10 Social Media Influencer Secrets and Strategies

Social Media Sites and Secrets – Top 10 Influencers reveal cool sites, secrets and evolving strategies…
(10 Top Social Media Influencers Part IV)

Social Media Influencers are among the first to discover new sites and to adjust strategies. In the first post of this series, we already noticed that a couple of our influencers had switched away from Twitter to Google+ as their primary social site. While many of us who are more active conducting research or marketing on social media do share quite a bit, there are some things we like to keep to ourselves. I asked the influencers what cool new sites they’d be willing to share with us and how their strategies have changed recently, if at all.

On Secret Social Media Sites/Tools:
I’ve found most of us who work with social media openly share quite a bit of our thoughts and what we find that works, however, if we’re honest, we’ll also admit that there are certain sites or tools we come across or use that we prefer to keep quiet about. I tried asking a bit about these today…

Not going to make it into this interview if it’s secret, is it?
– Scott Monty
The one I never talk about. Because it’s secret… (I’m kidding. I’m good at keeping secrets, but not about social tools. I’d rather share those.)
– Ann Handley
Hhhmm….not much of a secret, but one I don’t necessarily discuss much: I like SocialMention.com as a good tool to discover social mentions when I’m tracking a topic more intently. It’s a free tool that does a pretty good job of discovering “social mentions”. Very easy to use.
– Glen Gilmore
My job is to tell people about tools, in a way, so I don’t think there is one. I usually don’t let on that I use LinkedIn more often than other major social networks these days, but that’s just an oversight more than anything else.
– Jason Falls
I tell everyone about every great tool that I find
– Guy Kawasaki

I really love beta.hashtracking.com
– Paul Barron
Commun.it, CrowdBooster, Timely.is
– Eric T. Tung
Nothing. That would be lame of me. If it’s useful, I’ll tell!
– Ted Coiné

Cool websites worth checking out:
Working with social media, partly because of large networks, influencers usually become aware of fun new sites first. Here are a couple the influencers thought were “cool”

flavors.me
– Submitted by Paul Barron

Smarterer.com
It crowd sources qualification exams for various skill sets and is trying to become a go-to resource for HR and hiring managers to allow our workforce with fractured educational backgrounds to prove their skills in a quick and efficient fashion.”
– Jason Falls
Google+
“Ok, so I’m not alone in having “discovered” it — or, more correctly, in having had it foisted upon me by Google. Who needed another social network? The “discovery” occurred over time and it’s recognition that there is a fair amount of real conversation and good content sharing taking place. I “discovered” it as I would return to the network to see how it was percolating…It’s getting better over time.”
– Glen Gilmore
Pinterest.com
“Actually, that’s *rediscovered.* I’ve been aware of it for a while, but only recently do I see its potential for brands. Also, I’d recently been forced to discover (!) Luke Conard’s YouTube channel, courtesy of my teenage daughter, who loves him. But that’s a whole other thing”
– Ann Handley
The Impossible Cool
– Submitted by Liz Strauss
StumbleUpon
“Okay, it’s been there all along, but I just got addicted to it”
– Ted Coiné

Changing Your Social Strategy:
I believe Mark Twain is credited with the saying, “the definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results”. This is especially true in social media. Many of those who work with social media continually evolve their approach as the media changes. This was especially true of many of our influencers.

When asked what one thing they now do differently on social media than before …

I focus 95% of my effort on Google+
– Guy Kawasaki
Talk less about myself
– Scott Monty

Tweet- a lot
– Eric T. Tung
Visit Triberr daily. I can’t say enough about how good my Tribemates make me look. I love it!
– Ted Coiné
Rarely cross-post
– Ann Handley
Talk less listen more
– Paul Barron

Have more conversations, even if it’s just a word or two. There was a time, early on, when my focus was mainly content curation, when I was mainly using social media to track trends, hence my first Twitter name, @Trendtracker. In being so “serious”, I was missing the real gold of “social”, connecting with others. I also try and create and share more of my own content, through blogging, as time permits. Shameless plug: SocialMediaVoice.com.
– Glen Gilmore
Track leads better. The more experienced I’ve gotten, the more obsessed with measuring success I’ve become. Never prioritized it in the early days. Now, I have to plan for that first.
– Jason Falls

I’m very curious how others are changing their strategies. Clearly, Google+ seems to be gaining in importance over Twitter for a couple of our influencers. Would love to know what others have found works well and which sites & tools you especially like.

@TomHCAnderson
@OdinText

TomAnderson March 5, 2012