Untangling Social Media Networks

Do all of these social media networks make you dizzy? Do you have the feeling that you are lost in a maze of blogs, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google Buzz, Four Square etc? Posts are everywhere and sometimes they are repeating the same things. It may annoy your followers and friends and eventually you will get ignored. It doesn’t have to be this way when you know how to simplify and untangle the links that join social media networks together.

I’d like to show you one simple way to link the connections between your social media accounts so that you do less work and still spread your efforts to these social media channels.

I’d like to show you one simple way to link the connections between your social media accounts so that you do less work and still spread your efforts to these social media channels.

1. Blog – This is where you provide value to others by sharing your view point, expertise and experience. Blogging is also a great way to get organic traffic from search engines and allows others to reference to your posts.

2. Twitter – Twitter is the springboard and the broadcaster of your social media networks. Connect your blog to your twitter accounts to make your blog automatically send messages to other social channels you have.

3. LinkedIn – LinkedIn has partnered with Twitter. When you set your Twitter name in your LinkedIn account, your tweets will automatically update your LinkedIn status. You can also add your blog’s RSS feed to one of the link in your LinkedIn profile and add Blog Link app to your LinkedIn account to share your blog posts with your connections.

4. Facebook – I don’t think I need to explain much about Facebook. For me, it’s primarily for my personal network of family, relatives and close friends. By connecting your Twitter announcements to Facebook, it can automatically add your twitter to your Facebook status.

5. Google Buzz is the newcomer but not many people understand it yet. To make it work, you’ll want to create your own Google Profile. You then connect your Twitter account to your Google profile and Google Buzz to broadcast your status to your Buzz connection. The Buzz network usually consists of family and friends who use Gmail as their personal email platform. One feature of Google Buzz is that it allows you to share the items from your Google Reader and Blogger account through Buzz network.

Following are the tools that you can use to make the job of untangling your social media network easier:

HootSuite is a powerful tool to manage all your social media accounts. It can post messages to multiple Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Four Square accounts. It also can connect with your WordPress and RSS.

DISQUS Comments: When you install DISQUS Comments on your blog, it replaces your regular comment forms. Your visitors can then use one of the social media accounts they already have to post comments. It will authenticate their identity to ensure quality comments. It will prevent opening up the blog to spam.

WordPress to Twitter plugins: There are a number of plugins to allow you to connect and broadcast your blog to your Twitter account. Most of them will also allow you to connect to shorten URL app and properly layout your tweets.

Everyone is talking about how to leverage and harness the power of social media but it can appear quite overwhelming. By taking simple steps to ensure the proper linkage of the connections, you can do less AND reap the benefits of the social media networks.

Lunch & Learn Seminar on Social Media and how to use it in B2B Marketing

Join Yves Matson at Calgary Technogies Inc on April 28th 2010 from 12:00PM to 1:00PM as he talks about “Social Media and how to use it in B2B Marketing”.

Yves Matson is the Director of Business Development at FoundPages and he will share emerging best practices that effectively integrate Social Media into online marketing, utilizing activities that companies already engage in, such as newsletters, blogging, case study publishing, and webinars.

Using Social Media as a distribution channel for blog, newsletter, or website content produces highly qualified leads and referrals that are more likely to identify themselves and begin a relationship based on your expertise. This presentation is based around the eHow To Guide, created by ActiveConversion, called A Marketing Automation Guide to Social Media Marketing.

CTI Lunch & Learn sessions are free and held in a boardroom at the Alastair Ross Technology Centre (3553 31 Street NW, Calgary). Lunches can be purchased by cash only at Choices Cafe in the lobby.

mediaFRESH Awards Finalists Announced for the 2010

The 2010 mediaFresh awards hosted by Digital Alberta are dedicated to the recognition of those Alberta Digital Media Professionals and Post-Secondary students who have created outstanding project and programs between September 2008 and November 2009.

Category: Best Entrepreneur Award for creative/business/technology entries will be judged on

• 40% Marketing Strategy
• 30% Commercial viability
• 30% Uniqueness of technology

Winning entries will be featured in a full color catalogue that will be published and distributed following the awards ceremony. Each winner will receive a complimentary copy of the catalogue for their portfolio. Additional copies of the mediaFresh 2010 will be distributed to promote digital media production in Alberta and around the world.

Fred Yee, CEO of Foundpages/ActiveConversion, is one of the nominees. We think Fred and the product / services fit the ranking criteria very well.

https://digitalalberta.wufoo.com/forms/peoples-choice-nominees-best-entrepreneur