A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of attending BlogHer 2011 while working with our client, BillMyParents and our creative partner, FishTank. BillMyParents offers parents a way to track the spending habits of their teens through real time text messages to help teach smart spending habits. BlogHer hosts the largest conference in the world for women who blog (this year’s attendees totaled 3,600+).

Only three weeks out from the August 4 conference date we had a relatively short time to ramp up with Fishtank working on creative execution, while we focused on press materials and pitching efforts – and those ranged from traditional media outlets (Parents magazine, San Diego Union Tribune, Fox 5 News, NBC news), to bloggers spanning the gamut in topics and subscribers, and social influencers.

Objectives behind attending BlogHer:

• Connect and engage with mom bloggers, online influencers and attending traditional media
• Build database/interest list with qualified influencers
• Increase social media engagements and interactions
• Secure blogger and media coverage
• Convert interest list to BillMyParents users

In the weeks leading up to BlogHer, we held many meetings, Fishtank designed an awesome new look around an attention-spurring movement dubbed “the ‘Plastic Is Good’ movement.” They designed and created the BlogHer booth (complete with swag), all while us BGers were working to research and compile lists of influential bloggers that would be attending BlogHer (while drilling in to find those that are parents of teens). We pored over the attending media list, wrote numerous press materials, pitched and tweeted our little hearts out, and made quite a splash singing Fishtank’s “Plastic Is Good” ditty about going anti-green. The conference was a huge success as we built brand awareness for BillMyParents among the mom blogger community.

Before I share the fruits of our fast and furious labor, I’ll let you in on some secrets on how we pulled it off. 3,600 bloggers is absolutely as daunting as it seems. We had three weeks to identify who our target bloggers were going to be at BlogHer, engage in conversation with them and then convert those engagements into relationships resulting in product mentions and impressions.

Identifying our target blogger

BillMyParents is geared toward parents of teens, so it was clear we were looking for influential parents of teens (or bloggers/editors that write about the topic). A tier below this, we identified finance bloggers and tech bloggers if their content fit our product. Because there isn’t a tool that successfully IDs the most influential blogs within our categories, we had our work cut out for us. Luckily, social media played the biggest part in identifying who was attending the conference, so we took to Twitter following the #BlogHer hashtag. It seemed as if all 3,600 attendees were tweeting, so we created a tiered system to expedite the process and outlined qualifications we were looking for. We looked at a number of things to qualify our top bloggers:

1. Number of followers
2. Members/subscribers to the blog (which was not easy to find)
3. Average number of comments
4. Frequency of blog posts and tweets

Though it’s not an exact science, we essentially were looking at a blogger’s influence in the social space overall. By scanning profiles, we were able to narrow our target pitch list to about 30 bloggers. We continued interacting with all relevant BlogHer attendees as they’re all influential to their own circles, but as far as pitching went, we needed a smaller number to work with.

Because of the short period of time we had to build a community and become a trusted name in the space, we partnered with some of the most influential mommy bloggers in the space by hosting a sponsored luncheon and book signing event at our booth. Kristin Chase and Liz Gumbinner from CoolMomPicks helped moderate a not-s0-serious discussion about Parenting in the Digital Age with special guests, Eden Kennedy and Alice Bradley, authors of the hilarious book, Let’s Panic about Babies. Their tweets and blog posts about our product helped solidify us a trustworthy brand in other bloggers’ eyes.

Pitching our target blogger

Once we had our target list down to a digestible size we sent personalized emails sharing information about our product as something useful to them (vs. simply asking for coverage). We began building a relationship introducing ourselves as the PR people working with BillMyParents. Pitching in general should be transparent and this works exactly the same, if not more, when reaching out to bloggers. These women and men tend to share the ins and outs of their personal lives, so it’s always important that we respect them by being aware of what they do share in their blogs and don’t overstep our boundaries. In addition to emailing our top identified bloggers, we continued responding and retweeting their articles on Twitter, joining in on relevant chats about #BlogHer and tweeting live from the conference with images of bloggers that stopped by our booth, as well as tweeting our target bloggers during the conference asking them to come by.

And all of that hard work paid off. We saw tremendous results across the board:

• 337% increase in website traffic from the day before the conference (August 3) to the first business day following the conference  (August
• 62 YouTube video views of BillMyParents’ “plastic is good” demonstration between August 4-8
• 138 Twitter @mentions throughout the three-day conference (August 4-6)
• 401 Facebook page views throughout the three-day conference
• 20 blog posts about BillMyParents within two weeks of the conference from influential blogs including Mammarazzi Knows Best, Mom-entum, Mom Bloggers Club, After the Bubbly, The Succulent Wife and San Diego Momfia’s Stefanie Mullen posted to her blog, Ooph
• Coverage on Fox 5 News
• BillMyParents social influence increased from a Klout score of 26 to 47 in a matter of three weeks

The team had such an amazing time meeting some of the most interesting and engaged women bloggers (and a few men, too!). BillMyParents was well received by the crowd and we now look forward to building a community of ambassadors and friends in the community.

Over the past few years, our team has grown quite comfortable (and good, if we do say so ourselves) at using social networks. We’ve implemented Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, FourSquare, Whrrl, StumbleUpon and now Google+ into strategy for our client work as well as our personal brands.  We’ve worked hard to stay on top of our game as we’ve navigated our way through trends. We’ve spent countless hours strategizing and managing to make our social campaigns more successful. A big component of the strategy that goes into social networking is measuring and analyzing and if you’ve been reading our blog over the past few years, you know that we’ve been on the hunt for a social media tool that fits the needs of a growing agency. And it seems that finally we have found our perfect match with RavenTools!

RavenTools meets all our needs when it comes to managing and reporting on a social media campaign.

RavenTools Measurement: Raven isn’t reinventing the wheel – instead, the service takes existing measurements and combines them all in one clean and simple dashboard. From this dashboard, one can view their Google Analytics, Facebook insights, Twitter followers, mentions, retweets, and YouTube views and subscribers. If you want to view actual tweets or Facebook wall posts, you can click through to drill into each specific platform.

RavenTools Management: TweetDeck, Seesmic and Hootsuite are all great ways to manage multiple Twitter accounts in one place, but Raven allows us to manage Twitter and Facebook. Instead of logging out of one account and log back into another, we can schedule (and post live) to Twitter and Facebook all from within Raven. We can monitor keywords to respond when appropriate or watch mentions of our competitors to stay on top of industry trends. Similar to a CoTweet, Raven enables multiple people to log in (with varying degrees of access) to make community management as easy as possible.

RavenTools Reports: Measurement in itself is time consuming – manually counting every @mention and carefully graphing numbers in Excel is certainly not the most efficient way to report social media stats anymore. Once Raven has access to an account, it saves the data (vs. Twitter which only saves a month’s worth of tweets) and continuously graphs the growth.

And now my favorite part – RavenTools enables companies like Bailey Gardiner to create its own report template. Instead of our social reports being branded with RavenTools logos and colors, we can create a default template where we upload the BG logo, footer, font and colors. And even more exciting than that, RavenTools allows companies to auto-send reports to clients. All you have to do is create the template, select the graphs and information to be sent to your client and every month, RavenTools will automatically send the report without the account manager needing to do a thing. I would recommend that managers log in monthly to confirm all the data is accurate and reports are helpful, but eliminating this step means we can focus more time on quality content and competitor analysis, rather than counting and graphing.

I’ve just begun my account with Raven but after only a short two weeks of using it, I am impressed  – and when it comes to social media tools, it takes a lot to impress me. I’d recommend anyone managing multiple accounts give the 30-day trial a shot. I’m almost certain you’ll have the same great experience I’m having. A+ to RavenTools for finally giving agencies what we need.

Today Mashable broke the news about the partnership between Klout and brands on Facebook – where content shared on a particular Facebook page can be dictated by the individual fan’s Klout score. Mashable writes, “In Involver’s (the company creating the app) Klout interpretation on the gate model, a Facebook user’s Klout score will determine what type of Facebook content you see and what perks, if any, you get.” Audi is the first to roll it out.

As I read the article, many questions came to mind which were also reflected in the comments from other readers of Mashable:

• Who decides what a “good Klout score” is?
• Is Facebook Klout as accurate as Twitter? Many people privatize their profiles so is Klout able to access this and rate users fairly?
• Will this trend burst out of control losing relevance as more and more brands hide content until fans get their Klout scores?
• Will potential brand fans become irritated if they’re only gained access to information by enabling another application?
• What if the simple Klout score given to a fan isn’t reflective of their influence in a particular industry topic?

The announcement was made relating to a trial run with Audi where users are led to believe that only if their Klout is high enough, they’ll receive the Audi wallpaper or ring tone, but looking through their comments, Audi is apparently rewarding everyone, which may not be the best way to roll out the new initiative.

While I’m excited to see where this trend goes, I do hope that brands using this initiative to share their Facebook content are able to have more control in dictating who receives what. My personal recommendation would be for Klout to be cautious of the brands they partner with. Groupon only approves deals from brands if the value is in line with what subscribers want. Being selective will help this initiative stay relevant.

I also believe brands should be able to tap into the specifics of a person’s Klout score. We social media pros always discuss what’s important in social measurement and it’s not just one number of followers, fans, subscribers – it goes deeper than that and for Klout, I’d recommend my clients look at rewarding only Klout users that are influential in few topics (shown in the “influential about” part of Klout profile).

I’d like to see success stories from this initiative, but I also believe Klout and Facebook have some fine tuning to do to make this worth while. What are your initial thoughts?

If you were one of the lucky 500+ advertising, PR or social pros who attended Interactive Day 2011, you probably noticed a trend throughout the day – Bailey Gardiner was everywhere. Being the creatively-charged overachievers we are, we wanted to share our San Diego insight in the techiest (geekiest) way possible – through QR codes, a mobile app and multiple tweets. Naturally, we held one of our famous brainstorms to come up with the Brain Grease iPhone app, shared our love for innovation by making people work via QR code to win iPods and tweeted our way through the conference.

You may have noticed our QR codes on the walls, tables, mirrors and counters of the restrooms. Our Orange Couch even made an appearance the following day for ADMERICA! at our BG coffee truck meet up with Joes on the Nose. Indra Gardiner moderated a panel on Twitter Stories with Crosby Noricks from Red Door Interactive and Alex Funk from Covario, while Jon Bailey (aka San Diego Ad Club President) strolled the halls with some pretty amazing glasses on. Why make our presence known? Because excitement is contagious and we love taking the lead to amp up our fellow agency peers – ultimately building an even stronger marketing community in San Diego.

Ryan Thompson interviewed some of the speakers from the event which was captured on video thanks to our friends at SOIClave.  Interviews included Andrew Solmssen from Possible Worldwide, Joel Book from Exact Target, Rand Fishkin from SEOMoz, Ryan Berger from The Berger Shop, Jake Fields from Treeline Interactive, Mike Hodges from SignOn San Diego, Jason Sadler from Iwearyourshirt.com, Chad Robley from Mindgruve, Jeanette Best from USAopoly, and our Ad Club Co-Presidents.

As for my personal takeaways:

• Local media landscape has changed – Creating opportunities for smaller brands to garner coverage due to hyper-localized  media outlets. San Diego Union-Tribune’s Mike Hodges moderated a panel of reps from Patch, NBC and CityGrid who discussed the current media landscape. With layoffs, national reporters have been left to cover numerous beats in little time. This has led to a drop off in localized media coverage within larger regional and national outlets. These three outlets are solving this issue by only covering hyper-localized news empowering community members to provide information and share with their community members.
• SMS can double a brand’s response from consumers – Dan Flanegan from Brand Anywhere provided some great stats showing how using mobile in a brand’s marketing initiatives can increase sales. With smartphones at the fingertips of every shopper, they’re able to check prices of a brand’s competitors, get specialized deals and interact with brands in a whole new way.
• Consumers are expecting updates and new apps – If your brand can’t do that, you run the risk of being forgotten. Another fantastic point by the knowledgeable Dan Flanegan proves that brands that ignore consumers’ use of mobile will fall behind. Brands should make sure their websites are mobile-friendly and taking advantage of new technologies, brands should consider new ways of engaging by creating mobile apps.
• SEO for social updates - Search was a common theme across the Interactive Day panels. We’ve come to appreciate using search to reach the top of Google, but with social media taking off, brands need to remember that their updates should also be made with search in mind. Think of your keywords and who you’d like to find your posts and draft your content accordingly.

For those of you that shied away from the Bailey Gardiner camera, what was your favorite presenter, topic or part of Interactive Day? Please share in the comments.

In PR, we all joke about how we’re a group of type A, take-charge, organizational freaks. And as much as we love to be in control and fully prepared with our pretty Excel schedules, real life teaches us to think on our feet, calm the frenzied feeling we have inside and make things work with media. This being the third year I’ve worked on The San Diego Museum of Art’s annual fundraiser, Art Alive, I’ve come to learn the following three things about media preparation for an event:

1. Those organized Excel docs really do help – For events that have a lot of moving parts, it is essential to plan way in advance and keep track of communication in one or more spreadsheets. For Art Alive, we worked with six TV stations, over 30 print and online publications, eight Museum spokespeople for a fundraiser that had four main events over the course of four days. Having all of our conversations documented and saved in one place allowed us to easily keep track of the changes that continuously popped up and adjust the overall schedule accordingly.
2. Over-communicate - with your clients and with media. It’s easy to get caught up in planning and as the PR pro, your instincts may tell you that you can run the show as you go, but clarifying with media about potential restrictions in advance can really help make the event smoother for you and the media contact (which is the key to ensuring the best possible coverage). For example, with Art Alive the restrictions for photographers changes every year. Over the past three years, photographers’ access to the galleries went from having no restrictions whatsoever to needing escorts through the Museum. It can be frustrating for them to have to run around finding an escort, so creating an easy system and explaining the process in advance ensured that Museum security was appeased, and we got the media coverage we needed.
3. Roll with the punches – This applies particularly to TV coverage for clients. Often times, we’ll book news segments with producers weeks in advance. We’ll outline speaking points, spokespeople, contact information, what time the segment airs and if there are numerous hit times (live air times). However sometimes TV crews may cancel the segment due to breaking news they have to cover or the 6:10 a.m. air time got pushed to 6:30 a.m., leaving you scrambling to adjust your schedule and keeping your client happy. During Art Alive, we were working to facilitate two news stations at the Museum within the same three-hour gap. Due to changes at the news station, we had to put our pretty Excel doc aside, let our spokespeople know of the changes and then make it happen.

Are there any other insights from our fellow PR people relating to event planning? Please feel free to leave a comment or tweet me (@KatyHarrison20).

Last week, members of the armed forces were in limbo wondering if they’d receive pay while the government was working to meet an agreement on budgets. The news of a potential government shutdown created an uproar amongst Americans across the country, especially among those of the families and actual members of active duty armed forces. In the midst of the chaos and concern, one company stepped up to help and Facebook fans took notice.

Navy Federal Credit Union announced on April 7 that they’d advance direct deposit paychecks for active duty military members. Any military member that had direct deposit set up through Navy Federal Credit Union would receive coverage of the April 15 payroll, in addition to other financial backings including lines of credit, overdraft programs and credit card limits. This hit close to home personally as my boyfriend (in the Navy) informed me he’d only be receiving half pay.

Upon this announcement, fans took to Facebook thanking Navy Federal for their support when the government wasn’t supporting them. For a few days leading up to the announcement by congress, petitions were created and signed, and passed along through Facebook. Complete strangers bound together to create a collective voice, using FB as their bullhorn.

What I found most interesting as a social media specialist is that Navy Federal, even though they only had 2,500 fans on Facebook, garnered hundreds of engagements throughout the week. This is the kind of social interaction that most companies yearn for and it proves why  you need to build your networks before you ever need them. While prior to this, the Navy Federal fans were hardly a captive audience on Facebook, once they were given a reason to interact with the page, they were quickly activated.

In addition to commending Navy Federal on the announcement, fans of the Facebook page have gone so far as to mention how happy they are with customer service in the branches around the US. And though Navy Fed has done a great job responding to these comments, I’d recommend that they take advantage of all the extra eyeballs they have and keep the engagement going. If Navy Fed were my client, I’d insist that they reevaluate their initiatives by looking at the comments they’re receiving and catering a plan to continue growing and capitalizing on the attention they’re getting.

What recommendations do you have for Navy Federal to keep their engagement going? Please share your thoughts in the comment section below.

So we’ve just heard of another Twitter “oops” from the actual human being behind the brand – yes, there is a person (or team) actually drafting and sending updates from brand accounts. Chrysler’s Twitter handle was supposedly “compromised” this week when a tweet went out dropping the F-bomb. Later, it was reported that the agency (or person) responsible for tweeting on behalf of the brand accidentally wrote a tweet meant to come from his/her personal account, but sent it from the brand they’re responsible for managing.

Before you think I’m scolding, let me just share – I, too, have accidentally tweeted from one account when meaning for it to come from another. Though I didn’t include any f-bombs or #gettingslizzerd in my tweets, it was enough to make me sweat for a few seconds, delete the tweet and move on… a little more cautiously. And so I offer the following advice when managing brand tweets:

Use tools to schedule tweets - Though I am all for the real-time updates, if you feel that content must be shared during off-hours, be smart and schedule the tweets using Hootsuite, SocialOomph or other platforms. It’s better to have followers respond to a brand’s tweet and receive a response 40 hours later than to run the risk of offending someone who spent years building the reputation of a brand. Trust me, your client will prefer the former.

Designate different apps when using mobile devices to live tweet - I’ve had the iPhone and I now own a Droid. On these, I’ve tried the Twitter app, TweetDeck and Seesmic. Though the perk of TweetDeck and Seesmic is to only need one application for your numerous handles, the risk of tweeting from the wrong account is very high. That’s why I’d recommend using a separate application for each account. It may seem redundant, but you should be taking the extra care and time to ensure that you’re careful with your tweets – it is your job on the line after all.

Encourage your client to be transparent - Followers aren’t ignorant enough to think that all of our messaging points in tweets are coming from a long approval process or that a robot is making the posts. If a brand is upfront with its followers off the bat and explains that there’s a team of people making updates, they will appreciate the fact that your brand is now a living, breathing being and most will be quick to forgive for human error. Red Cross took it a step further by joking (kindly) about the man behind the #slizzerd.”

Triple check before hitting “send” – I know, it shouldn’t have to be included in this list, but how else are major brands like Chrysler, Red Cross, Kenneth Cole and Charlie Sheen making negative social headlines. Well, I can’t actually save the last two examples, but you get the point. If you have to log out of Twitter.com to log back in and ensure you’re in the right account, or click the avatar in your desktop app a few extra times to bring the drop down menu of handle options, or check that you’re in the correct mobile Twitter application for the designated account – do it! It will save your job and your personal brand that I know you’re trying hard to build.

Tweet others the way you wish to be tweeted – This should go for your own personal account. If you’re writing tweets that could be offensive to the brand’s followers, what makes you think that you wouldn’t offend your own followers? We all have days where people drive like idiots, we want to get sloshed on the weekends or we can’t stop staring at the UPS delivery guy/cute intern, but before you hit “send,” do you really think your followers need to know? If you take the extra step to think about the tweet coming from you, it’ll save you from accidentally costing your client its hard-earned reputation.

Though I have my own thoughts on the right way a brand should handle this situation and the wrong way, what’s important to remember is to slow down, develop a system with tools to save yourself from these embarrassing and sometimes costly snafus, and most of all, pay attention before hitting the “send” button.

At the dismay of my friends that are not engulfed in social media, I’ve been doing quite a bit of research into LBS programs and what works and doesn’t work with each one. For the past month, I’ve been looking into Facebook Places, more specifically its new Deals program.

If you’re not up to speed, Facebook enables companies to claim their venue so when smart phone users check-in, the location is tied back to the official Facebook page (see The San Diego Museum of Art for example).

Once a company has claimed its venue, the admin of the official page can create a Facebook Deal. The challenge of marketers is to decide “which type of deal is right for my brand?” I’ve come to find there are some loopholes in some of the deals that marketers should be aware of before deciding.

Types of Facebook Deals:

Individual Facebook Deal – To claim this type of deal, users need to only check into a venue once. When the user checks in, they click “Claim Deal,” which changes their phone screen to say, “Show phone screen at register to redeem.” Any venue offering these giveaways should be sure that the staff is well-versed on how to fulfill the deal.

The individual deal is best for venues looking to attract new visitors. Each time a person redeems a deal, it’s posted to his/her Facebook wall, making your venue front and center for his/her 100-1,000 friends.

What to be aware of: Deals are new for most users, so messaging and staff training are a necessity. Also, a major challenge for new users of Facebook check-ins is that instead of waiting for their phone to auto-populate with nearby locations, they have the option to create their own venue if they can’t find yours. If they make their own, they’ll never see your official location or your deal.

Loyalty Facebook Deal – Users receive these deals by checking into a venue numerous times (usually between 3-5 check-ins within a 60-day period). A person’s smart phone will automatically mark off how many times the user has checked into the location and once they’ve met the required number of check-ins, they will get the screen telling them they can redeem the prize.

This type of deal is great (in theory) to bring repeat customers to your venue. By encouraging them to visit often, they will be rewarded. Plus each time a person checks in, his friends will be notified, seeing that he frequents this spot, then when the deal is claimed, his friends will see that your venue is offering more value.

What to be aware of - Users don’t need to actually be at your venue to check in. That, in my opinion is a BIG problem seeing that the point of this deal is to bring customers in numerous times. I’ve checked into venues from six blocks away (of course to test the accuracy of a loyalty program). In all honesty, I’d warn my clients to try one of the other deals until Facebook is able to fix this issue.

Friends Facebook Deal – When visiting a venue together, a group of friends can claim a deal by both checking in and tagging one another. This deal is specifically important to have staff training so they know how to verify that each friend is on Facebook and has checked in. In my research, I am yet to find a friend deal offered, but continue to be on the lookout.

This deal is similar to the individual deal but it allows the company to reach a larger audience. It also takes the responsibility off the venue to encourage the check-in. Rather it requires the visitor to find people to go with and to make them check-in on arrival. Finally this deal type also spreads to more eyeballs on Facebook. Since users must have three or more friends check in to redeem the deal, the company benefits by having a larger network view the check-in.

What to be aware of - Not everyone has a smart phone so make sure your staff is prepared to explain that they offer other deals for non smart phone users. Additionally, individuals can tag friends as if they’re there even when they’re not, so be cautious that those that checked in are who they say they are.

Charity Facebook Deals – These are deals that companies pledge to donate to a cause each time an individual checks in. I’ve seen two different companies honor this type, one of them being Subway Sandwiches donating $0.10 to heart health programs for each check-in.

This deal is beneficial no matter what type of audience you are trying to attract. A great time to implement this type of deal is if your venue is hosting a fundraiser or event where you predict you will attract a large audience.

What to be aware of – I don’t see a downside to honoring the charity deal as long as the venue is prepared for the fact that people can check-in even if they’re not in the actual location. It may be beneficial to establish a budget and put a cap on the donation.

All in all, these Facebook deals are a great addition to a company’s marketing initiatives. Because they’re so new, though, I’d recommend incorporating messaging and signage to inform passersby and visitors to your venue that you honor the deal.  And be certain to train your staff on how to check-in and what to look for when patrons try to redeem their prizes.

In the past couple of months we’ve written several posts on how you can build your social community by partaking in Twitter chats. Specifically we’ve  talked about PR chats and travel chats, but that doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface. There are all sorts of Twitter chats already established for anything you may be interested in and you can find these or create your own by using Twitter search.

Once you’ve identified the hashtag you’d like to follow, its time to figure out your preferred method of keeping up with the conversation. While following a hashtag sounds easy enough, there are a number of different approaches and tools to follow a chat in real-time. Here are some options, along with the pros and cons:

TWITTER.COM - Setting up a search in Twitter can be hit or miss – especially when it comes to chats. In my personal experience, it’s been challenging to find a conversation based on a hashtag, so once you see a tweet in your “Home” stream, click on the linked hashtag to bring you to a page where they’ll all populate.

Pros to Twitter.com – You control how often the tweets are updated by clicking refresh. As you’ll see in some of the options below, for larger, more popular chats, it can become overwhelming when the stream is updating faster than you can read.

Cons to Twitter.com - As mentioned earlier, I’ve had challenges with being able to find particular search terms and I’ve noticed that Twitter.com’s accuracy isn’t as spot-on as some other real-time tools. They also often “rate-limit” you, which means if your IP address has performed too many searches on Twitter within a given time, they won’t let you make any more. This makes it impossible to search for your hashtag.

Additionally, Twitter.com only lets you view one stream at a time, so if you’re looking at a conversation feed, you can’t go to someone’s full profile unless you click away from the #hashtag feed.

TWEETGRID (or TweetChat) – A lot of popular and recurring Twitter chats offer users a special website that auto-refreshes in real-time as the conversation takes place.

Pros of TweetGrid tools – You can view multiple streams at the same time (real-time updates of conversation based on the hashtag, @mentions, and an option to create your own stream to monitor what you wish during the chat). Most of these tools also automatically add the hashtag matched with the conversation to your tweets, which is very helpful for those of us that get really excited about the conversation and forget to add the tag.

Cons of TweetGrid tools – My main complaint with the tools I’ve tried (during #TNI – Traveler’s Night In) is how it updates. I do like that I can choose how often the stream updates (0 seconds, 15 seconds, 60 seconds, etc.), however instead of showing updates one by one, the entire block of tweets I was looking at moves down to the point where I can’t keep up with the conversation at all. I assume this tool would be helpful for a smaller online gathering of people, but with the weekly average of 500 people participating in this one conversation, it’s just too hard to monitor and reply easily.

DESKTOP APPLICATIONS (Seesmic, TweetDeck, Hootsuite) – So far, I’ve had the most success using my Seesmic desktop application. Just like any other tool out there, it can be buggy and decide temporarily to not update at all, but for the most part, I prefer this to the other options. I’d go so far as to say that as a marketer responsible for the daily maintenance of clients’ Twitter accounts and my own, desktop apps are the way to go.

Pros of desktop apps – I can create and monitor as many streams as I’d like. I can view Home, so I’m still watching other discussions taking place outside the chat, I can watch @mentions, DMs, search terms and the allotted conversation by hashtag. Additionally, if I want to view a user’s profile, I can click her handle and see her profile, followers, recent tweets, etc. I can follow, block or DM those users as well, all from Seesmic. Another pro of Seesmic is the real-time updates. When the updates are happening too often and I begin missing tweets, I can scroll down and that keeps the stream still until I decide to bring my cursor to the top again, where it’ll continue to update in real-time. With the newest version of Seesmic, I can view TwitPics right in the stream under the 140 character tweet. I warn you of this perk though, as there are many-a-photo I wish I hadn’t caught a glimpse of.

Cons of desktop apps - My only issue with these applications is the constant updating. As mentioned in TweetGrid tools, it can become overwhelming as your stream continuously moves down, making it nearly impossible to read, respond or click on anything your fellow conversationalists share. The only other issue I have is that when Twitter traffic gets too high, Seesmic tends to stop completely, unable to update any stream, making me miss anywhere from five to 20 minutes of a conversation, which I have to then turn to one of my other options.

SMART PHONES – There was one instance where I used my iPhone to partake in a Twitter chat (again Thursday’s #TNI). I was in the passenger seat driving from San Diego to Phoenix and didn’t want to miss my weekly addiction. I’ve downloaded both the Free Seesmic and Tweetdeck apps to my iPhone and found out that I only have a limited amount of tweets with the Seesmic app – whoops! As for Tweetdeck, it wasn’t 100% useful. After fighting AT&Ts coverage battle, I gave in and stole my boyfriend’s Droid, where I simply used the Twitter app. I can now say, I’ve tested most Twitter-related smart phone apps.

Pros of Smart Phones – Let’s face it – they’re portable! You can hop on any conversation wherever you happen to be (unless you’re held prisoner by AT&T). With Seesmic and Tweetdeck, you can set up multiple searches by account and monitor discussions by refreshing your feed.

Cons of Smart Phones – You’re at the mercy of your wi-fi connection. Additionally, these apps can also be buggy and won’t load for minutes at a time, in which you miss the point of the real-time chats.

I have tried them all and though it’s a personal preference, I still think the desktop app wins in my book. Which do you prefer? Are there other tools out there that do a better job of pacing the conversation for you? Leave a note in the comments.

Will 2011 be the year for Location Based Services? Perhaps. More specifically, I’d predict it to be the year that the top tools are defined, adopted and refined. In case you’re a bit behind on the new trend, here’s a quick rundown of what a Location Based Service (LBS) is, my list of top applications in the space and how marketers can leverage these tools.

About.com defines Location Based Services as, “Any information, entertainment or social media service that is available on a mobile device, and makes use of geographical position.” Basically, it is another social element on mobile phones that keeps people informed on where their friends are, what they’re doing and when. We’ve already looked into Foursquare and see it as a major contender, but here are the apps we see catching up:

Facebook Places

What it is – Places allows users to tag where they are, see where their other Facebook friends are, see who else is checked into the same venue at the same time, tag friends with you at that location and write or review comments related to that location. Personally, because of the number of users already logging into Facebook daily, I believe Places will be a force to be reckoned with once marketers figure out how to measure and properly market their venues.

How marketers can leverage it - Though a few brands have had a go at using Places and claimed success, users seem to run into a few snags (not understanding the difference between a check-in and wall comment, on-site customer service wasn’t properly prepared to handle inquiries, etc.). For a successful promotion with this platform, a venue should claim their official location, use the Deals feature, educate its current likers (fans) about the promotion it intends to run and make sure its messaging is very clear and concise. Furthermore, if running an on-site promo, test out a small scale check-in program and make sure employees on-site understand and know how to best implement the program. Once people fully adopt the service, Places can take off.

Gowalla

What it is – With over 450,000 users, Gowalla has created a community of passport holders that check-in to receive passport stamps, write reviews, upload photos, comment on places friends visited and highlight their own favorite places. Gowalla offers an added bonus to users and marketers by highlighting the best venues (selected by their users) on its City Pages.  This is great for marketers because it means more eyeballs on their venue and it’s helpful for users who want to discover new and popular places.

How marketers can leverage it – Gowalla offers venues cusomized stamps that its artists create. When a user checks into your venue, that stamp will be added to their passport with all their Gowalla friends able to view it. With the rewards program, brands have created virtual souvenirs that can be redeemable for actual real-life rewards.

Disney created a fantastic campaign by creating a trip with over 100 stamps within its park, allowing family and friends of Gowalla users to see a virtual scrapbook as users upload photos and share experiences. As a marketer, this sharing of personal experiences stretches outside the park and beyond any paid advertising.

It seems as if Gowalla is tapping travelers by offering suggested trips recommending a series of restaurants, gardens and parks to visit (creators of trips include National Geographic, CNN Money and USA Today). When a trip is completed, a pin is added to the user’s passport, tracking where he’s been in the world. For business owners, simple signage in your venue can encourage Gowalla users to check in and highlight your location, leading to a possible featured on the City Pages for users looking what to do or eat in a new city.

SCVNGR

What is it – Creating a game out of your check-ins, SCVNGR incorporates geo with challenges to people checking into venues. It’s ideal for creating a scavenger hunt. The services offered include standard challenges (non-location based), Treks (connecting places and challenges) and Rewards (points or real-life prizing). SCVNGR also integrated with Facebook Places, enabling users to post their points and activities to their wall as well as tapping into their pre-established community, rather than adding friends “from scratch.”

How marketers can leverage it – Brands need to dig deeper when integrating with SCVNGR because people use the app for fun, to look for trivia and for literal scavenger hunts. When promoting a venue, create challenges that would encourage visitors to explore, read and learn about your brand’s offering.

Whrrl

What it is - Similar to Yelp, Whrrl offers reviews of restaurants, bars, stores and more written by someone who has actually checked into the location. Whrrl then maps everything onto Google Maps so that when users enter their location, a map will auto populate with venues nearby. Click on one that looks interesting and you’ll get the distance from your current location and all the details about the establishment: when it opens, if it serves brunch and the type of payment options.

Whrrl’s point of differentiation is their use of “societies.” These are groups people can build to engage with friends based on common themes, such as the Live Music Society, American Food Society and Coffee Lover’s Society. The idea is to see check-ins and get reviews from like-minded people. Societies can be created with exclusivity – The Wine Bar society requires a Whrrl user to check in to at least three wine-related venues before accepting membership. This ensures other society members are receiving recommendations from friends they trust to be in-the-know.

Notifications of friends’ recommendations pop up as you navigate through the application based on your current location. If you’re in a new city and interested in what other Whrrl users recommend, click on the “Ideas” button at the bottom to see what’s nearby, what your friends recommend and what locations are linked to which societies. If you decide you “want to” take advantage of a recommendation, click “want to” and the person that made the recommendation receives extra points. Once you’ve actually followed through with the task, take and upload a photo or write your own review to receive points.

How marketers can leverage it – Marketers can leverage the pre-established point system by providing discounts and giveaways through the loyalty program. Whrrl also offers branded loyalty programs.

As people become more connected through their smart phones, I believe the ease of use and offerings will play a role in which program individuals decide to tap into. Which app do you predict most people will use as their prime LBS?