So in my `official’ role as a Personal Trainer I feel I owe it to you to keep you abreast of the latest exercises I’m conducting with my current Social Media bootcamps.
In addition to my bootcamp attendees telling me how overwhelming it can be to learn all the tools, those very tools then go out and change it up. Granted they’re adding in some really cool functionality these days, but it can be hard to stay abreast.
Well it’s not actually that hard but people like to think it is. First off I highly recommend staying tuned here. Why? Because although this blog focuses on many aspects of entrepreneurship and running your business it’s also my personal goal to bring you the latest tools and tricks to stay ahead and thrive.
Secondly in my bootcamps I recommend a few sites for each of the five major tools I cover, but straight off I’m going to give a big shout out to Mashable and the Social Media Examiner as two of the best for the latest updates.
Failing that the blogs of the actual tools are also one of the most obvious ways to stay up to date, especially Twitter’s blog that has been hyperactive recently with all their new features.
I mean as your personal trainer, if you’ll allow me the honour, I do have to kick your butt a bit and make sure you put in some work too, and this means doing your own due diligence and reading up on the latest trends and features that apply to your business.
So what is hot?
I’m going to focus on just 3 things today to keep it simple. These are all features your business can benefit from and that don’t take much to get your head around, or to implement them.
1. New Twitter Tweet Button
In August this year Twitter announced a better button. Gone is the Tweetmeme button (who Twitter are working in conjunction with, and hello to the new one).
It’s cooler for several reasons. First off try it – if you click on it a pretty pop up will appear like this:
No longer are you driven back to the Twitter website, so the beauty of it is visitors will stay on your site.
It pops up all prepopulated with your post title or your own custom message, your Twitter handle and a shortened URL. Handy!
What’s more when you’re done you get another popup that says would you now like to follow a related account, in my case I selected my personal one @nataliesisson as you can see below.
Very cool for helping people to find you in other places and connect via other `handles’ (in the above example I’m clearly recommending I follow myself – how vain 😉
What’s more when you login to Twitter you can see for individual tweets how many times it’s been retweeted now.
All in all the Tweet Button will help publishers grow traffic and increase their Twitter following. This blog post shows you how to get your simple code and put it in your website or wherever. Plus there’s a cute short video.
Alternatively if you’re using WordPress for your website or blog and can install plugins, then simply search on Twitter Tweet Button and install it, then change your settings to suit. Quick update – the plugin does not work well – I’ve removed it for now. Will get back to you on this!
2. Facebook Places will be good for business
If you haven’t used Places yet, it’s a simple feature that lets you check into real-world locations through your Facebook profile, similar to the functionality offered by services such as Foursquare. You’ll need a smartphone to use it, or login by using the Facebook Touch Mobile Site.
It’s been rolled out in the US and now in the UK and some Canadian and European users seem to have access too. Supposedly you have full control over your privacy settings – hmmm do we ever fully believe Facebook on that front?
How will this help your business?
If you’re a business, you can use Places to give Facebook your business’ location. Once your location has been added to Places, either by you or by another local Facebook user, just go to the Place page from Facebook.com and click the link that says “Is this Place Page your business?” (thanks Mashable for the info).
If you claim the location as your business, it will become a Facebook Page. You can then post updates to people who like the Page, update your business information and more. Pretty cool really.
One more update for now.
This has to do with friends. Facebook, in an attempt to cut down on abuse of Friend Requests and to ensure they can track you just a little more have now changed the way this works. You can now select either `Confirm’ or `Not Now’ as your options. 
I guess this is handy for those people you just are not sure you want as your friends yet, without straight out ignoring their requests so they don’t repeatedly add you again. It also now takes two steps to say no to a request you don’t want.
3. YouTube Brings Live Streaming To You
One thing my bootcampers didn’t know about within YouTube is the ability to record and upload a video right from your laptop or PC if you have a camera.
It’s a cool feature that I have personally used and can be a great time saver. Next time you hit upload look for the obvious text that say this:
Anyway YouTube has gone one step further. Last week they did a two day trial of live streaming which they’ve been testing.
It will enable broadcasters to stream live video directly into YouTube channels which is pretty damn cool. This obviously transcends to concerts, sports games and more.
All broadcasters need for a live stream is a webcam or an external USB/FireWire camera. Stay tuned for more details.
Want to know more info like this and receive ongoing coaching to help you make sense of it all?
I highly recommend you find out more about my Social Media Bootcamps. The Vancouver one has just two spots left, and LA and San Francisco will be next.
Not able to make it one of these current locations? Then you should be overly excited about my online Social Media Bootcamp program launching 1 October.
If you want to get early-bird access to all the great resources, guides, `How to Webinar’s and a special offer then enter your details here.