BufferApp Down, I repeat, BufferApp is Down

Do you rule? rule.fm | Collaboration made easy!

Whether you’re a manger of a coffee shop, team lead for an assignment, or even a project manager at your company, productivity has now been made easier with rule.fm! 

Rule.fm is a collaboration platform on the web that offers small businesses, corporations, or any organization plenty of features to manage projects and increase productivity. Some of the features available on rule include customer relationship management (CRM), user and workgroup management, document and project management, as well as productivity stream.

Other features include private messaging, permissions, drop email, calendar, wikis, and the list goes on.

The best part about rule is the user interface (UI). Its clean interface allows for easy navigation through the platform’s features making it easy for rulers to collaborate.

My favorite feature within rule is the ability to create wikis. These wikis are spaces for information to be added/edited/reordered including lists, embedded videos, and notes to bring and share anywhere.

How does this help with productivity?

Within rule, you have the ability to assign tasks to users within your workgroup. These users will then get notified that they have received a task, and once they complete it, they can log on and check off that they have.

Important meetings, due dates, and team calendars can also either be shared with every user, or within certain workgroups on rule. Reordering things on the calendar are as simple as dragging and dropping.

How much does it all cost?

Pricing for rule.fm starts at $49/mo for up to 10 users, 35 projects, and 15GB of storage, and ranges to $199/mo for up to 100 users, unlimited projects, and 300GB of storage.

Special arrangements can be made for organizations with more than 100 members by contacting rule.fm for a quote.

Fusion Monarch, the maker of rule, is a technology vendor based out of Carlsbad, Calif. with the mission of harnessing technologies for the purpose of creating aesthetic, modular, and scalable frameworks, from which to build, manage. and promote valuable assets.

Addicted to Social Media? HootSuite is for you. [#socialsjsu]

HootSuite is an all-in-one social media dashboard that offers everything from scheduled tweeting, analytics, and project management.

It can serve the average social media consumer, or an employee of any business as a full fledged marketing tool. 

There are so many other social media clients out there. Why is HootSuite the way to go?

On a very basic level, HootSuite can do everything that other clients can do from sending, receiving, re-tweeting, and scheduling tweets. On a much deeper level, HootSuite can organize “streams” to help you track keywords based on search with many different possibilities for filtering results.

Last Wednesday, my Social Business class at SJSU was very fortunate to have Kirsten Bailey (@6oz) of HootSuite to speak to us over a Skype call to teach us tips and tricks in using the social media client.

After hearing her speak, I was excited to log into my account and optimize my dashboard. Sadly, there are some things that you cannot do if you do not have a premium account.

Why go HootSuite Pro?

If you are addicted to social media, or work with social media for a living, this decision should be a no-brainer.

The free version only allows you to connect up to five social networking accounts (including Facebook fan pages, and private groups), two RSS feeds, and only gives you access to basic analytics.

With a HootSuite Pro account, you gain access to Google Analytics, Facebook Insights, Klout Scores, archiving, and the list goes on.

The best part about HootSuite Pro is that it is only $5.99 monthly, and you can try it out for 30 days before you commit to it.

“Hoo” uses HootSuite? (via hootsuite.com)

“HootSuite is an essential tool for managing social networks by allowing teams to efficiently track conversations and measure campaign results”
- Pete Cashmore, CEO, Mashable

“HootSuite not only makes managing accounts across team members more efficient, but also provides deep data to easily analyze and act on what works and what doesn’t”
-Patrick Starzan, VP of Marketing, Funny or Die

Summary

If you’re an average consumer, or a social media marketing analyst, HootSuite is the tool for you.

Share your blog feeds, schedule tweets (in bulk with the pro version), track your analytics, and grow your reach using the features available with HootSuite.

In short, HootSuite is much more than a Twitter client. It is a full fledged marketing tool that allows your organization to capitalize on every slice of information from your social media campaigns.

The Power of Pinterest - #socialsjsu

Through Michael Brito’s influence, I created a Pinterest account to see what the hype was all about. To no surprise, I found myself lost inside this Pinterest world where I could create virtual pinboards to collect images that represent who I am. Pinterest provides a visual representation of a person’s personality by showcasing images that they pin on these virtual “boards”.

With that idea alone, it isn’t surprising to know that Pinterest, this new social media service, has been one of the fastest growing networks in history. 

Pinterest allows you to gather and “pin” images, ideas, or any kind of information to a virtual bulletin board in which you can share with other Pinterest users. This is the aspect that makes “pinning” on Pinterest so addicting.

But what are ways Pinterest can be used for your business? (via score.org)

• Drive Traffic and New Leads: Especially if your product/service is particularly visual and appeals to women (currently the dominant user group), Pinterest can act as an interactive and appealing storefront. Artists, photographers, fashion designers, etc. have already started pinning with a passion! Here are some great examples of Pinterest Brand pages for inspiration.
• SEO Benefit: Pinterest can help drive traffic to your blog posts or other visual elements of your website. This post from Search Engine Land gives tips on optimizing your pins to maximize your SEO benefit.
• Infographics: Better than a slide show, infographics let you get a powerful sales message across in a captivating, yet quick manner.  Here’s a great infographic on Pinterest itself. This approach can be particularly powerful for business-to-business lead cultivation.
• Market Research: Want to capture great qualitative data like customer profiles? Perhaps you want to get some feedback on a new style of product, or packaging, or website design? Use Pinterest to poll your customers or selectively invite a small group as a virtual focus group.
• Contests: You can encourage participants to submit ideas, images and have everyone else “pin” to cast their vote. The whole process is fun and definitely engaging. Here’s an example from Homes.com

Not convinced? View this image provided by TechCrunch

It is taking me a while to get the hang of using Pinterest. I will continue to explore, pin, re-pin, and influence others on this fast growing social network.

Follow me at jprastrullo on Pinterest to find out about me!

Start pinning! 

Using Social Technologies in Business - A Social Media Standpoint

Chapter 2 of Michael Brito’s book Smart Business, Social Business overlooks several options of social software that are beneficial to businesses.

He explains in detail the pros and cons of several outlets including collaboration tools such as Jive, SharePoint, and Box.net.

He also explains differences between the different social listening platforms available including: Radian6, Lithium, and Meltwater Buzz.

Aside from that, he also showcases the options for social relationship management applications, and expresses the importance of real-time analytics and publishing efficiencies.

“Listening without taking any action is worse than not listening at all.”

It is important for businesses to use these devices to listen in on the conversations that are taking place on the internet. Using software like Radian6 will allow organizations to see conversations revolving around their particular brand and will automatically know the sentiment of these conversations allowing them to respond to them, whether good or bad.

Knowing this valuable information in combination of using a social relationship management application such as Sprinklr, or Awareness allow marketers to connect with the social customer by tailoring their message through the right channel at the right time.

“A social business is one that invests in technology that will allow it to collaborate, interact, share, and engage both internally and externally with customers”

In summarizing this chapter, the takeaway is that a true social business must use these available social technologies to connect with their most valuable assets: the social customer. 

Make social listening a priority for your social business!

#socialsjsu - SJSU Social Business Class

Follow this hashtag to join the conversation with SJSU’s newest elective: MCOM 139 - Social Media in Business.

Michael Brito, the instructor of this class holds a high seat in the public relations world. He sits as the Senior Vice President of Social Media at Edelman Digital, one of the top firms in the world. This is his first year teaching at San Jose State, and the students in the class, both studying marketing and/or public relations, seem to really like the direction this class is going in.

Now enough of the introduction. Here’s a little bit about what I’ve learned.

A few of Brito’s main discussion points revolved around the social customer, and how it is the most important asset to any company. The social customer will share his or her experiences through several channels influencing other people whether it is good or bad.

In the first chapter of his book, Smart Business, Social Business: A Playbook for Social Media in your Organization, Brito emphasizes how more and more businesses are becoming a social business, and how that process begins within the organization.

He explains that businesses need to tear down the barrier between organizational silos within the company that may be working against each other, using twice the amount of energy and resources.

Brito uses Yahoo! Corporation as a case study of a company who hasn’t seen much success in recent years. The company’s products including Yahoo! Answers, Mail, Games etc. work in separate silos with entirely separate project managers, engineers, marketers, and public relations people.

I am looking forward to all the valuable information that I’m going to get from this class and from reading Michael Brito’s book.

Make sure to follow #socialsjsu to join the conversation and stay updated with the best practices for using social media in your organization!