by Hana Bieliauskas, CMA

Hana Bieliauskas

If you’re active on a variety of social media sites (yourself, or on behalf of clients), you may occasionally come down with a case of SMO. What’s SMO? Well, in today’s social media speak, it’s actually Social Media Optimization—also known as Search Engine Optimization (SEO). But, in this case, I’m talking about a different type of SMO: Social Media Overload.

What are some of the symptoms of SMO? An intense feeling of being completely bombarded with information. Confusion over what this-and-that means on social media and wondering who-said-what. A sensation of disorganization and thoughts such as, “How am I supposed to manage all of this?!” A desire to say “forget it” and log off all social networks. An urge to disconnect completely from social media, or (worse case) never connect at all.

Sound familiar at all? Then you’ve likely experienced some SMO. I know I have. So, what steps can you take to prevent SMO? It’s actually relatively simple: Just as you need a steering wheel and a dashboard to feel comfortable driving a car, arming yourself with a robust social media toolbox will help you kill those SMO blues and instead be ready to take on the social media world.

So, what do you need in that social media toolbox? Here are some examples of what I have in mine.

Social Media Management Applications: If you’re managing multiple social media accounts, such as Twitter accounts for a few different clients, the last thing you want to do is have to sign into each one individually to make updates and check for mentions (talk about time-consuming). HootSuite and TweetDeck to the rescue! These free online applications let you manage many social media accounts in one place, as well as monitor coverage, schedule updates and create individual streams to keep track of various keywords, hashtags, users and types of content.

Twitter Lists: If you were in a room with thousands of people talking (possibly screaming) at one time, would it kind of make you want to cover your ears and run away as quickly as possible? Very likely. That’s how I feel when I sign into Twitter and look at my home feed. If I want to find tweets by a certain Twitter user, or group of users, it can take quite a while to filter through everyone I’m following. Enter Twitter lists! If you want to see, say, what media in your area are talking about, then create a list and add them. For instance, I have a list called “Columbus Media” and add reporters and news organizations from Columbus to that list when I find them. Then, when I want to see what’s up—voila!—I can just click on that list.

PitchEngine: If you’re using social media to work with the media—whether it’s pitching story ideas, disseminating press releases or media advisories—or if you’re just trying to connect with bloggers or other influencers,  then check out PitchEngine. PitchEngine is an online publishing platform that allows you to create a kind of “social media press release.” But, you can do so much more than just create an online version of a Word doc press release. PitchEngine allows users to create social and search-optimized content that is consumer-facing – whether that’s flyers, news releases, op-eds, flyers, sales listings—whatever. Then, just share the content on email, Twitter, Facebook—wherever the audiences are that you’re trying to reach. Even better, you can include links, photos and videos. End of the traditional press release? Perhaps—but this is so much cooler.

BlogDash: Ever try to find a blogger to pitch a story or idea, can’t seem to find exactly who you’re looking for and think “Why is there not a Cision/Vocus for bloggers?!” Been there, done that. And then I found BlogDash. Although it’s still in its early stages, BlogDash is working on becoming a comprehensive, searchable directory of bloggers. Bloggers are invited to add themselves to the directory, and then PR pros can go through and search for bloggers by topic, location, Klout, etc. And, you can create lists of bloggers to reference in the future. BlogDash is trying to cut down on bad pitches—for both PR people and bloggers, which is a pretty good goal all-around, in my opinion. Check it out.

Klout: What’s your Klout score? Klout is an online tool that measures influence based on your ability to drive action. Every time you post content on Facebook or Twitter or engage on social media, you influence others. The Klout Score (based out of 100) uses data from social networks to measure: the number of people you reach; your amplification, or how much you influence people; and your network, which is the influence of the people in your True Reach. Why does this even matter? Well, if you or your clients want to influence groups in a key market segment, it is very important you’re using the right messaging to reach them! Klout helps people and organizations better understand their influence so they can leverage it among key influencers.

These are just a few examples of tools to include in your social media arsenal that might make life a little easier—and prevent an onset of SMO.  Are there others would you add to this list? Let us know!