Tammy Camp livestreaming at Forbes

Ways your phone can help you become an influencer–and even a Web celebrity

Being a person of influence, a taste-maker or even a Web celebrity has never been as easy as it is today. The technology you have available to you right now–just in your pocket–is all you need.

Here’s a quick, two-step plan for spreading your influence and creating a personal brand–right from your smartphone.

To read the entire article, please visit Forbes.com. To watch the video segment, check out the Forbes Video Network.

Happy Influencing!

Tx

A day in the life of TC – Tammy’s Lifestream
Fancy Facebook? – Tammy on Facebook
Want to keep tabs on my adventures? Follow me in real time on Twitter: @TammyCamp on Twitter

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A lot of apps lay claim to being the #1 Twitter client in the world. But while I have nothing against Tweetdeck or Tweetie, I think HootSuite has outstrided both in usability, features, and most importantly, professional appeal.

HootSuite allows you to share add, edit, and share social network accounts, helping you manage your brand, or just helping you broadcast what you had for breakfast that day. If anything, unlike other aggregators, HootSuite is far more overwhelming than underwhelming.

In case someone wants to start using HootSuite, but can’t figure it out… or someone wants to ensure they’re using it to its full capabilities, a comprehensive guide was needed. Because I love HootSuite, and use it, I figured I’d step up to create one.*

Signing Up

If you’ve ever signed up for an online service before – and if you’re using a social aggregator the chances are probably high that you have – getting started with HootSuite is easy. Navigate to www.hootsuite.com, click the sign up button, and fill out your info.

You’ll get an email sent to your account with a confirmation code in it (this email address will also be used for you login name). Copy the code and paste to the Hootsuite box, and you’ll be forwarded to your active account. Congratulations. You’re in!

Getting Started

The first thing you’ll want to do after signing up for HootSuite is to add your social network accounts into the system. Put in as many as you have – at least Twitter and Facebook is recommended – and allow access for HootSuite to get password and personal info. Though you have reason to worry about divulging this information in most cases, there have been no reported security breaches associated with HootSuite.

After you add an account in HootSuite, you’ll be prompted to add any team members you want to that account, which is a cool feature especially for people running a joint company account. In other words, now multiple administrators can edit and post to a profile, without having to share one static set of account information.

To invite someone into your network, click on the big button that says ‘add new team member,’ enter their email, and press send. If you don’t want to invite anyone, you can continue adding accounts by pressing the button in the top-left corner (‘add social network’).

Adding Columns

After you’ve added all the social networks you want to manage, the next step is to add and organize your columns (or ‘streams’). Start by eliminating the two columns they already have in place – unless you want to be notified anytime hootsuite pops up on Twitter search — by clicking on the drop down menu, and click ‘delete column’ for each.

To add a new column to your HootSuite home page, click the ‘add stream’ button, select the account, then the type of feed. I’d recommend you start by adding  a home and mentions tab for Twitter (so you can keep up with all the great things people are saying about you), then a news feed for any other service (like Facebook or LinkedIn) that you’re using. Of course, feel free to add as many as you want after that. Business users, naturally, will have multiple twitter accounts to add.

After adding streams personal to you, you can add some other fun ones. If you’re interested in a particular subject, like entrepreneurship, you can start a rolling search for updates with that word. Of course, a Twitter search for something like #chucknorrisfacts can be pretty worthwhile too. You can also add a stream with lists you create of interesting Twitter profiles, or updates from your team members in HootSuite.

Adding Tabs

Every network profile you add automatically gets its own tab. But if you want to add more, just click on the ‘+’ button next to the existing ones, set a title, and set how often you want it to refresh. Adding new tabs is useful if you want to track certain things (such as keywords or people important to your business), but want to keep that information separate from your personal accounts.

You can add, subtract and edit all the stream columns independently in each tab (add columns by clicking the ‘+’ button or sliding the indicator, and delete columns by clicking the down menu, then ‘delete’). You can also organize your tabs just like your columns, by clicking and dragging each into the spot of another.

Updating Your Streams

Once you have your networks added in HootSuite, and have all your columns/tabs added, adjusted, and organized, then you have a pretty good start. Chances are, your HootSuite page will be looking pretty hott. With two t’s.

However, in the wild world of social media, reading what others have to say is only half the battle. Participation is what matters, and connections are only made when you’re talking to other great people. If you’re really looking to get everything out of HootSuite, then the next thing you need to do is update your streams.

To start writing an update, type your message into the box on the top of the page, add any links or pics you want, select which accounts you want to post to (just click the checkmark on which ones you want to include or exclude — no need to do each account separately), and hit send. Done. Now you’re cooking with gas.

—> Advanced Features

Tracking Link Stats

Once you’ve sent your first post off into the ether, especially if it has a link in it, you can use HootSuite’s built-in link shortener (ow.ly) to view and track stats for who (and how) people clicked on your link. This is a cool feature for narcissists and/or bloggers.

To view stats for links you post in your updates, first send an update with a shortened link (that’s the big button near the bottom of the post-box), then go to MENU–>STATS (the menu is the owl up in the top left). You can view stats in a summary by the user, or by individual link. You can then use this information to brag to your friends, or test the impact things like post titles, intro messages, and times of day have on clicks.

Using Google Analytics

A new feature of HootSuite is integration of your Google Analytics account. This allows you to track stats of your blog or website right from your HootSuite account, as well as allows you to directly track the impact your tweets and social network updates have on your site visits.

To add Google Analytics to your HootSuite account, go to MENU–>STATS–>SITE ANALYTICS. Then enter your account information, or if you’re already logged into your google account, just click ‘allow.’ You’ll be forwarded to a simple analytics graph, where you can overlay tweets from your different accounts by individual days. Cool… right?

Adding a RSS Feed

If you’re really into that blogging thing, then you can link your blog to your HootSuite account through RSS Feed. Then, without you dong anything, HootSuite will send out updates to your followers with a personal message when you have a new post. You might say, “Whaaaaa?” But stick with me.

To add your blog to your HootSuite account, go to MENU–>SETTINGS–>RSS/ATOM, and enter the feed URL for your blog. Then select how often you want HootSuite to check your feed (once every 24 hours will be good enough for mortal bloggers), then how many updates you want it to send out at one time (I recommend 1-2 as to not overload your followers), then enter a personal message (such as “New Blog Post:”) to go at the beginning of each update. Finally, check off which accounts you want to broadcast your blog from, and you’re good to go!

Get a Phone/Desktop App

Social networks work the best when you’re on-the-go, especially for modern nomads like myself. To get HootSuite on your iPhone or Android (no BlackBerry app yet – sadface), or to get one of the desktop apps or browser add-ons, click on ‘app and plugin directory’ in the bottom-right, and choose the one that works best for you.

Conclusion

HootSuite is a great new tool, allowing professionals (or serious online socialites) to better update and manage their social media accounts. But like any tool, it’s the skill of the user that determines its utility, not the tool itself. Make sure you understand how to use both HootSuite’s basic and advanced features, and make sure you always follow social media best practices.

I hope this comprehensive guide helps you get familiar with HootSuite, and gets you using your social media profiles to their greatest capabilities. Leave any questions or suggestions you have about HootSuite in the comments section below!

*DISCLAIMER: I have no affiliations with HootSuite, and besides their community manager saying I was ‘awesome’ for writing this post, I stand nothing to gain from it. I love HootSuite and think their CEO, Ryan Holmes, is a rockstar.  I write about things and people I heart.

HootSuite CEO Ryan Holmes and Tammy Camp

Tx

A day in the life of TC – http://lifestream.tammycamp.com
Fancy Facebook? – Tammy on Facebook

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Quick version: It’s over. And I’m still alive.

For those who have been under a rock, or who don’t follow me on twitter, I was on a 4-day road trip as part of the Chevy Adventure Social Media Road Rally to the SXSW conference. I attended the conference, and am now driving back to my home in Florida.

There’s a lot to say about the trip, and I’ll get to some of the highlights below. But first, I’d like to say a big THANK YOU to all of you who supported me and helped out along the way. The comments, encouragement, and support I received was overwhelming.

Honestly, I didn’t know really how large, active, or supportive my community was. You guys are truly awesome.

Top-3 Moments of the Trip

1. Line Dancing in Texas

Asian girl country line-dancing? You’d think it’d be silly, but I absolutely loved it. It was totally a scene I could see myself getting into if I lived somewhere else. The bar we went to, Wild West, was something right out of the film Roadhouse.

2. Road Warrior Challenge (Tin Foil Sword Fight)

What do you get when you turn four geeks loose in New Orleans with tinfoil, to stage a fake swordfight? Hilarity ensues, and half of the businessmen and lawyers walking by get involved too. We got some weird looks (alright. a lot), but I like to think we spread a lot of joy that day too.

3. Taking it Out on Farm Animals

No. It’s not what you think. Get your head out of the gutter. After four days crammed into the car together, driving across the country, our South Florida team had to take our aggression out on something. A farmville children’s toy was the nearest possible victim. Video from before and after tells the story.

3 Things I Learned

1. Offline Connections = Gold

It’s easy in our online world to sacrifice offline relationships for online interactions. However, getting out and being forced to interact, I again realize the true value of offline connections. The people we met, and the response they had, was truly invaluable. Best of all, we found that the good offline interactions led online, where people could follow-up with us after.

2. The Difficulty of Social Media

Being a social media personality fulltime for the past week — trying to entertain and interact simultaneously — I realize just how difficult it is to drive a campaign like that. I have a new level of respect for people like Gary Vee or Chris Brogan, who make their living doing just that.

3. Transparency 24/7

I’m a big fan of social media transparency — I even wrote a post about it the other day — but being in a car like that in the public eye was taking it to a new level. We were literally on all the time, and put ourselves out there for people to comment about and participate with. It was a very good exercise in vulnerability.

3 Frequent Quotes

1. “That’s good content”

The most oft-repeated phrase in the car — yelled out anytime we got a new video cut, or saw something worth shooting. It’s amazing how in just a few days, we started to think like movie producers and street performers, constantly on the lookout for entertainment value and points of contact with new people.

2. “My baby is a celebrity!”

Being on social media all the time, it’s easy for us to minimize its impact. We see so many pictures, videos, and updates on a day-to-day basis, it’s rare that any one seems more important than the next. It was funny then, when we posted a video of our youngest fan on www.roadchallenge.com, that her mom got all excited: “my baby is a celebrity!” Being on the Internet isn’t a given for many people, and it gave me a new perspective on how lucky a lot of us are.

3. “We’re family now”

Chevy SXSW South Florida Adventure Team Awards - Chad Folkening, Heather Macdonald, Tammy Camp and Slava Rubin

Repeated time and time again with Chad Folkening, Heather Macdonald and Slava Rubin in the car, it’d come up every time we noticed ourselves getting more comfortable with each other. Wearing my sweater? We’re family now. Want to eat some of my fries? We’re family now. When we started, they were three practical strangers to me. After finishing, they were friends for life. I’ll, like, invite these people to my wedding (if that ever happens!).

3 Random (Quick) Things

1. New Orleans food is fantastic

Not huge news here. I know. But I thought the pure epicness of the city and the food (which I hadn’t had in years) deserved its own mention.

2. Homeless musicians like drugs

Again, probably not a huge shocker. But I had a blast singing with one about joints and crack cocaine. You know, because those are great topics for a song.

3. Ashton Kutcher may or may not have called us on the phone

The Internet controversy of our trip — the world will never know the truth. I’ll never tell

1 Not-So-Random Question

For everyone who followed along on the trip — what did you like best about it, and what did you learn?

Tx

A day in the life of TC – http://lifestream.tammycamp.com
Fancy Facebook? – Tammy on Facebook
Questions on commenting? Check out my House Rules for Commenting

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ok The day is finally upon us. Early this morning, me and my three new best friends piled into a Chevy Equinox, and embarked on a competition road trip to Austin, TX for the SXSW interactive conference.

This isn’t just about driving, though. We’ll be following clues from location to location, and taking on 50 fun “challenges” along the way. For example, we’ll be stopping by an animal shelter to walk the dogs, getting a group of people to sing a famous song, taking a picture with a police officer, and many more.

SXSW 2010 - Music + Film + Interactive Festival

As we complete these challenges, we’ll be documenting them on the South Florida SXSW Chevy Road Challenge site at http://roadchallenge.com. The competition between teams (it’s us, South Florida, against 7 others) won’t be decided by who gets to Austin first, but rather, who completes the most challenges, and gets the most buzz created around their posts. Kind of like Amazing Race 2.0.

This is where I need your help, dear readers — I need to ask you to retweet twitter posts from our team members (@tammycamp @mychannel @GoGoSlava @HMacdonald), comment on http://roadchallenge.com, Facebook Page, or contribute to the conversation on the twitter hastag #swsxsf.

Every retweet and comment we get earns us points, and gets us closer to our goal. Plus, if retweet a lot of our posts, you may be eligible to win our contest, and get flown to South Beach for a kickin’ party.

Like I said… awesome.

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“Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind” – Dr. Seuss

Up until recently, the concept of transparency was little more than a buzzword for me. I wasn’t completely comfortable revealing certain things about my life online, and kept my personal life mostly private in favor of the professional.

However, starting this blog, being more active on social networks (like twitter and facebook), working on a posterous lifecasting site and receiving encouraging insight from English entrepreneur, Ben Way (@BenpbWay), I’ve slowly started to become more comfortable with online transparency.

It’s gotten to the point where I’m actually known for my transparency, and have become an advocate for getting naked… um, I mean, sharing about yourself online.

What does is mean to be transparent?

The concept of transparency, at least to me, is about being honest and open. About setting very few, if any, barriers between you and your social contacts.

It doesn’t necessarily mean you have to tell everyone everything about you, or report about 100% of the things you do each day. But it means you can share pictures/videos of your everyday life, say where you are when you’re there, and share your experiences at many different times and places.

Transparency is being unafraid to show who you really are, not only in one phase of your life, but in all.

Why transparency?

As I’ve found, there’s a lot that can come out of a transparent approach. First, it gains you credibility… because people get to see who you are, and confirm that you are what you say. It’s easy for me to write that I love adventure travel – but people believe it when I post a picture of getting a dune buggy stuck in Brazil, or hitting the surf in the Dominican Republic.

Transparency also encourages interactions. By showing more of my life online, I’m making myself more accessible to people. While before someone could connect to me around entrepreneurship and business, now they can also talk to me about travel, kiteboarding, cooking, art, fine wine, charity, and much more.

Lastly, being transparent takes the pressure off. Under a policy of transparency, you are free to be everything that you are, and there’s no fear of somebody revealing a new part of you, that you haven’t already shown before.

Why Not Transparency?

Except in special circumstances, where, for instance, you’re the queen of some volatile nation-state (that I could understand), I can’t find a good answer for this question. Transparency can seem difficult at first… but it’s easier (and more fun) in the end.

It worked for Oprah, Simon Cowell, and in social media, for companies like Zappos. A lack of transparency is what’s making things so hard for Tiger Woods. Given the evidence, why wouldn’t you give it a try?

Conclusion

If you’re less than transparent online, and are keeping your cards close to your chest… I encourage you try on this approach, and see how it fits. Put your cards on the table – what’s the worst that can happen?

Conversation

So tell me… how transparent are you online?

Tx

A day in the life of TC – http://lifestream.tammycamp.com
Fancy Facebook? – Tammy on Facebook
Questions on commenting? Check out my House Rules for Commenting

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BlackBerry, the enterprise phone, is often dismissed as the “other” brand within social media communities. But worldwide, BlackBerrys still outnumber iPhones — approx. 36 million to 21 million — and RIM has made major strides in recent years to become more social-friendly.

I use my BlackBerry not only for business, but for most of my social media. I’ve found it to be downright kickass at both, made even better by a full keyboard, and great global coverage.

There are many social media-related apps available for BlackBerry, and it can be tough to pick only the good ones. To cut through the others, here are my top-5 social apps for BlackBerry:

Please continue to read the full article on Mashable.com at the following URL:

http://mashable.com/2010/01/25/social-apps-blackberry/

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Join Tammy Camp and the South Florida Interactive Marketing Association (SFIMA) on June 11, 2009 for the “The Glitter of Twitter and Social Media” Event.

The glitter of social media is that everyone can participate at no or low cost. Yet how do you stand out from the 100 million others online everyday? The panel will discuss how to use Twitter and social media as well as the impact each has on Interactive Marketing. The meeting will address the pros and cons of using Twitter to enhance your marketing campaigns and which forms of social media are best for your organization.

Panelists
Chris Tiedje – Promotions Manager with the Sun-Sentinel @SunSentinel
Jeffrey Yaniga – Business Development Executive at Pitney Bowes Management Services @MyWorkAccount
Alex de Carvalho – Co-Founder of StartPR @alexdc
John Dowdy – Coordinator of Regional Marketing for JetBlue Airways @jetblue

Moderator
Tammy Camp (@TammyCamp)
Acting as moderator will be Tammy Camp, a serial Internet entrepreneur and extreme adventurer, with more than 16,000 twitter followers. Her areas of expertise lie in social media marketing, pay per click marketing and search engine optimization.

New Member Orientation
Come early for the New Member Orientation at 6pm – 6:30pm on the 8th floor of the Riverside Hotel. Get acquainted with SFIMA and make a few friends before the show starts.
Please RSVP for this special engagement by emailing: Membership@SFIMA.com

Follow SFIMA on Twitter @SFIMA

Registration Details
Date: Thursday, June 11, 2009
Time: 6:30 PM – 8:30 PM
Place: Riverside Hotel
620 East Las Olas Blvd
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301

Registration for SFIMA Members: No charge with paid membership.

Registration for SFIMA Non-members: $39 (why not join and attend monthly educational events for no charge?)

For more information on the South Florida Interactive Marketing Association (SFIMA) please visit their website at www.sfima.com.

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