5 New Uses for Social Media Tools
Looking for the next big social media tool or site? You won’t find it here.
I attended two social media conferences last month: SOMET, the Social Media Tourism conference, in El Paso, and the Smart Business Midwest Social Media Summit in Cleveland, where I served on a panel about taking social media strategy to the next level. Despite obvious differences in geography and industries, I found several similarities between the two conferences, including a surprising lack of talk about “the next big thing.”
It appears most of us in the social sphere are in agreement that there isn’t a particular new, whiz-bang site or tool out there right now. Instead, we’re focusing on being more strategic with the tools we have. In lieu of shiny new tools, we’re learning cool ways to use the same usual suspects.
So, without further ado, here are my five favorite new ways to use old social tools.
1. Twitter hashtag streams at events – One of my favorite things about both of last month’s conferences was the live feed of the Twitter hashtag stream (#SOMET for one, #MWSMS for the other) broadcast on big screens at the front of each room. Although most attendees were following along on our own HootSuite or Twitterfeed dashboards, it was nice to be able to look up at the stage, smile and nod along with the speaker, and still keep up on insightful or funny Tweets about the conference. If you’re on Twitter, stay sharp in your field by seeking out the top events in your space and following their conference hashtags online even if you can’t attend the event in person. Likewise, if you’re at an event, help others and boost your own followers by live-Tweeting with smart, insightful commentary so those following along at home can benefit, too.
1a. Twitter lists – Although they are not new, Twitter lists have gone “out of sight, out of mind” for many people, yet they are still insanely useful. If you’re not using Twitter lists to categorize people you’re following into useful groups, you’re missing out. You can also check out the Twitter lists of people you admire and respect in order to follow “influencers of your influencers” with one easy click.
2. Pinterest – Am I really calling Pinterest “old” already? Yes, I suppose I am, but there are still so many untapped ways to use everyone’s favorite digital “crackbooking” site. One of my newest ways is to use secret boards to showcase blogger relations campaign results. Simply save each of your blog hits to a private Pinterest board, tagging and describing each however you like, and then add clients and anyone else you’d like to share it with as pinners to that board. Voila–you’ve got a visual, creative, innovative way to refer back to a campaign and see all your great results. If you really want to showboat, you can use a public board instead. Remember that some bloggers won’t be thrilled to find themselves on a board of “conquests,” so think before you pin.
3. Facebook – A relatively new development worth exploring on Facebook is Interest Lists, which are not unlike the above-mentioned Twitter lists. If, like me, you find yourself with far too many pages to follow, you can simply group them into Interest Lists (e.g., Rockstar Clients) and then spend time each week perusing those lists. You can also browse and subscribe to the Interest Lists of others. If that’s still not enough for you and you want to be sure you won’t miss any content a particular Page puts out, you can choose “Get Notifications” by hovering over the “Liked” icon at the top of a Page. That will subscribe you to their page and ensure you see all their updates.
4. Instagram – Sure, you can share photos and show off your hipster cred through clever hashtag usage on Instagram, but what else is it good for? How about influencer identification and outreach? Top Instagram users may have 500,000 or more followers and super high levels of engagement with their content, so why not find those folks for your industry or interest area, follow and cultivate relationships with them, and find ways to work with them to benefit all parties involved. We heard some great examples at #SOMET of tourism brands who have done just that. Let the haters hate–this is cool stuff as long as everyone hashtags appropriately (e.g., #client, #sponsored). By the way, after yesterday’s reversal of Instagram’s user-advertising stance, I’ve still got it on the nice list.
5. Google+ – I’ll admit, my take on Google+ used to be “do it for the SEO,” but after learning more about virtual photo walks
and other cool uses of Google+ Hangouts, I’m now a believer. Especially for tourism clients or other businesses with a huge visual element, being able to do a virtual tour live on camera can be supremely compelling. As our Google speaker noted at #SOMET, “comments are not conversations, but live video chat is.” If you want to take engagement to the next level, Google+ Hangouts are it.
And there you have it–my five (plus one) favorite new things to do with old social media tools. If you have similar tricks to share, I’d love to hear about them in the comments below.