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Have you ever thought about using auto tweet software? I enjoy using Twitter a lot, but I don’t enjoy having to update my status throughout the day. I would rather take 30 minutes to make a list of all my updates in advance, and schedule them to post on Twitter, rather than do it all day long. I know that this goes against the grain for many people. But, I don’t use Twitter to tell people when I am brushing my teeth, or when I am going to bed.

In all fairness, I am not saying that these kind of updates are useless. I am more less saying that this isn’t my style, and what I want to use Twitter for doesn’t require me to post updates throughout the day. Instead, I rather batch them out once a day and have them post automatically and at scheduled times throughout the day.

For a long time, I haven’t been able to define a true purpose with using Twitter, yet I know that Twitter can be a very powerful tool. In the past, I have used my account to send updates like “Hey, I am brushing my teeth now.” and “Hey I am going to bed now.”, and I have also used my Twitter account pitch products and services that can earn commission. Additionally, I have used my account to tell people about new content that I have published online. One thing is certain, no matter how I use my account, I get mixed results either way. So something needs to change.

My goal is to buckle down and to start using Twitter in a more consistent manner. I think doing so, will tighten up the inconsistent results I receive. In a nutshell, I’d like to use Twitter as a way to connect with people and help them learn more about the topics I write about online. That includes asking people open ended questions, offering a stream of advice, sending out notifications of new content I have made available online, and recommending and successfully selling products and services. All this can be done automatically without having to break your work routine and daily schedule. How in-depth and how far in advance you make your schedule is up to you.

In order to do all this, you need auto tweet software. I found a site called FutureTweets.com and it seems to work great so far. FutureTweets.com is a free service that lets you schedule your Twitter messages and send them at specific times in the future. Scheduling your Tweets is easy. When you create an account on FutureTweets.com, you’re automatically assigned a private email address. Write your message in an email and send it to the private address assigned. Use the subject line to schedule when you want your Tweet to go live.

Last night, I asked people on Twitter for their advice on auto tweet software and received a lot of help and was directed to a few different programs available. I am going to be looking into these programs and will post some updates on my findings in the near future. Thanks to @bloghologyORG, , @coolcatteacher, and @psimac for your help.

I have been using TwitterFeed.com for about a year and quite honestly, I have not been able to find another service like it. TwitterFeed.com is a free service that allows you import various RSS feeds and each time they update, TwitterFeed will automatically post a tweet will on your Twitter page.

That said, I received an email from TwitterFeed today informing me that their team has been hard at work making improvements to their system. And, I’ll admit, it’s been awhile since the last time I logged in, and indeed, a lot has changed. Over the last year, TwitterFeed has grown a lot and today there’s over 350,000 publishers pushing out almost 600,000 feeds, all of which generate around 5.5 million total clicks daily.

Dealing with this explosive growth, the staff at TwitterFeed admit that it was challenging to maintain a level of reliability, and at times they would experience floods of traffic that would overwhelm their system. In an effort to accommodate the quick growth, they have been working on expanding their system by building a completely new architecture which will capable of handing millions of posts sent to FaceBook, Twitter, and other places daily.

The great thing about TwitterFeed is their newly released features. For starters, they’re now working with Pubsubhubbub, which means that on some sites such as TypePad and Blogger, users will be able to publish their TwitterFeed posts in real time. Soon features will become available to WordPress.

The feature I am most excited about is the FaceBook integration. On TwitterFeed, you can now automatically publish your RSS feed entries into FaceBook. Additionally, you will also be able to track statistics. Specifically, you’ll be able to differentiate between FaceBook traffic and Twitter traffic, and ultimately see which place is delivering more traffic back to your site.

Tracking statistics is important, and that’s also where their new Google Analytics Integration kicks in. TwitterFeed now includes special ‘UTM’ tags within each post so that you can study traffic patterns and gain an understanding of how and where people are coming from within FaceBook and Twitter.

The staff is in the process of rolling out these new updates today. They do warn that it may be a few days until everything is complete but assure that once the migration into the new system is complete, everything will operate much smoothly and expandability will occur with ease. If you’re looking for an easy and automatic way to share your RSS feed content on FaceBook and Twitter, I recommend getting a free TwitterFeed.com account. Signing up is totally free, and the benefits are invaluable.

As social media continues to grow and prove itself as more than a passing fad, more and more businesses are implementing social media policies. Just yesterday, I was reading about the NBA’s new social media policy that is to be applied for this season, governing how players and management are allowed to use social media.

Does your business have a social media policy in affect? Or are you part of the over 33% of companies lacking this important brand-protecting policy?

Whether you already have an existing policy or you need to create a new one, here are some things you should be sure to include in your business’ social media policy.

•    Time of social media use—The most obvious concern about having employees who use social media is that it will impact their productivity during the work day. That’s certainly an understandable concern as it’s easy to waste hours browsing around on Twitter, Facebook, or reading blogs. Make sure your social media policy clearly explains when and for how long employees are allowed to engage in social media activities.

•    Subjects allowed to be discussed—There’s something to be said for “what happens in the office, stays in the office.” You don’t want your employees leaking sensitive company information or complaining about internal practices they don’t agree with. Outline which topics your employees are allowed to talk about online. This helps to ensure your business isn’t undermined by a loose-lipped employee.
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By now, you’ve probably seen a commercial or an online ad for TGI Friday’s new social media campaign. If you haven’t, let me give you a rundown. The idea of the campaign is that Woody is TGI Friday’s #1 Fan. If he can get 500,000 fans on Facebook by the end of the month, everyone who registers to follow him gets a free burger. I think it’s a pretty good idea, and I’ll tell you why.

First, the basic idea behind this campaign has been used successfully before. Just last month, Starbucks gave away free ice cream coupons to those who joined their fan page. The campaign generated a lot of buzz, it was purely social, and it was a great way for Starbucks to begin extending its brand into ice cream.

Although the TGI Friday’s campaign is just a few days old, it’s already picking up some steam. As of the time of me writing this post, Woody has over 254,000 fans on Facebook. More importantly, a simple Twitter search for related terms (i.e. TGI Friday’s, Woody TGI Friday’s, free burger, etc.) shows that the campaign is starting to catch on. People are sending out Tweets telling their friends to fan Woody on Facebook. I wouldn’t say it’s gone viral yet, but it’s still early, and I think it has the potential to. As it gets closer to that September 30th deadline, I think the word of mouth will really start to pick up.

The other thing I like about this campaign is that if it’s successful, it will actually bring a lot of foot traffic into their business. See, too many social media campaigns suffer from not finding a way to bridge the social aspect to actual physical business. In theory, if this campaign goes according to plan, 500,000 people will be going into a TGI Friday’s to claim their free burger. Not only will many of these people probably order appetizers, desserts, drinks since the burger is free, but if they have a good experience, they could bring repeat business for years to come.

I’m interested to see how this plays out for TGI Friday’s. If all goes well, you can rest assured you’ll see even more businesses jumping on the social media bandwagon.

What do you think of TGI Friday’s social media campaign?

Crowdsourcing. It’s one of those buzzwords that gets thrown around in new marketing discussions. What is it? The simplest explanation is crowdsourcing is when you collaborate with your audience on a task for your business. A good example of this is Dell’s IdeaStorm website. This platform allows users to submit new product ideas and suggestions for improving Dell’s current products. To date, Dell has used 366 of these user-submitted ideas, and they don’t pay their users a cent!

So, now that you understand what crowdsourcing is, how can you use it for your small business? Here are 5 easy ways to enjoy the benefits of collaborating with your audience.

1. Generate ideas for better/new products—As I mentioned earlier, Dell uses crowdsourcing to better their products and to solicit ideas for new ones. You can easily do the same. Social media is the perfect tool for crowdsourcing. Ask your Twitter followers for feedback on your products. Create a website like the IdeaStorm website. Ask your blog readers for suggestions for new product ideas. The possibilities are endless.
2. Ask a simple question—None of us are experts in everything. That’s where crowdsourcing can come in handy. Have a question about advertising for your business? Ask it on LinkedIn, Yahoo! Answers, or Twitter. Need some expertise on an employee management matter? The web is full of experts who can pitch some advice your way.
3. Get low-cost designs—99designs and other similar websites let you harness the power of crowdsourcing for all your design needs. Perfect for the small business looking for a logo or website design on a tight budget, these sites allow you to post a design project to thousands of designers. You set a cash prize for the winning design, and the community of designers will submit design proposals to you. You could have hundreds of designs to choose from, ensuring you find the perfect design for your needs.
4. Find the perfect price point—If you’re launching a new product or service, finding the right price tag for it can be an exercise in guesswork. But with the power of crowdsourcing, you can ask your audience how much they would pay for your new product or service. Averaging out the submitted price points is a great place to start your pricing research.
5. Spread your marketing message—Viral marketing is all about enlisting the power of word of mouth to spread your message from one person to another. Make a list of viral ideas that could work for your business (e.g. a controversial blog post, a contest, a unique widget, etc.).

How have you used crowdsourcing for your business? Share your experiences in the replies.