetfind. Consider these the YellowPages of Twitter, a directory to list your location and products/services. And remember, it pays to have a presence on all three -
   http://wefollow.com/
   http://www.twellow.com/
   http://www.tweetfind.com/
   
   
5. Twitpic: Remember the miracle on the Hudson River where a US Airways plane landed in New York Citys's Hudson River without casualties? Traditional media were not the first to break the story, it was a person with a cellphone that uploaded images via Twitpic. This service quickly and easily uploads photos to your Twitter account from any cellphone, great for capturing those important moments - http://twitpic.com/

Like these applications but have questions? Join us for "Blogs, Tweets and Followers, Does Social Media Work for Your Business?" on Thursday, May 20th from 12-1pm at City Hall. Bring along your lunch and questions to this informal hour of learning.

Next month we look at five online resources for the companies looking at expanding into international markets. If you have a topic you would like covered please post in the comments section below.

AirdrieNOW.5 is a regular feature in our Airdrie@Work enewsletter and is prepared by Chris MacIsaac