Precooked Meals

Hello again everyone! Today I plan to get back into my routine of discussing Social Media tactics and strategies in the Horticulture and Agricultural industries. In the beginning of last week I took a look at how sometimes we often find ourselves in a rut of missed postings and at points it almost seems worthless to get back into the routine. I emphasized that whatever you do, just make sure you keep getting your content to people in some way.

Now I understand that in this kind of industry there are often very hectic and stressful periods. It may be hard to remember to maintain your posting schedule if you have elected to post more than once a week. However, there are tools out there to help you with this problem! Currently there are all sorts of sites out there that allow you to create posts for Facebook and Twitter ahead of time, and then through your permission it then posts the content at the specific date and time that you distinguish. Some of these sites are: LaterBro, TweetDeck, SocialTomorrow, and HootSuite.

Though I have dabbled in and looked at all of these sites, I must say that I prefer to use www.hootsuite.com  the most. After creating a profile on the site it allows you to sign in with your Social Media profiles. HootSuite is a double awesome tool because not only can you schedule posts, updates, and tweets easily, but you can also view all of your profiles at once. This can be a great tool for a garden center that perhaps wants to be invested in Social Media, but just doesn’t have the time to do so. There is also a wide array of different filters you can set up for your different streams of information you want to view. For example if you  want to see if anyone is posting anything about your nursery named “Jim’s Garden”, then you can set up a filter to search for who is posting about you perhaps without you even knowing it. This is almost a must for Facebook because unlike Twitter it is not as easy to search for words within posts without HootSuite or another site like it. HootSuite is a great tool also if you want to see what people are saying about your competition. It takes social listening to a new level.

For the second part of this post I wanted to discuss something I have been receiving some feedback and questions about. Why is it not a good idea to just link my Twitter to my other sites and use it simply as a tool to get people onto my other Social Media pages? Well for one if you are using Twitter simply as a free advertising service for your other sites you are wasting an outlet to spread your message. Sure if you have created something extremely interesting on Facebook and you want your Twitter followers to see it go ahead and link it, but if you are just trying to strike up some visits something is wrong. You shouldn’t have to really advertise your Facebook page (note saying to people find/like us on Facebook is completely acceptable and encouraged), your Social Media pages are there for people to find you when they want to. You want people to go there but “advertising” on Twitter won’t help you.

Also with regards to the above dilemma, people have said to me they don’t think people really pay attention to Twitter posts. I’m here to say believe me they do – just in a different way. As I have said before, keep the links out of your Facebook posts. That isn’t the kind of content people want to see on there. However with Twitter it’s a different ball game. Think of Twitter as a grade school social scene. It is a giant popularity contest. In which everyone is trying to send out links to the coolest pictures and content on the web. You don’t even need to generate the content for people to think you are “cool” and follow you. Twitter is all about finding interesting things and letting your followers know about it. Through this you gain popularity that may translate into the real world. However, linking to your own Facebook and Pinterest posts gets boring and people will begin to care less about what you post on Twitter.  Just remember Twitter is light, fast, and often humor and creativity are two of the most successful techniques. People are looking and listening to Twitter. Believe me.

I hope this helps everybody out there that has been asking me questions about Twitter. Twitter is an odd and giant place, but if you want the trendiest of the youth to see you it is a must. Plus it’s very easy to use and requires hardly anytime at all.

Once again feel free to email me at mday55@gmail.com, follow me on Twitter @mday55, or comment on the post if you would like me to address something or if you have any questions.

“To Beet or not to Beet, that is the vegetable”