New Twitter App: Bufferapp.com

Meet my new boyfriend, Buffer. Once you get to know him, you will love him too. I promise.

This is from the Buffer website:

Buffer makes your life easier with a smarter way to schedule tweets. Work out all your tweets at one point in time during the day. Then fill up your Buffer with your tweets and Buffer schedules them for you. Simply keep that Buffer topped up and you will then be tweeting consistently all day round, all week long.

The basic account is free which allows you to have up to 10 tweets in your buffer to a maximum of 10 tweets per day. It also has an easy to understand analytic tab to see when you get the most reads, retweets and click throughs.

I have increased my number of Twitter followers about 7% since meeting Buffer a little over a week ago. I have mine set for three each day with one set for 1:30 a.m., 9:30 a.m. and another at 6:30 p.m. I get the most response to the 1:30 a.m. tweets. Who would have thought that?

I'm anxious to hear if someone else loves Buffer as much as I do. Let me know.

How to Keep Up With it All

I'm feeling just a little overwhelmed at the moment. There is so much technology being thrown at us on a daily basis that I cannot seem to ever get caught up. It seems that just as I grasp the concept of one little small piece of the pie, someone cuts another piece which throws everything off balance.

Some things that I do to try to keep up:

Read White Papers/Articles: Print or put them on an iPad or tablet so that I can read them in my downtime (not that I really have any of that). Now that I have access to a tablet, I will probably stop printing and killing trees but I still find it useful to have that piece of paper and a yellow highlighter.

Tech Sites: I follow a lot of techies on Facebook and Twitter. Let them keep up with it. I just want to be the sponge to absorb their knowledge.

Weed Out the Static: Figure out what's important to me, my business and my clients' businesses. I'm sure it's important but is it important right now? I saw an article this morning on mistakes that small businesses make when designing their websites. I have at least four clients who are working on their websites right now! They needed that information, not information on something new with Google Adwords -- at least not right now.

What are ways you utilize to keep up with this ever-changing techno world we live in today?

Notes from the Science of Timing Webinar I Attended This Week

Earlier this week, I was able to hear the audio portion of a webinar entitled "The Science of Timing" with Dan Zarrella who calls himself a Social Media Scientist. He's full of numbers, formulas, hard facts and a few theories. Sounds like a scientist to me. He talked a lot about contra-competitive timing for marketing. In other words, sending updates when others are not sending updates.

Here are a few of my notes. All times in notes are EST.
 

Fast facts

• More men are on social media sites in the evening.
• It is okay to tie your blog, Twitter and Facebook accounts together as long as you are not repeating everything. Add some original content to each outlet.
• Marketing events on Twitter should start happening two weeks out.

Twitter

• Most re-tweets happen during the day.
• If you post something to Twitter late in the day (2-5pm), it will be more likely to be re-tweeted. Also posts made late in the week have a better chance of being re-tweeted.
• Click-thru rates are stable throughout the week, including weekends. Monday and Thursday have the lowest click-thru rates.
• Click-thrus spike between 11am and 5pm.
• Do not fear that you are sending too many tweets. Tweet more!
• Tweet links to other sites more often than to your own site.
• Tool: tweetwhen.com to analyze your retweets

Facebook

• Don’t crowd your content.
• More articles are shared on Facebook on the weekends.
• 12am – 3am are the better times for Facebook postings.
• Post links to your site more often than other sites.
• Facebook is better for direct marketing.
• There is very little difference for marketing on Facebook between B2B and B2C.

Email

• Emails are read mostly in the mornings.
• Most emails are opened 5am – 8am
• Abuse/spam reports are highest on weekends.
• Open rates are higher on the weekends.
• Higher click-thru rates on weekends because of contra-competitive timing.
• Frequency – Know your audience.
• If you are sending quality, informative emails, once a week is good.
• Put the unsubscribe button right at the top of the page. Do not be afraid of unsubscribers. They help you keep your list up-to-date. Why would you want to market to someone who doesn’t care about your product/company?
• Send more emails! The more emails you send the lower your unsubscribe rates.

Blogs

• Most blogs are read in the morning between 10-11am
• Blogs have the most page views on Mondays, least amount of views on the weekends.
• More blogs are shared on Facebook on the weekends.
• More comments to blogs are made on the weekends.
• If you are blogging so others will share a link to your blog, then you should publish on Monday and Thursday.
• Blogs posted between 6-7am get the most links.
• The more frequently you blog, the better your stats

Sharing Client Videos

We help our clients create videos to showcase their products and services. If you are not including video in your blogs, email campaigns and social media, you are missing out! You can easily create videos from photos.

How are you utilizing video in 2011?

Main Event Productions LLC

Liberty Party Rental

Visual Elements

Video - #1 Item to Include in Your Social Media Plan in 2011

I have been preaching for some time now that 2011 is the "Year of the Video" in social media. I thought it was high time to practice what I preach.

When you watch this, you will laugh and all that jazz but the message is to just do it. My flipcam and I are going to get a workout over the next few months and cannot wait to show you what we have learned. One of these days we will go back to this first video and laugh (even more than we are now) at how professional we/I have become.

In the meantime, think about ways you can use video to enhance your social media plan in 2011. Please share with the entire class.

Stuff We Do

When I say that we assist companies and individuals with their social media efforts, I usually get a stare that says "I don't get it" or a nod of the head and "that's nice." Well, it is nice but I'm sure they fully understand what we do.

At the urging of a client, I came up with the following that we have added to our monthly electronic newsletter, as well as to our website.

Stuff we do: Newsletters | Social Media Strategies | Electronic Communications | Social Media Set-Up and Maintenance | Photos-to-Video | Branding | Promotions | Social Media Research | Consulting | Target Marketing | Even More Stuff We Haven't Thought of Yet

You can check out our website to see samples of our work. If you see something you like, complete our inquiry form and give us a call. We love to hear from new people!

It's Been a Busy Month!

Since the Recap of 2010 blog post, we have added more clients! We would like to welcome the following companies to NetConnect Group:

Main Event Productions LLC - The main event family of companies includes The Bake Shoppe, A Catered Affair, Fantastic Flipbooks, Events @ 1418 and Legacy Farms. The first area we will focus on is branding and pulling all of these companies into one brand, Main Event Productions. Kellie Bryson is a great marketer and has a greater understanding of social media than any other client. It's going to be a fun ride.

Taylor Entertainment - Working with Robert Taylor to develop his Facebook page is going to be a blast. I have worked him in the event planning world where he produced some casino parties and a game show that has been the talk of that group's annual convention for years. Be sure to check out his Facebook page for photos of his interactive entertainment options, especially the crab races!

Event Logistics, Inc. - I started talking to this company back in the summer of 2010 and they just weren't ready to even think about their social media presence but, six months later, here we are -- ready to start this ball rolling. In addition to their outstanding meeting planning division, they also manage a venue on the floor above their offices that I am also going to be working with.

One Eleven - Nashville's Premier Rooftop Event Venue is one of Nashville's secret gems. Located above Big River Restaurant, this venue provides a sideline seat to all of the action that is happening at Riverfront Park and on Second Avenue.

Isn't it time you added your company to this list?