Social Media: Infographic History

I came across this infographic and found it fascinating. It would be cool to add what came before Compuserve in terms of any media; i.e. morse code, radio, TV, etc.

Social Media – A History (Infographic) was designed by KarimDesigns.com for Cendrine Marrouat

Suitable replacements for Ping.Fm #socialmedia

Have you been using Ping.Fm for your social media dashboard? Seesmic has announced it will be discontinuing Ping.Fm and has created a replacement called Seesmic Ping. However Seesmic Ping will not be as robust out of the gate, only supporting a select few popular networks (Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn).

This decision to shut down Ping.Fm may have left you feeling ignored, and minimalized as a customer. If you looking for a suitable replacement? Try one of these:

SocialOomph - Free Trial

One reason I like SocialOomph is having the ability to schedule not only social updates but blog posts as well. Another amazing feature is the ability to vet your followers so you can determine who to follow back. SocialOomph is probably the most robust because there are so many more features you can use, such as aggregating rss feeds to post to a blog. Very cool.

HootSuite Pro - Free 30 Day Trial

What I like about HootSuite is the UI. It is very easy to use, and you can have multiple channels for multiple services open at the same time. You can also add team members and assign customer/client/follower responses to different members. For example if a Facebook post comes in about a technical issue with the order process, you can assign it to your IT admin. If someone is just complaining about your product or service you can assign it to customer service.

Sendible

I have not had the opportunity to use Sendible. Their free version is just the trial version. But I have been following their blog and they have some very cool features and a good social media team to help you.

Sprout Social - Free 30 Day Trial.

SproutSocial is another good social media dashboard that is probably comparable to Sendible.

Most social media dashboards do have free versions, or a free trial at a minimum, but to get access to the real robust features you will have to upgrade to a paid version. There is one that is basic, but works like Ping.FM did. It is HelloTxt.com. It has been around almost as long as Ping.FM. The difference HelloTxt has from Ping is that it also pulls in your social media channels similar to how FriendFeed.com works. Except when you push a message out, you can easily select which networks you want it pushed to.

In any case, we will be reviewing why radio stations should be using a social media dashboard and how to train your staff to use them effectively once you havce decided which one to use.

Please leave your comments and/or questions! they are greatly appreciated.