Keep social media programs on track

With any sort of brand building effort — be it social media, PR advertising or trade shows — managing all the details from start to finish can be daunting and time consuming. Many times, the slightest error can undermine a good campaign, as seen in this rather embarrassing billboard:

While it seems that such errors are, at times, unavoidable, in the social media world at least a large assortment of tools have emerged to help your campaigns go more smoothly. You can find tools  to help you create, execute and track your brand-building efforts.  When it comes to selecting social media tools it’s a good strategy to embrace tools that span a number of different social media channels so you can roll out integrated, consistent campaigns.

Over at TopRank, an online marketing blog, Lee Odden offers up a list of 22 tools for social media marketing management. Some are completely free while others offer a limited set of services on a trial basis with pay models as you tap more of the tool’s capabilities. I’ve used a few of the services on the list and found them to be beneficial.   HootSuite, for example, integrates social media activity like Twitter and Facebook posts and feeds into a common dashboard with an assortment of charts and graphs.  Many of the tools go much deeper and will you help set up and manage full-blown campaigns.

Tools alone can’t save you from embarrassing or costly mistakes, however.  I’m sure we’ve all had our share. In my case, I’ve learned the hard way (although not as bad as that billboard) to never underestimate the power of typos. Good  editors in particular are worth every dime!

Author: Brian Edwards

Brian Edwards is a talented business and technology communications expert with more than 25 years of experience in high-tech public relations and marketing.