Topic: Social Media Management Tools

There is so much more to social media than just updating, posting and linking onto your accounts. All the behind the scenes management can really help you make your page and accounts thrive in such a social media savvy world. From sites that can help you manage your posts to giving you statistics of who likes your page. There is so many different types of management.

The first types of management pages that I really know about are sites that allow you to schedule your posts and tweets that make it so you don’t have to be constantly updating your sites. This is nice if you have a busy week, are out of town or have several accounts to manage.

According to Mashable.com they chose the Top 5 Social Media Management Tools that can help make your life easier.

1. TweetDeck – this allows you to manage all your personal social media profiles. Allows you to connect across Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Foursquare and Google Buzz. You can update all or just a few with the same status at one time.

2.  CoTweet – great for small businesses or divisions of larger businesses that spread social media duties among team members and have a customer service approach to engagement.

3.  HootSuite – small to medium-sized businesses that have one or two dedicated social media managers. Allows you to add five networks to all monitor at the same time.

4. SpredFast – this is specifically for agencies managing social media for several companies with high ROI demands. It has a lot of analytics which is a big advantage over other tools.

5. Engage121 – franchised companies looking to maintain consistent messaging while giving local branches a hand in social media should use this. It’s the best in its class at encompassing monitoring, broadcasting and engagement.

“The Econsultancy/Responsys 2013 Marketing Budgets survey recently revealed that 38% of companies will be increasing their investments in Social Media Management Systems this year, and 62% will increase their social media investment.”

As you can tell, social media is prevalent in todays industry and organizations are taking it seriously to make their mark online.

These tools will be very beneficial to any company trying to grow using social media. If you can stay on top your social media and know what your company demographics are, you are sure to be just fine. 

Topic: Social Media Platforms

As a person who is an avid social media user and an director for the Associated Students of Utah State University (ASUSU), I would like to think I know which social media platform works best at getting “the word out.” Choosing the right platform is key to making sure that your information gets across to the right audience. If you pick the wrong platform can decrease customers and will definitely give your competitors an advantage.

According to socialmediachimps.com, the Top 5 Social Media Sites of 2012 were:

• Facebook (950 million)
•  YouTube (880 million)
• Wikipedia (410 million)
• BlogSpot (340 million)
•  Twitter (170 million)

These are platforms that should be taken into consideration when getting ready to advertise your product/service/company. These have the most amount of traffic and can almost guarantee an increase in traffic if used correctly.

Below is a GREAT infographic from socialmediachimps.com on the top social media platforms within 2012. It shows that “social networks receive 36% of unique visitors, video sites 27%, blogging platforms 15%, wikis 11%, and micro blogging and other types of social media platforms at 6%.”

If you have noticed, whatever you are trying to market – whether it is a product, service, company or even yourself – the more you can get the name out to the public the better chance you will have at success. Be sure to use more than just one platform and make sure you update them frequently. You will often see companies that have a Facebook, who make posts about their blog and link their status to Twitter. This is a great way for them to be seen on multiple platforms.

Once you understand the top social media platforms and what you think could potentially work best for you. You need to then develop a strategy on how to become successful in using these. Socialmediaexamier.com has a great 7 Step process that helps you develop a successful social media strategy.

1.    Determine Your Goals and Objectives

2.   Research, Research and Research Some More

3.   Create a Digital Rolodex of Contacts and Content

4.   Join the Conversation to Develop Relationships

5.   Strengthen Relationships

6.   Measure Results

7.   Analyze, Adapt, and Improve

For more information on these 7 steps – click here

Hopefully these can help you think about which platform works best for you and what you are trying to market. Just remember, whatever you put on social media - is for everyone else to see. You can never get it back!

Topic: Qualitative and Quantitative Research

What is the difference between qualitative and quantitative research? Honestly, this is something that I discussed freshman year and haven’t really heard the terms since. Therefore, when I started researching the topics again, I was surprised that I didn’t remember these terms at all.

However, when it comes to your own specific research, one type is not better than the other. It depends on what you are researching to determine which style you use.

Qualitative Research – Is all about exploring the unknown. It is used when we don’t know what to expect, to define the problem or develop an approach to a problem.

          Common methods used: focus groups, dyads, in-depth interviews, uninterrupted observation, bulletin boards, ethnographic observation.

Quantitative Research – Focuses on the numbers. It is conclusive in its purpose as it tries to quantify the problem and understand how prevalent it is by looking for results to a larger population.

          Common methods used: surveys (online, phone, paper), audits, points of purchase, and click-streams.

When thinking about both types of research, sometimes it is best to use both since they provide different perspectives and usually complement each other. While one helps you explore what you want to know, the other one will give you measurable information.

Many companies or large corporations tend to use quantitative research more often because it provides a specific number or outcome. Some examples include; when dealers call customers to ask them how their customer service was or when a customer is given a taste test of product A and product B and ask them which product is better. With this type of research it allows companies to provide numbers, percentages and statistics to clients that helps them see the specifics of the company.

On the other hand, it can still be beneficial to companies to look into qualitative research. When they are looking for customer’s opinions or thoughts on maybe a particular product or situation, they can use focus groups or interviews to help gather that information. It normally will have a smaller number of respondents but helps them determine trends or patterns.

When thinking about how qualitative and quantitative research come into play with social media the only thing that I can think of are survey questions that are posted on Facebook. This survey typically asks if Justin Bieber or One Direction is better, but to the person who is asking the question, I’m sure they get a great quantitative response.

However, I’m sure there are millions of other ways people collect quantitative and qualitative data through social media sites. Any ideas?

For more information on these topics check out:

http://www.surveygizmo.com/survey-blog/quantitative-qualitative-research/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantitative_research  (yes, I used Wikipedia, and yes it was helpful!)

Topic: SWOT Analysis

If you think back 5 years ago to when Facebook was just another MySpace, no one knew what Twitter was and Instagram wasn't even a topic of discussion, then Im sure that you never thought of implementing social media into your business strategic plan.

A common plan that is used is a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) Analysis which is a useful tool for decision making and providing good framework for any corporation or organization. With the major increase in social media within the last few years, you can expect to see Facebook, Twitter, Blogs and maybe even Instagram appearing in a company's SWOT Analysis. Some companies plan to create a SWOT Analysis specific to only marketing or social media.

According to Social Media Ledger's article "How to Write a Social Media Strategy," there are many tactics that can be used to create a beneficial social media strategy. Some of the their examples include:
Strengths 
- what kind of social media programs do you have in place that are better than your competitors.
- stronger brand awareness in the market place
Weaknesses
- what areas of social media are your competitors doing better then you? (Blogging, Twitter, Facebook, etc)
- have you lost sales due to any interactions within social media channels?
- not building your Social Media strategy into your existing company process.
- Utilizing the wrong Social Media tools for your company requirements.
Opportunities
- Are there any new or emerging channels where you can gain an engaged audience? (Pinterest, Google+, etc) 
- Have you effectively positioned your brand as an expert in your field?
- Social Recruitment
- Reputation Management
Threats
- Do any of your weaknesses pose a legitimate threat to your business?
- Your competitors getting ahead using Social Media

When it comes to creating your own SWOT Analysis for a company or organization, it will be more beneficial if you keep it detailed and be sure to compare your internal and external strategies too. Social Media allows you to do just that.

LinkedIn is another social networking site that can help building your companies framework and strategy created in a SWOT. A main goal that is typically always placed on SWOT charts is customer service, whether that is your strength or weakness, it is the main thing that drives companies. On a LinkedIn page, when asked to discuss the topic of "SWOT Analysis for Social Media" it mentioned that some of your customers, especially ones you spend alot of time working with, will most likely look you up on a social media site. It is important that you keep your company and personal profiles appropriate and that you are building good relations with each customer.

In conclusion, I think that including social media in your company's plan is a necessity in our world today. It is important to make sure that you are up to date on what is happening and continuously update it if you want to maintain your customer base. Especially if your main consumers are those who keep up with social media trends.