Social media marketing | Liz Hover's Diary of a Web Gal

Something very important was underlined for me today.

In my opinion, my dear colleagues at the National Screen Institute have always been exceptional.

And I’ve come to appreciate I need those exceptional people in place so that I can do my job as a web manager.

And before you ask, no, this isn’t some sycophantic post.

I’m serious.

Many of the staff at the National Screen Institute are vital to the process of website management.

Each person plays to their strengths and together we make it happen.

So why was this underlined today?

I work with our manager of corporate communications to pull together information for a certain section of our website. It’s an important section so invariably there’s much news.

The timing and organisation of that news is expertly handled by the corporate communications manager. She and I make a brilliant team. Really.

Each week I post the information and I know I can rely on her to get the stuff together. So while I’m juggling 72 things I know this is taken care of.

And our marketing and communications manager flagged an idea we’d had many months ago. A great idea that was still sitting in my back pocket. She’s going to drive that project.

If you want to manage a website well, surround yourself with great people.

They should be folks you know you can rely on. Once you’ve got them in place everything else is easy.

I don’t have endless schedules created in Excel.

I don’t have daily or weekly website meetings.

Instead, I have colleagues that I can communicate with. I can walk to their desk and have a conversation.

If you don’t have this bit right then you’re buggered.

I’ve got a bunch of emails piling up at home that are all things I want to blog about here.

HOWEVER. This one just couldn’t wait.

The message from Gary Vaynerchuk is one that all companies large and small should heed.

(Who is Gary? He apparently gained widespread notoriety as the host of Wine Library TV, a daily internet webcast on the subject of wine, according to Wikipedia. Now he touts himself as an internet celebrity).

Anyway, in essence Gary says stop wasting time and start using the tools in the social media world.

And I totally agree.

I hate processes that hold up action. And when information is flying so fast there’s little time for old processes.

In many cases company folks aren’t making the most of stuff because a zillion people need to approve.

Can you imagine if you had to get approval for every tweet you sent out on Twitter? I bet there are some people out there living through that hell…

Reminds me of an earlier post I wrote.

Just do it.

I love email. And so I religiously read everything that arrives in my inbox. This includes over 20 email subscriptions from technology, web design, blogging, social media and marketing websites.

I couldn’t do my job without a lot of the information that comes my way.

One of the requirements of website management is the need to continuously nuture your knowledge base. I find these email updates are one of the best ways to stay in the loop.

So I get some of these sent to my personal email address and others go to my work account. If you’re trying to absorb this much information you’ll need to be pretty organised about how and when you read the updates.

Of course email alerts don’t work for everyone. And most if not all of the sites I list below also offer other ways to subscribe. Or you could just regularly visit these sites. But that’s a heck of a job.

Here are my picks in no particular order:

• One Degree – the inside scoop on digital marketing and social media for Canadian marketers.
• ProBlogger – created by uber blogger Darren Rowse, the site is dedicated to helping other bloggers learn the skills of blogging, share their own experiences and promote the blogging medium. Includes well over 3,500 articles, tips, tutorials and case studies.
• TwiTip – also from Darren Rowse, a tips site for Twitter users who want to improve their use of Twitter.
• Skidzopedia – a blog offering updates about the latests gadgets, softwares, news and reviews.
• MediaShift - tracks how new media – from weblogs to podcasts to citizen journalism – are changing society and culture.
• VentureBeat – Silicon Valley news about tech money and innovation.
• Mashable – the world’s largest blog focused exclusively on web 2.0 and social networking news.
• MediaPost – resources for media, marketing and advertising professionals offering news coverage, event information, a social network, and industry jobs, directories and research. Folks can subscribe to updates from over 20 blogs.
• Media in Canada – the latest news keeping media and marketing execs up to speed on the Canadian media scene.
• Micro Persuasion – a blog exploring how emerging technologies are revolutionizing marketing and communications.
• Silicon Alley Insider – news, commentary, and discussion about digital publishing, entertainment, news, music, social networking, mobile, and gaming.
• All Facebook – the unofficial Facebook blog.
• Seth Godin – Seth has several sites. I currently subscribe to Seth Godin’s Blog which offers riffs on marketing, respect, and the ways ideas spread.
• John Battelle’s Searchblog – thoughs on the intersection of search, media, technology and more.
• MakeUseOf – news about cool websites, software, and how-to articles.
• NETTUTS – a site aimed at web developers and designers offering tutorials and articles on technologies, skills and techniques to improve how you design and build websites.
• Six Revisions – a blog that shares useful information about web development and design, dedicated to people who build websites.
• ZDNet – technology news and reviews.
• Blogging Me, Blogging You – marketing, blogging, social media, PR and technology news.
• TechCrunch – a weblog dedicated to obsessively profiling and reviewing new Internet products and companies.
• Daily Blog Tips – erm, I think the title speaks for itself.
• Web Design Ledger – written by web designers for web designers. Web design related knowledge and resources. Topics range from design inspiration to tips and tutorials.
• ReadWriteWeb – a blog that provides web technology news, reviews and analysis.
• Smashing Magazine – trends and techniques in web development. They don’t provide email updates so I follow them on Twitter.
• The Web Squeeze – web design articles on business and computers to web development tutorials on topics such as CSS, PHP and Javascript.
• PR 2.0 – Brian Solis’ blog covering marketing and technology.
• Blogsessive – blogging tips for bloggers.
• Six Pixels of Separation – fellow Canadian Mitch Joel blogs about marketing and communications. No email updates so I check this site manually when I remember.

Similar to my earlier post listing some great sites worth visiting, this list of the Twitter power 150 is a great collection of marketing and advertising people on Twitter.

The list was compiled by Armando Alves on a site I recently discovered called A Source of Inspiration which covers digital marketing, creativity and other web stuff.

It even includes some Canadian folks.

There’s an interesting discussion about this list going on over at Six Pixels of Separation.

I manage two Twitter accounts, neither of which was in my name.

I was getting cabin fever. I’m a dog and an organisation.

So I got me my very own. You can follow me @lizhover.

Or follow my work Twitter @nsicanada.

Or my dog @sadieshihtzu.