Ryan C. Miller.com – Social Media, Business & Small Things -

My Toolbox (so far)

Posted on April 13, 2011 by MillerNo Comments

I’ve been giving some talks recently to businesses and groups on promoting yourself online and some basic social media primers for business. I try not to get all caught up in the tools or the 3rd party add-ons because sometimes those are the things that can get confusing to people and you miss the point of the medium which is interacting, listening and sharing… It’s not about any one tool. So I try to leave those out as much as possible in order to get people acquainted with some best practices. But I often get asked what tools I use on a day to day basis for myself when it comes to managing all that data. So here’s a quick overview of what’s in MY toolbox:

TweetDeck - for Twitter management and sharing. I don’t load in any feeds from other networks to the system except for Twitter, though I do allow TweetDek access to my Twitter, LinkedIN and Facebook accounts so I can manage what I share across multiple platforms. The software allows me to separate, sort and search the tweets from over the 1,000 people I follow by category (Local friends, Conference Peeps, Social Media Gurus, Humor, etc), as well as monitor keywords I’m interested in tracking. It will also alert me anytime someone is mentioning my name or talking to me via @replies or DMs (Direct Messages). There a are a lot of other tools out there (CoTweet, HootSuite and the official Twitter Client) but so far for managing my PERSONAL accounts on a desktop, I’ve been sticking with TweetDeck.

Twitter (for iPhone) – While I use TweetDeck for my desktop, I use the official Twitter client for my iPhone. It allows me to keep tabs on my groups and conversations in a simple, intuitive interface, but lacks many of the bells and whistles that TweetDeck has.

Su.Pr - Su.pr is a URL Shortener that I use when I really want to track the sharing of my original blog post content. When I share a link (www.ryancmiller.com for example) it will shorten it to something that uses less space in your tweet (www.su.pr/Ekfjr). But by using their dashboard I can log in and track how many clicks each shared link gets in real-time as well as any retweets, and even let’s me easily submit my content to StumbleUpon. It allows me to see when my content is clicked throughout the day as well as which content strikes a chord with users. I can then use that data to make better decisions about when and what to post.

Google Reader – If you don’t currently use Google Reader or an RSS reader to subscribe and manage blogs you like. Sign up now. I subscribe to roughly 75 blogs that I read daily (or whenever new content comes out). Google Reader dumps down the content from all of these blogs into one place where I can read only new items at my leisure, tag posts, share them, and organize the blogs I subscribe to into categories (Social Media, Business, Photography, Wine, etc). Because let’s face it – I can’t read about business all day every day and using an RSS reader is a great way to manage all that content without having to go to each site every day to see if there is a new post.

Instapaper – I constantly see links or headlines to posts via Twitter or Facebook that I want to read – but don’t have the time right at this moment. So I use Instapaper to save those articles for later. Using a bookmark link in my browser it will extract the photos and text and format things in such a way that it’s easy to consume at a later time via my iPad or iPhone. Get it.

So that’s a start, right? Those are just my desktop tools that I use (though some of them cross over to mobile) to manage content and sharing of things I want to consume or share. If you’re looking to not miss a beat with news, keep better tabs on those in your network, or just grow your chops in the industry of your choice, some or all of these may help you out. I also consult and help to manage a lot of this data for clients at the agency, and we use some turbocharged tools for managing so many accounts and large mounds of data. But this should get you started on a personal level. Questions, comments, complaints? Leave me a comment and let me know what tools YOU use that I didn’t mention, and why.

The Social Media Elevator Pitch Pt 2: Recommended Reading

Posted on November 10, 2009 by MillerNo Comments

Hopefully Pt 1. of my Social Media Elevator Pitch was useful to you guys. Now, on to part 2.  Here are 9 blogs that I check out daily that get me excited and teach me something new every day about online marketing, business, and how it works (or doesn’t) with Social Media.  There are hundreds of great reads out there, but I wanted to focus on a few names that provide digestible, actionable content and also say thanks. These are people who have taken the time to care, to answer my questions and who have engaged with me as a newbie.

Don’t stop here. Ask around. Remember this is an elevator pitch. What are YOUR favorite sites for Social Media and blogging content? I wan to know. Please list them in the comments.

Recommended Reading (put these in your Google Reader):

Chris Brogan – www.chrisbrogan.com – One of the best resources for people who are participating and getting into social media. Tons of great posts, usually daily. Chris is super-accessible and lives for connecting people

Seth’s Blog - www.sethgodin.typepad.com – Seth is probably the smartest marketer I’ve ever heard. Period. Great bite-sized content everyday.

Gary Vaynerchuk – www.garyvaynerchuk.com -While I’m a huge fan of WineLibrary, Gary’s personal blog has some great info on business, Social Media and building your personal brand.

The Marketess - www.themarketess.com – Posts that are quick and to the point about marketing, social media and what it means for business. Written by the awesome KristaNeher.

The Viral Garden - www.moblogsmoproblems.blogspot.com – Mack is always insightful when it comes to online marketing and has a lot of good how-to posts or ’5 Steps To…’ posts.

PR Squared – www.todddefren.com – Todd Defren comes to social from more of an agency perspective but has been a great resource for me as I learn how businesses and organizations should be using Social Media.

Social Media Land – www.socialmedialand.net – Katie V provides some great insights on different SM tools and case studies to back up what she’s saying. She works for a kick-ass agency in AZ as a content manager and SM guru.

Beth’s Blog - www.beth.typepad.com – Beth is one of the best bloggers around when it comes to harnessing the power of online marketing and Social Media for non-profits.

Mashable - www.mashable.com – Great news site on all things tech and social. Consistently well-written articles that mix the latest news with some blog worthy and offbeat stories from around the web.

That’s just a handful of the blogs I check out daily. But the peeps above continuously put out great content, are accessible, and in my opinion have some of the best blogs out on the net. I know I’m missing a ton, but that will have to wait for another post. Maybe I’ll make a Best Blog series. So tell me, what does YOUR daily reading consist of? Leave a comment below!