For more information, visit our Recruitment page.

Here are four best practices to help ensure your business and your customers benefit from newsletters.

1. Best time of day

Easy answer? There is none. However, we can advise you not to send e-mails on Monday mornings – human beings on average don’t crack our first smiles until 11:16 a.m. that day. An overstuffed inbox would further delay the process.

On the other hand, perform some basic analytics about your business’ customers or users. Does your blog or business target parents? Send an e-mail update on Sunday evenings when the family is relaxing with a movie. Do many of your purchases come from another country? Consider setting your updates to that time zone. Does your service list weekend events? Don’t wait until 4:55 p.m. on a Friday afternoon to send invites.

Sure, many of these tips seem to follow common sense. But as an avid online shopper, you’d be surprised how many e-mails from Urban Outfitters I delete while feeling the crunch of a Tuesday afternoon deadline. Perform basic demographic analysis: as a gamer, financial analyst, retiree, college student, etc., when would you be most likely to click through promotional e-mails?

2. Best wording

“Check this box if you’d like to receive our newsletter.” Let’s point out everything wrong with this all-too-common option: It’s vague, it’s boring and it lacks incentive.

First off, encourage customers to opt-in by advertising what your company’s e-mail newsletters will include. Maybe your company allows its customers to subscribe to specific lists, designated by interest or gender, for example. Can they expect promotions, deals and product updates? Make sure to emphasise the inherent value in receiving regular notifications from you.

Second, use punchy language to turn vague into enticing. Subject headings are key in this regard—weekly newsletters with identical subject lines lack click appeal. If customers get the feeling they’re about to read the same thing they read in a previous e-mail, they won’t open it in the first place. Instead, highlight the most important or eye-catching piece of news or product update in the subject line. After all, SEO is key these days.

Finally, customers love a good deal. When inviting customers to subscribe to or open an e-mail newsletter, be sure to emphasise savings.

3. Best unsubscribe etiquette

Consider that 91 percent of e-mail users who have subscribed to a company’s newsletter later decide they no longer want to receive the e-mails. Bleak, but useful data.

Even more telling, 54 percent of e-mail subscribers say they unsubscribe when they feel the e-mails come too frequently. It’s important to be upfront with subscribers about the frequency that newsletters will appear in their inbox. Depending on the customer’s interest level, even weekly may be too often. Consider offering several options for e-mail frequency. If a customer clicks the unsubscribe button, try to sell them on a lower frequency mailing.

Which brings me to my next point: Sooner or later, you are going to get dumped. But, you can go out the bigger person. My biggest pet peeve is having to search for or jump through hoops to unsubscribe. Etiquette, business integrity – and most importantly, the law – demand that you always give customers the right to opt out.

That doesn’t mean, however, that you can’t ask that customer their reason for unsubscribing. A simple check-box survey can provide information as to why your audience is vacating: unsubscribe explanations can include e-mail frequency, irrelevance, repetition or product dissatisfaction, and they can help you improve the experience for remaining and potential subscribers.

4. Best ethics

One of the most controversial debates around e-mail involves a user’s opt-in confirmation. Users and security filters alike usually consider spam any users didn’t approve for delivery. Your business should steer a wide berth away from unethical e-mail solicitation practices as well.

According to Lisa Barone, co-founder and chief branding officer of Outspoken Media, Inc., the only acceptable time to add people to an e-mail list is after they have confirmed through a double opt-in. Any other means of populating an e-mail address book is invasive and unethical, such as using an e-mail address after a customer has registered for your site or entered a contest. Barone warns that it’s even bad practice to add peers or colleagues to an e-mail list after they gave you a business card, for instance.

Not only will the unethical use of e-mail addresses earn your business a bad reputation, but chances are those users will be part of the 91 percent who unsubscribe anyway.

Until e-mail evolves or disappears all together, I’m afraid we’re stuck with the sometimes intrusive inbox newsletter. The trick is making your newsletter’s content engaging and valuable while maintaining your integrity.

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Macintosh, 1984

The Macintosh arrived in 1984, and was the first computer to successfully integrate two things that are now commonplace: a graphical user interface and a mouse. Little pictures of folders, the piece of paper denoting a file, the trash can, drag and drop – the conventions that are nowadays taken for granted not just by Mac users but PC users as well – were all pioneered on the original Macintosh.

Pixar, 1986

Steve Jobs bought Pixar from George Lucas in 1986. He paid $5 million to George Lucas, and sank $5 million of his own money into the company. Jobs was involved in signing a distribution deal with Disney, and Pixar went on the change the face of family films forever. 1995′s Toy Story was the first fully computer-animated blockbuster. Toy Story 2, Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Cars, WALL-E and Up! followed. Accolades and Oscars came rolling in, along with massive mountains of cash.

iPod, 2001

Jobs announced the first iPod as a Mac-compatible product with a 5 GB hard drive that put “1,000 songs in your pocket.” Initially, music could only be easily transferred to an iPod by ripping audio CDs and transferring the digital data across via iTunes. But in 2003 that changed, with the launch of the iTunes Store. Suddenly, it wasn’t just about creating or collecting media, but purchasing it, too. The iTunes Store was a huge hit, and with it came the era of the digital single, easily downloadable for $0.99 and offering instant satisfaction. Of course, the record companies weren’t happy to see their monopoly on distribution challenged. But traditional retail tapered while iTunes exploded. Tower Records folded. Virgin Megastores were boarded up. By 2007, Apple was selling 5 million songs a day.

iPhone, 2007

During his game changing keynote address at Macworld 2007, Jobs said Apple would announce three things: “A widescreen iPod with touch controls, a revolutionary mobile phone and a breakthrough internet communications device.” Of course, it was all three of those things in one — the iPhone. With its highly responsive touch screen interface with multi-touch and accelerometer – and in 2008 the introduction of the App Store – the iPhone turned the smartphone market on its head.

During Jobs’ keynote address for the iPhone, Jobs stated, “Every once in a while, a revolutionary product comes along that changes everything.” He went on to note that Apple have been fortunate in having been involved in more than one of these products. It’s highly unlikely that this would have this the case without a visionary like Steve Jobs at the helm. He will be sorely missed. Not just by his family, friends and colleagues, but by fans of technological innovation all around the world.

Social media management tools can help you manage outbound and incoming online interactions in a more efficient manner. They streamline and consolidate how you listen to and participate in relevant conversations across a variety of websites. Some of our favourite tools here at Worldspan Creative are outlined below.

TweetDeck

TweetDeck started out as a tool solely for managing Twitter accounts, but has grown in both popularity and functionality, to become a very effective tool for managing accounts on Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Foursquare, Google Buzz and more. TweetDeck works by organising feeds, mentions, messages and searches across columns, which are completely customisable; you can choose what information is displayed, and how you are notified of new activity when it happens. You can also simultaneously post updates to as many, or as few, accounts as you choose.

HootSuite

HootSuite is a more business-oriented tool than TweetDeck. It has an analytics suite that lets the user create reports from a wide variety of metrics and data that can be fully branded and printed out or automatically sent by via daily, weekly or monthly email. Hootsuite also gives the user the ability to schedule future posts, so that social media campaigns can be planned and organised in advance.

Both Twitter and HootSuite have mobile apps available, so you can even monitor and manage your social media engagement on your smartphone.

CMS Integration

Another tool that can significantly reduce the amount of time you need to spend logged into social networking sites, is the ability to publish content to Twitter, Facebook etc directly from your website’s Content Management System. All of the Content Management Systems we work with, from our bespoke Django solution, to open source products such as WordPress, can be customised to post new content to social networks automatically.

If you want to find out more about how we can help your business with Social Media Management, get in touch.

Here at Worldspan Creative, we have a bespoke CMS, written in Django, which we’re very proud of. But we’re finding that more and more clients are asking for their web projects to be built using Open Source technologies. They’re in good company; Facebook, one of the most popular websites in the world, was developed from the ground up using open source software such as PHP. Facebook Developers even have their own open source initiative, where they share the code that has been written to power the world’s largest social network.

The key advantages to using open source software derive from the huge user/developer communities that open source platforms attract; WordPress, for example, now powers 14.7 percent of the top one million websites worldwide. This means that, with so many users and developers working with WordPress daily, any bugs or flaws in the software are quickly found and fixed. It also means that there is a vast number of developers around the world creating extra functionality for WordPress in the form of plug-ins; it’s this input from the developer community that has seen WordPress evolve from a simple blogging platform, to a flexible and robust, fully-fledged Content Management System. Our front-end team has a wealth of experience in developing WordPress powered sites, from simple blogs to larger scale commercial sites; indeed, this site is itself powered by the latest version of WordPress.

If you’d like to find out more about open source software, and see what open source solutions are out there, be sure to check out SourceForge.net.

But just whу dоеѕ email marketing offer such possibilities tо small business and, indeed, organisations оf аll sizes? Below are outlined 8 reasons whу email marketing has tо sit rіght аt the top оf еverу SME’s marketing activities checklist.

1. Successful Results

First and foremost, email marketing produces results! A well designed campaign uѕіng а properly managed mailing list will give response rates whiсh аre much higher thаn othеr direct marketing methods.

While therе аre many variables that contribute tо response rates, indications аrе that overаll email marketing gains а response rate аbоut 5 times higher thаn direct mail. By gеttіng а muсh larger percentage of people interested іn whаt уou are offering, immediately уоu arе massively increasing thе number of potential sales. Added tо this, the quick response methods allоw a much faster turnaround of questions аnd objections thus clearing a wаy through tо closing thе sale.

Even thоugh thе unacceptable rise іn Spam has had а detrimental effect оn thе proper commercial usе of emails in marketing, thе success levels оf well run, targeted аnd fully compliant campaigns using full opt-in lists continue tо advance іn leaps and bounds. Effectively, whаtevеr уоur goal, email marketing delivers іn a way thаt fеw , if any, direct marketing methods cаn match.

2. Targeted Audience

The more targeted уour marketing message is, the mоrе likеlу it is tо be successful. Email marketing рrovіdеs the means оf customising еасh message which is ѕеnt out, ѕо that the information, promotion оr offer can be individually personalised аnd targeted.

Effectively, usіng targeted HTML emails gіveѕ yоu thе opportunity to quickly and easily tailor the message tо directly respond tо еаch prospect’s own nеedѕ and interests. Results consistently аlѕo show that the morе уou cаn personalise уоur messages, thе higher yоur response аnd conversion rates will be.

In manу respects, а well run email campaign makes the concept of “one to one marketing” аvаilаble tо all, bеcаusе of thе wау that it is perfectly suited tо segmentation аnd personalisation. Whereas printed mailers аrе created, printed аnd fixed, wіth email marketing уou remain іn control оf thе process for longer giving yоu more flexibility bоth in the ovеrall approach аnd offering.

3. Economic аnd Cost Effective Solution

Email marketing eliminates the significant time аnd expense of full graphic design, printing, postage, handling and sо on whіch is аѕsоcіatеd with printing and processing traditional direct mail campaigns. Yet wіth graphic HTML emails, you are able to create the ѕamе imagery and provoke the samе responses with thе added benefit оf hаving follow up information instantly аvailаblе vіа your website.

Perhaps јuѕt aѕ importantly, wіth the correct maintenance of an email list, thе cost benefits increase aѕ doеѕ thе ROI thrоugh thе closer relationship established wіth the recipients. Coupled wіth the higher response rates thаt email marketing attracts, yоu thеrеforе gеt mоrе positive responses, more quickly and at a lower unit cost! Win – win situation!

4. Trackable Results

When usіng email marketing, yоu cаn track thе results оf your campaign іn real time thuѕ providing you with instant feedback оn itѕ success. This аllows you to respond to developments as thеy happen аnd to follow uр while the campaign іs ѕtill in progress.

For eаch message, you сan ѕеe whether:

• it wаѕ received successfully;
• іt was opened and read;
• thе recipient uѕed thе links in іt tо reach your site.

There аrе twо immediatе benefits of thіѕ level оf information: firstly, it puts you in а position tо bе аble to make changeѕ to a campaign alrеadу underway tо improve its response rate; secondly, whеn sending оut follow uр messages, уou have thе possibility to segment yоur mail list ассоrding tо the action takеn оn receipt of the initial one. This allоwѕ yоu tо respond immediately to аny issues whісh arise and to complete thе feedback loop quickly аnd effectively.

Moving forward, уou alsо hаvе a complete record of thosе elements аnd links which worked beѕt for уоu and thоѕе whіch require сhаngеs to improve thеіr performance. The experiences takеn from thе campaign cаn thеn bе applied tо future campaigns wіth a high degree оf accuracy.

5. It’s Measurable

As the adage goes, “If you can’t measure it, thеn yоu саn’t manage it” аnd measuring the success of уоur marketing spend iѕ mоre important today than ever. To make bеst uѕе of уour budget, it іѕ essential to kееp track of not onlу the costs but alѕo thе results аnd thе revenue that thе campaign specifically generates. This will allоw уou tо focus yоur activities wіth thе most aрpropriаte methods іn future.

In addition to tracking thе recipients’ reaction to thе email, you саn alѕo follow theіr subsequent path through уour website, wіth thе аpprорrіate software. This аllоws excellent visibility аs to thе success оf the landing page аnd thе anticipated route through tо the purchase or sign-up page, acсordіng tо уour campaign’s objectives.

Together, this information is invaluable whеn planning future campaigns or being ablе to precisely calculate the costs аnd sales generated by аnу email marketing activity that yоu undertake. Hopefully, the ROI (Return оn Investment) уou achieve will bе aѕ good аѕ the campaigns run by companies whіch havе reported ROI rates 40 times higher thаn thоse achieved with direct mail!

6. Testable

To achieve thе bеѕt posѕiblе response rates, іt іѕ common practice to send аnу intended piece of marketing material to sample groups tо test іts effectiveness befоrе starting the main campaign. With traditional direct marketing, thіѕ process сan be time consuming and costly.

However, wіth email marketing, thіѕ process іѕ fast аnd effective wіth results avаilablе almost immediately, thankѕ tо the instant measuring оf thе results. Additionally, аѕ there iѕ nо printed material involved, the turnaround for аny changеs іn layout оr wording required аs а result cаn bе incorporated іntо thе main mailing quickly аnd easily.

7. Immediate Results

The speed аt whіch business hаppеns іѕ constantly increasing. Email marketing allоws уоu nоt оnly to kееp pace with theѕе сhangеs but stay ahead оf them, nоt оnly in terms of thе speed оf response tо the campaign but alѕо thе creation оf thе campaign itself.

Firstly, the “Call to Action” сan be immedіate аnd ideally handled through thе website. When уоu read а compelling offer іn аn email yоu саn respond uѕing the links in the message itself, usuаlly taking уоu tо а specially created page wіth additional information аnd recommendations. Responding to а direct mail piece, on the other hand, requires a much morе active response, suсh аѕ completing and sending off а form оr еvеn just picking uр the phone. Just aѕ importantly, thе responses start tо cоmе back immediately! On average, 80% оf thе responses happen within 3 days aѕ opposed to the weeks whiсh is morе normal fоr traditional direct mail.

Secondly, thе creation аnd distribution of the email campaign is alѕo much quicker. Carefully constructing, producing and sending а good html email whiсh iѕ goіng tо bring the top level results, nееd оnlу tаke a matter оf days (or indеed hours if you аrе working with a supportive partner!) rather thаn weeks fоr a printed mailer.

8. Flexible & Adaptable

Email marketing iѕ adaptable еnоugh to support уоur business in mаny dіffеrеnt ways аnd cаn hеlp tо achieve а variety оf dіffеrent goals. While email marketing is oftеn considered stronger whеn you аre lookіng to maintain customer relationships rаther thаn forge new ones, іt іѕ in fact able to fulfil а variety of different purposes fоr yоur business. Some of thеse are:

• Increase thе number оf visitors to yоur website
• Attract new clients, leads оr registrations
• Build stronger relationships wіth existing clients
• Provide improved levels of company, product оr service information
• Build brand awareness

These goals саn bе achieved thrоugh thе uѕe of emails tо distribute differеnt items, еach offering diffеrent opportunities fоr strengthening thе relationship wіth the company’s customers. Some оf thе more common onеs include:

• Sales promotions / vouchers
• Account statements
• Company Newsletters
• Press Releases
• Product Announcements

Summary

Email marketing іs іn itѕelf аn excellent method of communicating аnd distributing information аnd аn essential part of an integrated marketing strategy. Like all marketing methods, іt is most influential whеn usеd іn conjunction wіth оther media wіth thе result thаt thе sum оf thе parts being mоrе powerful than the individual parts themselves.

With thе uѕe оf RSS feeds аnd blogs gaining greater acceptance aѕ corporate communications media, thеrе will undoubtedly prophets of doom announcing thе imminent demise оf the uѕe оf email marketing аs а tool for the future. The astute marketer will, however, develop thеsе up and coming channels alongside theіr email marketing program and ѕo be ideally plаced to offer our customers the information they require by the method thеy prefer.

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There are lots of ways, of course, but let’s start with four actionable steps you can take to find new business, generate more leads and make more sales through social media.

1. Join a group discussion on LinkedIn

It’s easy to overlook LinkedIn with all the fuss about Google+, Facebook and Twitter, but the site is a very powerful network. In fact, the average household income is higher on LinkedIn than it is on both Facebook and Twitter. Higher income means deeper pockets—and deeper pockets mean better customers. One way to access the deep pockets on LinkedIn is to join groups related to your business and start answering relevant questions that are asked in the discussions section.

There are some groups on LinkedIn with over 100,000 members (browse the full group directory). You can imagine that when 100,000 people gather together around a topic, a few of them have questions to ask. If you’re the one providing answers to those questions, then it’s a natural extension to send them a detailed message with more information. With group discussion serving as the conversation spark, you might find yourself with a new client in no time.

2. Leverage the answers section of LinkedIn

Another wonderful place to find quality leads on LinkedIn is in the “Answers” section. This area of the site is where people can ask questions about any topic. Other users—like you—can then search those questions and provide answers. All you have to do is go to the search bar and select “Answers” from the dropdown menu. Then, simply search for a relevant topic. For example, I just searched for the term “small business” and there are currently 132 open questions on LinkedIn for that term. Let’s say you’re a small business consultant. Think about how powerful this feature is for you. That’s 132 people who are actively looking for answers to their small business questions—and you could be the one to provide the answer they want. As you can see, the Answers section has the potential to be a very high quality pool of leads for your business.

3. Twitter search

Twitter has a massive audience of more than 200 million members. They also have a search bar right at the top of the screen. You would think that people would start putting those two things together and search Twitter like crazy for clients, but my experience tells me otherwise. The real shame is that there are people on Twitter actively telling the world that they need help with problem X or issue Y. All you have to do is search for them and you’ve found a potential new client.

So how exactly does this unexplored universe of Twitter leads work? It’s pretty simple. All you need to do is search for relevant terms in the search box. For example, if you run a graphic design company, then you might search for “logo design,” “infographic” or “brand designer”. Then, people who use those words in their tweets will show up in the results. It’s not unreasonable at all to expect that someone might have recently tweeted, “Anyone know a good logo designer?”

4. Google+ Circles

Google+ is all the rage right now. The beauty of Google+ is that it allows you to segment your communication efforts—it allows you to create “circles,” which are just groups of different people. You can put anyone you want into a circle and then send out a message to a specific circle, multiple circles or everyone. This is great for businesses because you can choose the specific people you want to target with your message.

Let’s say that your business offers three products and you just built a great upgrade for customers of one product. If you let the world know about it on Twitter, you might reach a few of the relevant people, but many of the people who see it couldn’t care less. On Google+, however, you could create a circle of customers for each product. You could then notify the relevant circle of people when you have a new product update, an upsell offering, or a new customer service feature.

Unlike most social networks, Google+ offers a way for you to group your customers and then address each group specifically. More specificity means better messaging, more traction, and more sales.

The key takeaway

Social media, regardless of the network, is filled with people who have interests and passions, problems and pain points. They are just waiting for someone to reach out to them and lend a helping hand. The methods might be different—groups, discussions, search, circles—but the approach is the same: use the strengths of each network to find people you can help. The strategies above won’t always bring you a paying client, but you can be sure that the more people you help through social media, the more social media will help you.

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In the world of small business, where every penny counts and every mistake is felt deeply, immediately and often personally, does branding deserve a place at the strategy table…and a line item in your budget?

Q: Everyone throws around the word “brand,” but what is it really?

A: A brand is a complex bundle of feelings. It’s how you’d like the people in your world (customers, clients) to feel about you and your business. So a brand infused with an irresistible luster is going to make your customers’ hearts beat a little faster. If they’re confused or baffled by your brand, they’re not to going to buy. Zero in on that scintillating spark in your business and bundle it up.

So your brand is what sets you and your business apart. It’s never just your logo, name or tagline. It has a real and distinct personality, an energy and attitude, character, behaviour, value system, code of ethics. Your brand reflects who you are (you’re the Brand Guardian, after all), what you believe in, what you offer and why you do what you do. And, of course, why it matters.

Q: What about small business? Does it matter as much when you’re a local or regional player or small online biz?

A: Absolutely. Your brand matters, you bet—no matter how big or small. No matter whether you’re wearing pinstripes in a corner office or fluffy rabbit slippers in the back bedroom. If you have a small business and an online presence, you’re on the global map (whether you like it or not!). After all, in this virtual world, everyone has total access and can come knocking on your virtual door any time, day or night. So if you’re interested in a business with customers, you’re going to want a brand because without it, you lack an identity, a pulse, a presence—and a purpose.

Q: What is the relationship between a person or company’s brand and their ability to sell and charge more? Put another way, how does your brand translate to more money in the bank?

A: The money’s in the brand. The successful brands understand how to engage customers—particularly when it comes to creating deeper emotional connections with them. The successful brands stand for something irresistible, attract raving fans who adore everything about them. Take Apple, for example. Their hot tribe wait in long lines with wallets wide open. Tap into the Irresistibility Quotient in your brand. It’ll pump the pulse of your business and spike your bottom line.

Q: What are some of the biggest mistakes small businesses make when experimenting with branding on their own?

A:

• They’re not who they say they are. The best idea is to be your own person. Speak in your own voice. Be authentic, real and congruent.
• The lights are out. People can tell when no one’s home, right? Infuse your brand with your own unique energy. If not, you’re going to fall into that trap of Dead Brand Walking.
• Not being mindful. Language is a tricky thing. Be aware of the invisible clues embedded in your brand. They can be emotional triggers telling your audience to “go away or don’t buy!” Keep a close eye on what your brand is actually communicating to your audience 24/7.

Q: What are some of the most important things to strive for when building a small business brand?

A:

• Be madly, truly and deeply in love with your brand. If you have any ounce of resistance or doubt, your audience will sniff it a mile away. A potent dose of passion will get you through even the toughest patch along the way.
• Nothing quite like clarity. Murky thinking is not a smart business strategy. Agility and a nimble mind tends to put you ahead of the pack.
• Know what your audience is longing for. It’s all very well if you believe you have a special product/service to offer but if no one else gives a damn, you’re toast. Before you even start thinking about building a small business brand, make sure that there are real people are there who are craving what you’re really offering.

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Facebook, of course, has a huge head start, but there are good reasons for people to seriously consider dumping Facebook for Google+.

1. Integration with Google Services
The biggest wedge Google has for driving people toward using Google+ is integration. That is, Google will build Google+ social networking features and tools into almost all of its existing online services from Search to Documents to Video (YouTube). Google+ is already integrated into the navigation bar at the top right of almost all Google products; this lets you monitor all Google+ events (updates, messages, etc.) as well as share content with friends without ever leaving the Google service you happen to be using. Millions and millions of people use Google’s free services (Gmail, Docs, Search, etc.), and with Google+ bound so tightly to them it may start to seem silly to jump out to some other site (Facebook) to do your social networking.

2. Better Friend Management
Google is right that the “Circles” concept is more in line with the way we make friends in real life. We have many different kinds of friends, and we interact with them and communicate with them in very different ways. Facebook’s Groups feature lets you form ad hoc groups of friends, but compared to the way its done in Google+ it seems cumbersome. After all, Facebook’s Groups feature is pretty new; it was “built on”, while friend “circles” are the bedrock of the Google+ platform.

3. Better Mobile App
If you’re an Android user, you may find that getting content from your phone to your social platform is easier, cleaner more functional with the Google+ mobile app. The app is already great, but Google will seek more and more ways to make your Android phone a seemless appendage of your Google+ social platform. Google hopes to use its huge Android user base as a wedge against Facebook, whose mobile app, while nice-looking, is a little clunky to use.

4. Easier to Find Stuff to Share
Google+’s Sparks feature is another important differentiator from Facebook. Spark is Google leveraging its search engine to do something Facebook can’t do—give users an instant wellspring of relevant information to share with friends. Because Facebook has no search engine, its users must leave the site to find shareable data or wait for their friends the share it with them. The question “how do I find stuff to share” is immediately answered with Sparks.

5. You Can Get Your Data Back
Facebook is notorious for its poor stewardship of personal data. You are forced to make certain parts of your personal data “public” for example, and it is very hard to permanently delete your Facebook profile. Google, on the other hand, makes it possible for you to pick up all the data you’ve banked at Google+ and walk away. This is done through a Google+ tool called “Data Liberation.” With just a few clicks you can download data from your Picasa Web Albums, Google profile, Google+ stream, Buzz and contacts.

6. Better Photo Tagging
When viewing photos in Google+ you can “tag” the people in them similar to the way you do in Facebook. You draw a little square around a person’s face, then type in their name in the box below it (or choose one of the names Google+ guesses). But there’s a big difference in the way Google handles the privacy aspect of photo tagging. When you tag someone, you see this note: “Adding this tag will notify the person you have tagged. They will be able to view the photo and the related album.” Facebook, on the other hand, does not make an effort to warn people the they’ve been tagged (possibly in an unflattering or compromising photo) and give them an immediate chance to remove the tag.

Also, Google has wisely decided to shy away from using facial recognition software, which Facebook now uses to automatically identify people in photos uploaded to user albums.

7. Strong Group Chat Features
Google+ has Facebook beat in the area of chat. Forming ad hoc group video chats using the Hangouts feature in Google+ is easy, and forming ad hoc groups for a little chat seems like a natural and fun thing to do in a social networking setting. Similarly, the new Huddle mobile app makes it easy for mobile (Android) users to start up group text chats. Facebook simply doesn’t offer these tools.

8. Safer Content Sharing
Privacy advocates have long called for social networking sites to let users assign a privacy level to each piece of content they share, instead of using a pre-set list privacy settings to govern all shares. Google obviously heard those calls, and built the capability into Google+. For instance, when I share an article or upload a camera image, Google+ gives me choices of which friend circles I’d like to share that content with. Advantage Google+.

9. Google Is a Better Steward of Your Personal Data
Running a social network is all about responsible stewardship of users’ personal information. Facebook is a young, fast moving company that has proved itself to be cavalier in its movements, lacking in respect for user data privacy, and accident prone. Google on the other hand, is a far more mature company that is, I would argue, seen as more trustworthy than Facebook. For the most part, Google has lived up to its “Don’t Be Evil” slogan. Which company would you rather have as the steward of your personally identifiable information?

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1. Backtweets

Backtweets is a simple way to search for links to your website or content on Twitter. In seconds, a Backtweets link search will show you who’s talking about and linking to your brand and content.

While the Backtweets free account only offers the link search, the Pro account allows you to receive e-mail notification when someone tweets a link to your website and provides statistics on the reach (how many unique people see it) and impressions (the total of how many times a tweet is seen) of your tweets. You can even connect Backtweets to your Google Analytics account to see how your tweets translate to traffic to your website.

Backtweets is free. A Pro account costs $100 per month.

2. Twitter Search

On Twitter, there is an endless stream of news and information flowing every second of every day. Twitter Search keeps you from drowning in tweets by helping you search and filter Twitter in real time.

Much like Google, Twitter Search lets you perform highly advanced searches using advanced search operators to narrow and refine your search results. Get specific with Twitter Search simply by entering the words or phrases, people, places, dates and even attitudes that you’d like to watch for on Twitter.

Twitter Search is free.

3. Monitter

Monitter is a search tool that allows you to monitor a set of keywords on Twitter. Just type them in, hit “add column” and watch the real-time results stream in front of you in no time flat.

Want to search more than one keyword? No problem. Monniter will create a clean, multi-column view for you. You can even narrow your search to a particular geographic location if you want to see what’s going on in a certain part of the world, which is perfect for business owners who want to focus on local customers.

Monitter is free.

4. Twilert

Twilert is a free Web app that sends you regular e-mail updates of tweets containing your brand, product, service, or keyword. Like Google Alerts, but for Twitter.

Just set up searches for the keywords that you want to monitor and Twilert will e-mail them to you in a daily digest at the time you choose. There are even advanced search options for specific words, language, Twitter account, location, and attitude.

Twilert is free and you can use your Google or Twitter account to register.

5. Sprout Social

The mac daddy of Twitter monitoring, Sprout Social allows you to manage and grow your social presence efficiently and effectively, across multiple channels, helping you turn social media connections into loyal customers.

And Twitter isn’t the only thing you can keep track of with Sprout Social. The Web application also integrates with Facebook Fan Pages, LinkedIn, Foursquare, Gowalla and other networks where your customers are hanging out and checking in.

In addition to communication tools, Sprout Social offers contact management, competitive insight, lead generation, reporting, analytics, and more—all in a package that’s intuitive and easy to use.

Sprout Social offers a free 30-day trial and then monthly plans start at just $9 for small and online business owners and $49 for brick and mortar business owners who want to track a local customer base.

6. Tweetbeep

Beep, beep…

Tweetbeep keeps track of conversations that mention you, your products or your company and sends you hourly updates by e-mail. You can even keep track of who is sharing links to your website or blog, even if they use a URL shortener like bit.ly or tinyurl.com.

Choose from a free Tweetbeep account or upgrade to their premium account for $20 per month.

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