Social Media a waste of time?

 

Are companies waisting their time with socila media profiles?

 

 

Absolutely  not!

Social media profiles do infact enhance the communication between a company and the public. 

Social media increase your chances of finding talented employees in your industry by offering access to approximately 1.5 billion users who are Internet-literate, well-networked and often have established expert status. You save money by posting vacancies on social media, which is cheaper than traditional advertising. In addition, the targeting options offered by platforms such as LinkedIn and Facebook enable you to reach jobseekers with specific experience and interests.

Social media activities take place in real time with little or no delay between receiving information and disseminating it, your company can provide rapid social media responses to customers and gain an advantage over competitors who don’t respond as quickly.

Monitoring and measuring your brand via social media enables you to track what your customers are saying online about your company and products. In addition, social media give you the opportunity to engage with your customers in a public forum, create conversations and resolve problems.

Using social media to complement traditional or online marketing and advertising is an accepted way to save costs, reach a targeted audience and generate sales leads. Pay-per-click advertising, or PPC, charges the advertiser only when a user clicks on the advertisement. This makes it more effective and less costly than traditional advertising. In addition, social media offers the potential for an advertisement or blog post to spread virally from user to user, which happens when users share your posts with their own networks.

So whoever says that social media is a waste of time...they must think again.

For more info go to: http://yourbusiness.azcentral.com/competitive-advantage-social-media-8288.html


Hoostsuite VS Tweetdeck: Which one is berrter? You decide!

Hootsuite VS Tweetdeck

 

 

 

 Which one is better?

 

TweetDeck is a social media dashboard application for management of Twitter and Facebook accounts. Like other Twitter applications it interfaces with the Twitter API to allow users to send and receive tweets and view profiles. It was the most popular Twitter application with a 23% market share as of June 2009, following only the official Twitter website with 45.7% share for posting new status updates. It is compatible with several operating systems including Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Android, iPhone, iPad, Chrome OS, Linux, and FreeBSD.

HootSuite on the other hand is a social media management system for businesses and organizations to collaboratively execute campaigns across multiple social networks from one secure, web-based dashboard. Launch marketing campaigns, identify and grow audience, and distribute targeted messages using HootSuite’s unique social media dashboard.  Key social network integrations include Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+ Pages, plus a suite of social content apps for YouTube, Instagram, Tumblr and more.

Here are some advantages of the two services:

HootSuite feature advantages:

• ability to schedule tweets
• updates faster
• provides robust statistics
• allows for the incorporation of additional social networks
• allows more multiple accounts to be controlled by multiple users

TweetDeck feature advantages:

• photo tweeting
• Twitter interface
• user feature

Neutral features include:

• user interface
• URL shorteners.

Here’s a quick comparison of the two services.

Layout

Both TweetDeck and HootSuite have similar layouts. They use dashboards with separate columns for you to organize your streams, @mentions, messages, tracked hashtags and so on. You can add as many columns as you want to either platform and scroll from side to side to view all of them.

 
TweetDeck: TweetDeck has a neat little pop-up box that appears in top right corner of your screen every time an update is posted. The one thing that irks me about TweetDeck’s layout is the white text on black background. In older versions, there used to be an option to choose different layouts, but since it was acquired by Twitter, many of those options were taken away. The button to post triggers a pop-up box in the middle of the screen (much like Twitter via web) along with all the social profiles connected to TweetDeck so you can post to multiple profiles.

 HootSuite: HootSuite has color themes you can choose for your dashboard if you don’t like the light text on a dark background. You should also notice a pretty extensive menu to the left side when you roll your mouse over any of the icons. That’s where you can adjust your settings, get your analytics and much more. Unlike TweetDeck, HootSuite does not offer a pop-up box in the corner of your screen for live updates. The post box is located at the top of the screen, along with a section directly beside it to choose the profiles you want to update.

 Social Profile Integration

There’s a big difference between what TweetDeck and HootSuite can handle in terms of social profile integration. TweetDeck is quite limited, but HootSuite offers a lot more options.

 TweetDeck: TweetDeck will only connect to Twitter profiles, Facebook profiles or Facebook pages. That’s it. It used to include other social networks, but those were taken away after Twitter acquired it and updated it. You can connect an unlimited number of Twitter or Facebook accounts, but if you also want to update Google+, Tumblr, Foursquare, WordPress or anything else, you won’t be able to do it with TweetDeck.

HootSuite: For updating accounts other than Facebook and Twitter, HootSuite is a better option. HootSuite can be integrated with Facebook profiles/pages/groups, Twitter, Google+ pages, LinkedIn profiles/groups/companies, etc .HootSuite also has an extensive App Directory you can use to connect to eve more profiles like YouTube, Tumblr, Flickr, Instagram and so many more. Although HootSuite can connect to many more social networks than TweetDeck can, a free account with HootSuite will only allow you to have up to five social profiles.

Social Management Features

Although updating your social profiles from one convenient place is handy, it’s always nice to get access to some extra stuff to make updating easier and understanding your social presence better. Here are some additional features TweetDeck and HootSuite offer.

 TweetDeck: If you press the little tool icon in the upper right corner of your dashboard and click “Settings,” you’ll see all the extra things you can do with TweetDeck. It’s definitely quite limited. You can add or remove accounts, choose your link shortener or picture sharing platform, and create filters to help clean up your stream from unwanted topics. That’s about all you can do with TweetDeck.

HootSuite: HootSuite is the clear winner here when it comes to extra features. All you have to do is explore the menu of the left side to figure that out. You can get a full analytical report of your social interaction, create and manage assignments with other part of your team, participate in conversations with team members directly through HootSuite and so much more. When you upgrade to a Pro or Enterprise account, you get even more.

TweetDeck or HootSuite: Which One?

If you’re a Twitter or Facebook power user looking for a free option to help make updating and interacting easier, TweetDeck is a great option. However, if you want more profiles to work with or need a social management service to use for business purposes, you may be better off with HootSuite.

 For more info go to http://webtrends.about.com/od/Social-Web-Tools/a/Tweetdeck-Vs-Hootsuite.htm

 



I write what i like!

 

The freedom of writing...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The smell of fresh ink on crisp white paper soothes my senses after a hard day at work.

Captivating sentences play images on my mind like scenes of my old time favourite movie...HOW I WISH I WAS THERE!!!

 

As i face the window and feel the cool breeze linger through my chocolate skin on a cold winters night, i begin to reveal all the thoughts that portrayed my imagination after a long day filled with vague but yet heartfelt conversations at the office.

 

So alone  i feel as i have no one to share such misery and confusion arrayed into a little locket deep into my heart. HOW I WISH HE WAS HERE......to make it all go away.

 

Suddenly, a rush of emotion  captures the essence of my broken heart while letters, words, sentences suddenly slithers through my fingers and within a moment, a slight pause i began to weep. Even harder knowing there's no one to wipe of these sentimental droplets flowing gracefully down my cheeks.

 

......silence was all it took to regain my existence. From that moment on i felt the freedom of expressing my voyage to a world of peace and tranquillity. That is the power of WRITING!

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



ADAPT or DIE!!!

How hard it is adapting to change in the workplace!!!

In today’s fast-paced and highly competitive working environment, it is crucial for organizations to be flexible enough to change, in order to remain popular, profitable and prominent.

Change management has always been an issue of debate amongst human beings in general and the main question is how can employers create suitable conditions for a successful change process? And what can employees do to get through it?

 

As our personal lives change as people get older, so do our jobs, careers and organizations. However, human beings, by nature, do tend to resent change and resist strongly to it. The whole process can be very distressing to employees and negative emotions can come out of it in an inappropriate manner, this is why it is always advisable to recognise the different stages of change and anticipate its impact in order to take preventive measures.

According to Bayt.com, there are 5 different stages of change. Namely:

 

1.  Denial: Change has been announced. Employees fight it and  strive to defend their status-quo at this stage.

 

2. Anger: Employees realise they can not possibly avoid the new occurring organisational change. Insecurity,   lack of self esteem and chaos are the main highlights of this stage.

 

3. Dejection: By this stage, employees have realised they can not have the old ways back and they have no other choice but to let go of them. The anger is now translated into remorse and despair.

 

4.  Acceptance: This happens when employees are finally acknowledging the fact that this change is bound to happen. They are now starting to reflect on the new ways and removing old hurdles from their way.

 

5.  Learning & Development: This takes place when employees finally realise that this change could actually improve their upcoming prospects and decide to focus their efforts in absorbing it and moving forward.

Here are some tips to help deal with change at the workplace

• Stay alert at the workplace: know what is happening around you. When you come across clues that hint change is on the way, acknowledge them!
• Stay optimistic: Keep a positive attitude and don’t let yourself drown in uncertainty. Involve yourself in the new process; locate yourself properly in the new scenario. Adjust!
• Maintain open communication channels: Don’t lay back and expect things to pass you by smoothly. You need to get acquainted with the occurring changes. Seek more details from your management and peers to form an accurate understanding of the matter. Be transparent and honest about your fears: dealing with the unknown is often resented and daunting. Make the picture as clear as you can.
• Assess yourself: Change is a time when one’s confidence about one’s skills and capabilities gets shaky. Recognise your strengths and where you could bring them into play. At the same time, stay aware of your developmental areas and work on improving those.

“You can’t get to the top of Everest by jumping up the mountain. You get to the mountaintop by taking incremental steps. Step by step, you get to the goal”, says Robin Sharma, one of the world’s most-sought-after leadership and personal success experts.

PR meets Marketing!

Intergration of PR and Marketing:

A NO-NO or YES-YES?

You've heard it before. The possible thoughts of how the two industries would survive as one. How the possible merge would influence various media's and publics.

Now, the public relations team is brought in to "integrate.
According to O'malley Hansen Communications,  " A public relations program needs to address the concerns of jaded gatekeepers, such as media and other experts. It also needs to connect with consumers who have an increasing ability and desire to talk back. Is it enough to have a great advertising campaign? How true does a PR program have to stay to the ad campaign's words, message, look and feel? Is the ad tag line the key message of the PR program? The answers are no, it depends and probably not.

In today's environment, PR can exponentially add to the power of a strong advertising campaign in a cost-effective way. The opportunity is to integrate into the program with a clear understanding of the demands of public relations, by creating compelling and consistent messages that engage the target audience and the gatekeepers.

For more info contact: www.crazyaboutpr.blogspot.com