Warning SignDo you feel you spend too much time on Social Media?

Are the tools providing you with all the functionality you want?

There are literally thousands of social media tools out there so there’s always options for changing.

Here are 7 warning signs that you are using the wrong tools!

1.  You don’t have time to view analytics

Viewing analytics is an essential part to social media marketing.  You need to see what works and what doesn’t work and analytics is a great way to find this out.

The problem, however, is that you don’t have time to look at analytics because they are spread across so many different programs.

One solution to this problem is using Cyfe.

Cyfe provides you with a dashboard where you can add analytics from a wide variety of programs.  For example you can add google analytics, google webmaster tools, summary of LinkedIn connections, twitter followers and much more.

Cyfe Analytics
Cyfe lets you display analytics on one dashboard

If you don’t have enough LinkedIn connections maybe it’s time to request a connection with some new people.

 2.  Your Facebook Application Doesn’t Support Mobile

Facebook recently announced they have over 500 million people using Facebook on a mobile device.  Over the next year this will increase so more than half of Facebook users will use a mobile device to access Facebook.

The problem with Facebook is that page applications (running on your Facebook page) are not officially supported on mobile.  That doesn’t mean there aren’t workarounds available!

If your application provider says they don’t support mobile then it’s time to switch providers!

3. You manually remove some of your Twitter Followers

It’s useful to keep an eye on your twitter followers to see if there’s any followers you don’t want following you (e.g. fake ones) or you are following people that are not following you back.  If you’re doing some of this manually it’s time to change!

ManageFlitter is a twitter management tool and it has some useful functionality for managing your twitter followers.  You can identify followers that are not following you back and it also detects spam followers.  There are great filtering options so, for example, you could show people that are not following you and are not active.

ManageFlitter
Identifying people to unfollow using ManageFlitter

4. You’re not connecting with people on social media that you should be connecting with!

eMail is a great place to find new connections on social media such as followers on twitter or connections on LinkedIn.  If you’re already exchanging e-mails then it’s likely they will accept your connection request or follow you back.

One tool I’ve started using recently is rapportive.  I knew about the tool but haven’t used it for a long time.  Sarah from Simplicity Admins recommended that I install it and I’m so glad I did!

Every time you read or send an e-mail you see a profile of that person on the right hand side.  If you see they are on twitter you can follow them without even having to leave e-mail.  If you see them on LinkedIn you can request a connection.   I’m really loving this tool, it’s just great.

Rapportive Social Profile
The social profile of the person in the e-mail appears to the right of the e-mail

In the above example I’m connected to peter on twitter already but not on LinkedIn.  I can now click the connect button and connect with Peter directly within e-mail without having to go to LinkedIn.

Connecting via LinkedIn using Rapportive
Connecting via LinkedIn using Rapportive

5. You are spending time on Twitter.com

Twitter.com is not the tool to use for twitter.  It just doesn’t deliver the necessary functionality that you require to sort out your twitter stream and manage your twitter followers.   We have a great network of friends that are very active social media users and one tool that most of them use for twitter is Hootsuite.

Hootsuite contains lots of great functionality and there is significant functionality made available for free.

Hootsuite Tabs for Streams
Sort out you twitter content by splitting it up nicely into different streams

6.  You are not using your mobile device to read and share great content

We all have very limited time so we need to make the most of the time we have available.  As well as creating your own content on social media it’s also great to share out content you find that is useful and relevant to your fans or followers.

We covered a post last week on the use of Feedly with Buffer.  If you subscribe to numerous blogs the best way of reading this content is through an application known as an RSS reader.  RSS (Real simple syndication) just means that the blog content is provided in a standard format so a ‘reader’ application can take blog posts from many websites and display them all together on one site and in a similar format.

Feedly is a really nice application for reading collections of blog posts from many authors and is available on the mobile phone.

So when you’re out and about waiting in between meetings take out your mobile phone, use feedly to read the content.  Feedly also integrates with buffer which allows you to automatically share out content you find at pre-determined time intervals.

Feedly Buffer Integration
Use Feedly on your mobile device to buffer great content you find

Feedly + Buffer = Winning Combination!

7. You’re getting very little sharing of your blog post content

I met the guys from Tweekaboo last week (private social network for families) and I checked out their blog.  Their sharing icons only appear on the bottom of the post and are relatively small.

Addthis Sharing
Addthis provides small icons at the bottom of the post

We currently use DiggDigg from Buffer which appears on the left hand side of the post.  As you scroll down through the post the sharing icons move with you so they are always visible.  There’s also an element of social proof which kicks into action.  If people see that other people have shared out the post (see the number of shares) then they are more likely to share out the post.

DiggDigg
DiggDigg sharing options appears at all time and is quite prominent

Final Comments

It’s a struggle to get everything done with social media.  It’s useful to step back and evaluate what you are doing and the tools you use to see if you can make improvements.  By taking a little time out you will save a lot more!

Any useful tools for you above?  Any ideas you’d like to share.  We’re particularly interested in any tools that help with your productivity.

We love our comments so please give us your feedback.


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