You may have heard a thing or two about Pinterest in the last few months. The social bookmarking site that allows brides, party planners, hoarders and marketers alike to collect and share things online is now making its way into the mainstream and causing businesses to pay attention to this oh-so-addicting thing we call pinning.

I’ve read a number of blog posts within the past week contributing to my thoughts on why consumer marketers should quickly pay attention to Pinterest. Here are a few of the best reads:

Pinterest Drives More Traffic Than Google+, YouTube and LinkedIn Combined

Zoe Fox published a post on Mashable this week calling out just how quickly Pinterest has grown, beating Google+, LinkedIn and YouTube in percentage of referral traffic in the month of January according to a Shareaholic study. Fox goes on to list a number of other revealing stats about referral traffic trends.

Pinterest Becomes Top Traffic Driver for Retailers

Mashable also reveals the power of Pinterest for retailers in the form of an infographic this week.  The post goes on to describe the massive growth in unique visitors Pinterest saw from September to December 2011 - the social site saw a 429 percent increase within the four month period, and also jumped 389 percent as a top traffic referral for several apparel retailers from July to December 2011. Not too shabby.

4 types of businesses that should be on Pinterest

PR Daily goes on to list other industries that can and should take advantage of Pinterest. Implementing a solid pinning strategy can be useful for not only retail, but also cause marketing, small businesses, media and even corporate brands – so long as there is a strategy and regular content in place. Let’s use TIME Magazine as an example, the media outlet showcases not only its past covers but also staff members, gift guides, style, fashion and TIME recommendations (PR people, are you thinking what I’m thinking?).

My prediction is that we will notice an influx in “strategic pinning” in 2012. Smart marketers will utilize the platform when the time and brand is right. How are you pinning?

The truth is, you cannot really predict what will happen next week in social media, but nonetheless here are 12 predictions and thoughts we have going into 2012.

1. Content is (still) King - Over the past few years we’ve seen brands become their own publishers and content curators. The trend will continue in 2012, and brands will find more and more ways to integrate content with commerce and their communities. Brands with the most authentic, engaging, integrated, and useful content will find the most success. Those who tumbl just to tumbl will not find the digital community they hoped to build.

2. Digital Punch Cards in the form of Recommendations and Rewards -  Have you noticed when you “like” pages on Facebook now you are offered the ability to recommend that brand to all of your friends? This feature and digital recommendation trend around social media will evolve in 2012, and brands, small businesses in particular will find a way to take advantage of it. Surprise and delight your fans perhaps? The key for brands will be to thank the audience they’ve accumulated and authentically encourage them to digitally recommend them to other friends. No need to carry those buy 40 get 1 free yogurt punch cards!

3. Brands will try to take advantage of Pinterest, and many will fail. – As any pinner knows, Pinterest is amazing for finding pretty things, new recipes, new looks, and overall inspiration. And many bloggers know that Pinterest drives a ton of traffic to their blogs. Brands are paying attention to this trend, but have not yet discovered how to use Pinterest as a proactive social media channel. 2012 will be the year of Pinterest for brands, “Like” will be replaced by many with “Pin it”.

4. Tumblr will roll out metrics (hopefully). – Early brand adopters of Tumblr have since voiced their frustration with the company’s business practices and its lack of an analytics dashboard. In 2012, Tumblr will should roll out some metrics, and/or brands will continue to devote more of their efforts to Facebook with its newer Tumblr-esque visual and re-sharing properties.

I heart glitterguide.tumblr.com

5. The 2012 Elections will be Social - If the 2012 election stays on trend with the 2008 election, increasing the votes cast by a demographic of younger voters, politicians will need to socialize. A recent Pew Research Center survey found that 83% of Internet users ages 18-29 use social networking sites, and 65% of adults use social networking sites, most of whom form opinions of restaurants, styles, and even politics amongst friends. Notice, even Obama uses F-commerce (Facebook commerce).

6. Less is More. As brands and social gurus continue to refine metrics, we believe 2012 will simplify the actions of brands and their respective social communities. Instead of being spread across multiple channels and being a little bit effective in each, they will find the channel(s) that is best helping them achieve their marketing goals, and spend less time with all the other noise.

7. Your web experience will become more responsive – Everything you experience online with your iPhone, iPad and computer will be optimized for that platform more and more. As more shoppers do their research with mobile, companies will invest more dollars enhancing those handheld experiences, and allowing you to quickly share that experience with all of your friends on Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr.

8. Social will continue to integrate with all arms of marketing. – Social media will be painted on all digital and printed collateral, and more CMO’s will be asking how social media is woven into their overall objectives. Remember Dodge’s Find a Journey YouTube campaign where they hid 3 cars throughout America? The big brands are on board already, small to mid-size businesses will follow suit in 2012.

9. Twitter will be less social - Gasp I know! As Facebook, Pinterest, Tumblr and other niche communities continue to drive traffic and awareness to brands in 2012, Twitter just may become more and more what it really is. A place for quick information, news dissemination, and networking with like minds. Unless brands use Twitter as an in the moment customer service channel, or have a robust social media team, we think brands will devote less time and energy to the channel in respect to bandwidth and ROI.

10. The Olympics will be digital – In 2010, the Winter Olympics scratched the surface with fans experiencing the games through social media. Brands will roll out the red carpet for bloggers and fans to interact with them socially during the London games. Instagram will probably tell a pretty amazing story of the games.

11. Spotify will take over the world – Well maybe not the world, but it will definitely gain a serious amount of subscribers and go toe to toe with Pandora. There really is nothing like having a best friend miles away create a playlist for you and keep your tunes up to date. Not to mention your ability to see what all your friends are listening to constantly on Facebook. More companies and brands will try to find ways to follow Spotify’s lead in genuinely making their user’s experience “sharable”.

12. We can “like” Emails – This is really more of a wish of ours than a prediction. Although we do think more brands should pay attention to their email strategy and how it integrates with their social media efforts. We would LOVE if you had the ability to “like” an email instead of having to reply with “thanks”, “sounds good”, or the other. Could you imagine the time and amount of emails you could save if you just had to “like” it to send your “I got it and have read it all” message?

(source)

What do you think will happen within the realm of social media in 2012?

The topic of pitching bloggers comes up a lot in our industry. Every social media and/or blogging expert you talk to will probably give you a different answer on how to best work with bloggers. We thought we’d go straight to the source on this one to settle a few questions once and for all.

Gina the Fitnessita

I recently interviewed my friend Gina the Fitnessista, arguably the most popular and recognized fitness and lifestyle blogger in the whole blogosphere on the topic and here’s what she had to say.

Q1: How do you prefer to be approached by a brand? Email, Twitter, comments on your posts, etc?

A1: Email is great I think, just don’t start your email with “Dear Blogger,”. Twitter is fine too, it can be a little aggressive but it depends on how they approach the conversation. Sometimes I will mention a brand or product and they will instantly start sending me tons of tweets expecting more conversation or tweets. It is fine to initiate conversation authentically, but don’t look at a blogger as a means to promote your brand just because they mentioned you. And please do not leave a pitch in my comment section, you will be spammed.

Q2: What in a subject line will actually make you open an email?

A2: My name, or mentioning something about my blog that is authentic and not just a pitch. Brands always approach bloggers to re-post or retweet their branded content. The savvy bloggers avoid this to maintain the integrity of their blog.

Q3: Would you rather brands send you information on a product/event/etc. and let you decide if you want to be involved, or a full pitch telling you exactly what they’d love to see in a partnership?

A3: It depends, but mostly just send me the information, and let me decide if it’s something I’d like to work with. I will follow up with you if it is intriguing.

Q4: What should brands be looking at in terms of compensation?

A4: I don’t think a lot of companies realize that they ask too much of us. They want to send us something, and then they want specific blog posts, tweets, videos and so forth and that irks me a little bit. At the end of the day, we are driving traffic to their site and we would rather be compensated than receive free product with huge expectations. I’d rather spend $20 on my own coconut water than to pimp you out on every channel I have.

Q5: If you could tell brands one thing about approaching you to work with them what would it be?

A5: Make it personal, at least give me a hint that you’ve read my blog, don’t just look at my high traffic and reach out to me. We don’t want our blogs to be content focused from brands, if it is an authentic fit we’re more eager to work with you.

Q5: Name Three brands you’d die to work with?

A5: Women’s Health Magazine, Shape Magazine, and Clean Eating Magazine.

Q6: One of the things I love about your blog is your humbleness and authenticity. How do you maintain this, and what advice would you give other bloggers to stay true to their voice and beliefs?

A6: The biggest thing I believe is to write what you want to write about, and not write what you think people want to read about. If you write about what you love, then the audience will follow. They can tell if your passionate or faking it. Be authentic. Do you. Don’t let others dictate how you want to write for your blog, that’s what keeps.

To sum it up, be authentic as a brand AND as a blogger. Don’t just pitch a blogger because you want their traffic, pitch a blogger because what they write about and how they write truly fits with your brand. Remember, they did not get to thousands and thousands and THOUSANDS of daily pageviews simply because they know how to take a picture of their daily meals and upload them to Wordpress, they build communities. Something we as brand catalysts strive for daily, so treat them just like the experts that they are. Oh, and try out Fitnessista’s Breakfast Cookie, it is to die for.

Yesterday, on our esteemed colleague Jay Baer’s site Convince & Convert, I read about the free e-book just released by Julien Smith, co-author of Trust Agents, entitled The Flinch. The book is being released for free with the support of Seth Godin’s Domino Project. Now, I have always thought of Smith as a social media and marketing pro, who helped point the way for a lot of people, including me, about connectors and influencers. So, a marketing guy, really. The Flinch isn’t about marketing, it’s about pushing yourself beyond what makes you flinch in order to be that better person. Cool, we can all use a good push every now and then.

Then I started thinking about Peter Shankman’s keynote at Blogworld. Again, a marketing guy who spent his hour giving us tidbits like Eat Your Fear and  Don’t Give Up and Have Fun. It was all good, I enjoyed his presentation but there was a lot of self help mixed into the marketing tips.

This was followed later in the day by Amber Naslund’s keynote about how we social media folk are wayfarers. She espoused that this is the era of inquisitors, the era of the curious. Amber, who co-write The Now Revolution with Jay Baer, a book I consider visionary in many ways, believes that we must not be afraid of blame, we can’t always be sure and have proof before we execute. We have to take risks and lead people into the future of what marketing will become.

I don’t disagree with any of this. But I do wonder how much of it has to do with our jobs and how much of it is has to do with where these folks are in their personal and professionals lives. Bored? Tapped out on the whole social media thing? Looking for the next important thing to talk about? Ready to make a career change? I don’t know for sure, but it is definitely a trend that makes me go hmmmm….

A few months ago, we wrote about the launch of the highly anticipated Google+. Buzz built quickly with the exclusive invites and endless media talk about the new platform by Internet heavyweight, Google. It’s no surprise that G+ hasn’t fully captured consumers hearts just quite yet, but even though the site hasn’t gained the following and popularity that Facebook already has, I wouldn’t call it a day for the platform just quite yet.

There are several new developments worthy of our attention as marketers. To pick up where Katie left off in our first Google+ blog post, here are a few new features that will be key for brands as the platform continues to evolve and gain clout among consumers and our marketing industry peers.

1. Online Integration

I love how Google is truly integrating their services. Using the tool bar at the top of the homepage, I can navigate through each application linked to my personal account adding ease and efficiency to my day. This includes my Google+ account, Gmail, calendar, documents, photos, news, books, blogs, you name it. Also note that Google+ only allows profiles using one’s real name meaning you are unable to register for an account under a pseudonym. According to Gigaom’s blog post, this information is important to marketers because “users who are anonymous or pseudonymous are arguably a lot less valuable to advertisers than those who choose to attach their real identities, including their age and gender, location and other demographic details to their accounts.”

2. Video Conferencing

Google+ recently added “hangouts,” a unique video conferencing tool,which sets it apart from Facebook. Hangouts can host multiple live video conference participants in one place at the same time. If a group of Google+ users are “hanging out,” others can drop in and join the conversation. This new functionality isn’t just a fun way for consumers to engage with each other, but the feature can also be extremely useful for brands to engage with consumers. Imagine talking to a sales representative or customer service agent face-to-face instead of over the phone.

Macy’s has done an excellent job of highlight the hangout feature on Google+, using the video chat capability to incentivize and interact with the company’s Google+ followers. After the launch of the Macy’s G+ page,  the company rewarded nine trendsetters the opportunity to live chat via hangouts with Leah Chernikoff, Fashionista Executive Editor and mBlog Style Blogger for Macy’s. All in conjunction with Macy’s Facebook holiday campaign. The morale of the story here: brands don’t have to choose between Facebook and Google+, marketers should evaluate whether their brand is a fit for both and then build a cohesive strategy for each platform.

3. Brand Pages

After only allowing individuals to create personal profiles, Google+ announced earlier this month the introduction of brand pages. Businesses have already jumped on the network to get plugged into the community. Clickz and Mashable nail it in this article “Why companies should invest in Google+ brand pages.” Here are a few key points on why brands should adapt to the platform:

• Google+ hosts a more professional conversation driven by content, not games, birthdays and application updates like Facebook.
• Through the use of circles to divide fans, brands can communicate more targeted messages to different circles.
• Also, groups are taking advantage of hangouts. The Black Eyed Peas and the Muppets have already participated in some quality “hangout” time.

How do you feel about the developing platform? Are you currently using the site in your social marketing plans?

Dozens of good posts coming out of last week’s Blogworld & New Media Expo in LA. There are always lots of takeaways at Blogworld and the amount of content generated post-conference is usually prolific. This year is no exception. Here are a few posts that summarize key learnings and the buzz well.

I met Arik Hanson at last year’s Blogworld in Las Vegas. He was a kindred PR soul, though going it solo, so perhaps a bit smarter than me. I wish I had attended Tom Webster’s session, but Arik gives us the soul of it with brevity. And he includes Peter Shankman’s hilarious IronMan video. Watch it on arikhanson.com.

Peter Shankman did such a good job that Tom Treanor did a whole post outlining the 19 lessons learned from his keynote. Shankman was terrific and this post on rightmixmarketing.com shows you why.

Our colleague, Jean Walcher,  finally made it to Blogworld and she took very good notes! Item number 7 on her blog post really floored me. Brands still have a lot of work to do to get it right with bloggers. Can we help? jwalcher.com

I have heard Darren Rowse speak a couple of times at Blogworld and each time he inspires me to be a better blogger. His advice is simple and usually it’s the simple advice that’s the hardest to do. The Most Important Take-Home Advice from Blogworld Expo on problogger.

I hadn’t heard of Brian Vellmure until reading his wrap up post on Social Enterprise Today, but he shares a lot of great points from the conference. I strongly agree with his summary about the ongoing gap between social media supporters and brand executives. Social media is still in its infancy with lots of learning and proving still to be done. Social Enterprise Today.

Or if you’ve got lots of time this weekend, go visit Blogworld’s 70 + Brilliant Bloggers post. Tons of content and critique. It’s almost as good as being there.

This year marks my fourth trek to Blogworld & New Media Expo, billed as the world’s largest social media business summit. I almost didn’t go. But the planets aligned, my son’s class went on an overnight star gazing trip and off I went to LA, Blogworld’s new West Coast home. Here are a few highlights from my notes:

1. Both keynotes on Thursday were terrific and had an overarching theme of taking risks and enjoying the journey. Peter Shankman opened the conference with a mixture of humor, candor and intelligence. He spoke about the importance of relevance (well, actually he spoke about a LOT of things!), something we talk with clients about regularly here at BG. In a social referral, customer review, Google-driven world, it’s more important to reach the 200 people who really care about and will act on information about your brand than reaching 2 million who don’t care at all. I hope CMOs start taking this insight to heart. The pressure on marketing teams to reach big numbers, relevant or not, is such a waste of money and time.
2. I love the way Amber Naslund thinks. I have read and reviewed her book, The NOW Revolution, written with our friend Jay Baer, seen her present several times and read her blog regularly. Her keynote presentation reminded us that we social media explorers are really wayfarers. The road is not clear, there is no map, mistakes will be made. We are paving the way for how business, and particularly marketing, will work in the future. These are early days, we’re still figuring it out and that is both scary and exciting. Don’t be afraid to say “I don’t know”. Be honest and say it, and then go figure it out. It’s what makes this time in social media interesting.
3. Chuck Hemann, from Edelman, confirmed what we’re seeing – clients want rigor when it comes to blogger and influencer relations. Provide quantitative and qualitative information. Substantiate your lists. Figure out what you want. Figure out what the bloggers want. Match each party’s needs for success. There were a number of conversations about blogger relations. I’ll be writing a separate post about that issue. It’s still a big one.
4. Matt Ridings, who presented with Chuck, took an entirely different approach to the influencer issue. He created a bit of a stir with his support of what I call a “listening” model. Basically waiting for the hand-raisers online and influencing them, which is great if you have an active brand or category but not so good if you are a start up or relatively unknown. He made a great point about how we no longer surf the web, we shape it. We follow the recommendations of friends, “like” pages, Digg posts, Tweet links and thus mold what gets viewed in an ever increasing manner. So context is king, because we will visit pages based on the context of how we learned about it.
5. Finally, the session that spoke to my true inner geek, was Tom Martin’s session full of tips for using your iPhone for content creation. Tom created a video blog this year called Talking with Tom done entirely on his iPhone. Wow. Inspiring stuff. I can’t wait to try the iTimeLapse, Photogene and Autostitch apps on my iPhone.

Not every session was great. I walked out of a couple. But the ones that were good, were inspiring, thought provoking and educational. Thank you and congratulations to the entire Blogworld & New Media Expo team for another terrific conference. The amount of work it takes to put something like this on is enormous. It is appreciated by all of us who can’t stay away, year after year.

If you work in fashion you’ve heard of Tumblr, and have had a discussion about whether you should incorporate the platform into your marketing plans for your brand or client. In short, Tumblr is a micro-blogging community filled with visually rich content, and a network of users who love to share their experiences and interests, and obsessively reblog other content from those they follow. The fashion industry quickly jumped on the Tumblr bandwagon because their fans were there, searching for trends, fabrics and awesome fashion bloggers to follow and spread their findings to their own networks.

Now more general consumer facing brands,and multiple news publications, have incorporated Tumblr into the mix for its ability to quickly and effectively disperse content and information across the web. What’s more, Tumblr really gives a brand or entity an opportunity to personify itself as if the brand was a person, and/or provides legs and nimble content in support of integrated marketing campaigns. The people behind a brand can share with fans exactly what the brand’s interest would be outside of the standard product offering, and what inspires the brand, which gives marketers both more to create and relate to the various interests and emotions of their fans.

Some of my favorite tumblogs include Kate Spade, Maybelline, Topshop, GQ, and of course Vogue, so check out what they’re up to.

Tumblr for an Integrated Campaign

Recently we launched a campaign to encourage young bucks to release their “Inner Jockey” at the Thoroughbred racetracks of California, and wanted to create a microsite for our fans to learn more about the brand and interact with the fun content we created such as videos and a quiz to help you listen to your Inner Jockey. Here are a few reasons why we choose Tumblr to serve as a microsite for our Inner Jockey campaign:

• Because of the playful nature of the campaign and our targeted younger demographic, we decided Tumblr would be a great platform to really bring Cal Racing’s Inner Jockey to life, in addition to bringing Cal Racing’s digital community to fruition on Facebook and Twitter.
• Allows fans to playfully interact with the brand and discover all that Cal Racing has to offer within and outside of horse racing.
• Encourages more user generated content at the racetracks themselves.
• We want to highlight the joy and fun that takes place at the racetracks, and found that much of this content was already being created by fans on Tumblr.
• Fans do not have to sign up with Tumblr in order to view our content, take a quiz, or find out about the latest food truck festival. To the naked eye, it just appears as a normal website or blog. Win!
• Tumblr gives our brand an authentic personality that relates to our demographic, and if we can create that relationship with potential and existing fans online, we know it will only strengthen our relationship with them trackside!

Release your Inner Jockey!

Although we’ve only been live for a couple of weeks our viewership and interactions thus far have been fantastic. We’ve been able to introduce a brand to users who have yet to have a way of interacting with Cal Racing as a whole, or who simply have not been to a racetrack in California. Thus far, Tumblr is helping us release Inner Jockeys on the left coast, and we are excited to see what form it takes moving forward.

What do you think about Tumblr as a social platform for brands and organizations?

This past weekend BlogHer (#blogher11) took over Downtown San Diego – and my Twitter feed – as bloggers of all different creeds ranging from mommy bloggers to fitness and fashion bloggers poured into the Convention Center. And brands were there to greet them, stuff their swag bags, and hopefully entice them to blog, Tweet and Tumbl about their products with their respective readerships.

My #blogher11-occupied Twitter feed got me thinking, do brands really know how to leverage bloggers in an authentic way? For the most part, no not really, but they know they need to pitch them alongside traditional media, so that’s a start.  Having partnered multiple bloggers with an array of brands, here are a few tips I’ve compiled to “pitch” bloggers in a way that will help you establish an authentic relationship with them, their network and your brand.

Tips to Pitch Bloggers

• Audience is Everything. – It’s not (all) about the size of their followers, network, and monthly blog views, it’s about who they are reaching, and how that audience interacts with them. If you are selling Twizzlers, don’t pitch the Fitnessista because it’s a fat-free food, 5 minutes on her blog should tell you her eating dos and don’ts are not a fit, and her vegetarian/vegan/clean eating set of followers will see right through a Twizzler stint.


The Fitnessista, aka awesome food and fitness blogger

• Get to Know Them – Before approaching a blogger you should know exactly what they blog about, if they’ve supported other brands or products, what their hobbies are and why they blog.
• Read their Comments – Find out who is commenting on their posts and in what manner. You’d be surprised what you can learn from comments, including who their fans are, how engaged they are and how responsive your blogger is.
• Be selective. Less is More. – I once worked with Teen Vogue on a blogger lounge where brands threw clothes, shoes and jewelery at the chosen bloggers. One brand in particular took the time to research each of the 30 Teen Vogue bloggers and selected five they could see aligning with their brand. Those five bloggers were invited to preview their Spring line with “champagne,” and each walked away with one garment that matched their personal style as portrayed in their blog. Of the hundreds of brands at the event, this particular brand garnished the most coverage by a landslide.
• Don’t shoot in the dark – Know who is talking about your brand, your competitors and your type of product offering. There are some cool tools out there like Social Mention, and Radian6 that will help you search and identify potential bloggers to work with whether they are already a fan of your brand or simply an enthusiast/influencer in your field.
• Talk to Naysayers – Some blogger(s) will bash your product, but don’t write them off. Their feedback could be really valuable to your product development team, and what’s more they could be simply misinformed. For instance, if you are a running shoe company and identify a running blogger who wrote about the terrible experience they had with your shoes, see it as an opportunity to find them the right fit. Comment on the particular post and offer to product test them with a style that will better suit their running needs. Not only will they be happy you took the time to listen and read the blog, but their followers who network in their comment section will see your interaction as well.
• Comment, Tweet, then Email – Don’t just track down a blogger or their agent’s email (yes they have agents these days) if you find a blogger you think you’d like to work with, start with commenting on their posts, re-tweet their posts, and you will gauge their appreciation or lack thereof. If the love seems reciprocated, then attempt emailing them your pitch.
• Start small - Give without asking for anything in return and identify in your pitch exactly how your brand can support their efforts. Product testing is a great way to start a relationship, but don’t ask them to write about what you send. They have a following they need to remain authentic with, if they love your product they will more than likely give it a shout.

In the end, there are thousands of ways a brand can partner with a blogger. But make sure it is an authentic fit for both parties, do your research and incorporate bloggers into your overall marketing and public relations strategy.

What are your best tips on working with bloggers?

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.