In 2009, I posted a blog about what types of marketing applications people like me would use to help their business. I’m recapping that list here (in no particular order), and then I’m going to grade them based on how they worked or didn’t work for me.
- StumbleUpon
- Delicious
- FriendFeed
- Magnolia
- Technorati
- WordPress
- Ning
- Squidoo
Let’s start with the obvious, shall we? Twitter has been an awesome complimentary tool for all areas of marketing for Zion Eye Media, and has been an increasingly greater customer relationship engagement application as well. In my honest assessment, I feel that Twitter has done a better job handling my marketing needs than most, if not all, of the applications I’ve used within the past several years. I would consider Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn as my top 3 choices so far. Grade: A
I would say that LinkedIn is up there in my rankings next to Twitter and Facebook. Back when I wrote my previous article, LinkedIn was not in any way, shape or form the kind of tool that it is now. Integration with other web applications and social media were non-existent, or at least very, very limited. I have seen it grow to the awesomeness that it is currently, and I hope that it continues to grow and blossom (especially with their recent IPO). Included features like questions and answers, and company profiles are great ways to get free marketing for the business. Grade: A
StumbleUpon
This is one of my favorite apps for collecting inspiration links for design and marketing. I know that some of my friends have moved on to other similar apps, but we’ll get to that in a second. Frankly, if I had to rate StumbleUpon with other apps, I would rate it within the same realm as Evernote. The browser toolbar can be wonky at times, especially when it doesn’t sync as well as it should. Nevertheless, it’s still being used on my book, so that’s a good start! Grade: B
Delicious
I still use this but I wasn’t (and still am not) very fond of their UI. I understand that it’s the application and the data functionality that is more important (at least from what I understand of them), but if other apps can be as aesthetically pleasing, Delicious can also do a better job on the front end. Grade: B-
FriendFeed
At the time, I use this application to tap into Facebook so that I can market through Twitter and Facebook at the same time. Back in 2009, Facebook didn’t have their Pages sorted out yet, and integration with Twitter without using 3rd party party applications were minimal. Friendfeed was a good choice back then, and is proving to be of somewhat relatively good value presently. With newer abilities for social integration, I think Friendfeed may be on its way out of the door for me. Grade: B/C, depending on past/present workings.
Magnolia
Unfortunately, this is an application that went down like MySpace being punched by Facebook’s Iron Mike Tyson. I was fond of their bookmarking tool for a while, then when they lost my stuff, I was thinking that’s it for me. 2 years or so down the road, I realized that they were doing their own cloud computing work (go figure), which is something that I am pretty much an evangelist for nowadays. Maybe it’s a safe bet NOT to do your own IT work..? Grade: F
Technorati
Well, I’m not as versed in Technorati as I have hoped to be, at least in terms of content value and integrity. I may not have as much credibility here, and while I was hoping to use their value as a way to integrate my knowledge and skill set as an online authority, that has not yet been the case. I think this is a 50-5o for me. Grade: C
WordPress
As you can see, my site is built on WordPress, and I’m using it fairly well, I believe. However, I think when I wrote my previous post, I was merely referring to as a way to create landing pages FOR my marketing, and for that initiative, I have met my purposes. Needless to say, it’s not really a “marketing” tool, so may have to scrap that as an application for marketing use. Grade: B-
Ning
I signed up for Ning a while back, and honestly I haven’t really done much with Ning the past two years. In a perfect world, I would be all over Ning and be more of a power user than a spectator. But, with all of the things I have been doing, I can’t be doing 200% of everything… at once… 24/7. I think Ning is a tool that I could use in the definite future. Grade: C+
Squidoo
Well, Squidoo would have been very useful for me if I could have had more time to use it. Unfortunately, all I ever did with Squidoo was show other people how to use it, but not really use it myself as a marketing tool. Grade: C+
Now let’s talk about my top 5 applications for my marketing tools today, and what has worked for me as of late (in no particular order):
- StumbleUpon
- TweetDeck
What are your favorite applications?