HootSuite

What's HootSuite you may wonder? And what does it have to do with you? Well, if you're interested in any way about social media networking- you should know what HootSuite is!

HootSuite is a revolutionary online networking tool that allows you to combine all of your social media sites in one easy to use interface.
Manage streams, feeds, ReTweets, mentions, replies and much more across all of your sites with the click of a button. Featuring a simple and effective interface and a range of analytical tools- there's never been a better way to manage your social media sites.

I'm one of those Twitter users that wishes I could schedule Tweets as often I have things that will always be out on one day of the week. But unfortunately, Twitter doesn't have such a feature built in.
So I have to remember to log in and post the link- but sometimes I'm so busy I never really think about it, until around 4pm, and then realise I should have sent that hours ago and rush to do it. That situation is, most thankfully, a thing of the past with the power of HootSuite. I can schedule important Tweets (like the weekly newsletter) and let them post themselves!
Not to mention, I can save and draft Tweets that I may want to post but haven't yet finished- or maybe they're just possible ideas- and again, through HootSuite this is entirely possible.

On top of this the Suite features a number of innovative apps for most mobile devices, web browsers and operating systems. Meaning you're never without that clever little owl in that you could really grow to love.

Which, though a personal preference, is another thing I love about HootSuite- it's so adorable. It's so impersonal and easy to use. And you really feel that when you leave it for a while and you come back to your owl taking a nap.
Makes you feel a lot better about using it as, initially, if you think about it, the idea of managing many sites under one roof is daunting. So to be met with a quirky owl, an easy to use menu and a tab-based interface? Best thing since sliced bread.

So what can you combine with HootSuite? I guess "everything" is a bit broad so here's a list:

• Twitter
• Facebook
• Facebook Pages
• MySpace
• Ping.fm
• Wordpress
• LinkedIn
• FourSquare

All in all, you can put just about anything you use in it and be able to access and submit information to any of these sites through the main interface.
It's a godsend if you're someone who likes to scatter updates and use different ones for all of your sites, plus, it makes it easy to simply throw a new update onto your Facebook Page without having to log out of this and into that- just click the tab and start writing.

Now, I guess at this point you're thinking "That sounds great, I bet I could find all sorts of uses for it" but, you're probably also thinking "How much is it going to set me back?"

Wait for it- absolutely nothing!

HootSuite has a free option which allows you to manage up to five social media sites, to access all of the features of the service, to have analytical information for 30 days and much more!

So there we have it. I know I'm usually not talking about this sort of thing on the blog, but this is a really great application for anyone who does social media networking and shows a lot of technological innovation.
Thank you for reading, as always. And if you have any comments/questions- feel free to comment!

All information presented here is © copyright Carkean Solutions Ltd., 2010 - Not to be used without our permission - The views expressed here are the views of an idividual not the corporation

e-Networking: Myths and Hearsay

The first thing you usually hear of the negative side of Facebook is that “people spam my updates with so many pointless updates.” And the same for Twitter, as the prospect of being able to send updates about where you are/what you’re doing is an exciting one.

However, in light of these changes it’s not all doom and gloom.
In fact, in recent years many of these sites have added features to stop things like this happening and to reduce the amount of spam that you get, if any, and the ability to moderate your own comments etc.

Concerning spam- it happens, you can’t really get away from that, but on these sites there has been a great deal of time reducing the amount you receive. These days there’s much less than there was- and if you feel like someone is spamming you can simply remove them. If you find someone is eating up your Twitter feed with a continual pointless/uninteresting update then you can simply ignore that by not following them anymore.
Despite what some people will tell you, the internet is not a place where spam is as common as it used to be and it’s actually quite pleasant.

Concerning the numbers game- we all experience some people, sometimes, that just want to have as many friends as possible even if they don’t physically know them but again there’s a few ways to stop this happening. Privacy controls, for one. Blocking/reporting the user in question or taking them off of your list, for another.

Concerning privacy- there’s a lot of horror stories about ID theft on the internet and there’s even more stories about how someone found out something, from a page, on the internet, they were browsing. This is why privacy controls were invented!

Most, if not all, sites have these controls now and they can practically make you invisible for all intents and purposes. For example, on Facebook you can list yourself as omitted from the search. Even if they search for you by name, school, friends, interests or anything else they know about you- they’ll never find you.
Equally, you can set all of your updates to “Friends Only” meaning only those you’ve accepted requests from, or sent to, can see your updates. Although, setting yourself as nigh on impossible to find would be a bad idea for the purposes of networking but you can set your profile information to “Friends Only”. That way, people can still search you but they can’t read your

information unless you say they can.

Above all things, be sensible! They can’t take what isn’t there and if you don’t list everything about yourself from shoe size to last dental check up- they can’t see it.
Thereby the greatest lesson is to be ever vigilant with what you share, so that you share enough that people can find you but you’re not leaking inside information with people not privileged to view it.

Thank you for reading- as always!
We hope this has been an insightful look into social media and online networking.

All information presented here is © copyright Carkean Solutions Ltd., 2010 - Not to be used without our permission - The views expressed here are the views of an individual not the corporation

e-Networking: Less is More

There's so many sites out there- too many to count- so where do you start? The fundamental point is to research as much as you can and try to ascertain what could work and what won’t work. You should always focus your efforts on a handful of sites over the masses and try to make a good few over an average dozen.

As we started to explain above, less is a whole lot more when it comes to e-Networking.
I’m sure we’ve all had those moments where we deliberate on buying something, opt for the cheaper, opt for the cheaper and then decide to buy the expensive- all in all costing as much as twice the amount of the expensive option.

With e-Networking while you are aiming to get a lot of valued contacts do not lose sight of the things that matter. Site maintenance, for instance, do you have enough time to effectively manage your sites if something goes awry?
Equally, have you set aside enough time for them all?
The common feeling you get from many e-Networking attempts is that they’re devoid of feeling and the human touch. Often it’s more than likely that the site is not even updated, as such, but everything is scheduled and is posted when it says it should be. So don’t do this as this often shows that the owners don’t actually care about their visitors.

One of the other important points of being on these sites is that they’re social so try not to take that out of the question; otherwise you might as well have a standard website.

At the same time it’s easier to keep track of what you’re doing with your sites if you only have a few to keep updated. Too many and you might end up spamming by accident as you don’t realise this has been posted, or copied in, and thereby you’ll lose visitors for a simple mistake.
But, best of all, if you have a few well made sites that really target the users effectively and have a lot of information- you look very professional and serious about it. Visitors will recognise your devotion and actually care, as there are so many sites (it’s impossible to even count them) that are nothing but spam-filled-link-fests.

Finally, most of what happens with e-Networking is built up through trust.
It’s hard to actually see how it works from the outset as you need to actually communicate, build up a rapport and interact with clients. Much easier to find and retain contacts if you’re only trying to keep a few hundred over a few thousand, worse still- on sites you don’t even visit regularly! Anything you can do to make your sites more accessible to your visitors (or yourself) is a good idea.

Thank you for reading, as always, and happy networking!

All information presented here is © copyright Carkean Solutions Ltd., 2010 - Not to be used without our permission - The views expressed here are the views of an individual not the corporation

e-Networking: Content Writing

You're in for a bit of a treat today- we're going to be doing another article for someone shortly and here's a short snippet of our section on content writing.

Content Writing
Content is, and always will be, your weapon of choice on social media sites (and any e-Networking sites) as this is how people come to know you. You don’t have to be a brilliant writer, an excellent poet or even have any experience- you just need a passion.
You have to love what you write about, or at least are able to write as if you do, in order to write content that makes people come back to your sites. Below are some tips which may help you there:

1. Factual is great but what people want is insight. Take news sites for example, why is it that people choose Sky News over BBC News? Or the Financial Times over the Economist? The core of the information is always the same, the facts always exist, but the presentation- that changes. Some people are overly pessimistic, some funny and some are unbiased (in a true sense) and that is what helps them associate with their readers.
2. Compliments cost nothing, yet you would be led to believe you have to pay in blood for the amount you actually get. It’s not hard to say “Thank you for reading” and it means a lot. Personally, I think some people have the greatest ideas but have the manners of a rusty fork. If I were to judge them on their character, not their content, I wouldn’t read their content much if at all.
3. Try to be consistent in your approach and stick to what you do best. Writing is hard work when you write about a lot, but even if your topics change your mannerisms don’t have to and that’s reassuring. Think of it like music, why do you listen to your favourite artists? What about their recordings make you inclined to listen?
4. Impersonal, personal, formal, informal- it’s all good. Too often when we think of writing for other people we think it has to be as formal as a starched shirt. It doesn’t. Of course typing in what is considered “netspeak (how r u?)” is a bad idea, usually, but at the same time typing informally never hurts. Type however it comes naturally to you; so many people struggle to get their message across because they want it to look perfect- it really doesn’t have to.

These are the things that, personally, I have always taken into account while writing these blogs (and any content). It's good to have a consistent, natural and honest feel to your work. Above all else- people trust it a little bit more and are likely to react better than if you are overly formal. They might feel they're not professional enough, or something of the sort, in that case.

And that's all for now!
Thank you for reading, as always, we hope this has been insightful.

All information presented here is © copyright Carkean Solutions Ltd., 2010 - Not to be used without our permission - The views expressed here are the views of an individual not the corporation

e-Networking: Content Management

One other concern of most people when it comes to networking online is not their possible side-effects but how long it takes each day. Considering I've just spent the majority of the day updating a new site I think it may be apt to say how long it takes, or rather- how long it doesn't take.

When you consider having three or four (or more) sites, it would seem that to update them you would have to spend a great deal of time on them.
Initially, yes.
Setting up websites is a good example of what you put in is what you get out of it. If you don't put enough time in, rush them or push too much through too quickly then you're going to end up with low quality at the end of the process.
In comparison, once you have spent that initial chunk of time they don't take hardly any time at all to update.

This is for two reasons:

• You have already put a lot of time into a site that functions well, that you understand and that you know the capabilties of. Updating is easy as you have all the tools you need and the know-how.
• Updating social media isn't about walls of text and long drawn-out articles and such it's about small, digestable chunks of information that blend into the every day life of your viewers.

Where on your company website it may be preferable to upload a few pages of text in a new update, to inform and to cover all possible questions- in e-Networking it isn't necessary.

Services like Twitter are designed to explicitely make it possible for you to only be able to post bite-sized chunks of information.
And this is what you should be aiming for.
Even Facebook only has a limited 420 characters for you to share your information with. This helps more than hinders as it allows you tailor your updates and focus on which sites get what, without having to worry about how many hours this is taking.

Here's a few easy ways to break up your updating time:

1. Plan your posting- what? where? when? Knowing when you're supposed to have new content up (and where) helps remove a lot of lost-time guess work.
2. Use any information/limits to your advantage. If you know Twitter is only 140 characters and Facebook 420- then make the updates for those sites that size.
3. Be accurate and timely in your updates. Nothing shows rushed work like pushing for that 4pm deadline at 5pm!
4. Be casual, friendly and don't be afraid to change something that's no longer relevant- anything that makes your content more approachable is better. It also comes more naturally when you don't force content through, making it quicker to write.
5. Try to break bigger chunks of content down into a few updates which you post one after the other to help not only develop a series, but to help readers digest it.

Try these things if you find you're stuck in the parellel loop of spending ages working on e-Networking sites, also remember, it gets easier as you get more used to it.

 That's all for now!

 Thank you for reading and if you've got any tips to share- feel free to comment.

All information presented here is © copyright Carkean Solutions Ltd., 2010 - Not to be used without our permission - The views expressed here are the views of an individual not the corporation

e-Networking: Not a Replacement.

I've found that in the last few weeks we've been talking about e-Networking and using the internet as some kind of online networking tool, people have become increasingly concerned with it replacement for traditional networking/marketing- but this is not the case!

e-Networking is simply another way to do things that you can do any other way.
For instance, the use of Twitter and Facebook is not an exclusive marketing strategy and will replace the traditional marketing methods- it's an augmented method- to be done as well as all the other things you're already doing.
While blogging and even customisable platforms like WordPress are no replacement whatsoever for an actual corporate website with all of your information on it.
All in all these things are nothing more than an extra method, a new idea or something different you could try to generate some more traffic and some more business. They're not designed to replace anything- in fact, if anything there's simply not enough available that you could.

They're just something new.
Well, new for the older generation who probably grew up more akin to a pen and paper than a keyboard and monitor. But they're also something new in terms of business and corporate activity.

Also, while we're at it- let's dispel a few other myths about e-Networking in general.

• There's no way someone could access your information from it. Not a one. Other than what you upload on profiles all of your other information (IP addresses, e-mail addresses and so on) are all safe and held by the parent site- not the networker.
• Privacy is a big issue. In the days where people spend more time online than they do in their everyday lives there's a big issue of privacy- do we have it? How do we get it? Are we secure? The answer to these questions and many more is: there are easy-to-use privacy settings on each of these sites. They take minutes to set up.
• Spam is not something you'll get a lot of. We all hate spam (though some like the tinned variety) and it's a big issue, as much as privacy, on the internet. Mostly because spam becomes scams and then all sorts of disagreeable things happen. These days many sites are committed to lowering how much spam is recieved and overall it's a lot safer experience than before.
• Opt in, opt out- whatever you prefer. Most sites are free and do not force you to be on them for a "trial period" or something of the sort, you can join them and leave them as easy as you can open a web browser. Deleting your account is always an option and you have no obligations to stay if you'd rather not.

And that concludes this post! We hope it has been informative and helped to show a few of the better sides of e-Networking that otherwise might have been confused. Understandably so, as this is a new and exciting form of technology and there's all sort of myths and horror stories around the internet- but it really is all good. For the most part!

Got any e-Networking stories you'd like to share? Feel free to comment and let us know what you have to say.

All information presented here is © copyright Carkean Solutions Ltd., 2010 - Not to be used without our permission - The views expressed here are the views of an individual not the corporation

How to reach your audience.

In every business practice you will have an audience that you need to reach or find, there are a number of ways to do this for traditional corporate activity- but there are also a number of ways to do this for online networking.

Lots of opportunities!
As we covered recently indirect networking is a great way to get in touch with those you want to connect with and is easily one of the more reliable methods. In many cases all it requires is an idea of the kind of things you're looking for.
For instance, in financial markets you can follow the Economist on Twitter and that will open up a whole range of potential financial connections.
But, this is rather a scattered approach as you would be waiting for some of their contacts to find you- whereas you could be using it to find them yourself. Searching through who's following them and who they are following would show clients of great potential, these in turn may have more clients you would want to connect with.

This can continue until you have literally thousands following your information.

You can also look for other well known blogs and information sources.
These are often full to the brim with like-minded eager individuals who want to share a particular kind of infomation. It's an incredibly effective way to get your name out there, in a positive light, not to mention share your views and personality with others. Guest posts are often available which could help to expand your audience in unexpected and greatly interesting ways.

Or you can use the good old fashioned method- market research.
In many cases, if you're a small local business this is probably the best way to target the best people for your organisation and will prove to get a lot more returns. This way you can (almost personally) know the people you're connected with.
Not to mention know they want what you're selling.

The aftermath
It's easy to follow lots of people and show that you're trying to get a great number of connections- but it doesn't show how much of this has actually been successful. Which is really your number one aim as an organisation.

Evaluating how well these things have gone is directly linked to what method you have used.
If you're using a rather scattered "friends of friends" approach it will be hard to say what has been done and what has come from it. This is because it's harder to track the individual things that you're actually doing and to track the clients that have or haven't responded.
In more direct cases it's easier to track the responses but it's a lot harder to get a lot of returns unless you've invested a great deal of time in connecting with them. So this might be more reliable but have a lower yield in comparison with other options.
Otherwise you simply have to use whichever options you have at your disposal to analyse what your efforts have brought, if anything.

Conclusion
In conclusion we can see that there are a few decent ways to connect with clients and a few different approaches. The approach will always fundamentally be the same- but the way it is used will not as there are many ways to skin a cat, as they say.

A rather short post today and one that I hope you have enjoyed- thank you for reading (as always)!

All information presented here is © copyright Carkean Solutions Ltd., 2010 - Not to be used without our permission - The views expressed here are the views of an individual not the corporation

e-Networking: Practical Theory

It's all very easy to advertise the benefits of e-Networking without actually having any practical evidence to back it up- but that's where you're in for a bit of a treat- we do!
What we're going to discuss today is a practical view of how you get results from e-Networking and what all of these things mean. This is all our data, not generated data, and is all relevant to the things we've said before on networking and the services available.

Now the first thing we'd like to talk about is page views as these are one of the basic general indicators of what your sites are doing.

As you can see from the rightmost image Blogger's Stats tool (which is where this information comes from) we have several categories of pageview statistics: today, yesterday, last month and over all time.

These have numerous uses including:

• Checking to see if newly posted content is hot or not.
• Seeing if your new connections are impacting your site(s).
• Comparing how progressive your pageviews are month to month.
• And much much more.

These (and more) lead us to the next point which is covered below- your posts and how successful they are. For any blogging site these are the core and the meat of the site, without the posts you have a structured shell of a page so understanding if your posts are viewed would help greatly.

With these tools you get a basic idea of which have been viewed and when they were first posted. This is, above all else, useful for analysing which content is having the best effect on your blog/site(s). As that with more views is that which people are (at the very least) clicking more.

This is great to analyse new additions to the sites, too.
As, for instance, we at Carkean Solutions have recently added "tabs" to our blog which are referred to as pages- and we can see that some pages are very popular! This is positive reinforcement and feedback.

Next we're going to analyse our audience and where in the world our viewers are.
This has a number of benefits much the same as analysing which posts are being viewed. There's a lot useful information here that, if used correctly, can tell a great story about how well your social media is working. Such as:

• Viewing where your hits are coming from which can be compared to where in the world you've been networking.
• If you're a local producer you can see how many local viewers you have.
• You can also see how far reaching your networking has taken you across the globe.
• And you may even get some pleasant surprises as well!

These are all passive things in many respects, they only reflect where people are in the world and not what they're doing- which is the point of analysis. The post views and the traffic views all show people are looking/clicking, but, these in particular, are useful to provide some backing to your networking efforts.

And our final point is again a passive point to some degree- the technology used to find you. This can be interesting from a web design point of view that your site is cross-browser-compatible, but from an analysis point of view you can see how people are accessing your content.

As you can see from the leftmost image we have a breakdown of what browsers people are using, what operating system and some degree what technology.

If you notice we have "Mobile" under the browsers which shows our content must be accessed by mobile internet users.
All together this is more novelty than practicality but it is nice to see how our content is being accessed, which systems and in some cases on which technology. As we're a very innovative technology blogging service it's a boost to see people using new technology to access our service. And, point of note, that iPad view (or at least one of them) was via someone we met at the CMI event last Thursday- so it's nice to see it adding up.

This has been quite a different post- but we hope you enjoyed reading it all the same and that you have learned something today!

Any questions? Feel free to comment.

Thank you for reading (as always)!

All information presented here is © copyright Carkean Solutions Ltd., 2010 - Not to be used without our permission - The views expressed here are the views of an individual not the corporation

Indirect Networking- how and why?

One of the key questions you ask yourself when networking (either online or off) is "Who do I want to connect to?" Now, I would wager that's a pretty important question as how do you market yourself, network your business and connect with others if you don't know who you're looking for.

This is not just because of having the right client list prepared- it's also about the right media and materials which you are going to use to network. As noted before, each event/site has different expectations and rules and a simple one size fits all approach is a failure unto itself. So, it's best to know who you want to connect with before you start.
Sounds pretty easy, huh?
But how about if you could connect with people you would never have expected just because you indirectly network your sites? Indirect networking is, as the name suggests, where you network your organisation with people that know the kind of people you want to deal with.

This has many kinds of benefits:

• Most of the time these users who have the users you want are publications. They have a lot of users who are interested in a particular industry and can reveal possibilities you never knew existed. Plus, they are great places to find people who might be able to provide you with services you don't usually use- guest blogging for instance or published articles.
• Secondly there are many great people out there who are not connected with big companies or the top names in the industry. Most of these will be start-up organisations who have learned a lot, perhaps even things you won't have done while in the industry. Any experience is good experience.
• There's also the friends of friends ideology where you follow them, so they follow you, and then one of their clients follows you and you follow one of their clients etc. until you have half a million possible contacts to connect with. This is because if you're following them because they do something you like and they are doing likewise- you're both mutually beneficial to each other.
• Never be afraid to get your name out there with a guest post or article on a website. Often these are informal, not too long and they won't take much time out of your day. But what they will do is show the world the strength of your ideas. It makes sense to take free advertising, doesn't it?
• And while social media advertising is never a numbers game it does help sometimes to be connected with people who have good statistics. Mostly because they're like a resource library, they have so many contacts that there's lots to do and many people to connect with.

These are all things that you may do well to remember if the days are long and there's no-one taking the bait with your direct networking.
As it is, these days, with the internet growing as it has, there's so many ways to show your organisation that everyone has their little corner of land. Connecting with these people has the opportunity to provide you with unique insights into things you would never consider, or information you would never research.
It just makes sense to be connected to a wide-range of organisations.

And that's all for now.
We have had a few information heavy posts recently and this should make a nice brief, informative and nicely spaced change. Also, for those that were looking to enquire about the event Carkean will be attending tomorrow- the seats are all taken. Thank you for your interest (and for reading).

All information presented here is © copyright Carkean Solutions Ltd., 2010 - Not to be used without our permission - The views expressed here are the views of an individual not the corporation

Networking with Clients.

Networking is one of the best methods of reaching new clients to further your organisation.
The concept is simple and effective in that you need only meet and speak to new clients for it to be effective, however, what you say as an organisation will relate to how effective this will be.

Good presentation makes for better results.
That's where most networking opportunities are lost.
At the point where you have to physically (or virtually) present yourself and your organisation to the client. There are many reasons for this and often they are to do with advertising yourself, your product or your organisation in the wrong way. Sometimes this is because it was too formal, or you pushed the message across rather than delivered it- so the first key point is what do you do (and not do) when networking.

Networking is no different than a conversation in many respects.
While you may be there on official business or representing an organisation, it's not just about you. The client may have questions, suggestions or a product of their own they'd like to offer you. Be polite and build up a rapport with your client.

Looking towards the future.
Sometimes networking is about tomorrow, not today.
When you connect with clients and organisations there are several benefits besides selling your product to them. They are most likely going to have contacts, products and clients of their own and this is a great opportunity for you. Consider all forms of networking and try to put yourself across as much as possible.

Finally, understand what kind of networking you are going to and plan accordingly.
There are so many different types of networking available and each will require a different outlook from you before it can be successful. Researching is a must. Always check the policies of the organisation or website you're going to network with/on and make the right decisions.

Networking opportunities.
So where do you network? Or, rather, where can you network?
Well, for this there are so many options; trade shows, business networking seminars, corporate events, at other organisations, via the internet, using social media (ie. Facebook/Twitter) and even some smaller online communities.

The beautiful thing about social media is just that- it's social.
Most people will have access to one of the social media resources, if not several, and this is a great way to deliver information straight to them on something that actually use. Rather than directing them to a website or using an electronic newsletter, you can send updates straight to the sites they actually use and keep them connected all the time.
It might seem like a time consuming process and like you would need a whole department to run all of these social media networking sites- but it can be done effectively with just a few people. From these people you will gain countless opportunities to connect with clients, products and organisations.
Not to mention it's free.

Further information.
The above suggestions are also a small part of the wide range of networks available.
There are hundreds more and not all of them will be applicable or useful to your organisation but they are there and people are connected to them. Finding the ones that best suit your organisation will make all the difference in successfully networking online.
The same principles also apply with physical networking at trade shows. There are so many different shows, events, seminars, meetings and so on that it's not possible to go them all. Nor is it profitable. But, again, finding those who are useful to you will make all the difference.

That's all for now- thank you for your time!

All information presented here is © copyright Carkean Solutions Ltd., 2010 - Not to be used without our permission - The views expressed here are the views of an individual not the corporation