If you’re interested in learning how to capture audio, pictures and video with nothing but an iPhone, keep reading.

Multimedia Content With an iPhone?

This is what I’ve been doing with my TalkingWithTom project this year. I’ve been interviewing digital thought leaders and then sharing those video interviews once a week.

And I’m creating the ENTIRE BLOG using just an iPhone.

The best part of the deal is I’ve learned a lot about what an iPhone can and cannot do. Along the way, my iPhone has become one of my favorite blog content creation tools.

In fact, I’m now using it in ways I had never envisioned when I purchased it last year.

In this article I’ll share 5 tips and tricks that will help you use your iPhone for capturing audio, photographs and video.

The new iPhone4 has all-new 8MP camera and optics.

Audio—Your Secret Blogging Weapon

Since inception, the iPhone has come with a fine audio recording tool resident on the phone. Sure, there are lots of additional audio apps, but for a blogger’s needs, the basic Apple Voice Memo app works just fine.

The problem though is with the microphone. It’s just not that good. So my first two tips are about getting better sound.

#1: Small Directional iPhone Microphone

To ensure optimum audio, you need an external mic. For basic audio interviews where your intention is to use the entire iPhone like a microphone and point it at your interviewee while he or she speaks, pick up Brando Mini Directional mic.

This little gem is small, lightweight and perfect for conducting one-on-one interviews at conferences and meet-ups.

With this, you just pop it in, point it in the direction you want to record and go!

You’ll like this mic because it is small enough to comfortably carry in your pocket and then just snap it into to the headphone jack when you’re ready to record. Then just point the mic in the direction of your subject and start recording.

What you’ll get is audio that is much better in terms of volume and clarity. BUT—what I find is that it amps up ALL of the audio. So, while it is directional, you still need a pretty quiet place to record.

#2: Professional Microphone Adapter

If you want to the ability to record higher-quality audio in spaces that generate more noise (conferences/restaurants), you’ll need a professional-grade microphone. The problem is, the iPhone can’t accept regular microphones that use the standard 3.5mm jack.

To solve the iPhone’s microphone incompatibility problem, you’ll need to buy a KV Connection iPhone Microphone Adapter. It will run you about $20. With it, you can attach any microphone (that has a 3.5mm plug) to the iPhone—this includes wireless lavaliere microphones like the one I use for all of my stuff.

KV connection cable allows you to connect a standard microphone with a 3.5mm connector to the iPhone.

Photographs: Moving Beyond Instagram

Easily the biggest advancement in the iPhone4 was the camera. With the iPhone4, you can actually shoot pretty decent photographs and HD video. But if you really want to kick it up a notch you need a few extra toys.

#3: External iPhone Lenses

External camera lenses for iPhone can transform your standard phone photos into wide, up-close, super-zoomed and wonderfully warped wonders.

Invest in a few iPhone external lenses. I carry this set with me all the time. It contains fish-eye, macro, telephoto and wide-angle lenses.

With these lenses, you can create iPhone pics that don’t look like iPhone pics.

For instance, the wide-angle lens will easily add a few feet of image left and right, creating more of a 16:9 ratio vs. the more standard 4:3 ratio. This can be especially good if you’re shooting outdoor scenes, like for a travel blog or video, and you want a more cinematic effect.

The macro lens is great to shoot really small stuff up close or to create that “blown out background” effect.

And if you want to create some really off-the-charts–looking photos and videos, attach the fish-eye lens and get some cool effects.

But lenses can only take you so far.

#4: Photo Retouching Apps

My go-to app for on-phone retouching is Photogene. The app lets you crop, alter colors, reduce the “noise” in a photo and basically take a normal shot and make it look pretty darn cool.

So if you’re running a food, travel or hotel blog, where pictures really are worth a thousand words, you might want to consider exploring the entire list of photo retouching apps in the app store.

Picture shot using iPhone4, retouched/resized using Photogene.

Video: Are you the next Spielberg?

Probably my favorite use of the iPhone (at least for blog content creation) is the video capabilities of the phone. While Apple’s built-in video recording tool will give you basic trimming capabilities, you’ll have to spend a few bucks to bring the world of video editing to your phone.

For all of my videos, I’ve used iMovie. It’s easy to trim, split and edit clips. You can add a voice-over or soundtrack, even insert title slides (JPEGS) or in my case, sponsor slides, and apply titles and transitions—all on the phone.

With one click, you can make epic movie trailers and create beyond-amazing effects. It's your home video's big break.

Then you can render and publish directly to YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook, CNNiReport (for which they even offer a video template for titles and such) or just send it to your camera roll to be imported to your computer.

If you’re a big Vimeo user, Vimeo came out with an editing app, but thus far, I’ve found it a bit buggy.

#5: Zoom During Video Recording

Lastly, if you are shooting in a place where you just can’t get good lighting, try picking up the Flare app which also gives you the ability to zoom while you record video (can’t do that in the iPhone’s native video app) as well as apply HDR effects, etc.

One of the many features is you can share full-quality videos to Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Tumblr, Flickr and more.

Well that’s it… 5 simple tricks that will help you turn your iPhone into the multimedia production studio it was meant to be so you can have better blog content.

What do you think? Do you have any tips for using your iPhone to create better blog content? Leave your comments in the box below.

In this post, I’ll share ways you can ensure your images provide the best experience they can; ones that will help keep the conversation flowing.

Among the topics covered in this post are tools, tips and strategies that can be used to enhance the visual representation of your business.

As I’ve done in the other posts in the 26 Tips series, this post provides an easily digestible A-Z guide to which you can return time and again.

A-Z Guide

#1: Adverts

Location, location, location. Talk about good real estate. You can use the Facebook photo strip space for pictures that serve as adverts for your business. You can include descriptions, links and calls to action.

In the post How to Use the Facebook Photo Strip on Your Fan Page, you can learn more about optimal sizes for photo strip images.

The Facebook photo strip is prime real estate and a great place for free business advertisements.

Watch how Make It In Music created them in this helpful video.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=wx1svhz8sE4

#2: Brand awareness

Ann Smarty suggests watermarking your images to protect your brand and increase brand awareness. She recommends a number of tools to get the job done; e.g., Fast Watermark and Photo Watermark.

Fast Watermark is a quick and simple tool that allows you to add a watermark to your photos.

#3: Creative commons

The service through Flickr makes it possible for users to offer their work under a creative commons license where people can search through images under each type of license: attribution, noncommercial, no derivative works and share alike. Before using a creative commons image, be sure to check out the license.

#4: Digital art

Greg Finn writes that digital art is a staple in social media news sites and suggests that design-related images should be “high resolution and content should be truly extraordinary.” He describes four examples of design images typically used in social media: design art, graffiti, web design and fonts. One outstanding example he references was created by Kevin Hulsey for Royal Caribbean, which can be viewed on his site, where you not only see a representation of the full ship but can go cabin by cabin through the ship. Pretty impressive!

#5: Effects

Create interesting effects with your images to help them stand out in the crowd. There are countless apps which can help to create all kinds of effects; e.g., collages, high dynamic range rendering, tiles, vintage, sketches and interesting textures. If you work on a Mac, you can check out the photography apps online.

#6: Facebook Photos Plus Comments

Photos and comments are the perfect duo for Facebook.  While you may think you have the most fantastic photo to post on Facebook (and you might), sometimes it won’t be enough to stand on its own. As, Jim Lodico writes in his post, 6 Tips to Increase Your Facebook Edgerank and Exposure, ”Photos and videos show up in the Facebook new feeds as thumbnail images. Due to their size, they almost require interaction as users click on them to make them large enough to see. Be sure to add a comment that encourages users to open the photo and add comments of their own.”

Use photos that represent your business.

#7: Google index

Text isn’t the only thing that Google indexes. That’s right. Google indexes your images too. Images are a very powerful way to add more Google juice to your site’s search ranking. Panda’s post 9 Ways of Optimizing Your Site for Image Search says, “If you have optimized your images correctly, you can get yourself a very attractive top 10 position by tagging your images correctly.”

Fun Tip: You can check how many pictures Google has indexed from your site by going to http://images.google.com/images?q=site:yoursite.com, and replacing “yoursite.com” with your domain name.

Google found 2,750 images on Social Media Examiner in 0.8 seconds!

#8: Hipstamatic

If you’re on the go and want to take some interesting photos with your iPhone, Hipstamatic is a great app worth exploring. Photographer Stephanie Roberts lists it as one tool to fuel your creativity in her article in Digital Photo magazine. She says, “Hipstamatic mimics the unique style of vintage prints characterized by vignettes, blurring, textured edges and oversaturated colors created with the original analog plastic camera. Using a square-format viewfinder, the app lets you switch ‘lenses,’ ‘flash’ and ‘film’ with the swipe of a finger. I often shoot with Hipstamatic because I like composing images in the square-format viewfinder and I like the creative constraint of choosing the ‘film’ and ‘lens’ before I shoot.”

Rich Brooks from Flyte talks about Hipstamatic and other apps in this video from 207, the evening news magazine on southern Maine’s NBC affiliate, WCSH.

#9: iPhoneography

Stephanie Roberts, author of The Art of iPhoneography: A Guide to Mobile Creativity, gives a number of compelling reasons for seeing the iPhone camera as a powerful creative device for photographers. My personal favorite is: “You rarely go anywhere without it, which means you increase the odds of your ability to capture fleeting magic moments as you move through the day.”

I can’t begin to tell you how many times I think I should have brought my digital camera when I remember that my iPhone, the constant friend and companion, is ready and waiting and very up for the task at hand!

Stephanie suggests loosening up and following your instincts and crafting your toolkit with apps to fuel your creativity. She recommends Photo fx from Tiffen, Iris Photo Suite, Hipstamatic and Adobe Photoshop Express.

Think of iPhoneography as a mobile method for making art as you move through life.

#10: Join the community and be social with your photos

Stephanie Roberts also recommends creating an Instagram presence. “Instagram is a rapidly growing social network of iPhoneographers sharing images in real time. The Instagram app displays a chronological feed of photographs shared by users you choose to follow. You can use Instagram to shoot an image (or choose an image from your photo library), apply an image filter (or not) and quickly share the image with your followers. Instagram also can automate image sharing to your online journal, or your Twitter or Facebook accounts.”

Instagram is a fun and quirky way to share through pictures.

Steve Kovach’s post, HOW TO: Use Instagram for Your Business recognizes the ways businesses can use Instagram to make their photos searchable with hashtags. As he says, “This is fun for the average user, but a huge win for brands that want to get more attention with the Instagram crowd.” He offers four tips for leveraging hashtags for your brand on Instagram: host a contest, target people by interest, create an RSS feed and encourage participation.

News organizations are using Instagram, too. In this recent post, Anthony Quintano, the community manager for @NBC News, offers three tips: upload original photos that share a unique perspective, thank and follow other Instagram users and search for user content.

You can also search for hashtags that interest you. For example, see who has tagged their photos #socialmedia.

#11: Keywords

Where would we be without keywords? They’re everywhere we search today. But when it comes to searching for the perfect image, they become even more important to understand. Getty images put together a very comprehensive guide to help users search for images. Whether you’re looking on Getty Images or not, the concepts are important to consider. For example, they suggest using keywords related to concepts, topics, people, age, sayings, image and footage styles, editorial-specific terms and human emotions. They offer advice for refining your search; e.g., combine terms, be creative, editorial and footage.

#12: Link

This may be an obvious piece of advice, but nevertheless it’s worth mentioning. Users have become accustomed to rolling over images in hopes that they will be able to navigate to a destination. So why not link the screenshot and take users directly to the website. This is particularly useful on web roundup posts. In this roundup, “The Art of Facebook Page Design,” the images represent the artwork of 50 Facebook pages. When the user wants to see more about the Facebook page, he or she can easily navigate to the page by clicking on the image.

Link screenshots directly to the website.

#13: Movies

Images needn’t be stills. With a variety of tools, you can create short movies with a series of photos, add music, embed on your blog, link on Facebook and wow, think of the impressions you can make. One such tool is Animoto.

Here’s a good tutorial by mentorMichel.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=48194ShehLI

#14: Networking sites

Looking for a way to keep track of the images you’ve shared on different social networking sites? There are several options to help you. One such product is GRID, which “fetches all your photos from different social networks and lists them out by week. Currently GRID can rewind your memories from Facebook, dailybooth, Instagram, picplz, twitpic and yfrog.”

Pixable, another fun service, makes it possible to view your friends’ photos shared on Facebook. Young writes in the post, View Facebook Photos with Pixable, “For every photo you can see on the Pixable website, you can also like it, read its comments, comment it and see who is tagged in it. Very enjoyable, especially when your friends share many beautiful photos of themselves.”

See all of your images in one place.

#15: Optimize

In the post 9 Ways of Optimizing your Site for Image Search, we’re advised to: use descriptive file names, use the html alt tag, add descriptive text close to the picture, keep the most important images close to the top headline or title, put photos within articles and blog posts away from navigational elements, do not add code to break out of frames, use images that read well when thumbnailed, make the photos accessible, and use social photo sites like Flickr with links back to the relevant page on your site.

#16: Profiles

The placement of social icons on blogs is an important consideration. Cindy King points out in her post, 19 Ways to Use Images to Enhance Your Blog, “A blog is considered a social media platform and you want to make it easy for readers to connect with you on the social platforms they feel most comfortable with. This is why many blogs have easy-to-recognize social icons in a prominent position.”

#17: Quality of experience

While we’ve been talking largely about images and photos so far in this post, Greg Finn suggests six formats for informative images that work in social media: charts/graphs, flow charts, how-to’s, maps, screenshots, and guides. “The key for these images is to be easy to consume and to be comprehensive. The images should not only be helpful, but should also be designed well. Great design can make an ordinary informative image turn into an essential resource.”

#18: Resize images and use same sizes

Greg Finn offers great advice for using the same size for each image in your piece. Go a step further and make it part of your editorial standards and request that all images have the same dimensions. As Greg says, “This gives your article a more professional feel and gives the submissions a much more uniform look. Never use a jumble of different image sizes; your story will look much more amateur.”

#19: Screenshots

Sometimes nothing says it better than a screenshot, the “image taken by the computer to record the visible items displayed on the monitor, television, or another visual output device.” (Wikipedia) Screenshot images are often used to demonstrate a point and show users how to complete a task. Another powerful feature of screenshots is the ability to annotate them, and this is where you might want to explore software options. Recently I’ve started using SnagIt by TechSmith, which I’ve used in this post. The annotating features really help add pizzazz.

Annotate screenshots to demonstrate a point.

#20: Twitter

As discussed in the post, 26 Twitter Tips for Enhancing Your Tweets, images can be shared on Twitter via a number of Twitter image sharing services, SMS or email, Brightkite or FriendFeed, Skitch and Encoded Tweets. You can learn more about these options from Josh Catone in his post.

#21: User Photos

One of Facebook’s newest developments is the ability to tag pages in user’s photos. Right now it’s limited to pages categorized as “Brands & Products,” but it can be very effective for brands looking to expand their reach. As Josh Constine writes, “A tag of a brand or public figure represents a strong social recommendation of that Page, which will make a user’s friends curious to visit that Page and improve the chance that they’ll Like it themselves.

“Photos are Facebook’s most popular native application, receiving huge numbers of Page views. Tags of Pages in Photos could gain many impressions from a user’s friends over a long period of time, offering many opportunities for that Page to gain new fans.” Josh demonstrates this new feature in the Coke brand photo below:

Tagging products can expand a brand's reach.

# 22: Volume

While there aren’t any hard-and-fast rules about the number of images to include in a blog post, I think most bloggers would agree that effective blog posts should contain at least one or two.  Keep in mind that Images will help engage readers by breaking up long blocks of text and enhancing the readability of the page. Posts on Social Media Examiner for example, always include a number of images and the pièce de résistance, captions!

#23: Widgets

Cindy King discusses widgets and how most social networking sites provide widgets for you to embed on your blog. Cindy says, “This is a great way to grow your communities on social media platforms. It gives your readers the choice of where they want to connect with you. And as the communication styles vary on different social media platforms, it also lets your readers choose how they want to connect with you.”

#24: Experience

In the post How to Improve the Appeal of Your Graphics, Connie Malamed discusses research that indicates the ease of processing information (otherwise known as processing fluency) which influences a person’s aesthetic pleasure and contributes to positive experiences. Four features attributed to facilitating fluent processing are: symmetry, high figure/ground contrast, visual clarity and less information rather than more.

Use images as a way to facilitate a good experience for your customers, fans and followers.

#25: Why images

Adam Singer describes images as being vital to modern blogs for six reasons: content moves through the social web lightning-fast and strong imagery can’t be ignored; images are a signal to visitors that a site’s material is premium and unconsciously we elevate the worth of a site that has images mixed in with stories; strategic imagery helps bloggers build their brand—the imagery can help build a stylish brand associated with their sites; images are mood setters and help writers tell their stories better; images are a precursor to the inspiration that happens from effective copy and can give a blog an advantage over their competition; images help bloggers create viral content.

#26: Zero impact

At this point we’ve explored 25 tips and good reasons for using images in your social media to engage customers, followers and fans. With that being said, there’s really no good reason to use images that have zero impact. I’ll end with these last pieces of advice: with all the great possibilities out there, use images with the most dynamic impact and ones that are representative of the points you are trying to make.

Happy imaging!

What do you think? What image tips can you add to this list? Which of the 26 tips here did you enjoy reading about most? Leave your comments in the box below.

Cameras are everywhere these days. This access to photography, coupled with the rise of social media, means that not only can everyone shoot photos, but they can also share them with a lot of people.

Utilizing photography in social media offers organizations an incredible opportunity to connect with others and showcase their brand in unique and interesting ways.

For the purposes of this article, I’m going to focus on using photos on a Facebook page.

Here are six tips to keep in mind as you incorporate photography into your Facebook page.

#1: It’s Not Personal, It’s Business

This common adage is not only often used to justify moral transgression but also provides a lot of insight when it comes to using photos to represent your brand on social media. Remember, these are not your personal photos. These photos will likely look different than the photos you upload to your personal Facebook profile.

And rightfully so. These photos are an extension of your brand. They instantly say a great deal about your organization to the casual observer. They certainly don’t need to be formal (in fact, usually they shouldn’t be) but they should always be professional. If there is anything you wouldn’t show to a client in person, it shouldn’t be online. If you have to even question whether a photo is appropriate enough to be used, it isn’t.

Zappos balances professionalism and fun when showcasing their brand on their Facebook page.

#2: Make Sure Your Photos Represent Your Brand Well

The photos you use will represent your brand and your organization to the casual observer. As such, it’s important that they show that you took some time and put in a bit of thought. Don’t upload too many photos of the same subject. Pick the best and only show those.

In addition, some basic photo editing can go a long way. Start with cropping your photos to highlight the subject you are showcasing. Throw out any photos that are blurry. Consider experimenting with some black and white photos to stand out and give a different look.

Get creative and have fun, but remember the goal is to showcase your organization. For instance, crop photos to showcase staff members and leave nothing extraneous to distract from the main subject of the photo.

#3: Post Shareable Photos

One of the best ways to broaden your reach online is to create content that other people will want to share. Photos are a great opportunity for you to connect with others and produce content they will want to share with their connections.

Try to think of content that is likely to be interesting and worthwhile in some way. Chances are no-one cares what your desk looks like unless it’s really cool for some reason, or you are really cool for some reason. Think of subjects that others will want to see.

In the photo below, St. Louis ArtWorks uses their Facebook photos to share art projects that their teen artists have produced.

Here ArtWorks shows off the artwork of teen artists at a Holiday Open House and Sale.

It could also be beneficial to post photos of events that involve other organizations. If the photos are decent, these organizations will likely share your photos (and thus your organization and brand) with their followers. In addition to posting the photos to your Facebook page, make sure that you tell these organizations about the photos.

For instance, maybe you sponsored a fundraising event in partnership with a few other organizations. You could put up photos showcasing the event and let these other organizations know about the photos. Not only are you sharing the positive contribution you’ve made, but you are also providing content that your partnering organizations will likely want to share with their followers, all the while driving more traffic to your Facebook page.

To help spread the word on Facebook, you should tag the other organizations in your post announcing your new photos. Once you’ve uploaded the photos to an album and published them, follow these steps to tag other organizations:

• Like the other organizations by going to their Facebook pages and clicking the “Like” button.
• Return to your organization’s Facebook page and click the “wall” link on the left sidebar.
• Beside “Share:” make sure that “Status” is selected.
• In your status announcing your new photos, include a tag to the other organization by typing @ and then the organization’s name.
• Select the other organization from the popup menu.
• Click the blue “Share” button.

Here we're tagging the Saint Louis Zoo in some photos we took at an event recently.

Now your status will show up on the wall of the organization that you tagged in your message. This is a great opportunity for followers of that organization to find out about you and your brand while also providing the other organization with some valuable photos to share with their followers.

#4: If You’re Local, Show It Off

If you’re an organization that could benefit from local appeal, play up your localness in your photos. Many organizations pride themselves on their location and the communities that they serve. But don’t confuse showing off your local appeal with just taking photos of local landmarks. Chances are your photos will not be any better than other photos of landmarks already out there.

Instead, show members of your organization interacting with your city in some meaningful way. For example, let’s say you are a local restaurant. Why not take photos of your chef shopping for produce at the local farmer’s market? Such photos not only showcase your brand, they can also make you more appealing to the clients that you serve.

In this example, Children’s Miracle Network of Greater St. Louis displays their localness by showing some of their Miracle Ambassadors with Fredbird, the mascot for the St. Louis Cardinals.

Photos can be a great way to connect with the community.

#5: Show Off a More Personal Side of Your Organization

The photos that you post on social media networks are a great chance for your organization to show off a side that your clients may not often get to see. You shouldn’t just put up the same photos you have on your website or in your advertising. Show something a little less formal to humanize your organization and show the personalities of the people who work there.

Here we see Arts as Healing using their Facebook photos to show their staff at a local Cancer Wellness Fair.

This is a great way to make your company seem more personable and endearing to your potential clients and other organizations that you work with.

#6: Add New Photos Often

Unless your photos are really beautiful, there’s likely not much of a reason for people to come back to see them time after time. Putting up new photos consistently can help to entice people back to your organization and keep you at the top of people’s minds. It’s also a good way to appear current and active on social media networks. The more consistent you are in uploading new photos, the greater the chance that your supporters will share your content. Additionally, by including a wide variety of photos, there is a greater chance that visitors to your page will find something interesting.

Photos are a great way for you to engage your followers and show off your brand. If you take a little time and put in a bit of thought, your photos can help you stand out among the mass of photography on the Internet today.

Have you used photography to showcase your brand? How’d it go? We’d love to hear from you. Leave your comments below.

In this post I’ll introduce practical ways to use good content for your tweets, everything from A to Z.

#1: Answers

Think about the questions your customers and prospects asked you this past week. Or maybe there are the repeat questions you’ve already answered on the FAQ page of your website.

To get started, create a list of questions, and answer them in your tweets one by one—paying particular attention to the most relevant at this time. For example, focus on seasonal questions, current rates and discounts, promotions and sales or commonly asked how-to’s in your business and industry. Save the list and add to it as you go along. What you don’t use this week may make even more sense a few weeks from now.

#2: Behind the Scenes

Anne Handley refers to this type of content sharing as the “insider’s view of your company,” where you have the opportunity to share updates about the projects and work you’re currently involved in. You can also use behind the scenes as an opportunity to welcome a new client or feature any other newsy development. Give readers or followers an inside look at your company.

#3: Case Studies

Dust off those case studies and offer them via your tweets for immediate download. Another option is to repurpose the material by pulling out 140-character messages that will wow your Twitter followers.

#4: Daily Deals

Use tweets to announce a daily deal you’re offering or one you’ve signed on with Groupon (or another daily deal site) by pushing out a message to gain optimal attention (e.g., “Today $6 general admission ticket to Museum of Science and Nature—up to a $12 value.”)

#5: Events

When you’re hosting or attending an event, you can send out a tweet to let followers know about it. Perhaps your company has a booth, so you might send out multiple tweets during the event to let know conference attendees where they can find you.

#6: Factoid

These types of tweets are the one-liner statistics that impact your industry or are current events and newsworthy for a variety of reasons. They demonstrate your company’s commitments and interests, and add personality to your business.

#7: Guide

Customers may be new to Twitter, blogs and social networking sites. You can use your tweets as a way to educate them about the process and integrate your blog posts with your Twitter messages. Tweets themselves can be teaching tools about social media marketing.

#8: Hashtags

Hashtags consist of using the # symbol followed by subject words; e.g., #followfriday. They help organize information and make tweets more searchable. They’re commonly used at conferences and live events. You can search hashtags to see what people are talking about. It’s also useful to do an advanced search on Twitter using hashtags as one of the search operators.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAHitI26MmE

#9: Interviews

Twitter messages don’t need to be confined to single 140-character messages. An interesting way to use tweets is in conversations via Twitter interviews. Cindy King’s informative post offers 7 Steps to Successful Twitter Interviews.

#10: Joint Venture

Good Twitter content consists of certain netiquette—giving credit where credit is due by retweeting, or by using other mechanisms such as the word “via”— indicating that you came across the information somewhere else and are now writing about it, too. Twitter is naturally viral and as long as you “pay it forward” and think of Twitter as a joint venture, your tweets will become an important component of your social media strategy where you won’t simply be pushing out messages, you’ll be conversing with others and building your social network.

#11: Keywords

Web content (and print content for that matter) has always been about the use of keywords. Twitter is no exception. Good Twitter content makes use of relevant words and messages. Make a list of keywords that best describe your business and industry. Use these words as you compose your 140-character posts. Think quality over quantity. Make every character and tweet count!

#12: Live Events

Tweeting about live events fits Twitter like a glove. The immediacy of getting out messages about start times is particularly useful in the business world, especially when you’re at an in-person conference or hosting a live webinar. Sending out follow-up tweets about an event is also a great way for webinar hosts to answer questions that may not have been fully addressed during the event.

#13: Meme

In a recent post, 5 Ways to Get the Support of Social Media Influencers, Sam Rosen discusses the importance of memetic content. He writes, “No Fear is a meme. The Red Bull Flugtag is a meme. It’s something that people can identify with, make their own and share with others.” Think of the possibilities of short memetic-type tweets. If you have a tagline that speaks to people and gets your company and brand noticed, you can further expand its reach by including it in a series of tweets.

The point being that tweets can have a theme to them. You can extract messages from larger bodies of work and group them together in an ongoing series.

#14: News

Twitter has been instrumental in helping break important stories about local and global events. As Greg Sandoval writes on CNET news, “One-quarter of all Twitter posts include a link to another piece of content, such as a news story or video. Twitter has 190 million unique monthly visitors, so that’s a lot of content zooming across the platform.”

Want to announce important company and industry news? There’s great potential for getting the message out there on such a large platform and you can do it very simply and cost-effectively by pressing the “Tweet” button.

#15: Opinion

Using opinions in tweets is a good way to make it possible for your customers and followers to get to know more about you and your company. Opinion tweets can be seen as brief editorials. For example, if your product is environmentally friendly, you can create green-oriented posts that reflect issues beyond your product. It’s important to convey the image you want to be known for.

#16: Photos

As the saying goes, "Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words," or in this case, sometimes a picture is worth 140 characters!

Let’s face it, there are times when a photo is more effective. One industry that uses photos a lot is real estate. How nice it would be for people looking at homes not only to hear about an open house happening in their neighborhood but also to see a photo of the property?

Josh Catone describes five ways to share images on Twitter:

1. Twitter image sharing services
2. SMS or email
3. Brightkite or FriendFeed
4. Skitch
5. Encoded Tweets.

#17: Quotes

Business tweets can also be inspirational. They can motivate and influence thinking by using some of your favorite quotes.

• There are websites that categorize famous quotes by topic, and by Googling “quotes,” you’ll find thousands of sites to choose from.
• You can also use a quote from a book or magazine article you’ve been reading.

When planning your tweet, leave extra room for characters so you can be sure to give credit to the source.

#18: Real-time

To keep up with the flurry of information on a given topic, you may find it helpful to use a variety of tools to manage the influx of tweets. For example, on TweetDeck you can have a number of columns open to follow groups of people, see direct messages sent to you via Twitter, and organize by topic. That way you can stay ahead of the game and compose the most real-time tweets possible.

#19: Share Links

Many blogs and online news services offer integration with your Twitter account so you can share the link of the article with your followers as you read it. This is one of my favorite uses of Twitter. On the occasions when you come across a link you’d like to share and there isn’t a Twitter share widget already integrated for you on the web page, you can copy and paste the URL into a number of URL shorteners such as bit.ly or tinyurl, and add a few words about why you’re tweeting out the link.

#20: Tips

Got a product-related tip? A useful tidbit of information you’d like to share with your customers and followers? People are often looking for quick and easy solutions to manage their time and be more productive. Why not share some of your useful tips with them?

#21: Updates and Announcements

Updates and announcements from your business can be categorized as good to know, better to know and need to know. The Red Cross, for example, uses Twitter to broadcast important messages about emergencies and relief efforts.

#22: Value

When in doubt about what to microblog, think about what will add value to your audience today. What makes you the go-to company or service provider for your customers? Value tweets will remind them of why you’re an invaluable resource.

#23: White Papers

Ah, white papers. A list of content ideas for Twitter would not be complete without mention of white papers. Michael Stelzner, Social Media Examiner’s founder, is the author of Writing White Papers. White papers provide value to your readers and linking to them is an excellent cost-effective promotion tool. Why not get the word out on a frequent basis about your white paper offerings? Twitter makes it possible.

#24: Christmas Gift Ideas

If you’re a B2C business, you can use Twitter to give customers ideas about Christmas gifts and keep your products before their eyes through the holiday shopping season. With Twitter, you can continue to promote your products up to the last minute that they can be shipped in time to guarantee Christmas delivery.

#25: YouTube

Twitter can be used to link to a YouTube video. Videos are especially viral and people love them. For example, here’s a great YouTube video by Mari Smith on Twitter Hashtags.

You could tweet, “Checkout video on Twitter hashtags, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAHitI26MmE”. (As discussed above, you can save on character real estate by using a URL shortener.)

#26: Zippy Writing Style

Twitter messages need to make the best possible use of 140 characters. This is where writing style comes into play. Good tweet content is not only useful in terms of all the types covered up to now. What makes a good tweet stand out is how the message is delivered. In other words, tweet lively and entertaining messages.

Final Thoughts About Twitter Content Ideas

Creating a mix of different types of tweets for your business will help keep them fresh, relevant and readable.

What Twitter content ideas can you add to this list? Which ones are you already using? Which ones do you enjoy reading most? Leave your comments in the box below.

Image sources: Flickr twitter image, Flickr alphabet image

But, if you build it, will they come? And if they come, will they stay and engage?

There are two primary components to Facebook fan page engagement: 1) Sharing quality, relevant content and 2) inciting comments.  In this article I’ll tell you how to best engage with Facebook fans.

Of course, there are many other components of effective Facebook fan pages and Facebook marketing in general. However, for the purposes of this two-part post, we’ll focus on content and comments. The more comments you have, the more viral visibility and free marketing you’ll create. But your fans have to have something to comment on!

Share Quality, Relevant Content – Daily

TechCrunch recently posted a Facebook fan page study by Sysomos that revealed 77 percent of fan pages have fewer than 1,000 fans. What stood out for me in that post was this fact: “Facebook fan pages tend to be updated only once every 16 days.”

TechCrunch goes on to say, “On Twitter, you follow someone because you want to hear what they have to say. On Facebook, you fan them just to show your support or affinity. Too often, it’s a throwaway gesture.”

While this may be true for many Facebook members and fan pages, I see a lively fan page as an extension of your blog and business – a place where you can generate real community and further solidify your brand.

1) How Often Should You Post?

• For most fan pages, there is a direct correlation between frequency of posts and number of fans. Frequency is king, but there’s a fine balance – you don’t want to overwhelm your fans.
• If you’re just starting out with your fan page, I would suggest a minimum of one update per day and increase from there to several times a day (mixing up the types of posts – see below) if you’re getting a good response from your fans.
• Daily posting (at least Monday through Saturday) should yield daily comments and engagement.
• You’ll find the right rhythm with your fans. Better to start with once a day than several times a day and have your wall filled with only your own posts.
• Also, keep in mind “high traffic windows.” Depending on your time zone and the time zone of the majority of your fans, you’ll probably want to post sometime between 8:15am PST and 2:00pm PST.

2) What to Post

• I recommend a mix of your own thoughts, breaking news, useful tips, tools, resources and links from other sites in your industry and related industries. Stay on topic, stay focused.
• You could create an editorial calendar for your fan page just like many bloggers do.
• If you’re not sure what content your fans want, ask them – in a poll or status update.
• If your fan base is small and still growing, ask your Twitter followers, Facebook friends, email list, and blog subscribers. They are all potential fans. (See related post: 5 Ways to Promote Your Facebook Fan Page).

In this screen shot of Volkswagen’s Facebook Fan Page, photos from a recent auto show yielded 363 likes and 68 comments and a video trailer got 121 likes and 25 comments. These are great results, as every one of the fan actions created a post on their respective walls and out into their friends’ news feeds. Free visibility, and every line item has a link back to VW’s fan page.

3) Sourcing Quality Content

• Your own blog: Import using the Notes app or, ideally, the Networked Blogs app.
• Create your own Alltop page and review each morning for fresh content to share.
• And/or subscribe to the top 15 to 25 blogs in your industry and related industries in your Google reader and review daily.
• Create Twitter lists and scan daily for new, relevant information to share (see also 5 Creative Ways to Use Your Twitter Favorites).
• Your Twitter Favorites RSS feed imported via the Notes app.
• Your YouTube videos and/or other relevant videos.

4) Cultivating Your Style

• Most people will come back to your fan page if there’s a real sense of community.
• It’s important to be open, inviting, warm, friendly and personable. Even if you’re a large brand.
• Starbucks leads the way with engagement – you might observe their style for ideas. Though they use their globally recognized logo, you’ll occasionally see posts in first person. I think this is commendable, as it really creates that personal feel so important to social networks.

5) Mix Up the Types of Posts

Text

This is your standard status update. You get 420 characters in the publisher to say what you want. As long as you don’t have a link in the update, the post automatically changes your latest Status Update at the top.

I highly recommend using the Facebook fan page to Twitter app at http://facebook.com/twitter. You simply link your fan page to your Twitter account, then choose which posts to share as tweets (Status Updates, Photos, Links, Notes, Events). You may need to experiment to get this just right.

Your posts will automatically truncate at around 120 characters and include a bit.ly link back to your fan page. Regardless of the number of characters, the tweet always contains the bit.ly link. Here’s an example of an update I posted for this blog post:

To track stats on any bit.ly link, just paste it into your browser and add a “+” sign at the end. As of the time of this writing, this post/link had 109 clicks and the post had 23 comments, plus replies on Twitter.

Video

Video is the next best thing to meeting your fans in person. There are many choices for video updates: You talking into the camera, photo montages (try Animoto), screencasts (using software like Camtasia Studio for PC or Mac, or ScreenFlow for Mac).

When you talk into the camera, always make good eye contact with the camera lens – just as if you were chatting to one good friend. You could do a video tip per day or per week. Make sure to keep the length short and the content concise. The ideal length for videos is up to 1 minute and 40 seconds.

You can record directly on Facebook or load a file onto your fan page – see screenshots below:

Here’s a video upload example from Dell Computer’s Facebook Fan Page – a 41-second ad for their nifty new customizable range of laptops, with 179 likes and 57 comments.

Or, you could pull in the video from YouTube as a link (click the Links icon on the publisher) – and this pulls in the live video player just as if you’d loaded the video file as in the example above:

Photos

Upload relevant pictures periodically and be sure to encourage your fans to upload photos anytime they wish. Each time your fans upload a photo, the thumbnail goes onto their profile wall and out into the news feeds of their friends.

Make sure your settings allow fans to post content. Just to the right under the publisher, click Options, then Settings:

In the screenshot below, there’s a photo on the Coca-Cola Facebook Fan Page – what’s neat about this photo is it was actually a fan-loaded image that Coca-Cola then reposted using the Share button (a great illustration of how Coca-Cola partnered with their raving fans who created the page).

Links

• Anytime you post a link in the publisher, Facebook displays a preview with a choice of thumbnails. (If you’re publishing content from a third-party app like Ping.fm, the thumbnail will be a default view.)
• You may at times wish to create an actual status update with a link in it, instead of a link with the preview on the wall. Here’s what to do: Before clicking the Share button, simply click the “x” to delete the link preview:

The post goes out as a status update with a clickable link:

Events

You can quickly create Event listings right from the publisher for any virtual or live event you have coming up. Fans can easily RSVP, as a regular Event page is created when you publish the event.

@ tags

This is a relatively new feature on Facebook. You can tag any friend, any fan page you’ve joined, any group you’re a member of and any event you’ve RSVPed to attend. You can include up to six @ tags in any update. Use the @ tagging strategically and your post will show up on your friends’ walls and other fan pages’ walls per the tag. (Just type the @ symbol in the publisher and the first letter or two of who/what you want to tag and a list drops down for you to select from.)

Notes app

This app is typically used to import your blog. However, I like the Networked Blogs app, so I actually import the RSS feed of my Twitter Favorites via the Notes app, which makes it easy to push relevant, regular content onto my fan page wall (and into the news feeds of my fans).

Incite Comments

Now that you have a wide variety of regular, quality, relevant content posting on your fan page, here are some points about inciting comments:

• For status updates, try ending with a question.
• Add your own comments as needed to get the ball rolling.
• Come back and reply often to your fans’ comments – Facebook currently doesn’t have threaded commenting, so I suggest addressing specific fans in your comments as @name.
• Do your best to respond to fan questions as promptly as possible. If you find you can’t keep up with the volume of questions, offer a free teleseminar or webinar in which you answer your fans’ top questions.

Vin Diesel has the second most popular Facebook fan page with well over seven million fans. Vin doesn’t post all that often, but when he does, each post yields tens of thousands of comments and likes. Just like Starbucks, there’s something to learn from Vin’s style – he talks to his fans in a very warm, caring and authentic manner.

In part two of this Facebook Fan Page Engagement post, I’ll cover:

1. How to encourage fans to keep coming back to add their own content and comments and ask questions, etc.
2. Monitoring insights – what do they mean, how to analyze the numbers and adjust your posts accordingly.
3. Should you also use the “Send an Update to Fans” feature? Do fans read their updates?
4. How to spark ongoing engagement via the Discussions tab.
5. Setting up systems for monitoring and responding to your fan engagement, given that there are currently no notifications of activity or RSS feeds to subscribe to on fan pages.
6. Integrating your Twitter followers and activity into your fan page engagement.

Editors note: Check out Social Media Examiner’s new Facebook fan page by clicking here.

Now it’s your turn: What types of content are you finding sparks the most engagement on your Facebook fan page? Where do you get stuck most with your fan page and what else would you like to see covered in future posts about social media engagement? Please add your thoughts in the comments below, then stay tuned for part two!

ComScore reported that the popular networking site surpassed 100 million U.S. visitors in a single month, joining the elite list of sites (including Google and Yahoo!) that have also reached this milestone.

This major success led to another Facebook record as founder Mark Zuckerman reported they had reached 350 million users in total.

And the impressive stats don’t stop there.  ComScore also reported that Facebook took up 5.5% of all time spent online in the U.S. during the month of November.  Considering how big the “online world” actually is in terms of web pages, this was no small feat!  Check out this image:

Image taken from mashable.com

About the same time the Facebook stats surfaced, Morgan Stanley released The Mobile Internet Report. This report covers an array of trending themes, including an in-depth look at Facebook’s place as a social networking giant and soon to be “close partner” to the expansive world mobile.

Based on Morgan Stanley’s report, here’s a snapshot of Facebook’s reach, impact and marketing advantages:

Facebook Usage Stats

These stats may shock you:

• Shared content (web links, blog posts, notes): 3.5 billion/week
• Photos uploaded: 2.5 billion/month
• Videos uploaded: 14 million/month (more than 19,000 per hour!!)
• Events created: 3.5 million/month
• Users who have signed on with Facebook Connect: 80 million total across 80,000 websites since it launched in December 2008

The Power of Facebook Apps

According to Facebook, they currently house over 350,000 apps. Here are the top Facebook apps*:

1. Farmville (63 million) 
2. Causes (35 million)
3. Café World (28 million)
4. Mafia Wars (26 million)
5. Happy Aquarium (24 million)
6. Pet Society (21 million)
7. FamilyLink.com (21 million)
8. Yoville (20 million)
9. Texas HoldEm Poker (19 million)
10. Farm Town (18 million)

*These stats fluctuate slightly each week depending on usage. 

Here’s an interesting fact:  7 out of the 10 apps above are actually social games. Social games are those played on social networks where there is a level of interaction with others (taking turns) and you can see others’ actions as the game progresses.

Because social gaming is currently the leader in app development, marketers can take advantage of this as they look for ways to cross-promote and engage with their audiences via new platforms.  It comes down to meeting your audience where they are already spending a good portion of their time.

Wonder if Facebook app development is a lucrative opportunity?

Here are two examples of successful Facebook app developers.  Zynga, one of the largest developers of social games on the web, has developed 36 Facebook apps, reported $67 million in ’09 revenues and 183 million active users.

Playfish, also an online game developer, has created 10 Facebook apps, reported $30 million in ’09 revenues and 60 million active users.  Pretty impressive when you consider how the top apps on Facebook are used solely for enjoyment.

To put the success of Facebook applications into perspective, the Morgan Stanley report listed a few impressive real-life examples. Here are two of our favorites:

Facebook Rivals a Guinness World Record:  Currently 7 games on Facebook get more monthly active users than all players on World of Warcraft (an online game that holds a Guinness World Record for most popular multi-player online game of all time).

Facebook Rivals the Home of the Quarter Pounder: According to the report, “It took McDonald’s more than 55 years to open 32,000 restaurants worldwide, compared to only 4 weeks for Facebook users to open more than 1.5 million virtual restaurants on Playfish’s Restaurant City app, a game in which users start their own restaurants, employ friends as chefs and waiters and compete with other restaurants in their area.” Wow!

Facebook Takes on the Mobile World

Here are some more interesting stats:

• It is estimated that 17% of Facebook users currently access the site using a mobile device, and that number is estimated to skyrocket to 90% within 5 years.
• Mobile Facebook users are 50% more active than non-mobile Facebook users.
• 1 million users commented on their friends’ status changes on mobile devices within the first 24 hours of the mobile feature’s launch.
• There are currently 180+ carriers in 60 different countries promoting Facebook mobile products.
• Here’s a graph to show Facebook’s steady rise of mobile users:

Image taken from The Mobile Internet Report by Morgan Stanley Research

There is no doubt that Facebook is in a class of its own in the social networking arena.

Do you think Facebook can stay on top? Do you use Facebook more often than other social media tools?  Have you had any major successes with Facebook? Let us know about your own Facebook experiences!

Facebook is one of my favorite places to recommend for businesses for a lot of reasons. The primary one is that Facebook offers almost of all the various social media tools that companies can apply to their brand.

Facebook allows you to participate without having to spend time or money on your own website. Still, few companies are using Facebook well. One example of a business doing it right is Ernst & Young Human Resources effort (brilliant).  But for every good Facebook presence there’s a brand page we like to call a “campground.” Not because lots of people hang out there, but because all you hear when you visit is crickets.

To give you a leg up on getting smart with Facebook, here are five facebook-only strategies for business success.

1. Drive Off-Line Engagement With Event Postings

Facebook event postings are not just whimsical little calendar items. If you use them correctly, you can drive a veritable viral wave around what your business is doing because people who RSVP, comment or add to the event conversation have their activity posted publicly to their friends.

Here’s an example of an event page on Facebook

The catch is making your events irresistible, making the headline, description and invitation irresistible, then delivering on the off-line experience.

2. Give People Virtual Keepsakes With Photo Tagging

Speaking of events, when you have them, take pictures to post on your fan page. Then create some post-event buzz by inviting attendees to tag themselves in the photos. You won’t be able to tag most people (unless they are Facebook friends with the brand page administrator) but encouraging your attendees to tag themselves and their friends gives you a fun reason to reach out to them after an event.

This serves as a long tail effect of your event, driving your fans back to your fan page or event posting to see their images and further engage with your brand. And as a courtesy, put signage up at the event informing people their pictures may appear on your Facebook page or website.

3. Turn Customer Service Up a Notch With Facebook Discussion Forums

This tip works wonders for companies that don’t have some sort of support forum on their own website. Drive customers to your Facebook forums (called “Discussions” on the brand page tabs) by letting them know they can get support there.

Here’s an example of Jeep’s discussion forum on Facebook

Open up a forum topic for customer support and have someone on your staff check the forum for new issues every hour or so (or more depending upon volume). You’ll immediately give confused or frustrated customers a direct connection to solutions without having to spend a lot of money on complex issue tracking software.

4. Promote Your Page With Super Targeting

While I do not have access to specific data, almost every company I’ve talked to that has placed ads on Facebook has been thrilled with the outcome. The click-through rates have been higher than normal display ads and have had immediate impacts on page traffic.

The great thing about Facebook ads is that when you set them up, you can hyper-target them to the exact audience you’re trying to reach. Age, location, interest… filter your targeting to the specific profile of your target consumer and let Facebook do the rest. Because the ads are served on Facebook pages only, Facebook knows the age, location and interests of the people they serve the ad to. It’s probably the most effective ad targeting system in the world. Take advantage of it.  Here’s 5 more ways to promote your Facebook fan page.

5. Collect Fan Photos and Videos at No Cost

Want your fans to take their picture with your product at various landmarks while traveling? Throw out a cool video contest or activity idea to engage your customers in some fun creativity. No need to hire a developer to pull together fancy code or pay YouTube thousands of dollars for a branded video contest.

Just ask your Facebook fans to upload their entries. Using the commenting tools provided, you can work up some guidelines for judging or just highlight and post the best stuff on your wall to promote the video makers. Even better, by posting appropriate policies and guidelines, you can get permission to use anything uploaded for company advertisements, projects and more. However, you should beware that Facebook has recently implemented some strict promotional rules.  See this post for more on that.

There are lots of other strategies you can use on Facebook to engage your customers and even drive them to your website or other calls to action. These will at least give you some Facebook-exclusive ideas for starters. But these are just my ideas. Please share what you’re doing or your ideas to drive your business on Facebook in the comments.

Are you using Facebook events, photos and discussion groups? How are they working for you? Add your voice to the discussion by commenting below.

Image via Wikipedia

Posterous is known as the most “social” networking place of social media. It’s also the ideal solution for sharing content that’s too long for a tweet and too short for a blog post.

There are many different reasons and motivations to create a free Posterous account. Let’s have a look at the 7 most common reasons for businesses to use Posterous.

#1: Can Replace Your Blog

When a regular blog is not for you, Posterous can give you similar advantages to a regular blog without the work of setting up a blog and maintaining it.  All you have to do is send in your content by email.  It’s that simple.  This is why Posterous is great for lifestreaming.

This can be a good starting point for businesses hesitating to create their own blog. Posterous can provide a place to learn more about social media and develop the right content strategies.

#2: Fills a Gap Between Blogging and Microblogging

Posterous is an easy way to publish more content to reach different audiences. Steve Rubel says, “I still see a big space in between blogs and Twitter that allows you to have a hub and spoke strategy and post in multiple formats.”

And as Ted Villa says, “Posterous is clean and nimble, simple to use and a great tool in any organization’s social media toolkit. It’s a great way to extend a client’s footprint online and increase links to their site as well as their social media sites.”

This can fill a gap in your presence on social media.

#3: Can Improve Your Visibility

Posterous can help you improve your visibility in search results in two ways.

First, you have more updates for search engines to find. If you like to share photos and videos online, Posterous makes it very easy to do this (see reason #7 below for more details). And with photo and video publishing made this easy, you end up sharing more content to increase your online search results.

Second, you can publish your Posterous content on your own website. Unlike other social media platforms, you can set up your Posterous account on your own URL.  This means you can set up your Posterous account on:

• Your own domain name separate from your company website
• Or even use a sub-domain of your current website or blog

This is something important to keep in mind as the social media landscape changes over time.

#4: Gives You Another Voice on Social Media

Many business professionals also use Posterous to post content that would be off topic on their main website or blog and engage with a different audience online.

Posterous provides an easy venue to share different “social” content. A separate platform makes it easy to create an additional point of connection with your audience, with a different style, to engage different mindsets.  As Debbie Weil says, “There are distinct differences in how you talk or write for the different platforms.  Simply put, you write in a different ‘voice’ and, generally, talk about different topics.”

This makes it easy to reach out to different audiences.

#5: Makes it Easy for Groups to Publish Content

Posterous allows you to set up group accounts too.  This means you can set up:

• Posterous pages for individual team members
• Collaborative Posterous pages for different company employees to post on the same page
• Collaborative Posterous pages to bring people outside your company to collaborate on one Posterous page

Here’s one example of how Posterous brings social networking to a higher level: ClickIdeas

#6: Helps You to Segment Content for Different Audiences

You can use your Posterous account to create different points of contact with your audience.  Pat Kitano says, “I originally intended this slideshow (How to create a blog without “writing” one) for local businesspeople who wanted a blog for marketing purposes, but didn’t have the inclination to start a blog due to writing and time commitments. After posting the slideshow, I received feedback that Posterous was a great method to create new ‘blogs’ on a variety of topics and interests that were parallel to the principal blog. One mentioned how fast Posterous blogs were indexed by Google.”

This makes it easy to test different market segments outside of your main blog or website.

#7: Is the Easiest Option to Share Photos

Posterous is simply the easiest social media platform to share photos and videos.  All you have to do is email your photo or video to Posterous and it does everything else. This means you can publish your favorite photos and videos from any location where you have access to your email, even from your mobile phone.

This is why many users choose to post all of their photos and videos to Posterous and set it up to feed their Facebook, Twitter and other social media profiles.

Bonus: Makes You Easy To Connect With

Sometimes a personal touch helps you to create a stronger connection with your audience on social media.  This is why some business professionals use Posterous as a place to provide a unique glimpse into their personal lives.

Jason Falls does a good job at providing both personal and business insights on his Posterous page: Falls, Off the Rocker. He links to these Posterous posts from his Twitter account and invites his Twitter followers to get to know him better.

A Step Toward Creating Social Connections

Creating a social presence and adapting to different social media platforms are not easy for many businesses.  Posterous provides a way for businesses to make a social connection between their own website and other social media platforms as they learn more about incorporating social media into their current marketing tactics.

Ready to Give Posterous a Try?  Here’s some good resources to check out:

• Read Mashable’s Posterous Guide.
• Have a look at Guy Kawasaki’s Twelve Tips and Tricks.
• And remember to subscribe to Social Media Examiner.  There’s more to come on Posterous and other social media platforms.

Now It’s Your Turn

• What are you interested in getting out of Posterous?
• Do you already have a Posterous page?
• How is Posterous helping your social media marketing?

Share the link to your Posterous page below and tell us what your experience has been so far in the Comments section below.