The Five Free Tools of Social Media Success - Updated

Social media helped me get that global publishing contract and it helps me every day to promote my services. Here are the main five tools I use to build, manage and continuously develop my social media presence:

1. A blog. Wordpress and Blogger are both good. This blog uses blogger, a free blog creation service, and my main site uses Wordpress, another free blog creation site. Wordpress has more design themes and Blogger has a simple interface with links to Google. You decide which one you want, but get blogging.

2. Twitter. My main account @LPOBryan has over 50,000 followers. I also have a second account which has 30,000 followers and my daughter Tweets for me from @IsabelleOBryan where she has 20,000 followers. I firmly believe that each Tweet you send should have valuable content, a link to an interesting post, news for writers or a great new picture you have posted on Pinterest. Make each Tweet valuable and you will not lose followers,

3. Bufferapp.com a service which allows you to schedule Tweets, Facebook posts and LinkedIn posts. This is a real time saver. It allows me to surf the news sites, find an article I think will interest people (adventure, interesting history, writing themes are what I like to read & post about) and press a button at the top right of my browser, Chrome, and the item link is auto-posted at whatever time I have set up in buffer. This is an amazing tool. I still use the free version daily.

4. Tweetdeck. is another great free tool. Instead of us having to open Twitter for each account and check messages, follows and @Connects, each account is on screen all the time. Using Tweetdeck I can respond to everyone who mentions my Twitter name in a post, wants to ask me a question or say anything to me. Tweetdeck has transformed the way I manage multiple Twitter accounts. My goal is to reply to everyone within a few hours of them sending me a message. It also allows me to schedule Tweets & retweets for later in the day. I believe Tweets should be spread out through the day.

5. Tweepi, for adding followers every day. I can add 50 followers who might be interested in my books or social media support services in about four minutes with Tweepi. I can also unfollow people who won't follow me back and people who have stopped using Twitter. Tweepi is great for building your follower base. I see it as tapping people on the shoulder and saying "follow me back if you are interested" and then leaving them alone if they are not. I see no reason to read people's Tweets if they won't read mine, so that's why I unfollow most people who don't follow me back. There are some exceptions though. I follow some media people and amazing Tweeters and never unfollow them. And I put them in a Twitter list to make sure I can see their Tweets easily. I love Twitter lists.

These are the main tools I use for building my presence on social media daily. I have no commercial connection with any of them. I love technology, so that makes it easier for me to do all this. Please add the tools you find useful below, so we can all share what works with each other.

Thanks for coming by. To support this site - over 60 free posts so far on social media for you to explore - please buy my guide to social media. And enjoy!

Social media payback bullshit!

Someone said to me over the weekend, "In business we need proof that there will be a payoff before we invest in anything. We're pragmatic. We don't put money up without having a proven pay back."

What a crock of bullshit!

Most large businesses invest in PR and advertising. They pay to have press releases put out, to get stories in the media and to do BIG TV advertising where even the professionals say 50% of the budget is wasted, but they don't know which 50%! I wonder what the ROI argument is there? Let's do it 'cause it makes us look important?

Why is it that traditional PR, advertising and marketing are all allowed to get away with campaigns that spend money like water, sponsoring at the Olympics is just one area, but if you ask the same marketing managers to spend 10% of their budget on social media, a trackable & growing area, then they look at you as if you had two heads, at least?

Personally, I believe the reason for such shortsightedness is fear. They don't want to be told about the change that is looming. They want to keep doing what they've always done. They're scared. Well you know what that Darwin guy said, it ain't the clever or the strong that survive, it's the individuals who embrace change, dude!

Will we have to wait for a new generation of marketing heads and smart CEO's before social media takes off the way it should? What do you think? Are you scared too? Does this picture resonate? 

 

Guest Post: Tips For Tracking Your Social Media Results

This guest post is by Camille McClane, a freelance writer and online entrepreneur in the Los Angeles area.


Social media is likely an important part of your marketing strategy in 2013, regardless of what industry you’re in. Chances are if you’re running a small business, you’re also spending a  considerable amount of your time on social media sites or employing somebody at least part-time to do so.

But are your social media efforts actually turning into sales, new clients or page views? Without an understanding of how to properly track your social media efforts, it’s pretty much impossible to know. And, once you’ve got a clearer idea of where you want to go, you can get started on expanding your social media marketing strategy to its fullest potential.


Define Your Goals

Before you start downloading tools to help you track your social media results, you need to define your goals. After all, if you don’t know what your goals are, you won’t know when you need to step up your efforts or if your plan is working.

When you first start out, more traffic to your main site might be all you’re looking for from social media marketing. As your marketing efforts grow, you’re likely going to want to see increased sales or new clients.

Whatever your goals are, make sure you plan them out step-by-step.

Monitor Your Brand Health 

On social media sites, like Facebook and Twitter, people talk about brands, products and services that they like or have problems with. Monitoring your brand’s health – what people are really saying about your brand – is an essential part of using social media to benefit your business.

While you might only be able to monitor about 5-percent of the conversations on Twitter because the conversation volume is so high, that can still give you an idea of what people are saying about you.



Facebook and Google+ can also be helpful-- even though many conversations are restricted.

Learn to use Twitter and Facebook’s search and monitoring functions for business.

Use An Analytics Tool

These tools are great for keeping up with your social media results. You want a dashboard that can help you measure in real-time your social media engagement, track analytics, and use them to correlate them to your sales.

There are plenty of dashboards out there that have these features and more. Google Analytics is one of the more popular tools available. Cyfe is another fairly all-inclusive dashboard, one that’s used by big companies like Groupon and AT&T.

Even if you aren’t in an industry that typically benefits from a significant amount of social media marketing, chances are you’re doing it, at least on a small scale. In 2013, the only businesses that aren’t using social media are ones that don’t feel the need to grow or expand with the times.

If you want to keep your business growing, social media is going to be an important part of the equation.

Camille McClane is a freelance writer and online entrepreneur in the Los Angeles area. As someone with social media experience, she understands how important it is for businesses to track how effective their marketing efforts are. How do you track your social media marketing results? Share your comments below!

New offices + Invitation to work with us!

We just moved into new offices at 5 Dame Lane in Dublin 2, Ireland. Our client list has grown fast and we hope you can join us if you need support with any aspect of social media.

We have air-conditioned training facilities for up to 15, meetings rooms, office space and, most importantly shared kitchen facilities with lots of amazing design and web gurus!

The area, near Wicklow Street in central Dublin is probably the most vibrant in the city (look at the location map below). And better, IMHO, than where Facebook are, stuck way out in the wilds at the end of the river! 

And if you're a social media, design or web guru and you want to work with us send details of your experience and plans to: lob@yourasms.com

Is your social media daily diary in need of disruption?

There are so many great social media sites, with real potential for building engagement on each one, it would be easy to be overwhelmed by the amount you need to do.

I recommend setting up a diary or calendar for keeping track of what you need to do. I use Google Calendar. It's free if you have a Google account and it even emails you when you should start an activity. It also allows you to repeat activities at any interval, which saves time having to write it all in your diary each week.

Here's my list of recurring calendar activities:

Everyday: Check Twitter & respond to any personal Tweets (via Tweetdeck) & check Facebook & respond to any posts of interest.

Monday: Post to 3 LinkedIn groups

Tuesday: Post to 2 Goodreads groups

Wednesday: Create a post for blog 1 & comment on 2 Google+ communities

Thursday: Create post on blog 2 & comment on LinkedIn groups

Friday: Create post on blog 3

Saturday: Post on Facebook

Sunday: Create another post on blog 1

So, I'm posting each week on 3 blogs and contributing to Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, LinkedIn and Google+. That's 3 blogs and 7 communities or groups on 5 social media sites. I was on more, but the above stretches me enough!

Do you think I am doing to much? Consider that I am a social media consultant and an author with books to promote.

And here's another question; what will we be doing in 10 years? How many of these sites will still be here or will they be managed in one place, more easily?

Will we end up doing it all through a new version of HootSuite or Tweetdeck or something else, something new?

I would give a new service a try if it allowed me to shift easily between communities and post at the optimum time and day, automatically, for my my responsive followers.

Anybody know of such an app?

And what's your calendar?

Social media - connecting us to the future - just like the telephone did

I often compare the telephone's introduction a hundred years ago to the introduction of social media in the last few years.

           1908 Candlestick USA model

There are people who didn't want telephones in their homes. They saw it as a route to social breakdown, wives could talk to strange men, daughters could talk to boyfriends without a chaperone, and workers could tell the secrets of an organisation to competitors if telephones were installed in homes and offices.

And they were right, but they forgot to mention the benefits; the ability to call an ambulance to come and save your life, to speak to your dying father on another continent, to get an order that would save your business.

Similarly people resist social media as they say it takes too much time, is filled with stupid content and that they prefer editors to decide what the news is, rather than picking their own stories to read.

And undoubtedly all this is true. In a hundred years these things will come to pass (if not sooner), but the benefits, getting health advice from others that could save your life, engaging your dying dad in a video hangout and getting orders that will save your business, will all happen too.

Social media is simply another communication tool. It is up to is what we do with it.

To anyone who resists social media, just say this; I suppose you would have been against the telephone too!

Integrating social media into training: 4 ways to get it right

I have been preparing a course outline for a 12 week Diploma in Social Media Development. The course will run in Dublin in the final few months of the year. People will be able to attend remotely, as all classes are streamed over the internet.

The new elements I will be bringing to the course include the integration of social media into the course structure. This is what participants will get:

1. Pre-course ice breaking using questions posted on a course-specific LinkedIn group & a Twitter # tag. Personal objectives, questions and informal introductions can all now be done in advance of the first session. This will save time and ensure people get their social media accounts started before the course begins.

2. In-session Twitter backchannel. Remote participants will be able to ask questions at any time using a Twitter # tag. These Tweets will be visible through a dedicated page at http://twubs.com/, which anyone can access, or through a Twitter search. This will bring remote participants into the room and ensure that their questions and comments get listened to in the class and responded to.

3. Between session Twitter # tag use to send links to useful extra support material, ask questions, detail assignments and seek comments. Longer comments and assignment responses can be posted on the dedicated invite-only LinkedIn group.

4. Post course support will be provided using Twitter and LinkedIn, both to keep people in touch and to answer any follow up questions anyone has. This support will run for as long as is necessary, with long term support handed over to the group three months after the course ends.

These methods will bring social media into the classroom in a practical way. Similar activities can be applied to many learning situations. Why teach social media with PowerPoint?

In fact, why teach anything without social media?

If you have any suggestions for additional ways of using social media in training or comments please do submit them below.

And if you want to be a participant please follow this blog, above right, and full details will be emailed to you over the next few months.      

Guest post & Conference Review - How Small Businesses can Optimise Digital Marketing

By Conor Hughes @chughesvm

Last February I passed through NovaUCD’s doors for a seminar entitled How Small Businesses can Optimise Digital Marketing. 

NovaUCD is an innovation and research centre dedicated to inspiring creative graduates, putting knowledge to work and growing and supporting new business in Ireland. Here's a couple of the speakers and the points they covered.

Laurynas Binderas @tunelis  works in Marketing Operations in Talentevo. His speech entitled Successful Social Media Strategies for Startups and Small Businesses was an interesting overview of the current digital marketing landscape and a great introductory piece.  The main message here was that using social media for brand awareness does not fully optimise online value creation. The model proposed by Laurynas was to first develop a social media strategy that will engage online influencers, learn audience behaviour, measure this influence, use it to dictate future strategies and above all – produce content.

Lee Kelly @leekelly started by addressing the often overlooked area of email marketing. Through eliciting an emotive response in the customer, email marketing can double the income return of social media.  The key was finding goals which business and consumer could achieve mutually. Find something that the consumer is tired of, express an understanding of this frustration, position your business as the answer to this problem and then provide the consumer with a ‘call to action’ ie a sign up/download/purchase.

Le also covered the automation of social media. The key is consistency – not to flood the online social sphere with content at certain hours while sharing nothing at others. A valuable tool for achieving this is the Buffer app for Google Reader. This buffered content is then automatically posted at assigned intervals throughout the coming day or week.

Abhinav Chugh @abhichugh, founder and CEO of VideoCrisp and Waybiz.com focussed on video marketing. Video is the most engaged with of all online social content – YouTube being the second largest search engine after Google. 

When it comes to the average time spent on a site, video increases this by over 5 minutes. In terms of converting clicks to sales, visitors who view videos are 85% more likely to buy a product. Ways to get videos include Video Production Companies, Web Design or Marketing firms or utilising some of the do-it-yourself tool such as VideoCrisp, Animoto or XtraNormal – all of which are available online.  

Don’t forget to know your target audience before choosing a format, though.

Conor Hughes @chughesvm is a marketing executive at Vertical Markets which incorporates Life Science Recruitment and Capital Markets Executive Search

Follow on G+ | Twitter | Linkedin

Thanks Conor for a really interesting post. If anyone else wants a guest spot and reach a 1,000 visitors a day please email me lob@yourasms.com All guest posts must be original, about social media and include a picture and links.

Interactivity on social media

Getting people to engage with you, to contribute to your blog or your Facebook page is an important element in getting social media right. Why? Because people are more likely to remember you and come back if they engage.

But how can you get people to engage?

1. Ask for participation often. Let people comment anonymously and by using their social media identities if they prefer.

2. Make engagement the centerpiece of the post or for a period on your site. Ask people to post their own links and to talk about what they do. Sure, you will get some people putting up advertising, but if the links are too much you can always simply delete the ones that breach your guidelines.

3. Ask people to post images. You can run a contest for the best photo of your product in a strange situation for instance.

4. Ask for text contributions or submissions of some type to win a review or some other real prize.

5. Build community in from the start. Facebook group are a perfect example of that. Start a group. People know what's expected on LinkedIn and Facebook groups and on other sites with groups or tribes.

6. Make your post about a burning issue. Take a stand and ask for contributions. Make it about something important and up to the minute and make your contribution genuine and open.

7. Be persistent. Don't give up if it's difficult at the start. Give it a reasonable amount of time, but don't forget to move on too, if you need to. Social media is about balancing experimentation with persistence.

In the spirit of this post, please make your own suggestions below as to how to improve interactivity and post a link to your own site so we can see what you do and visit you.

To support this site - over 60 free posts so far on social media for you to explore - please buy one of my novels, The Istanbul Puzzle or The Jerusalem Puzzle or my guide to social media. And enjoy!

Socmephobia - The Fear of Social Media

Socmephobia! What's that?

It's social media phobia. Socmephobes are people who don't want anything to do with social media, Twitter, Facebook or all the other blogs and picture sites and online networks that hundreds of millions of us are now using, and which are likely to become the driving force in the cultural and corporate spheres in the coming decades.

You can identify socmephobes by their instant dismissal of all things social media. They will deride blogs, dismiss Twitter and deny that Facebook has any relevance. Canute-like they sit by the shore and order the oncoming waves of social media back. Then, when their screens fall dark, they will deny the sea of social media has any importance at all, because they can't see it.


The history of this cultural/psychological disorder can be traced back to when the inventors of the wheel were laughed at, the inventors of the spinning loom were attacked, and the wearers of mini skirts dismissed as agents of the devil.

If you identify a socmephobe in your office or home there are a number of treatments you can use to help those afflicted:

1. You can create a Facebook page for them and connect them to members of their extended family so that  they can see pictures of family events and read news from family and friends.

2. You can ask them about their interests, and let them see people in those areas' Twitter feeds, blogs or YouTube Channels.

3. You can get them to talk about their fear, and take notes, for if you find out anything that will make you want to run, you may need evidence for any subsequent investigation.

In the event that you are confronted by a group of socmephobes I advise checking where the nearest exit is first, then using the opportunity to observe a cultural phenomena as if you were an anthropologist studying a dying tribe on a remote island.

The self reinforcing rituals of the group should be documented and recorded and, of course, posted on your blog/Facebook page, with a link on Twitter, so we can all enjoy your observations.  

This post has been submitted as a public service announcement.

To support this site - over 60 free posts so far on social media for you to explore - please buy one of my novels, The Istanbul Puzzle or The Jerusalem Puzzle or my guide to social media. And enjoy!

On images taking over the interweb

Images work!

• On Facebook, videos are shared twelve times more than text posts and links combined
• Photos are Liked twice as much as text only updates
• 42% of all Tumblr posts are pictures
• Pinterest, the photo-driven social media phenomenon, is now referring more traffic than Twitter, StumbleUpon, LinkedIn and Google Plus

We may see a visual split soon, where ebook readers allow easy reading of text and many other sites go mostly visual. Is your site visual or are you ignoring the elephant in the room?

To support this site - over 60 free posts so far on social media for you to explore - please buy one of my novels, The Istanbul Puzzle or The Jerusalem Puzzle or my guide to social media. And enjoy!