Tsū: A new social network you can take to the bank.

People are flocking to Tsū today - and why not? It is a brand new social network with $7 million in backing led by Sancus Capital that claims it pays users to be social - and it just got a ton of media coverage today from Re/code, Billboard, VentureBeat, Examiner and the New York Business Journal. Tsū launched last Tuesday so if you have ever wanted to "be first" on a social network - now is your chance. I've only been there three days and you can see that my stats are pretty awesome already - and my network is now growing exponentially by the hour.

How Do You Make Money?
Tsū aggregates advertising, sponsorship and partnership dollars and pays you for clicks and views of ads around your content and the content of those in your network. Tsū keeps 10% of the revenue, the original content creator keeps 45% and their network shares the remaining 45%. The more interaction you can get around your content and increasing the size of your network will effect your ability to make money. In the first day, I earned $0.17 for just being social.

You are laughing? It's ok... but I will be laughing all the way to the bank...
Seventeen cents. I know that's not a lot. But let me tell you - try to earn seventeen cents on YouTube. I wish I would have taken Adsense more seriously and built out more websites 10 years ago. Those couple cents a day from websites I did put Adsense on have increased to a couple dollars a day and have almost reached $10,000 in passive income over the years. Perhaps this will too. I think it will and I am all in. I will let you know when I cash out my first $100. Read more about Tsū’s algorithm here: http://www.tsu.co/faq

Pennies Add Up! I have earned nearly $10K on Adsense to date in passive income.

So You Joined To Make Money?
Actually, no. Before joining Tsū I also joined Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, Instagram, and most recently Ello - I like being social and social media platforms in general - if they all paid me, I would like them even more. I tested out Ello a few weeks ago, but it didn't feel "finished" enough to me and it didn't have a mobile app - a deal breaker for me. I may become active there again in the future if they add one. Tsū has a very nice UI, a familiar look and feel and it's new, so I want to try it out. If I make money in the process - even better!

How Do I Join?
Tsū is invite only. You can join today with my "short code" (http://tsu.co/ChristineDeGraff) and then create your own - your URL is your code. I also created a bit.ly link to make mine even shorter/easier: http://bit.ly/JoinTsu. Once you sign up you can give out your own URL to sign up your friends.

What Should I Do First?
After you join, upload a profile photo and a cover photo under settings >> profile. Fill out your bio and add your website. You can also include your YouTube, Tumbler and Pinterest URLs. Connect your Facebook, Twitter and Instagram social accounts under settings >> social accounts. Set your privacy settings under settings >> privacy to determine whether friends or public can see your posts, send you messages, etc. If you do not want to receive friend requests, uncheck the box and people will be able to follow you (one-way stream - they see your posts, you don't see theirs) but not request friendship (two-way stream - you can see each others posts.). Finally, be sure to check your notification settings under settings >> notifications to set up how you want to be notified.

Start Tsūing!
Now that you have set up your account, search for friends or hashtags and start following people so you have content in your stream. Create a few posts and go like, comment and share other people's posts. Invite your friends to join your "family tree" which is your network. Spend some time learning the platform, download the mobile app (click here for Tsū Android app) (click here for Tsū iOS app) and just be social. Help those that you invite get started to grow a strong, active, engaged network that will be both fun and profitable. Tsū is great for musicians, writers, photographers and anyone who creates and shares content - which is just about everyone!

Is There A How To Tsū Guide?
Not officially, but it is soooooo easy you won't even need one. If you can Facebook, you can Tsū. Just go have fun and learn along the way! If you really do need a guide, +Wade Harman is working on one at http://bit.ly/1sLcj14 and the official FAQ is at http://www.tsu.co/faq.

Click Here To Join Tsū

Tsū Offices in New York

Follow me on Tsū by signing up with my code http://tsu.co/ChristineDeGraff and feel free to leave your URL in the comments below so others can connect with you (or sign up under you)! See you at the bank!

PostPlanner's New 'Super Feature' is 'Guaranteed Facebook Engagement' says @IanCleary

+Christine DeGraff from the +HOA Street Team sat down with +Ian Cleary, founder and CEO of RazorSocial, to interview him the day before his presentation at Social Media Marketing World 2014. RazorSocial.com has been named one of the Top 10 Social Media Blogs by Social Media Examiner in both 2013 and 2014.

How to Keep Google+ Manageable at 50K Followers

Back in March of 2013, with only 77 followers and nobody to talk to, it did seem to me that Google Plus was indeed a ghost town. Today, just 9 short months later and approaching the 50,000 follower mark within the next few weeks, I sometimes receive so many notifications that it seems impossible to keep up with them all due to the sheer volume. At first glance, that seems to make sense - more followers means more notifications right? I don't believe so; in fact, I do not believe that the number of followers you have has anything to do with the number of notifications you receive at all. If you compare the two charts below, you can see that while my number of followers continues to increase, my engagement level on my own posts has remained fairly consistent once I passed the 5,000/10,000 follower marks in July/August.

Screenshot of my follower history since March 27, 2013 via +CircleCount

(http://www.CircleCount.com)

 Screenshot of my total engagement by day since March 27, 2013 via +Steady Demand
(https://www.steadydemand.com/tool/)

Note: Use my code CQApproved for a 20% discount off Steady Demand Pro.

Leagues of Influence: Is this the new Klout?

Webfluential is hoping to become a leader at connecting advertisers with "influencers" by helping brands identify influential users that are best matched for the requirements of a particular campaign. Once selected and invited to participate in a campaign, influencers have the opportunity to earn money by blogging, tweeting and promoting the brand on their blogs and social media profiles.

The algorithms used by Webfluential are able to distinguish real followers from fake ones, factoring in web statistics and other metrics to identify each influencer's true influence per network; this is then compared to the results of others on the platform in order to classify users into dynamic "leagues of influence" which advertisers can then select from based on their budgets and campaign goals. Influencers are measured by the reach, resonance and relevance that each has on the networks and then placed in leagues with similar influencers and ranked accordingly.

Reach measures the size of an influencer's audience (following) per social media network and is relative to the most influential person listed on Webfluential for that particular network.

Resonance is a measure of how widely the content that an influencer shares reaches outside of their own community; again, this is relative to others on the platform.

Relevance is a measure of the response from the influencer's community in the form of likes, comments, retweets, etc. and is used to calculate a score for each network.

Influencers can create multiple profiles in their account; each profile consists of a blog and several social profiles (currently YouTube, Twitter and Instagram) and data is gathered for each (see below) which is then run through the algorithm to place them into leagues.

As an influencer's score approaches 100, it implies that they are nearing the top of their league. Higher leagues contain fewer but more influential people; influencers move into higher leagues by increasing their reach, resonance and relevance of their networks.

Influencers must meet Webfluential's minimum requirements to join, which includes a minimum of 1,000 legitimate Twitter followers. Webfluential offers suggested prices per blog post, tweet, photo upload, etc. based on what others with similar influence are charging; however, the ultimate price is set by the influencer.

Invite a #socialmedia #influencer to join @webfluenti_al: https://t.co/cWl7v4W4DP
— Christine DeGraff (@ChrisDeGraff) November 5, 2013

Advertisers and PR agencies are provided with access to listings of social influencers and can search by location, audience, platform, and topics to find influencers for their campaign.

Webfluential anticipates job offers going live on November 16th and opportunities for influencers in the US will be launched in the coming months. Visit http://webfluenti.al to learn more about Webfluential.

Data Gathered by Webfluential

Statistics for blogs include the number of visits, new visits, page views and time on site each month as well as averages for the prior month and a graph to track average visits, page views and time spent on the blog during the previous 6 months.

Twitter statistics show the number of followers/following, the number of tweets and account age, the number of people who retweeted and favorited and the rates for each. For example, "1 tweet gets retweeted for every 3.387 tweets posted." Month to month statistics are also tracked.

Instagram statistics include the number of followers, and an aggregate of the number of photos posted, likes and comments each month.

YouTube statistics include the number of videos uploaded, the number of subscribers, total views, total likes/dislikes, comments and favorites for the channel as well as the number of views, likes/dislikes, favorites and comments per video.

This Week's Upcoming Events on G+ w/Christine DeGraff

Empire Avenue Overview
Thursday, October 24, 4:00 PM EST
Join +Al Remetch and guests +Christine DeGraff, +Neil Ferree, +Mike Allton, +Jeff Beyers and +Daniel Campbell as they present a broad overview of Empire Avenue including what it is, how it works and strategies you can use to be successful.

Empire Avenue is a social networking "game" where the players invest in people - similar to investing in the stock market. The game uses virtual currency called "eaves" and dividends are paid based on social media performance. Sign up using this link (www.EmpireAvenue.com) and receive 10,000 eaves to invest in your favorite people! (e)CHRISDEGRAFF is Christine's ticker.

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Circle of Legal Trust presents Christine DeGraff

Friday, October 25, 11:00 AM EST

Join +Michael Ehline from the +Circle of Legal Trust for a free seminar with +Christine DeGraff to learn why it is important for lawyers (or anyone for that matter) to engage with potential clients rather than only fellow attorneys. This should be a fun event and a great way to learn how to build relationships and trust using social media.

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My Music Hangout
Sunday, October 27, 7:00 PM EST
This is going to be my first ever music hangout and in fact, my first time hosting a hangout, so things may not be perfect, but it will be fun! Because we will be listening to music, it will not be live and seating will be limited; however, we will let as many people jump in as possible! This is a chance to meet some of the peeps you have interacted with on Google+. The playlist will be posted before the event.

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How to Master Google Plus: Live Training

Wednesday, October 30, 9:00 PM EST

Join +Christine DeGraff and +Johnny Wood for a free webinar where you will learn: 

• How to quickly grow a MASSIVE following on Google+
• Ideas for MONETIZING your Google Plus presence
• Secret Strategies to MULTIPLY your success 
• and much more!

Seating is limited. Click here to register for this free event.

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The Online Money Show Halloween Edition

Thursday, October 31, 1:00 PM EST

Join +David Oldenburg and +Nicole Flannery live and in costume along with guests +Mia Voss, +Christine DeGraff, +Logan Lynn Roberts and several other guests (TBA) for a special Halloween show. Link and more details coming soon.

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The Mia Connect: Social Media Power Chat
Friday, November 1, 12:00 Noon EST
Get #BatCrapCrazy with a dose of #GirlPower as +Mia Voss "dishes" with guests +Christine DeGraff and +Krithika Rangarajan to talk about -  you guessed it - social media - in our pajamas! A BIG ANNOUNCEMENT ON THIS WEEKS SHOW! Don't miss it!
Click here to RSVP!

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About Christine DeGraff
Christine DeGraff has 15 years experience in web development, SEO and marketing and is currently taking the social media world by storm; most recently with her recent guest appearances on the Live Hangouts on Air circuit on Google+. She is ranked in the Top 350 women in the United States on Google Plus and scores in the Top 1% on Klout and Kred. She was honored as one of NJ's Best 50 Women in Business and her web design company earned a finalist position as one of NJ's Emerging Businesses of the Year.

5 Top Google Plus Circles to Add/Share

I have had incredible success with circle sharing on Google Plus; in fact, every large circle I have shared has become the top shared circle of the week. I attribute my success to the great people that were included in these shares. Here are a few of the most recent shared circles...

Here's the real fun part... when people find out they have been added to one of my circles because "Mr. Jingles" won't stop going off...

Mastering Circles: The Key to Success on Google+

Updated: August 9th, 2014

Understanding Google+ circles and how to use them to begin building an active, engaged audience continues to be the holy grail that new users, especially businesses, are trying to achieve. Here are the answers to some of the most frequently asked questions about circles as well as additional resources with more information to help you learn to master Google Plus circles.

1) What are Google+ circles?
Circles are the way you group the people you follow on Google+. The default circles for profiles are "Friends, Family, Acquaintances and Following," and the default circles for pages are "Following, Customers, VIPs and Team members," but you can delete them or rename them if you prefer, and you can add additional circles and name them as you see fit. There is no right or wrong way to set up your circles, so the best way is the way that works best for you.

Example of how I have one of my pages circles set up.

Hint: Determining your main goals for your Google+ profile or page(s) is a good strategy to help you organize your circles. Ex: Create prospects, leads and customers circles for your business page.

2) What happens when you "circle" someone?
Similar to following people on Twitter, you follow people on G+ by adding them to your circles. When you add someone to your circles, you will see the content they choose to share with you. If someone adds you to their circles, they will see the content you choose to share with them. The diagrams below depict an overly simplified version of what content is seen when you follow someone that does not follow you back; when someone follows you when you don't follow back; and when you follow someone that is also following you.

"Amber" follows "Bob" but Bob doesn't follow Amber.

The posts that Bob chooses to share publicly will appear in Amber's stream.*

Bob will not see Amber's public posts unless he visits her profile page.**

Bob follows Amber but Amber doesn't follow Bob.

The posts that Amber chooses to share publicly will appear in Bob's home stream.*

Amber will not see Bob's public posts unless she visits his profile page.**

Amber and Bob both follow each other.

Amber's public posts will appear in Bob's home stream.*

Bob's public posts will appear in Amber's home stream.*

*Note that settings can be adjusted per circle to turn off posts to home stream. In that case, the way to see them is to view the circle.

**Note that if someone shares to extended circles or if someone in your circle has recommended a post by giving it a +1, you may see someone's post in your streams even if you do not have them circled.

A lot of people who are new to G+ tend to think that they need to "follow back" everyone that circles them; however, since the limit on the number of people you can circle is 5,000, you may as well forget that strategy as it can only work until you reach that limit. The best advice I can give you is to circle people that you want to follow and don't play the follow/unfollow game or you will likely end up with lots of followers, but little engagement.

3) How do I find people to circle?
There are several ways to find people to circle on Google+. You can follow people that are on the SUL (suggested users list); you can add shared public circles; you can perform searches and find people based on the results; you can click hashtags to see others who have used them; you can join communities to meet people with similar interests; you can find people through post comments; you can find people who attend events/hangouts on air, etc. You can also use +NOD3x (www.NOD3x.com) to find popular posts in your niche. There is no wrong way to find people to circle; however, if you are business, you will likely want to try to target those that are most likely to be interested in your product or service.

4) How do people find me on Google+?
While it is not hard to find people to circle, getting found by others is a little more difficult! First of all, you are likely not going to be on the SUL at first (in fact, the majority of users will never be on the SUL) so that takes away that option. You are probably not going to be included in very many shared public circles at first... another option gone. That means you are basically relying on getting found by people searching (and showing up high in the results) and getting added by people you engage with in communities and on posts - and that can take time - a LONG time!

There is another option to grow your following and that is to proactively add people to your circles that are likely to add you back. You can do this by adding people one at a time on a case-by-case basis; by adding shared public circles on a regular basis; or by adding people in bulk using +Circloscope. Remember that whenever you add people to your circles, you will want to take the time to "vet" your circles to decide who to move into more permanent circles and who to remove. Vetting a circle basically means viewing the stream to look for people you might be interested in getting to know (read their about us, look over their posts, etc.) and then moving them to one of your "keep" circles and eventually deleting the rest. The key is that not only does this help you find people, it will allow people to "discover" you because (see #2) - many people will follow you back.

You will also help people find you by engaging on other people's posts, being active in communities, displaying your Google+ badge or link on your blog, website, etc. AND of course by posting good quality content. That all goes without saying; however, it is not the focus of this post.

5) Isn't what you just described, adding circles, keeping a few and then deleting the rest the same thing as the follow/unfollow game - like on Twitter?
No, I don't think it is. Unfortunately, it can be difficult to decide who to follow without viewing someone's stream, which may or may not be shown to the public (and there aren't any "circle viewers" at the current moment - hint hint +CircleCount - we need to talk) so the only way to really decide whose content interests you when you add a shared circle is to view the stream. I recommend giving it a few days or even a week before you delete the circle to give people a chance - just because someone posts a #caturday post once a week (or #goaturday - shout out to +Michael Chase) doesn't mean that they don't share anything that might interest you the rest of the week.

6) What can I do to make myself more likely to get followed?
Here are just a few suggestions to make yourself more likely to get circled by others on Google+.

• Upload a profile photo - people do not like to circle "blueheads." I will not even consider following someone who does not have a profile photo and would never put them in a shared circle... with one exception... 
• Complete and optimize your "about" section; using keywords can help you get found in searches and many people do read your bio before adding you to their circles. Hovering over someone's name will bring up their "hovercard" and although there is very limited information available, it is important that you have a cover photo and have set your location. In fact, +Stephan Hovnanian has an awesome post showing 19 (and counting) places that display your hovercard across Google - go ahead, hover over him and then circle him!
• Create a free profile (or update yours if it is already indexed) on www.circlecount.com and add some tags (keywords) as well. +CircleCount is free and provides stats to help you better understand Google+. This is also where you can see whether or not you have been included in any shared circles.

7) What are "shared" circles?
A shared circle is simply a circle that is shared. If you share the circle publicly to your stream, anyone who comes across it can add it. Anyone can share a circle on Google+; however, if no one adds these circles, they won't do the people included much good - and the way to reach more people to add the circles is by encouraging those included to share it.

In my opinion, there are "levels" of shared circles and I think it is important to understand the difference:

1. The first is a small, curated ("cherry picked") circle share - a very desirable circle to be included in; although it may not get many shares, it will likely be added by many of the person's followers and can bring those included some very targeted connections. Being included in a circle like this is basically being recommended as someone to follow. These circles can usually be added without much "vetting" as they have already been selected and are people known to the person sharing.
2. The second is a niche circle that is likely larger and less carefully curated that could be shared by anyone, but would likely be shared by someone in the niche. Doing a search for "real estate circle" or "lawyers circle" for example might bring up a few of these types of circles. When you add these circles, you would expect that many of the posts in the stream will be ones that someone in the niche would be interested in reading.
3. The third is an interest based circle - such as a photography circle. These circles are usually larger and get more shares. You would generally want to "vet" these by adding them to a "sort" circle and looking through the stream.
4. The fourth is what +Dustin W. Stout has coined a "chain letter" circle. Basically, it is a circle that strongly encourages sharing or even requires it. While these circles usually get the most shares and lots of adds, they are frowned upon (hated) by many here on Google+. They are usually "all types of people" rather than niche or interest based. One thing I would like to point out is that one of the reasons that circle curators use the "you must share" requirement is because many who build these circles use +Circloscope to help build them and the only way someone will be detected if building a circle of sharers is if they have shared the circle. 

The bottom line is that whether the person creating a large shared circle tried to create a "good" circle or not, these circles really contain all kinds of people and need to be vetted. If you add these by creating new circles and naming them with the name of the person who created the circle, you will soon figure out which ones made the effort and which ones did not. I have added dozens of these circles by people that I consider "good" circle creators - the only ones that you will see me share - and I have met tons of great people and get incredible engagement.

You can also use +Circloscope to combine shared circles and filter them to remove those that are inactive (haven't posted in awhile), that do not have profile photos, that are already following you, etc. Watch the video below to learn more.

8) You have over 80,000 people in your circles - how do you manage that many followers?
Actually, I have less than 5,000 IN my circle, just like everyone else; 80,000 people have me in their circles. There is a big difference though between having 500 people in your circles and 5000, so be sure to understand how to control your notifications and "adjust the volume" before adding too many or you will be in notification hell. I am still tweaking mine. As far as managing circles, such as un-following people that I have not engaged with or that become inactive, I use +Circloscope.

If you are new to Google+, come visit me and say hi at http://gplus.to/chrisdegraff. Don't be afraid to leave comments on my posts - and let me know that you are "new" to Google Plus so I can help point you in the right direction!

To truly master the art and science of circles on Google+, I highly recommend that you circle +martin shervington and watch his video tutorials. You can learn more on his website www.martinshervington.com.

Disclaimer: I am now one of the co-founders at +Circloscope. 

Stop the Tweet! 'Going Dark' during times of tragedy.

I believe that most marketers and businesses agree that during times of natural disaster, terrorist attacks or other tragic events that cause everyone to stop in their tracks, we do not want to conduct "social business as usual." +Debra Donston-Miller wrote a commentary for +InformationWeek shortly after the April bombings at the Boston Marathon about the importance of knowing when to react quickly - and when tragic events occur, the consensus seems to be that automatic updates should be postponed.

While it may seem like a relatively simply solution to postpone scheduled posts until a later date, in reality this is becoming more and more complicated with every new app that we allow access to our social media accounts. I did not think that I personally used very many scheduling apps; however, when I began to list all of the accounts that I would need to login to in order to "stop" my Twitter account from posting, a different story soon emerged.

1) Triberr - Each day, I go through the feeds and choose posts written by my tribe mates to post to Twitter. I generally choose about 10 per day and they automatically post at one hour intervals.

2) RoundTeam - I have rules set up to automatically trigger a retweet based on specific keywords used by people I have on a list.

3) Buffer - Using my Chrome extension, I add posts to my buffer throughout the day as I browse the web to keep it topped off. These are scheduled to post to Twitter at optimal times.

4) ManageFlitter - I have a few of my own tweets scheduled to post at optimal times throughout the day.

5) Paper.li - Tweets are automatically sent out when the paper is published, also automatically since I am using the free version.

6) SponsoredTweets - These are tweets I have written and approved and they are scheduled to be tweeted automatically once the sponsor has approved them.

I also use a few others and my Google+ account is set to automatically post to Twitter, although I usually post directly rather than schedule my Google+ Tweets, so that is not a problem.

I suppose the options available to "Stop the Tweet" are to:

A) login to each account and manually delete or reschedule each post (time-consuming, likely to forget an account or two, may not be able to reschedule);

B) login to Twitter and disable access to all apps and grant access at a later time (not a bad solution, but likely would need to go in to each account and reschedule the Tweets that were not sent); or

C) deactivate the Twitter account and reactivate it within 30 days before it is permanently deleted (probably not good for business, can take 48 hours for everything to appear normally again, would still probably need to go in and reschedule all missed posts).

None of these seem to be an "ideal" solution, and what I think could likely happen is businesses would eventually just let the posts go ahead and post as scheduled rather than take any of these steps. Not because they are insensitive; rather because they simply do not have the time, the money, the man-power or the fortitude to spend time undoing what has already been done and then redoing it again.

So, what is the solution? 

I believe that Twitter could easily provide the perfect solution that would work both quickly and effectively and allow businesses and profiles to "go dark" during times of crisis - by using drafts. Twitter's mobile app currently saves posts as drafts if a connection to Twitter is not available; once the connection becomes available, the draft can be sent. I think the perfect solution would be for Twitter to provide users with the ability to enable a "set to draft mode" option. Once triggered, all incoming posts that had been previously scheduled would go to draft status and could later be tweeted or deleted by the user when they are ready to start posting again.

In the meantime, I choose option B. Of course, this only takes care of Twitter....

9 Sources of Analytics You May Have Forgotten

If you think the only place to view analytics is Google (or Facebook) then think again! Here are 9 sources of analytics you may not be using (plus a bonus source) that can help you get an even more complete picture of your web presence. Please feel free to comment with additional sources that you use!

1) YouTube

If most of your videos are embedded on your website or a client's site and you haven't spent time developing your channel, you may have forgotten the terrific stats that are available to you on YouTube. In addition to estimated minutes watched and average view duration, you can see whether your video was viewed from an embedded player on your website or another website; from the YouTube watch page or directly on your channel; or on a mobile device. You can also find stats on audience demographics, geographic location and engagement, including likes, dislikes, shares, comments, favorites, etc.

Videos found via a Google or YouTube search will give you access to see which keywords used to find it (I would assume that this would be true if a search was performed on Google+ as well); and, if you have monetized your account, you can also see ad performance and estimated earnings. By comparing metrics such as estimated earnings based on audience engagement, you can quickly see how useful these metrics really are to a marketer.

YouTube Analytics

2) Content Curation Tools

Most content curators are using bookmarklets or other browser extensions for sites such as Scoop.it!, RebelMouse, Paper.li, Listly, etc. in order to easily "scoop" or share content from around the web. These extensions are so convenient that you may rarely even visit many of these sites after you initially set them up – and that means you probably have forgotten about the analytics that many of these sites are gathering for you. (To be honest however, and rather surprisingly, most of these sites are seriously lacking in useful or detailed statistics.)

RebelMouse Analytics

3) Social and URL Sharing Tools

Another easily forgotten source of statistics are social sharing tools such as Markerly, AddThis and ShareThis. Once embedded on a website or blog, the aggregate count shown to the public are what we tend to check as well; however, there is a lot more great info that we could be using to help us learn more about our audience, how they like to share and what content they find most valuable.

AddThis Analytics

We can even see information about overall social value compared to other sites, categories, trends and clickbacks.

ShareThis Analytics

4) Twitter's Ad Tools

Ok, this one isn't really fair to include as one you "forgot" as Twitter just opened up Tweet Performance Analytics to all on June 13th; however, unless they put a link to it in your Twitter dashboard, or if you use Twitter management tools, you will forgot soon enough. Found in the Ads dashboard, these analytics are available for free and allows you to download your info as a CSV file. To access, go to ads.twitter.com and sign in with your Twitter credentials. You don't need to complete the advertising sign-up process unless you want to advertise.

In addition to showing you how many favorites, retweets and replies each of your recent tweets had, you can also learn a little bit about your community including their top interests and who your followers also follow by percentage.

Twitter's Analytics

5) URL Shorteners

Link shorteners are a necessity if you are a Twitter user; however, even if you are not, it makes sense to use them and many marketers do. One of the best things about using shorteners such as goo.gl and bitly are the analytics (of course). I prefer bitly for its interface, including having a "profile" page to feature your shared "bitmarks."

Some of the great features of bitly include:

• a "bundles" feature which are shareable collections of your bitmarks; 
• the ability to curate bundles and invite other users to add to it; 
• the ability to make links private; 
• the ability to customize links; 
• the chrome extension; 
• the ability on mobile devices to email links to save in your bitmarks or to share on Facebook and Twitter. 

As far as analytics, in addition to what you would expect, you can also see who in "your network" (Facebook friends and anyone you follow on Twitter) has shared a URL via bitly; how many total clicks the link received as well as how many were via your shortlink; and which other bitly users shared the same link.

Bitly's Analytics

6) QR Codes

If you were thinking ahead when you generated your QR codes, you probably used SmartyTags or another trackable service; however, after a few days or weeks, the excitement wore off and you stopped checking the stats. Info about the types of devices, GPS location, city, state, postal code, etc. are all waiting for you to log back in and download.

7) Slideshare

Unfortunately, you aren't going to get much from slideshare unless you go pro; however, you can still see the number of views on slideshare vs. embedded views, likes and downloads.

8) Identity Pages

Social identity pages like about.me, XeeMe, etc. are another than can be setup and then forgotten even though they can provide a great deal of information about the people who are interested in learning more about you. You can learn how many visitors clicked on one of your social media links to learn more about you; how they found your profile, your network relevance, search terms used and whether they shared or favorited your page and possibly even whether or not they "think you are cool;" even better, you can usually see exactly WHO viewed you and how they interacted with your profile.

9) Scheduling Tools

Buffer is a terrific little app for scheduling tweets on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and more that works well with lots of other apps and extensions such as IFTTT (If This Then That), Feedly, Scoop.it, Commun.it, SocialBro, Digg, Twylah and many many more. Besides ensuring that your posts are spread out nicely, you can find the optimal times to post, learn what topics your audience responds to best and see the potential exposure of your posts. To make the most out of Buffer's analytics, turn on campaign tracking and integrate it with your Google Analytics account.

Bonus Source: Empire Avenue

Empire Avenue provides a surprising amount of analytics as well as an at-a-glance look at how you are doing across various networks. Definitely worth a look!

Empire Avenue's Analytics

Please feel free to comment with additional sources of analytics that you use!

Note: This post was originally shared on July 1, 2013 as a guest post that I wrote for The 7 Pillars Book by Michael Q Todd.

A Plethora of Pinterest Tools for Businesses

Pinterest is driving traffic to websites. 
According to a recent report for the first quarter of 2013 published by Monetate in its latest E-commerce Quarterly, 55.18% of site traffic from social networks came from Facebook, down from 62.45% the previous quarter, while Pinterest accounted for 24.96%, up from 17.51%. The remaining traffic came from Twitter, LinkedIn and other social networks. 

Brands can no longer afford to ignore Pinterest.
According to Monetate, shoppers visiting e-commerce sites from Pinterest had the highest average order value, spending $80.54 per order, compared to $71.26 for Facebook and $70.17 for Twitter. A study by RichRelevance reports an average order of $169 from Pinterest traffic, compared to $95 for Facebook and $71 for Twitter. Whichever study is more accurate, the one thing that appears to be clear is that Brands, especially e-commerce brands, can no longer afford to ignore Pinterest as part of their online marketing efforts.

Tools for Managing, Advertising, Marketing & Measuring:

No matter what your budget, there are tools available to help you manage, create, improve or simplify pinning and sharing content on Pinterest. I have compiled a list of the current tools available and intend to review this list periodically, keeping it up-to-date. I also created a list on Listly that includes many of these tools. I am not recommending one over another, I am merely providing links and a brief description of each so that businesses and marketers are aware of everything currently available before making a decision.

If you are aware of a tool that should be added to this list, or if you find that one is no longer available, please let me know in the comments below. Get more tips by following me on Pinterest at http://pinterest.com/chrisdegraff/.

Ahalogy
Formerly Pingage, Ahalogy recently announced a pin-based platform called Content Network. Content creators who have opted-in to the network are given complimentary access to Ahalogy's image editing and pin scheduling tools in exchange for allowing paying Content Network customers to source the pins for repinning on their own boards in a pay for performance model.

Curalate
A marketing and analytics suite for Pinterest and Instagram. Curalate's scheduler feature enables brands to schedule pins and batch them into campaigns. Curalate also offers detailed analytics for marketers, monitoring and consumer engagement tools and promotions that can "live anywhere and everywhere" including your website, blogs and Facebook. A free demo is available to potential clients with a decent sized marketing budget.

GoPixel
Formerly known as Pinster, GoPixel offers powerful automated scheduling to help you spread out your pins evenly throughout the day. You can measure and monitor interactions and website referrals using their analytics tool that also integrates with Google Analytics. There is also an insights tool that provides recommendations for the best time and content to pin based on your data. The free version allows you to schedule 3 pins per day for 1 Pinterest account. Basic, premium and custom versions are also available.

HelloSociety
Formerly known as Pinpuff, HelloSociety is a premier Pinterest marketing and technology platform with a suite of tools, an exclusive influencer network, leading brand partnerships and powerful analytics. Contact HelloSociety for a price quote.

Octopin
Claiming to be the most advanced Pinterest marketing suite, Octopin features a scheduling tool, a campaign manager, and measurement tools that help you identify top influencers and track competitors. With Hyatt, Volkswagen and IKEA as current customers, Octopin is targeted to larger companies. Contact Octopin for a price quote.

Pinbooster 
For advertisers looking for a pay-per-click model, Pinbooster is a platform to connect advertisers to pinners who are willing to post your pin for profit. You only pay for the originating pin, so repins, likes and comments are "free press." When a pin goes through Pinbooster, it is automatically tags to indicate that it is an advertisement so it is in compliance with FTC regulations. Contact Pinbooster for pricing.

PinLeague
There is a free starter version of PinLeague, but it seems to be pretty limited. Starting at $29/mo, the lite version allows for 1 Pinterest account, tracking for 2 competitors, basic profile and domain trends and tools to optimize your pins and engage your audience. The professional and enterprise versions enable you to track virtually everything and is used by brands such as Nike, Microsoft and Target.

Pinterest Web Analytics
Businesses can access basic metrics including impressions and reach and is included free with your Pinterest account. You can use this to tailor your website and Pinterest boards by understanding which pins get the most repins and what else people pin alongside your pins.

Pinterest Web Analytics Walkthrough from Pinterest on Vimeo.

Pinterest Widget Builder
The Pinterest Widget builder can help you create free buttons and widgets to add to your website or mobile app. Pinterest's newest tool allows you to create "Rich Pins" and apply to get them on Pinterest. The types of Rich Pins currently available include:

• Product pins include real time pricing, availability and information about where to buy;
• Recipe pins include ingredients, cooking times and serving info; and
• Movie pins include ratings, cast members and reviews.

Piqora
Piquora (formerly Pinfluencer) is a tool for advertisers and provides the ability to customize, deploy and track contests, sweepstakes and promotions on Pinterest. Future plans for Piqora include a Social CRM (currently available for Instagram and Tumblr) to help brands identify and act on purchase intent. Contact Piquora for pricing information.

Reachli
Using Reachli (formerly Pinerly), you can create posts and publish to your Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Tumblr accounts at the same time from one place. The free version allows you to connect four accounts, includes a link shortener and offers tracking including the number of clicks, likes, reshares and reach per social site. If you want to reach a wider audience, Reachli has a pay-per-click option and your campaign can be pushed out to publishers' blogs, websites and social sites.

ViralHeat
Social media management for various platforms; however, Pinterest is only included in the premier and enterprise versions. The premier version is $99.99/mo but only supports monitoring for Pinterest at this time.

Viraltag
The $12/mo basic account on Viraltag (formerly PinGraphy) allows you to schedule 100 pins per month and includes a free trial. The $28/mo premium version does not limit the number of pins that can be scheduled, provides access to analytics and gives you the ability to add up to 5 accounts. This is probably one of the best options for small businesses on a tight budget.

Free Search, Discovery & Other Cool Tools for Pinterest:

Hipstamatic, pixlr and Tweegram
Free apps that can add some "fancy stuff" to your images.

PicMonkey
Quickly edit, filter and apply touch-ups to your photos with PicMonkey.

Pin Search
A Chrome extension that enables you to perform a Google Image Search on any picture on Pinterest.

PinAlerts 
PinAlerts (beta) is like Google Alerts for Pinterest and will notify you when someone pins something from your website.

Pinalytics
Search pins, boards and people on Pinterest to find, track and evaluate content and interactions using Pinalytics. (Note: This didn't seem to work very well for me, but you may have to create an account to get the full results.)

Pinstamatic 
"Share more" on Pinterest with Pinstamatic including your favorite music which can be played on your board if the user has a free Spotify account, clickable maps and the ability to add quotations and sticky notes on your boards.

Pinvolve
Using the free version of Pinvolve, you can post your Pinterest pins onto your Facebook profile or business page. The pro version allows you to automatically post your Pinterest pins to your Facebook business page and you can sync a specific board or all boards.

Postris
Formerly Repinly, Postris is a tool to help you find popular pins, boards and pinners on Pinterest for a given category.

Quozio
Type your own quote or highlight text anywhere on the web and easily convert it into an image to share on Pinterest.

ShareAsImage
Formerly Pin A Quote, ShareAsImage allows you to highlight text on the web to share as an image on Pinterest.

Snapito 
A free tool to capture and share a screenshot of a website

Url2pin.it
A free tool to capture and share a screenshot of a website.

WiseStamp
This tool allows you to add an elegant Pinterest link to your email signature. It offers free and premium level accounts.

Woobox
The free version of Woobox can be used to display your Pinterest boards and pins as a tab on your Facebook business page. 

Get OFF the Twitter #UnfollowTrain

Are you making it easy for people to unfollow you on Twitter? 

Did you know that Twitter accounts are sorted by various social media management tools according to a variety of criteria in an attempt to help users decide who to follow or unfollow? If your account is not up to par and is at the bottom of the list, you are likely showing up as "someone to consider unfollowing" on many of these tools.

Here are 10 common reasons why your Twitter account might be labeled "a great candidate to unfollow" by various social media management tools:

1. You are inactive.
2. You are "too quiet" or "too noisy." 
3. You do not have a profile photo or your profile is not complete.
4. You are not following people back.
5. You are not engaged or have a low engagement score.
6. You do not have very many followers. 
7. You have a low Trust Score or low Social Authority. 
8. You are following the wrong crowd (i.e. spammers, inactives, etc.).
9. Your follower-to-friend ratio is too low.
10. You are not adding value to your followers or the community.

If your account is falling into this category which I call the "Twitter Unfollow Train," you will most likely continue to be unfollowed at a higher than average rate, making it very difficult to grow your community.

SocialBro got me off the Twitter #UnfollowTrain and back on track!

I have tried many Twitter management tools and prefer SocialBro. Using SocialBro, I turned my Twitter #UnfollowTrain around, broke thru the 2001 barrier and got back on track!

Here are some suggestions for improving your performance on Twitter so you can get off and stay off the Twitter #UnfollowTrain and get back on track!

Social Media Addict? Take this Quiz to find out!

Give yourself a "plus one" for each of the statements that you can identify with.

"You may be a social media addict if you have ever tried to plus one or like an email." +Dirk Talamasca

You may be a social media addict if...

1. You realize in the middle of the night that there actually ARE people online and you suddenly have a lot of friends that live in other time zones.
2. Your Empire Avenue portfolio is doing awesome but your bank account is overdrawn.
3. You have ever tried to scroll through TV channels with the remote.
4. Your pocket often vibrates... even if your phone is on your desk.
5. You realize you are growing very fond of the people who give you the most +K.
6. You are the Mayor of a gas station.
7. You have circles for your Facebook and Twitter followers and Twitter lists for your Facebook and Google+ followers.
8. You have created a spreadsheet to track your network scores.
9. You have a XeeMe profile.
10. You belong to more than 25 Facebook groups.
11. When you plus 1'd #10, you weren't counting secret groups.
12. You type a + or an @ sign before you type someone's name, even during those rare moments when you are NOT using social media.
13. You have sent over 5,000 Tweets or have pinned more than 10,000 pins and you aren't even sure why...
14. You know what IFTTT is and you are a master at creating recipes.
15. You have photos ready to share for every #caturday for the rest of the summer.

"You may be a social media addict if you already have 45+ networks and you are looking for more." +Steven Krohn

"You may be a social media addict if you add the hashtag #birthday onto a birthday card." +Adrian Bold

"You may be a social media addict if you have ever played the bitly memory game."
+Christine DeGraff

In the comments below, please add to this list by filling out the rest of this sentence: 

You may be a social media addict if __________________________________________________. 

Thanks everyone! See you online!

The New MySpace :: How to Become a "Top Fan"

Become a Top Fan in Five Minutes or Less

I never used the "Old" MySpace, so I can't really compare, but I think the New MySpace is pretty cool. I have always been a music fan and I like the look and feel of it - and I am definitely into social media, so the ability to connect with people that like the same music as me is fun.

In a nutshell, people that are connected to you can see what artists, albums, photos, songs, etc. that you are connected to and can then connect as well. The New MySpace also has a "Top Fans" feature. Still in Beta, Top Fans are "people who have interacted the most with an artist and their content."

Being a "Top Fan" will eventually (supposedly) give you access to exclusive content from the artist (tickets? autographs?)... so imagine my excitement when I realized I was one of the Top 10 fans for Metallica - possibly my all time favorite band! I bet I started listening to their songs twice as much - and then I was #2.

As silly as it may seem for a 44 year old, I was very excited and proud of my "accomplishment"... 

Become a Top Fan of Your Favorite Artist (or any artist) on the New MySpace... in 3 steps and in less than 5 minutes

I checked my rank on some of my other favorites... and discovered that I was in the top of quite a few. I do tend to be a little OCD and listen to the same bands a lot, so I guess that isn't TOO surprising... but it did make me curious about just how easy it might be to become a top fan of other artists. To get to the point, I figured out (I believe I am the first, or at least the first to write about it) that actually playing or listening to the music has very little or nothing to do with how a "Top Fan" is calculated on the New MySpace.

I am writing this in order to tell others how they can get to the top of the Top Fans list for their favorite artist in the hopes that once the "secret" is out, it will get corrected so we can truly see an artists' Top Fans, rather than who is good at the social media game. Think about it - as soon as there are rewards involved, it will just become another social media numbers game of who can connect the fastest.