Urgency Flow

We’re winding down another week, and I’d like to add to your weekend distractions by sharing a list of new Twitter tools that recently launched. Give them a try and come back to share your thoughts.

Bccth.is
Bccth.is is a free Twitter client that allows you to send private messages to selected followers as blind carbon copies to make sure they see your tweets, and then continue that discussion in private. The tool, which is a fully functional Twitter client, automatically shortens URLs, stores all of your sent and received messages, and clearly shows you the number of participants and comments in each of your conversations. Read more

This article was originally published on sitepoint.com

The core of new business is creating new communities. Social Media is the key to do so. Research showed that in 2010, 86% of the companies will invest more in Social Media. Twitter is the best-known medium to communicate in an informal way. Furthermore, most companies and organizations own a Youtube channel and/or a LinkedIn page. The problem is though, that creating your media platforms isn’t enough. Over 50% of the respondents argued that they had a lack of resources, and another 50% argued they couldn’t keep their media up to date. And this is were we jump in. Providing expert information on your media platforms, doing the research on target groups and keeping your information flow up to date. We save you the time and we guarantee the professional visibility. Check out our websites (urgencyflow.com for the general concept/ websiteflows.nl (Dutch) for a more specific explanation. Looking forward to hear from you!

Lisa Barone reports that a Citibank and Gfk Roper study found that 76 percent of small business owners don’t find social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn helpful in generating leads and business (Can SMB Owners Make Social Media Useful?, Small Business Trends).

Lisa’s take on this is that it’s not that social media isn’t or can’t be useful; it’s just that it takes so much time. The solution? Time management. You need to know why you’re using social media and plan in advance where and how you’re going to engage.

Lisa’s post is full of tips for focusing your time and energy. Planning and scheduling are key, she says, and there are many tools that can help you avoid overload and stay organized such as “Tweetdeck, HootSuite or Seesmic to help you manage conversation and schedule tweets ahead of time” and “Google Alerts via either email or RSS to keep track of social media mentions.” Read more

This article was originally published on sbinfocanada.about.com and written by Susan Ward

Two days ago we wrote about the importance of online social communities. Of course, Twitter is one of these communities. And as with every online application, one can do harm, and one can do good. Today, we’ll focus on the last application. The website twittown.com came up with a few ways for using your twitter effectively. The first is being ‘real-time’. Real time means adequately, direct and up-to-date. Real-time problem solving, real-time organizing and real-time content are all part of real-time business. So Twitter can be used to stay up to date and find out what is going on, what people say and think about certain subjects and especially what they think of you(r business). The second is proactivity, steal your competition’s business. Sounds evil, but turns out to be necessary in surviving the business war during economic crisis. So use twitter to find out what people are complaining about and meet their complaints by offering them a solution. Third, let people know what you are doing. You want to know what people want, in order to gain money, but the other way around you can earn money by letting people know what you are up to. So tell the world on Twitter that you launched a new product or survive. Finally, create a community. A group of followers will constantly know what you are doing, while you use the ad hoc focus groups to find out what is said about the people ore subjects you are interested in. Real time information is one of the most valuable things.

New social tools and online trends appear every day. As Facebook is just integrated into our lives, there is Twitter. And I bet that as soon as Twitter is fully integrated, there will be another social tool to tell people what you are doing, why, when, where and with whom. Visibility is the key, or googleable, if you like. That is, your company is not only found when the exact term ‘Johnsson Food Company’ is typed, but also as the term food, fish, supplier or whatever your company is dealing with, is typed into a search engine. Or is updated on a social network site. The utility of sites like Facebook and Twitter may well be underestimated, but they can be very useful to companies. Together with blogs, they ensure returning visitors of your sites (if well written and up to date) and may result in additional customers. Blogs describe the issues that concern the business and attract potential customers to contact the firm. The importance of being visible everywhere and write up to date content is something which is not properly implemented at many firms. Urgency Flow will help you with this step, feel free to contact us.