Creating and executing an effective social media strategy takes time. Lots of it. Facebook and LinkedIn are challenging enough, but when you add Twitter, your day is gone before you know it.
Spending your day tweeting when you're looking for a job or paid to do so is one thing. But, when Twitter is secondary to your primary job function, participation can steal your productivity. A quick check-in to see if there are tweets to answer can easily turn into an hour or more. If it is spent improving relationships with customers or prospects, it is a job well done. But, how often does it happen when there is no one who needs or wants your offerings in sight? (You don't have to tell me, but be honest with yourself!)
Wouldn't it be nice if you had a tool that did the monitoring for you?
One that made it easy to check-in with no danger of falling into the rabbit hole? If so, Nutshell Mail from Constant Contact is the tool for you. It monitors activity on several platforms and sends you an update via email. It is less disruptive than live check-ins because you control the timing.
Cost: Free
Pros:
- Monitors the top social media platforms
- Allows you to schedule the updates up to one per hour 24 hours a day 7 days a week
- Has selection options so you can choose what and how many updates you receive
- Provides link so you can view the information online (This really helps when you're receiving emails via a smart phone.)
- Has options for including search terms and lists
- Allows you to create an instant update so you can find out what's happening without getting near a social media platform
- Identifies the people following or unfollowing with the option to reciprocate without going to Twitter
- Allows you to follow several accounts simultaneously
Cons:
- Doesn't pick up all of the activity when there is high activity
- Occasionally misses messages even when low volume (In fairness, Nutshell Mail can only report the information Twitter provides so I don't know who owns this issue.)
- Adds to my email cleanup work (Okay, this isn't that bad considering the alternative, but I had to find at least three things I didn't like.)
Bottom line: An efficient way to monitor activity for people whose social media participation isn't their primary job function