Auto-posting to social networks

One of the key tools in the "Pro Toolkit" that I talk about in class is Hootsuite, a web site/service that enables you to schedule social media updates (using the "Publisher" feature) and also auto-posts articles from any RSS feed (often your blog) to your social media profiles.

If you're creating a substantial amount of content, services like Hootsuite or Seesmic can be a good way to nail that all-important marketing automation part of your business, so that you can go and do the things that are important to your operations.

Journalism.co.uk has a good review of another automated publishing tool, dlvr.it, which is geared toward organizations that publish a lot of content. If you're planning on extensive content creation, it might be worth a look. The article also mentions Buffer and IFTTT, the latter of which is one of my favorite web-based automation tools (though not for the technophobe). Read the article.

Facebook Marketing eBook

Social Fresh has published a very brief eBook (really more of a pamphlet, if anyone remembers those) loaded with tips for making your business Facebook page more dynamic and engaging. Some good info here, especially if you are a consumer-oriented business. As always, those of you with business-to-business selling models should take all the Facebook marketing hype with a grain of salt - engagement with business-to-business brands is limited on Facebook, and it may make more sense to direct your day-to-day engagement activities to LinkedIn. Download the eBook here.

Hiring Social Media Experts

New post from a forthcoming Identity Marketing magazine article on hiring social media experts is available over at the eBlox E-commerce Blog. If you're considering bringing in a social media expert to help with your marketing and SEO or perhaps you're considering becoming one yourself (why not? everyone else is doing it) then head over and check it out.