Previously, we talked about shortening links to make it possible to share information in 140 characters or less.  Today, let’s look at another tool that makes communicating on multiple platforms much easier.

There are several programs that allow you to monitor your social media accounts from one location but TweetDeck seems to be the one that is used most.  HootSuite and Seesmic are two others that I see used as well but TweetDeck seems to be the number one choice.  All of these are free to use so it costs you nothing to try them all if you want to.

Anyway, TweetDeck allows you to monitor and communicate on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and MySpace all from one screen.  You don’t have to have all of these web pages open and flip back and forth all day to stay on top of what’s happening with each account.  No matter what you are doing on your computer, TweetDeck will announce to you when something new has been posted to the accounts you use.  This gives you the opportunity to respond in real time if you so choose.

TweetDeck also allows you to schedule posts.  If there is something that needs to be shared at a specific time during the day, scheduling a post or tweet could be the answer.  We all get busy during the day and sometimes loose track of time.  With this, you can be sure the post will go out when it needs to.

So, if you are running yourself ragged trying to stay on top of multiple accounts, you need to check out one of these programs.  Hopefully it will make life easier for you.

Is there something specific you are struggling with, have questions about or need some help with, let us know.  We’d be glad to help.  Contact Us

Lately I have been spending time observing how various small businesses use social media.  It’s interesting to see how different companies tie the various social media platforms they use together.  It’s even more interesting to see that some companies do not tie them together at all.  Information that is shared on Facebook, for example, is not shared on Twitter.  This concept was baffling to me.  Why wouldn’t a company share their good news to all of their friends/followers?  I couldn’t come up with one good reason.

Then it occurred to me that these companies are very new to social media and have not yet learned about the tools available to them to make sharing information across at least some of the platforms much easier.  These tools are free and easy to use but can make life much easier.  

One company I observed shared information about articles written about them on Facebook but never shared them on Twitter.    The link address that they used to direct people to the articles was very long.  In fact, the link itself was probably 140 characters or more so it would be impossible to share that on Twitter.

This is when a tool called a link shortener comes in handy.  The one that we use is bit.ly.  It’s extremely easy to use and you can shorten any link with it.  For example, the address to this post is “http://www.organicbusinessstrategies.com/2010/03/22/online-tools-the-long-and-short-of-it.”  It’s a fairly long address but not as long as some.  The shortened address however is http://bit.ly/96lnvF.  This is a much more manageable address to share on any social media platform but especially on Twitter where the number of characters you have available is limited.

All you have to do is go to bit.ly and set up an account.  From there, all that is required is that you paste your long link in the space provided and then it automatically generates a short link for you.  Just that quick.  Also, if you are interested, you can see how many people click on that bit.ly link.

So, share your good news everywhere without worrying about character limitations.  Go to bit.ly right now and set up your account.

We’ll be sharing information about other tools that will help in the next couple of posts.  If there is something specific you need help with, feel free to leave a comment on this post or contact us.  We’d be glad to help.

Photo credit:  didibear