With literally thousands of social media tools at your disposal, it is not only important to know WHO your audience is but also WHERE they are. So much of the focus lies on, what I like to call, the Fab 4: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube. But a true social media strategy is developed by working backward INTO the tools, rather than starting with them.

First, define your objectives. Once they have been delineated, start researching!! Who is your target market? Where do they hang out online? And what is the best campaign to reach out to them? Remember, establishing an online presence isn’t about YOU it’s about THEM!! And it’s not short-term… In the late 90’s Yahoo had the lion’s share of the search engine market while Google was nowhere to be found… Just because Facebook is the biggest thing today doesn’t mean it will be in 5 or 10 years.

Finally, engage your audience. The beauty of social media, when properly integrated into a campaign, is the ability to listen to what your customers want; even if the feedback is negative, this is the perfect opportunity to improve your offering. Ironically, we often become so engrossed in what is good for our business, we forget to focus on what is good for our customers… So define them, find them and LISTEN to them. Your business and your customers will thank you;-)

I recently attended a webinar, Social Media for Business Marketers in which Quora was described as gaining strength in B2B markets. So… I joined (here’s my profile) But it’s been quite sometime and I’m still questioning it! I took to Twitter to see if anyone shared my woes; as it turns out, I’m not alone…

Taken directly from their website, “Quora is a continually improving collection of questions and answers created, edited, and organized by everyone who uses it. The most important thing is to have each question page become the best possible resource for someone who wants to know about the question.”

In theory, this is a great concept and hopefully, it just takes time or – as they say – practice makes perfect… I have used it to research blog topics and it’s been a useful tool in that respect. I also think, for field experts, it’s a great place to showcase your knowledge. But it’s otherwise complex in nature and therefore, intimidating to use. In fact, the very first question is a laundry list of things necessary to set it up correctly! Moreover, it seems most of the social media tools out there (perhaps in conjunction but nevertheless) cover most of Quora’s capabilities.

I’ll be interested to see the evolution of Quora but as it stands, I’m still confused… No matter how many answers I get;-)

Is Quora the Q or the A?

Digg, a social news website, is an information junkie’s dream! Thousands of articles stream through multiple channels allowing you to “digg,” comment and even create headlines. As with most social sites, having followers makes it more fun; however, as evidenced by this recent article in CNN Tech, it’s now more crucial than ever to start digging!

So here’s what’s new at Digg:

1. Site redesign – based on user feedback, Digg has gone to great lengths to reflect what its users want.
2. Profile pages/statistics – prominently displaying who dugg what, when and how often.
3. Opt-in – several options for when your stories make “Top News.”

All in all, I’d say Digg, new or old, is definitely one of my favorite sites. It’s user-friendly, manageable and informative. It may not have the influence of a Facebook or Twitter but I’ve found it a very valuable source of news which I then, of course, share my tweeps☺

You Digg?! (I do… Alidggs)

Before we delve any deeper into Social Media For B2B Companies, I’d like to mention some of the tools that organize your media into a manageable system, allowing for optimization and efficiency.

Mashable awarded these 5 the “Best Social Media Management Tools”:

1. Tweetdeck
2. CoTweet
3. Hootsuite
4. Spredfast
5. Engage121

I use Hootsuite and honestly, I don’t know WHAT I’d do without it! I love its user-friendly interface, ability to add streams and capacity to see all the pertinent activity in my accounts at once. Whichever tool you decide to use, decide on one. It makes your social media life exponentially easier!

Which social media management tool do you use?

With so many social media tools to choose from, you can’t possibly utilize them all, nor would it be effective, particularly if you’re a B2B company. I recently attended an interesting webinar on this precise topic: Social Media for Business Marketers.

It may surprise you what I learned…

• The mainstays of B2B social media:

1. Blogging
2. LinkedIn
3. YouTube

• Quora is gaining strength with B2B companies

• ROI of social media can be measured per ‘tweet’

• Direct-mail spending is expected to decline nearly 40% by 2014

Social media, as we’ve discussed in the past, is changing the face of marketing as we know it. Its overwhelming nature can cause improper use of tools meant to make our businesses better. Always remember, when it comes to social media, it helps to focus on what make sense for your business and practice proper ‘netiquette.’

What social media tools are you using? Are they effective?

There are just too many social media tools for anyone. Ever. Yesterday, we discussed taking a step outside of the digital distractions, but at the root of those distractions are the huge number of social media tools breathing down your neck…we all want to participate in everything we can. We all want to make sure that our business isn’t missing out on something that could possibly help – or worse, we don’t want to feel left out.

“At some big or small level, it’s nagging all of the people who are mired enough in social networking to bother following the latest developments. This isn’t everyone — despite the fact that institutions from your local radio station to your dry cleaner beg you to follow them on Twitter, there are whole swaths of people who just don’t give a flying friend request. But consider this: At one point in their centuries-old history, the Amish were not the technological relics they are today. Everyone else was churning and buggying right along with them. At some point, electricity was invented and the Amish had to reject it. Cars were invented and they took a pass. We’re good with the buggy, they said. Motor on without us. Now, in an onslaught of sites designed to aid connection, communication and cross-promotion, individual stopping points must be declared. When will you go 21st-century Amish?” – Washington Post

Social media tools are great when they are used right, but just as too much work can be overwhelming and cause nothing to get done, so can too many social tools. I recommend that a business use no more than the 4-6 most important, which usually include: blogging, twitter, facebook, linkedin, and a geo-location service. Over that is overkill – and not every business will even need these. Some other tools to consider are ning, myspace (yes, it can still work), youtube, posterous, and tumblr.

What tools do you use? What have you found to be the most useful?

I tried foursquare. Then I left foursquare. And after a lot of thought and cajoling by a few friends, I decided to go back to foursquare…

Why?

Because although I don’t feel it is quite there for the individual, it will be. Businesses will start getting it better and the functionality will improve (at least I hope!). I see huge potential with foursquare and I regret not joining twitter sooner, so I don’t want to make the same mistake here. The biggest concern I have is privacy, but with how much information is available already about me, I figure this can’t really much worse.

Since I’m trying it again, here are the things I am hoping to see:

1. Benefits for a first time checkin from the business. “It’s your first time here, enjoy 5% off”. Giving someone a benefit at their first trip will increase the likelihood they come back and you’ll have more repeat customers.
2. Reward people for bringing people. Multiple checkin’s for one person who brings in first timers with them? They’re doing marketing for you, reward them!
3. On the mobile app – links to the companies website, twitter or facebook to connect them in other ways. This will help the companies to build a stronger network.
4. Something between first time and mayorship…maybe rewarding people at different levels, 5 checkins, 3 in a week, etc…
5. The ability to checkin at a place without claiming location to everyone. For example, it would be great to be able to checkin at Starbucks and have the exact location know where you are but not send the exact location to your friends, just that you are at a Starbucks.

All in all, I am holding out to see results, and am willing to go with it for a little longer. What can it hurt?

What would you like to see improve with foursquare? Have you found benefits for the individual?

A couple weeks ago, I talked about how I manage my social networks, basically a run down of my daily/weekly activities. The most common response I received after posting the article to twitter was “I can’t imagine how you manage 3000+ followers. How do you do it?”

The answer? By hand and by Tweetdeck.

I manage everything on twitter by hand. No auto follow, no auto responders. I believe the only way to truly build a relationship is to know who you are following and why. To keep the influx of tweets (I have about 3000 followers as of today) under control, I swear by tweetdeck. It allows you to create groups , search columns and filter any column you have. Here is a quick screenshot of the 5 columns that are always at the front of my attention.

I kept it small to protect my direct messages and those in my groups. The columns from left to right are “all friends”, “rockstar tweeple”, “mentions”, “direct messages” and “#tworco”.

“All friends” is the tweets from all of my followers. This list updates faster than I can read them, so I will often use the filter to narrow down what I am looking for (graphic design, writing, advertisments, etc).

“Rockstar tweeple” are the people that I never want to miss their tweets. The people in this group change, as I try to keep the number under 100. So, if someones tweets cease to be as relevant, they get removed from the group. If I notice someone that I tend to reply to a lot, they get added to the group. If they get removed from rockstars, they still remain a follower so I can still see if they say something in the big flow of tweets, but they aren’t front and center.

“Mentions” are any tweets that someone includes @kirstenwright in them. These are the conversations that I am involved with at any given time. I make it a point to make sure that I respond to anyone who talks to me. It is the only way to really build a community.

“Direct messages” are the private messages sent to me. These always get responded to, but usually move to email if they need much more than one tweet to respond back/

The last column is “#tworco”. This is a search that I run for conversations going on using the hashtag #tworco (twitter orange county). These tweets are by anyone who wants to talk about things going on in Orange County or pertinent to Orange County people. It is not only a great place to find conversations, but new followers as well.

In addition to these, I have a few other searches running for my clients, and those fill up 5 other columns which I can scroll over an view.

A lot of work, a lot of time, but definitely the easiest way to keep it organized once you get it set up!

What do you use for twitter?