The Secondary Social Media Tools
Social Media Tools – The Secondary Tools
Having a complete set of Social Media Tools and using them to their maximum potential is without doubt beneficial to your Social Media program.
Social Media like Search Engine Optimization is a holistic process where all factors are utilized to achieve the projects goals. In such a competitive market place as businesses face today, companies must use all the tools available to assist in obtaining the competitive edge.
The Blog Post – “The Tools of Social Media” provided an overview of the principle Social Media Tool Types which are the primary tools of any Social Media Program. However, additional Social Media tools are available, understanding and using these tools will assist in the process of developing and running a Social Media Marketing Program that is effective and achieves your business goals.
Secondary Social Media Tools
Photo Sharing: Photo Sharing due to its popularity could be classified as a primary Social Media tool however, although they say “A picture is worth a thousand words” I classified Photo Sharing as a secondary tool as I consider Photo Sharing offers less interactivity than for example, Blogging, Video or Social Networks.
Photo sharing has limited potential for numerous businesses, SEO / Social Media Consultants, Accountant and others offering professional services would find it difficult to share relevant photos which promote their businesses. Other businesses such as the Fashion industry, Real Estate and of course Photographers are very likely to find huge benefits in developing a Social Photo sharing program.
Live Casting: Live Casting is both Internet Radio and TV. Web sites such as Blog Talk Radio and Justin.tv enable you to create your own online Radio or TV show on the topic of your choosing. Creativity, controversy and informative broadcasts on the Internet have the ability to develop a large following for you and your business.
One service which I do see tremendous potential for is an interactive online radio show which provides the format of Radio talk back shows. To determine public opinion, develop ideas and products what could be more powerful than an interactive online radio program such as talkshoe.com.
Virtual Worlds: One principle of Social Media and Social Networking is a business should active in the same space as the consumer. With the popularity of virtual worlds such as Second Life (Linden Labs Estimated Second Life Population 7.5 Million) computer generated virtual world have the potential to connect with consumers and product users.
Many large corporations such as IBM, Sony and the NBA are finding virtual worlds such as Second Life offer an effective method to engage and communicate with consumers
Gaming: Online Gaming has developed numerous global communities where gamers compete and interact in games. In many ways Gaming is a virtual world with the competitive edge.
Gaming offers businesses limited Social Media potential in the form of close interaction between business and consumer. However, Gaming Software developers do offer the ability to advertise to this demographic from within the gaming environment which may have benefits for your business depending on the demographics of your desired consumer.
Social Book Marks / Aggregators: Social Book marking sites such as Digg, Delicious and Reddit in conjunction with Aggregating sites such as Technocrati, Netvibes and Google Reader
offer different methods to accumulate information for easy retrieval and later use. From book marking a web site, to following news topics which are important to your business, to automatic RSS feeds of information from numerous web spaces Social Book marking and Aggregation tools will assist you to keep abreast of what's happening online and share and access this information with ease..
These tools often offer an insight to trends and the opinions of the general public on an endless variety to topics, services and products.
Rich Site Summary (RSS): Managing and keeping up to date with the web content that is important to you is not always easy when content is delivered by numerous sources.RSS enables the subscription of content from Blogs, news sites and a variety of web sites which update their content regularly and have the content delivered to your RSS reader or integrated into web pages. RSS is also a valuable Social Media Tool to enable your company to broadcast updated content to web site visitors and subscribers.
Search Engines: Social Media regardless of some opinions has not decreased the importance of Search Engines, in many ways Social Media has increased the need of effective search by users and the ability to be found online by businesses.
The reason for this is simple. Social Media and Web 2.0 is primarily about User Generated Content, which has caused huge volumes of content to be developed daily which has the affect of making it even more difficult to find the information consumers are looking for and more difficult for business web sites to be found on the Internet.
When considering the importance of Search as a Social Media Tool, evaluate how your own personal search habits have changed with the increase in Social Media popularity. If I had to guess, I would say you still depend on Google or your favorite Search Engine to find the information and services your require.
Communication: Communication tools are not new to Social Media, instant chat from MSN, Yahoo and AOL have been around for years. However, new Social Media Tools are constantly developed which assist with communication and collaboration business to business and business to consumer. A couple of my preferred Social Media Communication Tools:
Skype enables users to have video calls, conference calls all free when computer to computer and access any land line or mobile phone for extremely competitive rates.
Go To Meetings is becoming an increasingly effective and popular Social Media Tool for providing Webinars, sales presentation and empowering business to collaborate online reducing travel costs significantly.
Social Media Monitoring: The monitoring of Social Media programs is important to determine the effectiveness of the initiative and ROI which is so important to businesses.
Tools such as Radian 6, Dialogix and Streamwall offer services to follow your online Social Media efforts by following blog post comments, Twitter and Facebook dialogues to mention a few.
Social Media Tools – Conclusion
The complete set of Social Media Tools available is close to limitless and daily, new Social Media Tools arrive. Social Media is still in a growth stage requiring experimentation and learning.
Selecting the correct Social Media tools for your business requirements will take investigative skills to determine what works best for your situation, but most of all making Social Media work for your business is about commitment and believing in the effectiveness and power of Social Media.
