Web Marketing Therapy

Dear Web 2.0 Fear Specialist

June 14th, 2009
by Amy Dunn

How Do I Manage My Social Media Life Without Sacrificing my Real Life?

Today, I am beginning a new Web Marketing Therapy Series- “Dear Web 2.0 Fear Specialist”. I feel the time has come and want to help our gentle readers stay away from SMO….Social Media Overload. There are hundreds- actually THOUSANDS of new Web 2.0 sites, tools, and tips that come out on a daily basis. Staying current and on top of all of your Social Media channels can be totally overwhelming (and addicting)- so take a deep a breath….have no fear, your Web 2.0 Fear Specialist is here and plans to guide you to help manage your hectic Social Media Life with a series of tips and answers to your most pressing questions and concerns. Hope that you enjoy!

Dear Web 2.0 Fear Specialist-

I do not have time to constantly log on and off and on and off of my Twitter and Facebook accounts. So, how am I supposed to manage these accounts and still run my business and have a real life? How is it that some people can instantly reply to their @replies and direct messages without sitting in front of their computer and monitoring Twitter all day?

Sincerely,

Overwhelmed in Ohio

Dear Overwhelmed-

Fear not. It is completely irrational to think that you should have to stare at your social networking accounts all day and navigate from page to page to see if someone has attempted to engage in a conversation with you. There are many modern tools to help with this- one that I have been using myself is “TweetDeck”.

TweetDeck is a tool that is ideal for Twitter and Facebook users who have some degree of familiarity with the 2 networks. TweetDeck is an application that lives on your desktop- downloading is simple (simply go to http://www.tweetdeck.com). It consolidates everything into 4 simple columns so you can see everything at once:

Column 1: The Tweets of everyone you are following

Column 2: All @Replies that mention you (@yourtwitter username)

Column 3: All Direct messages sent to you

(Optional) Column 4: Facebook Status

From these columns, you can easily manage your accounts. You can post updates to your Twitter AND Facebook accounts, or just your Twitter account, or just your Facebook account. You can reply, direct message, retweet incoming Tweets that pop up in the first column. If you choose, you can quickly unfollow or view the profile of the person who posted the Tweet.

TweetDeck also provides quick links to Twitter Search (great way to search for conversations using your keywords), Twitscoop (great way to find out what they are chatting about in the Twittersphere), and other wonderful tools to supplement the Twitter experience.

Gentle Reader, please give TweetDeck a try before you find yourself overwhelmed. TweetDeck will allow you to connect more naturally to your network and will help maximize the benefits of using Twitter. Best to you, and looking forward to Tweeting with you-

Sincerely,

The Web 2.0 Fear Specialist

Got a social media question or fear to overcome? I cannot promise to answer each one, but I will try!

Email: amy@webmarketingtherapy.com (Please include WMT Question in the Subject Line)

or Direct Message or @reply me in Twitter: @girlamy (Use #WMT hashtag).

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Categories: Blog, Email Advice, Marketing RX, Social Media