When done correctly, a social media marketing campaign can yield tremendous results. With that being said, social media is more than just creating a social profile and calling it good. It’s about interaction and engagement.

According to 2010 Twitter statistics, the micro-blogging site has more than 106 million registered users and it’s adding an average of 300,000 new users each day. A total of 55 million daily tweets along with 3 billion unique searches show that people are extremely interested in sharing information with one another and want to learn more. Clearly, Twitter is a powerful social media force that has the potential to connect brands with their target audiences.

An important part of social media is knowing that different marketing strategies need to be used on different social media sites. A cookie cutter approach doesn’t cut it in the word of online marketing. Here are a few simple steps can be used to develop a solid base that will help you build your brand presence and following on Twitter.

1. Attract the Right Followers

Sometimes the excitement of launching a Twitter marketing strategy can dilute the purpose behind it. Stay focused on who you want to attract as a follower. This means that you’ll need to look toward other relevant tweeters and join-in on their conversations. People naturally gravitate toward others who have similar interests. If your brand is all about insurance then you’ll want to look for some of the successful a-listers on Twitter and start tweeting with them. Others will take notice and follow you as well.

2. Original & Optimized Tweets

Getting caught up in your own brand happens to the best of us. Try not to broadcast a ‘me-me-me’ message when you’re tweeting. You’ll establish more credibility and appear more genuine if you tweet about information and resources that are helpful to your audience. This doesn’t mean that you need to avoid anything about your brand, it just means you should be selective and sporadic when you share brand-related tweets. Followers are more inclined to list and reach out to you when they see that you’ve set your ego aside.

3. Share With Retweets

This is truly one of the most powerful ways to build long-lasting Twitter relationships. Retweets are an excellent way to augment your Twitter marketing strategy. Think of a retweet as social media currency – you give a tweet and someone pays you twofold with a retweet. They’re like pats on the back that show other tweeters that what you’ve shared is worth spreading around to everyone. The Twitterverse is only so small and retweets give others outside of your following a chance to see the type of content that you tweet about.

4. Integrate Twitter With Other Social Media Outlets

All in all, the social media realm is a fairly friendly place. You really don’t hear much about social media services trying to pillage each other’s users. Thankfully, everyone plays well with one another and as a result many open APIs have given developers an opportunity to create applications and programs that integrate different social media services with one another. You can connect Twitter to Facebook, LinkedIn, WordPress and, well, just about any social media outlet. This is an important component in your strategy because even though you’re marketing hub is Twitter, social integration allows you to expand your reach to other audiences.

5. Use Twitter Tools

If Twitter is a social media vehicle (base model) then Twitter tools are all the bells and whistles that you can use to customize it and make it a lean, mean social media machine. There are thousands of different tools that can help you monitor, follow, schedule tweets, analyze and much more. For additional tool suggestions, check out MindSprout’s Delicious page and type Twitter in the tag search. Some tools that are worth checking out include:

• TweetPhoto – exchange and share photos on Twitter
• TweetStats – graph and track your Twitter usage and reply statistics
• TweetBeep – keep track of conversations that mention your brand
• Mr. Tweet – this tool seeks out follow-worthy tweeters just for you

By using the steps above you can craft a customized Twitter marketing strategy that will increase your brand awareness and leverage your brand’s presence among the competition.

What are some of the other ways that your brand is using Twitter to market itself? Please share with us below.

Ever since LinkedIn opened up its application programming interface (API) platform to developers in November 2009, new social media enhancements have been created to fortify networking connections. One social media partnership in particular is the one between LinkedIn and Twitter. The two platforms have continued to join forces and collaborate on projects to make user interactions even better for the rest of us.

Twitter Feed

As far as integration goes, LinkedIn and Twitter are doing a commendable job on getting things to blend together smoothly and seamlessly. Most LinkedIn users are well-aware of the ability to link Twitter to their LinkedIn profiles. The result is a steady stream of tweets that keep your connections and profile viewers apprised of what you’re up to in the Twitter-verse.

Tweet & Post Control

In addition to joining your Twitter and LinkedIn accounts together, tweeters have the option of selecting which tweets they’d like to feature on their LinkedIn profiles. Filtering tweets is a great way to categorize and control personal and business related tweets instead of flooding your LinkedIn account with all things tweeted. For tweets to LinkedIn, visit your Twitter settings page and select or deselect the option to post tweets that contain the hashtags #in or #li.

Conversely, you can decide what updates to share from LinkedIn to your Twitter account by visiting the ‘Home’ tab on your profile and checking the box next to the Twitter icon in the Network Activity window.

Company Buzz & Tweets Applications

Another new pair of features that LinkedIn has is Company Buzz and Tweets. The Company Buzz is an application that lets you track tweets about companies, products and people from your LinkedIn page, as well as historical data and trends. This could be a good thing to do if you’re keeping tabs on your competition or interested in new career opportunities within your industry.

The Tweets application is kinda like having a mini-version of Twitter built into LinkedIn. Instead of having to login to your Twitter account, you can tweet away from right from your profile.

More Integration Tools With Tweets

Today, LinkedIn and Twitter unveiled their newest feature which is admittedly impressive and long overdue. By installing the Tweets application, LinkedIn users will now be able to find relevant professionals to follow and find and keep track of their LinkedIn connections on Twitter. Install the Tweets application first and then use the ‘More’ link from the menu at the top of the website to find everyone that you’re connected to and start following.

The new module ‘Connections to Follow‘, has also been added to recommend new people for you to follow based on your LinkedIn connections. Furthermore, a ‘Connections‘ tab is visible in the Tweets app that shows you all your LinkedIn connections who have added Twitter accounts to their LinkedIn profiles. From here you can even see who you are and are not following via Twitter and choose whether to follow or unfollow. Hover your mouse over their Twitter ID and get a glimpse of their last tweet.

All of these new additions are fantastic, but the real crème de la crème is being able to save your LinkedIn connections as a dynamic Twitter list. LinkedIn creates a private Twitter list from the connections that you choose to save to it. Visit your Connections tab, look at who has a Twitter account, add to the list and you’re done. Even better, LinkedIn keeps this private list up-to-date by adding and removing accounts based on your LinkedIn connections each day.

Get ‘Er Done

To take advantage of these fantastic features, head over to LinkedIn and install the Tweets application and Company Buzz to your profile. Please let us know what you think of the new features. Happy connecting

This video has been out for awhile and chances are that most people have seen it, but we couldn’t resist posting to give everyone a good giggle. This one’s for all the Twitter fanatics.

The best place to start is probably the most obvious. What exactly is a Twitter list? A Twitter list is a feature that allows you to organize your followers into lists, or groups. It’s a great way to organize fellow tweeters into manageable categories for easy access. Getting started with building a list is very simple. There are a few helpful things that are worth knowing before you begin creating your lists. Once you’ve got some of the basics down, you’ll be ready to use them as promotional tools to expand your marketing efforts.

Let’s start with some ground rules:

1. 1. Lists can be private or public.
2. 2. Twitter users can have up to 20 lists.
3. 3. Each list can have a maximum of 500 listees.
4. 4. List names can’t begin with a numerical character.
5. 5. You don’t have to follow someone to include them in a list.

Pretty straightforward. Making a list is a snap too. Click on your Twitter profile sidebar, select ‘New List’ and start adding. Look for the ‘lists’ button next to any profile, click and you’re done. A new listee has been integrated. Pretty simple. Now on to the purpose of this post!

Spy Games

Well, maybe it’s not quite spying – more like monitoring, or secretly listening. By creating a list that includes your competition, or similar brands, products and services, you can keep tab on trending topics and discussions. Tracking other tweeters is a great way to learn more about industry challenges and how others are facing them, as well as gain insight and a few tips on customer and client care. All of this is easily accomplished with a private list (remember, you don’t have to follow someone to add them to a list).

List Optimization

SEO is everywhere, including Twitter lists. Giving your public Twitter lists appropriate and optimized names can position them at the top of the search engine results pages. So, put some careful thought behind what you’d like to name your Twitter list. Make absolutely certain that once you’ve decided on a delightful keyword combo you don’t change your mind. Reason being is that once you change the name of your list, the URL of the Twitter list changes too. If that happens, you’ll lose the tweeters following that list.

Creative Juices Are Sticky

Developing a list for your profile doesn’t mean that it has to specifically relate to your business in every aspect. Why not spice things up by developing lists with a twist. First of all, it’s unexpected and second, you’re allowing yourself the opportunity to expand and engage with new tweeters. Building a list that sticks with tweeters and that’s shared with others drives traffic to you.

For instance, Jacob Cass’ Twitter profile, @justcreative, is aimed at graphic designers. His list, No Blab Just Design Links, is in the Top 140 Twitter lists followed. It ranks as number 51 with 1,025 followers. It’s a fun list and the name of it states exactly what it does.

Keep It Relevant

Think of your Twitter lists as extensions of who you are. Use them to build out and express what you can’t say in less than 140 characters. As your follower base grows, so do their interests in discovering more about you. Compiling meaningful and purposeful lists that continue to keep followers engaged and that are related to their interests will position you as a credible and respected resource.

Share On Your Web & Blog

Put your list in the limelight with a Twitter widget. Go to the Goodie stash on Twitter and customize your List Widget. Choose the colors, size, featured list and a title and catchy caption. You can do a test run to see how the widget will appear to users before you grab the code to install on your website. Place the List Widget in a conspicuous place and start promoting.

Shameless Promotion

There’s no reason why you shouldn’t broadcast your newly created list directly to your fellow followers. After all, they’re following you because they connect with who you are and what you’re sharing. Schedule a tweet or two and share your list for others to follow and enjoy. Just send out your tweet using the following format: @<username>/<listname>

Get Listed

Don’t forget to visit Listorious and add your lists to their directory. Listorious was created by Sawhorse Media to keep track of the growing number of Twitter lists that have been created and that are being created. This is also a great place to explore for ideas on assembling your own lists. When you add your list make sure to make use of the ‘tags’ feature so that Listorious users can find your list by subject and follow you through Twitter.

Toot Your Own Horn

Depending on what your list is about, when you build it, don’t forget to include yourself.

Added Exposure

When you’re added to someone’s list, it’s flattering. You’re being recognized as someone that’s sharing good information and it brands you as a resource. In turn, that makes you more credible, which is always a good thing. Starting a list of your own and adding specific people to follow has the same effect on them. It expands your circle of influence and builds up your network.

What lists are you currently following? What makes them standout? Share your thoughts and comments below.

Social media overdrive and can cause social media overload. The dizzying speed of communication on social media platforms makes it tough to keep up with. It doesn’t matter if you’re purely a Facebook user, a die-hard Digg fanatic, a LinkedIn addict or someone who uses all three, streamlining your updates and postings through one source can be a liberating experience.

Fortunately, social media aggregation tools are becoming increasingly popular. Through online applications, widgets and desktop software, social media aggregators help condense your live updates and shares by providing a single location to broadcast multiple updates to.

So, give your thumbs a rest and step away from your Twitter account (we’ve heard that Bag Balm is good for calluses). Take a look at some of the social media aggregation tools that are currently available and start freeing up some of your time.

Hootsuite

Not only is this one of the most robust tools available, but Hootsuite is continually improving it’s interface and capabilities. This means that features you wish it had are probably only a month or two away from being implemented. This tool is web-based so there’s no messy installation involved. Online access lets you login to your account from any location to update and monitor – very convenient.

Hootsuite users are able to connect to multiple social media accounts from the application’s dashboard. Presently, there’s support for Twitter, Facebook Pages, Facebook, LinkedIn, Ping.fm, WordPress.com, MySpace and Foursquare – quite a line-up. Hootsuite is packed with features that enable you to customize, track and post in the blink of an eye.

Here’s a rundown on some of what you’ll find inside Hootsuite:

• Scheduling. Choose between live updates or pre-schedule posts and shares in advance.
• Customize URLs. Add custom link parameters for tracking clicks and gathering information on your audience.
• Files. Upload images, video and files right into your messages.
• RSS feed. Connect to your RSS and send your blog to your social media streams.
• Bookmark. Use the Hootsuite Hootlet from your browser toolbar to share pages and information quickly.
• Mobile updates. Handheld integration lets you keep up with Hootsuite from your iPhone.
• Tabbed layout. Create and customize columns that can be dragged and dropped in any order to your liking.
• Multi-column layout. Harness the clutter and organize your social streams into news, keywords, friends and more.
• Embeddable columns. Grab code from Hootsuite to embed search columns directly into your website.

It’s only fair to say that it’s our social media aggregator of choice. For others, Hootsuite is absolutely a tool worth looking into. Visit their site to read up on additional enhancements.

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Tweetdeck

Originally a popular tool for tweeters, Tweetdeck has evolved into a comprehensive platform that services Facebook, LinkedIn and MySpace. Built using Adobe Air, it has a blend of rich-technology and customizable features that end users will enjoy using. The Tweetdeck platform is available for desktop, iPhone and iPad. It also plays well with others so you can use it on your Mac, PC or Linux system. Like other social media aggregators, Tweetdeck has a column-style format that silos your information.

Tweetdecks features are extensive:

• Custom colors. Choose how you’d like your interface to appear and make it your own.
• Filters. Set-up your columns to show you only what you want to know.
• Notification. Get alerts for new tweets, mentions and direct messages. Excellent communication management feature.
• Follower. Decide who to follow or unfollow, as well as report spam and mark your favorites.
• URL. The bit.ly auto-shorten URL is incorporated for tweets and image uploads.
• Sync. Set-up Tweetdeck to suit your personal tastes and keep it that way regardless of whether you access it through your laptop or your handheld.
• Lists. Track your favorites and organize them into Twitter lists right from your dashboard.
• Trends. See what’s hot with local trends and Twitscoop.
• Shortcuts. Keyboard shortcuts speed up your actions so you can maximize your time with Tweetdeck.

Tweetdeck is a free and powerful tool that has a large following and fantastic support. As the social media universe evolves so has Tweetdeck. People will find this to be an absolutely wonderful tool that will help them get back on track with their social media efforts.

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Netvibes

Netvibes is a web-based personalized dashboard publishing tool. The easiest way to describe Netvibes would be to call it a favorite webpage on steroids. Setting it as your browser’s homepage allows users to create a customized hub that pulls all things digital into one central location. From emails received to weather updates, your Netvibes page becomes command central for everything that matters to you.

Aside from a beautiful interface, Netvibes makes it very simple to position widgets and modules exactly where you want them with built-in drag and drop capabilities. Just grab what you want with your mouse and move it to a location on your Netvibes page and you’re done. Additionally, tabs can be created to further organize and tailor your dashboard. This is a fantastic way to keep all things Facebook in one location and all things Twitter in another.

Here’s a little secret – if your employer has you on social media lock-down, you can use Netvibes to bypass the IT guards by connecting through your personalized tabs. Sneaky, sneaky!

So what can you do with Netvibes? We’ll give you a little taste below:

• Social media. Manage your Facebook and Twitter accounts, as well as followers and friends from central location.
• Netvibes Smart Reader. Use this RSS reader to stream all the latest feeds to you in real-time.
• Tracking. Follow dozens of blogs, activity streams and Twitter conversations all at a glance.
• Personalize. Create your own personal dashboard and enjoy the web exactly the way you like it by choosing from 100s of themes and backgrounds.
• Widgets. With one of the largest widget collections available, personalization options with Netvibes are endless. Drag and drop to your heart’s content.
• Email. Pull from web-based or POP email accounts and never miss a new message again.
• Share it. Invite friends, family, clients, co-workers or the general public to interact and view your Netvibes page.
• Infinite publishing. Multiple page publishing, WYSIWYG design tools, free hosting and full HTML support makes web everything a breeze.
• Community. Connect with other Netvibe users to expand your network and build your contact base.

Check out Netvibes and take a tour for a in-depth look at this tool.

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Yoono

Yoono is a social networking feed mashup tool. Mashup means an application or website that uses or combines information or functionality from multiple external sources to create a new service. Yoono is available as a browser add-on for Firefox or as a desktop application for Mac, Windows and Linux.

As far as social media aggregation tools go, Yoono connects you to your social networks and messengers. It unifies your status updates into a single stream of information and lets you update your status across all your social networks at once. Social media sites that are currently supported include, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, LinkedIn, FriendFeed and Flickr. Messenger services are available through Google Talk, AIM, Live Messenger and Yahoo Messenger.

Yoono highlights:

• Add-on or stand-alone. You can decide between integrating Yoono into your browser or featuring it on your desktop.
• Browse. Yoono is intuitive and learns what you like based on websites that you’re viewing.
• Widget. Based on the webpage you’re browsing, receive recommendations for other sites, news, videos, products, images and more.
• Social sharing. A bookmarklet allows you to share content, images and video from any site with your social network contacts.

There are similarities to other social media aggregators, like the the types of social networks you can connect to and the interface’s column layout. For someone who doesn’t need all the bells and whistles, Yoono is a great option.

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Flock

What makes Flock completely different from all the other tools reviewed is that it’s a full-fledged browser. It’s even referred to as the browser for social butterflies. Social media integration is what drives the Flock browser.

Instead of having to share login information through separate channels, it can be contained in one spot with Flock. Definitely a thumbs up for preserving online security. On the other hand, because Flock is a web-browser, you might want to consider abandoning FireFox, Safari or whatever browser you’re using, and making a complete switch, otherwise, you’ve got a browser that’s only being used for social media aggregation. That’s kinda like ordering a giant burger with the works and only eating the tomatoes.

Services included with Flock:

• Auto connection. Hook-up automatically with more than 20 of your favorite online services like Facebook, Twitter, Delicious, Xanga, YouTube and more.
• Blogging. A blog editor allows you to compose blog posts online or offline for posting.
• Webmail. Instant notification of incoming messages from major webmail providers.
• People sidebar. Collect all your social media pals in one place.
• Web clipboard. Snatch, grab and collect links, images and other bits of info to share later with the clipboard feature.
• Feed reader. Centralizes all your favorite feeds into one reader to keep things organized.
• Customize it. Install your favorite FireFox extension and incorporate backgrounds and images to make Flock your own.
• Media. Quickly find and browse photos and videos from your favorite sites.

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Profilactic

Next in the web-based line-up is Profilactic. Most people have more than one social media profile and that can make it a royal pain to jump from site to site, logging in and checking to see what your friends and contacts are up to. Profilactic has turned this task into a thing of the past. The core of its design is based on bringing everything together, and we do mean everything. You can pull blogs, RSS feeds and more than 185 online social sites into your Profilactic universe!

Users interact with two functions. The first is the user’s update feed and the second is a digest of what’s occurring on all the other platforms. Pretty handy indeed. There’s also an auto-clipping component that is similar to a digital scrapbook. Auto-clipping can be used to identify, tag and track social entries about the you or your friends. Plus, you can control what updates you want to receive based on importance.

Other features that can be found on Profilactic are:

• Badges. You can take your profile information and lifestream and integrate with your website or blog with one of these.
• Clean. Regardless of how many social streams you’re pulling from, the interface is very neat and easy to navigate. Simplicity at its best.
• Lifestreaming. A true example of what lifestreaming is all about. Profilactic is a one-stop-shop that blends the whole process without a flaw.
• Post & update. Let everyone know what you’re up to. Profilactic syncs to more than 10 social sites. One update across many networks.
• Free. Doesn’t cost a penny. All you have to do is register with the site and you’re finished. It’s beyond easy.
• Convenient accessibility. Because it’s online based, you can check-in as long as you have a connection to the internet.

Discover how Profilactic can help you organize your social media habits with a quick visit to their site.

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Socialite

For Mac users who are interested in social media maintenance and aggregation, Realmac Software’s Socialite may be what you’re looking for. You get the perks of having a downloadable application with a Mac-like design, clean and slick, combined with the power of managing your social media accounts from your Mac. There is a catch (isn’t there always) – Socialite isn’t free, however it is reasonably priced at only $20 per license.

You won’t be burdened by columns or multiple windows. What you’ll find is an uncluttered application that is easy to navigate.  So what do you get with Socialite:

• Google Reader. Even if you don’t use GR you can still use the alternative RSS feed with Socialite.
• Social networks. Socialite supports Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and Digg.
• HUD option. Known as the Heads Up Display, this pop-up box gives you mini-view of the status for all your peeps.

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Try Socialite out for free before you buy. The trial is a full-version and it lets you explore the functionality without having to purchase first.

What are some of the social media aggregation tools that you’re using? Any hidden gems that you’d like to share? Comment freely.