Help!! I am OUT of Control....

Help!! I am OUT of Control....

It happens every time, whenever I am talking with clients about Social Media and it's virtues the same points of conversation come up. First and foremost, 1) "I don't have the time for Social Media," and 2) "I am not organized enough" . By far and away the time factor is always discussed and I can safely say that anybody else that I know that delves into the social media management world can say the same. What with technology changing at the speed of light and new apps and droids, and IOS, and tablets,and laptops and FB, Twitter, Linkedin, Stumble Upon, Tumblr and, and, and, .... you get the picture.

I do know what you mean though, a much smarter than me Social Media innovator (Ambermac) just mentioned this week on "The Social Hour" that she felt her FB life was somewhat out of control, and I immediately agreed. I sometimes feel like between just FB, Twitter,Google+, blogging and all that it entails I am somewhat running in circles. I have found some solace in realizing that that is the nature of the beast, it changes fast, and new stuff and relationships are coming at me fast. I try to keep up much as I can, but no longer beat up on myself if something falls by the wayside. Ambermac has 61,000 + followers on Twitter, Guy Kawasaki - 406,000 +, heck our very own Jason Couch has 15,000+ followers. How on earth do you keep up with all that, well the honest answer is, , , you don't. BUT, you try the best you can.

Luckily there are some tools out there that can help you manage and maintain your social media life.

BUFFER:
       
Buffer is a small company made up of the "buffer guys" founders Joel, and Leo have created a Twitter app that I really enjoy and use daily, and if you are looking to improve your Twitter experience you should definitely subscribe to their blog. Buffer gives you the ability to post great content to your Twitter page at a time and day that you choose. With the mobile app you can connect and share info from pretty much where ever and whenever you want. Buffer is free, easy to use and offers full analytics for each and every tweet you post. You can customize the time for release so that you can be sharing great content throughout the day, when people are engaging. Posting great content at 1:00am when no one is going to see it, isn't productive. Buffer is a great tool, one that can really enhance and improve your Twitter engagement, after all, that is what social media is all about right, engagement.

PICNIK

Picnik is a tool that I use a lot when blogging. Let's be honest, blogging takes time, and any tools out there that can better utilize the time spent on it, the better. What I love about Picnik is that it is so easy to use. Picnik is a photo management tool  that makes sizing, placing and manipulating your photos for use in a blog a snap. Picnik works easily and quickly with photos filed on your computer, on Picasa, Flickr, Photobucket, you name it. Picnik offers wonderful photo editing tools that make adding photos to your blog in just the right proportion easy and professional looking. Heck, just go to the site and get going. Picnik is a great tool that will the appearance of your blogs in time friendly manner. This one is a must for bloggers.

VISIBLE.me

This is one that I am still navigating through. Visibleme is a site that was created to help manage our professional and personal social media lives. Visibleme gives you the resources to create, build, and monitor your on line reputation. As I said I am just starting out on this one and have a bit of building to go before I can say whether or not I use it daily, but it looks like a great tool, one worth checking out.

Managing your social media presence is essential these days, having a social media presence is different than an on line presence. The days of just having a website so that people can find you or your business on the net are over. If you are not engaging the social media population you aren't keeping up. Try these tools and please be sure and get back to me and let me know your experience. I would love to be able to do a follow up with recommendations from you all.