6 Twitter Analytics Tools to Improve Your Marketing

By Aaron Lee
Published December 26, 2012

Do you know if your Twitter marketing is working?
Monitoring and analyzing your Twitter projects can be challenging.
With the right metrics, you can improve and tailor your Twitter campaigns for better results.
Luckily, third-party Twitter tools provide these metrics, but there are MANY tools to choose from out there.
So here I’ll share some of the best Twitter analytics tools to help you improve your Twitter marketing.

#1: SocialBro: Explore Your Community

I consider SocialBro one of the top three most effective marketing tools for businesses.
SocialBro comes with excellent analytics that give great insights not only about your marketing campaign, but also about your Twitter account and followers.
Here are the analytics tools available with SocialBro.
Real-time Analytics
Real-time Analytics gives you details of the people who are active users and have tweeted in the last 10 minutes in real time. This helps you determine the specific hour of the day when people are active.
It’s a quick way to know when you should be tweeting. This is more relevant than depending on studies done by others, because it’s tailored specifically for you and your Twitter community.

SocialBro's Real-time Analytics allows you to find the number of active users at a particular time.

Insights About Your Account
You’re able to get insights about your own Twitter account, as well as your followers.
You can see:

• Number of followers you have
• Number of followers who have not followed you back
• Number of people you haven’t followed back
• In which language your followers are tweeting
• Time zone of your followers
• Where your followers are from
• Number of followers your followers have
• How frequently your followers go online
• Number of tweets your followers have sent

SocialBro analytics give you insights about your Twitter account.

You can use this additional data to improve your Twitter marketing. You’ll have better insights about your followers, which means you can tailor your Twitter content to be more relevant to your community.
For example, if you find that your followers are mostly from the Asia-Pacific region, you should design your campaign to broadcast according to their time zone.

By using SocialBro analytics, you'll be able to get insights about your followers such as their time zones.

#2: TweetReach: Determine How Far Your Tweets Travel

TweetReach helps you determine the reach of your tweets. All you have to do is insert the URL of your blog or any post and you’ll get information regarding the post.
Here’s an example of a search for one of my recent articles on Social Media Examiner.

TweetReach analyzes a URL and gives you detailed data of the URL.

This is the data you get:

• The tweet’s or URL’s reach
• How much exposure the URL received
• How many times it was retweeted on a particular day
• Top contributors who shared a particular URL
• User with the most retweets
• A list of 50 contributors of a particular URL

TweetReach's data of the top contributors or the most retweets.

With the last three data points, not only do you get insights about influential users who have shared your article, but you also get a list of the top 50 people who shared your post or tweet.

List of the top contributors who shared a particular URL or tweet.

You can do a variety of things with this information, such as add these influential users to a list and continue to build relationships with them, and thank them for sharing your tweets and more. TweetReach gives you the data you need to build a targeted network of people who share the same interests as you.
Alternatively, if you’re looking to build relationships with users or customers, you can do a little bit more research and use this tool to find relevant and targeted users.

#3: Buffer: Schedule Your Content

Not only is Buffer the best way to schedule your tweets without spending much time, but it also comes with a simple, straightforward analytics tool to help you determine how effective your tweets are.
Buffer provides you data such as:

• The number of clicks you receive
• How many people retweet your tweet
• How many people favorite your tweet
• A list of people who retweet and favorite your tweet with their username and the number of followers they have

Buffer's platform comes with built-in analytics that can help you improve your Twitter marketing.

This helps you to find out how effective your tweets are and the best time you should be tweeting. Additionally, you can quickly thank your followers from Buffer’s platform.

#4: TwentyFeet: Track Your Social Media Stats

TwentyFeet is a simple, straightforward tool to use. It doesn’t require any time beyond signing up to get some insights into your Twitter account. Once you have registered on the site, it provides you with metrics such as:

• Twitter account’s follower growth
• Amount of mentions you received
• Amount of retweets you received
• Amount of tweets in a day
• Retweets given in a day
• Replies given in a day

My favorite insight from this tool is the influence indicator, where you can get insights on the number of mentions and retweets you have in a particular day.

TwentyFeet's metrics on mentions and retweets received in a particular week.

As you can see here, the number of retweets I received on November 26 was higher compared to other days. With this data, it’s easy to look back and find out what I was doing on that particular day and try to repeat that success.

#5: Goo.gl URL Shortener

Every business needs to use at least one URL shortener service. There are Goo.gl, bit.ly and many more out there. Some social media management tools like HootSuite or Social Engage come with their own URL shorteners for you to track how effective your tweets are through their platform.
My favorite is Google’s URL shortener, Goo.gl. I love the simple design and how easy it is to use.
Goo.gl is a great tool that lets you track:

• The number of people who are clicking on your links
• The types of browser people use to read your article
• The countries where they’re from
• The device or platform they use (this gives you insights into the number of mobile or computer device users)

Goo.gl gives you metrics about people clicking your links.

This gives you insights not only about how effective your tweet is, but also about the demographics of your followers or people who are clicking your links.

#6: Klout: How You Influence the World

With regards to Twitter analytics, Klout helps you do two things. The first is improve your content to tweet more about things that your followers are interested in, and the second is maintain relationships with influential users.
Although the measurement of influence is not perfect, you can get some great insights that help you improve your marketing on Twitter. Klout provides a variety of data and insights including:
Klout Moments
This allows you to see your influential tweets in the last 90 days. Here you can get insights about the type and topics of tweets your followers are interested in.

Klout moments allow you to find tweets that generated "actions" by your followers.

Influencers
Who are the influential users who have spent time engaging with you? Klout gives you a list of users who have previously engaged with you arranged according to their Klout scores. This is one way to identify and target influential users who may add more value to your networking.

Klout Influencers will show you a list of influencers arranged according to their Klout scores.

Summary
There are many useful Twitter analytics tools out there, but these are some of my favorites. I’ve constantly used them to cover all of my marketing bases.
What do you think? Are there any other tools that you would like included in the list? Join the conversation below and let me hear your thoughts!

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(original article)
http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/6-twitter-analytics-tools/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=linkedin

Google+ Communities: What Marketers Need to Know

Google+ Communities: What Marketers Need to Know

By Mike Delgado
Published December 20, 2012

Have you heard about the new Google+ Communities?
Google+ Communities allow you to collaborate with others on topics you’re passionate about.
And it’s a great opportunity for marketers to network, engage and build the businesses they support.
This article will reveal everything you need to know about Google+ Communities and how to leverage them for business.

What Is a Google+ Community?

A Google+ Community is a place to meet and engage with people on topics you’re interested in. If you had trouble finding engagement on Google+ in the past, it’s time to take a second look and check out active communities on topics you care about.
Watch this video from Google+ to see how communities work...

Read more at:
http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/google-plus-communities/

Building a Powerful Brand

Overview

Keller's Brand Equity Model is also known as the Customer-Based Brand Equity (CBBE) Model. Kevin Lane Keller, a marketing professor at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College, developed the model and published it in his widely used textbook, "Strategic Brand Management."
The concept behind the Brand Equity Model is simple: in order to build a strong brand, you must shape how customers think and feel about your product. You have to build the right type of experiences around your brand, so that customers have specific, positive thoughts, feelings, beliefs, opinions, and perceptions about it.
When you have strong brand equity, your customers will buy more from you, they'll recommend you to other people, they're more loyal, and you're less likely to lose them to competitors.
The model, seen in Figure 1, illustrates the four steps that you need to follow to build strong brand equity.
Figure 1 – Keller's Brand Equity Model

The four steps of the pyramid represent four fundamental questions that your customers will ask – often subconsciously – about your brand.
The four steps contain six building blocks that must be in place for you to reach the top of the pyramid, and to develop a successful brand.

Applying the Model

Let's look at each step and building block in detail, and discuss how you can apply the framework and strengthen your brand..

http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/keller-brand-equity-model.htm#np

The Science of Sharing

 http://mashable.com/2011/10/25/social-consumer-sharing-infographic/

If you're buying a car, do you check Facebook? Or do you read up on Kelley Blue Book values and scour the company website for every spec, from horsepower to miles per gallon? What about music -- do you check Top 40 radio charts or scope out what your Facebook friends are actually listening to on Spotify?
Social media has infiltrated the purchasing funnel, helping consumers make informed decisions, from what to have for lunch to where to go on vacation. Depending on the decision, sometimes you turn to your social graph, and sometimes you turn to Google. So, as a brand marketer, you want to know what online channels you should be targeting in order to reach the perfect audience for your product.
But regardless of what kind of consumer you're trying to reach or what you're selling, your SEO better be top notch -- search is the most important influence on the web.
The infographic below, featuring data from M Booth and Beyond, analyzes the differences between high and low sharers and various purchasing decisions, helping brands to understand how should be targeting consumers.
What kind of consumer are you? Let us know in the comments below.

Do “Likes” On Your Facebook Business Page Really Help Your Business?

http://willsherwood.com/design-inspiration/40-excellent-facebook-business-pages-for-inspiration/

52 Cool Statistics About Social Media

http://willsherwood.com/business-education/52-cool-statistics-about-social-media/

December 11, 2012 

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’re aware that social media has continued to gain momentum as a bona-fide communications and business resource. And given that the new year is almost upon us, our author, Danny Brown, thought it might be fun to have a cool statistic for every week of the year.
Here are ten statistics each for the five best-known social media outlets – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and blogging – with two more bonus facts thrown in just for fun. (For a total of one statistic per week for a year).
If you enjoy this post, you might also like to check out these others:
15 Ways You Can Use Social Media to Boost Business
40 Excellent Facebook Business Pages for Inspiration
Advanced LinkedIn Techniques for Getting More Clients

Facebook

1. The average Facebook user has 130 friends.
2. More than 25 billion pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photo albums, etc.) is shared each month.
3. Over 300,000 users helped translate the site through the translations application.
4. More than 150 million people engage with Facebook on external websites every month.
5. Two-thirds of comScore’s U.S. Top 100 websites and half of comScore’s Global Top 100 websites have integrated with Facebook.
6. There are more than 600 million active users currently accessing Facebook through their mobile devices.
7. People that access Facebook via mobile are twice as active than non-mobile users (think about that when designing your Facebook page).
8. The average Facebook user is connected to 60 pages, groups and events.
9. People spend over 500 billion minutes per month on Facebook.
10. There are more than 1 million entrepreneurs and developers from 180 countries on Facebook.
Statistics from Facebook press office.

LinkedIn

11. LinkedIn is the oldest of the four sites in this post, having been created on May 5 2003.
12. There are more than 187 million users worldwide.
13. Two new members join LinkedIn every second.
14. Members of LinkedIn come from more than 200 countries from every continent.
15. LinkedIn is available in nineteen native languages.
16. Oracle’s Chief Financial Officer, Jeff Epstein, was headhunted for the position via his LinkedIn profile.
17. 80% of companies use LinkedIn as a recruitment tool.
18. LinkedIn receives almost 12 million unique visitors per day.
19. Executives from all Fortune 500 companies are on LinkedIn.
20. Recruiters account for 1-in-20 LinkedIn profiles.
Statistics from LinkedIn press centre and SysComm International.

Twitter

21. Twitter’s web platform only accounts for a quarter of its users – 75% use third-party apps.
22. Twitter gets more that 11 new users every second.
23. There are currently 465 million users of Twitter’s services.
24. Twitter receives 180 million unique visits each month.
25. There are more than 600 million searches on Twitter every day.
26. Twitter started as a simple SMS-text service.
27. Over 60% of Twitter use is outside the U.S.
28. There are more than 50,000 third-party apps for Twitter.
29. Twitter has donated access to all of its tweets to the Library of Congress for research and preservation.
30. More than a third of users access Twitter via their mobile phone.
Statistics from Twitter and the Chirp Conference.

YouTube

31. Over 800 million people around the world use YouTube each month.
32. 500 years of YouTube video are watched on Facebook every single day.
33. YouTube receives more than 4 billion views per day, 600 million from mobile devices.
34. Every minute, 72 hours of video is uploaded to YouTube.
35. The U.S. accounts for 70% of YouTube users.
36. Over half of YouTube’s users are under 20 years old.
37. You would need to live for around 2,000 years to watch all the videos currently on YouTube.
38. YouTube is available in 19 countries and 12 languages.
39. Music videos account for 20% of uploads.
40. YouTube uses the same amount of bandwidth as the entire Internet used in 2000.
Statistics from YouTube press center.

Blogging

41. 77% of Internet users read blogs.
42. There are currently 1.6 million blogs listed on the blog directory Technorati.
43. 60% of bloggers are between the ages 25-44.
44. One in five bloggers update their blogs daily.
45. About two thirds of bloggers are male.
46. Corporate blogging accounts for 14% of blogs.
47. 15% of bloggers spend 10 hours a week blogging.
48. More than half of all bloggers are married and/or parents.
49. More than 50% of bloggers have more than one blog.
50. Bloggers use an average of five different social sites to drive traffic to their blog.
Statistics from Technorati’s State of the Blogosphere 2011.

Bonus Facts

51. 90% of Internet users know at least one social network.
52. The average social user has 195 friends.
Statistics from Online Media Gazette.
So there you have it – a fact for every week of the year, just in case you need it for your next presentation, or if you want to let folks know why social media isn’t so dorky after all.
Original Source
This article is reproduced here thanks to Danny Brown. It has been updated and presented here for your education, inspiration and enjoyment by:

Non-Profit Social Media Presentation

http://www.slideshare.net/NPOchick/tweet-talk#btnNext

Social Media & Supply Chains

Social media monitoring can be used to predict when product surges may occur

Some companies, such as electrical supplier RS Components, monitor search trends on their website to assess whether a certain type of component is beginning to become more popular with small orders - normally a sign that engineers may be working on prototypes which could lead to a big order down the line.
Other firms, particularly in fashion, monitor social networks to gain a handle on what is creating buzz - gaining early insight on products that may be about to face the Kate Middleton-effect.



http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-20668700

McDonald's Hashtag commercial

http://mashable.com/2012/12/03/mcdonalds-tv-ad-twitter-hashtag

Online Hidden Costs - Trusting the 'Cloud'

An online store can only be as successful as the e-commerce platform that is running it, which is why it is vital for merchants to map out their business’s needs, goals and budget before they make a commitment to a solution.

But despite this preparation, a new Demandware study reveals that 43 percent of all e-commerce platforms end up having a higher total cost of ownership (TCO) than predicted. In fact, the “Understanding TCO When Evaluating E-Commerce Solutions” study, which was conducted by Forrester Consulting, found that online retailers spend an average of 7 percent of their total online revenue to support their e-commerce platforms, however, 74 percent of merchants don’t believe that their current solutions will scale to support their planned growth.

Hidden Costs and Limitations

Merchants using homegrown or a licensed on-premise e-commerce platform may end up paying a higher TCO because they usually need to purchase additional licenses to grow their business. For example, 67 percent of retailers using a licensed on-premise solution report that they are contractually obligated to acquire additional licenses when reaching a certain threshold of online traffic, while 78 percent of online retailers report that their vendor contract restricts them from using the technology into new markets. This means that many e-commerce platforms are restricting online stores' growth initiatives, such as international and multichannel expansion.

Not only is the TCO for many e-commerce platforms higher than expected, but one of the study's most surprising metrics reveals that due to the complexities associated with upgrading an e-commerce platform, 39 percent of retailers only upgrade their platform to the latest version once every two to three years. This could be attributed to the long amount of time that it typically takes to complete an upgrade, but regardless, it means that these retailers risk falling behind their competitors by not staying up-to-date with basic functionality and usability features.

The Cloud is Gaining Trust

The complexities and lack of support of current e-commerce platforms has led 25 percent of retailers to plan on re-platformming within the next two years, and a further 29 percent will re-platform within four years. According to the report, these merchants will seek a platform that supports their business’s multichannel and global expansion goals, as well as one that caters to digitally connected consumers. Although 81 percent of online retailers currently use a homegrown or licensed on-premise e-commerce solution, some retailers are looking to the cloud for better performance despite the uncertainties that still surround cloud-based solutions.
“In the first generation of e-commerce, when CIOs had to build everything from scratch, retailers took on major new costs to develop and operate platforms, which over time became assumed – and sometimes forgotten – in the P&L (profits and loss),” said Jamus Driscoll, senior VP of marketing for Demandware. “We believe the study clearly shows that as retailers move forward into a new digital world, they also need to pause and challenge yesterday’s assumptions regarding the costs of ecommerce. It’s time to think differently.” 
Cloud-based platforms can be beneficial because they tend to offer upgrades that are easy to implement and also don’t restrain growth possibilities. While 44 percent of the survey respondents state that they still perceive cloud-based solutions as lacking maturity, 41 percent are also now including cloud solutions in their selection process.

Regardless of a merchant's preference for cloud or homegrown solutions, they should remember that selecting an e-commerce platform is a long-term decision. This means that they need to take hidden costs, features and functionality into consideration when researching solutions. And most importantly, merchants should choose a platform that has the ability to grow with their online business.



http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/2012/11/26/is-it-time-to-take-e-commerce-to-the-cloud.aspx?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter

Facebook Business Inspiration

http://willsherwood.com/social-media-2/40-excellent-facebook-business-pages-for-inspiration/

15 Ways You Can Use Social Media to Boost Business

http://willsherwood.com/website-design-in-santa-clarita-ca/15-ways-you-can-use-social-media-to-boost-business/

Social media can be a great way to connect with new people, including potential clients. Having a presence on one of the highly trafficked social-media platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn can also help your own website rank better in search results and help you get found by prospects.
But here’s the problem: You’re not supposed to “sell” on social media. It’s supposed to be mostly a place to hang out and socialize.
As a result, it takes a little finesse to use social media for prospecting. Messages like “Got any design work for me?” tend to get you unfollowed, disconnected and/or blocked, depending on the platform.
Also, each social-media platform has its own flavor and etiquette. It’s hard to make time to figure them all out and use your time on them productively…without becoming distracted and ending up playing Mafia Wars or forwarding funny YouTube video links. But if you focus on specific marketing and network-building activities, social media can be well worth your time investment.
If you think it’s all a waste of time, let me report that I’ve gotten several high-caliber clients off LinkedIn and Twitter that booked tens of thousands of dollars of work with me in the past couple of years. Full disclosure: The collection of tips below represent author Carol Tice’s personal take on what she’s seeing out there that’s really working for business people in social media.
Besides having social buttons on your own blog and hoping to heck someone retweets your stuff and a prospect sees it, how can social media help you find clients?
If you’ve only got a sec, the short version is: Connect with and then help others, and they will help you.
Want more? Here are 15 specific social-media marketing techniques you can use:

Blogging

1. Guest post on big blogs. This is the mother of all social-media promotion strategies. You want to appear on the most prominent, highly trafficked blogs you can.This puts you in front of millions of viewers and can get you exposure across many social-media platforms…which greatly ups your odds that a prospect might notice you.

If you follow the guidelines, you’d be surprised at the popular blogs you could guest for, even if your own blog is brand new.

If you follow the guidelines, you’d be surprised at the popular blogs you could guest for, even if your own blog is brand new. Any site that posts its guidelines is wide open.
Also, just the fact that you’ve got it together to write for a big blog — even if it was a free guest post — impresses many prospects. I know quite a few writers who get all their clients from their guest-post exposure, and for a while I got a steady stream of small-business clients from one major blog I contributed to regularly.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is like no other social-media channel in that it is focused on business, rather than chatting about what happened on The Walking Dead this week or whatever. You can do more proactive marketing of your business here, without pissing people off, than on any other platform.
If you only get into one form of social media, make it this one. My LinkedIn tips:
2. Set it up to get found. Many quality companies use LinkedIn like a phone book, meaning they do searches within LinkedIn for services they need. That’s why Job One on here is to completely fill out your bio and stuff it with keywords.
For instance, where most people’s top bio line has one or two identifying words, my LinkedIn profile says, “Freelance writer, copywriter, journalist, blogger, and writing mentor” — all key search terms prospects can now use to find me on LI. You can also up your search juice on here by listing your skills and getting recommendations from your clients.
3. Status updates. Another thrill of LinkedIn is nobody expects you to spend hours a week on here. If you come on once a week and update your status and maybe comment in a couple groups (more on that later), you’re good.
One way I use my status to remind people I’m a freelance writer — without overtly begging for work — is to post about needs I have for sources. “Looking for a company that recently got business interruption insurance to interview for an upcoming article,” was one recent update, for instance.
You can also post about collaboration partners you’re looking for, or about finishing a recent project, or ask for help connecting with a prospect you’d like to meet. People love to help out with that last one.
4. Who’s Viewed My Profile. A cool feature of LinkedIn is that one sidebar widget shows who has been looking at your profile. If you’re on the free level some of this information is hidden, but not all. I’ve used Who’s Viewed My Profile to identify prospects I then reached out to on LinkedIn’s internal email system known as InMail, with a quick message like this:

Subject line: Were you looking for a writer?
Hi — I saw you were checking out my profile. If you’re looking for a writer, I have experience in [your industry]. Happy to send you some samples or hear more about your needs.
Let me know if I can help!
[Signature]

By the way, that ‘experience’ might be that you once worked in a bank and it’s a financial-services company. You’ll be surprised how little knowledge will set you apart and make you seem like an expert to a client.
Besides InMailing people who’ve been viewing your profile, you can take InMail further:
5. Direct prospecting via InMail. If you pay for premium membership, you can send all the InMails you want monthly, even to people you aren’t connected to and who haven’t viewed your profile. This allows you to simply research companies you wish to work with, find likely decision-makers, and pitch them right inside LinkedIn.
LinkedIn reports InMail gets a 30 percent response rate — which in the world of direct mail is ah-mazing. There’s a novelty factor with this form of communication right now, so take advantage of it. (Even at the free level, you can send three InMails a month.)
6. Check the full-time job ads. LinkedIn’s job ads are a gold mine, because the companies have to pay to place them on the platform. That immediately qualifies this as a quality prospect group.
It often takes companies many months to replace a full-time designer, writer, or photographer. Meanwhile, they need to freelance out the work left by the departing creative person. They may well also have ongoing freelance needs — and if they like you, they’ll keep using you after that staff hire is made.
7. Job leads within groups. LinkedIn has scads of interest groups that you can join. Some groups have job boards, and sometimes referrals will also come up in the course of a discussion. Some groups such as Writeful Share for freelance writers are entirely dedicated to sharing job leads.

Twitter

I know what you’re thinking: “It’s only 140 characters! How can I possibly pitch a prospect on here?”
While it’s hard to make an elaborate pitch on Twitter, you can discover and get to know editors and marketing managers on here through keyword searches, following relevant industry hashtags, and by starting to build relationships. (If you’re looking for editors or journalists you might know who could refer you, try MuckRack.) If something develops, you can always take it further on email or the phone later to land the actual gig.
Here’s how I’ve used Twitter to connect with editors:
8. Find and follow prospects. Once you’ve found a possible client, follow them. Retweet and respond to their stuff (but not contantly or in a stalker-ish way).
Go comment on their blog, if they have one. This is step one in preparing to ask them a work-related question.
9. Ask easy questions. Once you think they may have a dim sense who you are, ask a question that is easy for them to answer, such as “Are you the right editor to pitch an X topic story for X magazine?” or “Are you the marketing manager who works with freelancers at X company?”

Twitter has a freewheeling, open-minded culture where people from all strata of success mix and mingle easily.

Twitter has a freewheeling, open-minded culture where people from all strata of success mix and mingle easily. You might get a response on here where a formal query letter or emailed letter of introduction might be ignored.
10. Find collaborators. Even better than trolling for prospects, Twitter is a great place to find partners for projects. Follow others in related niches and you might find a graphic designer for your novel, or a writer for your photographer’s website. Agree to recommend and refer each other clients, and you’ve just grown your marketing team.

Facebook

Facebook is notoriously social and tough to do business on if you’re not a major corporation with a big ad budget…but there are a couple of useful ways to find clients through this platform:

11. Do prospect research. If you have a particular type of business you frequently target as a client, you can use Facebook to search for businesses of that type. Check out their Facebook presence and see if it’s looking pro. From there, take a look at their website. Spotting substandard online marketing gives you an easy angle for pitching companies that they need your services.
12. Have your own business page. Most freelancers don’t have a Facebook business page — which means you can stand out by being the only freelancer in town that has one. (For extra marketing boost, offer some authority-building free product full of links to your website to visitors who ‘like’ your page.)
For instance, I did a quick search for “Freelance graphic designer” on Facebook recently, and discovered the most popular site — the top result — has only 3,500 fans. Four of the top sites are based in Third World countries.
Put up a page in this niche and it’s going to be pretty easy to start ranking well and getting found on searches inside Facebook. And if you’re a freelancer who’d like to manage social media or create Facebook pages for clients, creating your own page is mandatory.

YouTube

YouTube is a great place to put up a visual portfolio or some short how-to videos that might help your prospects.

13. Build authority with videos. This one’s tough for writers, but if you’re a visual artist of any kind, YouTube is a great place to put up a visual portfolio or some short how-to videos that might help your prospects. Offer a few business writing or newsletter design tips, with an offer of help if they need it.
Remember, this is the third most-popular site on the Internet. It can pay to have a presence here.

Google+

14. Go friend-surfing. Giving full credit, I learned this technique for identifying prospects on Google+ from Chris Brogan. As you start adding people to your circles, you should then go check out who is in their circles.
If you find interesting prospects, start commenting on and sharing their stuff. Then if they check you out, they’ll see you have a friend in common and you’ll seem like less of a stalker. You can also identify people by topics of interest through the site Find People on Plus.

Your local social-media platform

15. Market to local prospects. All the action isn’t on the giant, brand-name social media platforms. In many cities and towns, there are exclusively local social-media platforms that are the go-to grapevine for what’s happening — and for where to shop for products and services. Since most new freelancers start with local clients, this can be a great place to get started in social media.
Maybe it’s a Yahoo! or BigTent group, or even a simple email listserv. But whatever form it takes, local chat boards are worth checking out.
On the local community chat board I belong to in my small town, it is forbidden to say anything negative about a local company on the board. No one can trash you! It’s a dream environment for freelance marketing, and there’s even a channel expressly for promoting your business — and one for patrons to rave about you.
I see freelancers of all stripes on my local list make special offers, donate their services to charities, and generally put their name around town. Winning strategies here also include offering a referral bonus. Leverage your local friends and neighbors who like you personally. They’ll probably be happy to help you out.
It takes a little sleuthing to discover your local social-media hub, but it can be well worth the time. Hint: Call your local Chamber of Commerce or ask other local solopreneurs.
This article is reproduced here thanks to Carol Tice of Freelance Switch. It is presented here for your education, inspiration and enjoyment by:

Sociology professor uses social media to converse with Israeli-Palestinian citizens

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdemljgs2aw&feature=em-unknown

Top blogging Tools loved by the Pros

http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/22-top-blogging-tools/

FetchApp Test with PayPal

Insanity of Social Media Chart

http://www.businessinsider.com/social-media-marketing-landscape-complicated-2012-5?utm_source=twbutton&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=advertising