Emails start flying amongst your team. To-do lists get longer and longer. Your days turn into nights and nights turn into days. Pause.

Last night after work I sat down on my couch – projects, ideas and deadlines swirling in my head. I thought to myself, “I need to find a way to work smarter. My company is at a very important and exciting stage so we all need to kick some ass to accomplish our goals.” With Q1 objectives set and my projects laid out, I needed a plan of attack.

I went to my computer and quickly evaluated how I worked. I had saved documents all over my messy desktop. My Google Docs account was unorganized and overwhelming. My email was not labeled and organized as much as I would have liked it to be. I knew what I had to get done and had the means to do so, but I wanted to do it smarter.

1.    Start using Evernote

I realized that I could move all the documents I’m storing on my desktop into notes on Evernote. That way, my desktop would only have the Evernote App on it. I could also access the files on my mobile app!  This has been a huge space saver, made my desktop look a bit nicer and gave me unlimited access to all my files.

2.    Create labels and folders in your email account

I use Gmail, but let’s assume most email clients have similar organizational features for the sake of this post. I realized I hadn’t updated the folders and labels I had created in Gmail in at least 6 month. I took an hour one day after work to create a few new folders and add recent emails to them. I now do this with every incoming email as well. This has made my job SO much easier because whenever I need to find a certain category of emails, I know exactly where to find them. This probably saves me a good hour each day at work.

3.    Create a DDD (= Did, Doing, Do) Report for yourself

At Backupify, we started doing DDD reports a few months ago and I’ve found it to be tremendously helpful. I don’t know about you, but I’m a huge to-do list person (and any list for that matter). This DDD report shows to you (and your team) what you are currently working on (Doing), what you accomplished (Did) and what you are doing next (Do).

I simply created a Google Doc with these three categories and put all the projects I had going on in them. Each day I go in and update it based on what I accomplished and what other projects I’m taking on. This is a great way to both know you’re accomplishing things and make sure you don’t lose track of projects.

4.    Block off Time

Each day, make it a point to determine an approximate time-frame and order of importance for each of your projects. Take 15 minutes every morning to compare your schedule of meetings to the projects that must also get done.

Plan for certain blocks of ‘work hours’ in between meetings where you can focus on one project at a time. Especially when you have a lot going on (which I’m sure you do if you’re at a start-up – and still reading this), focus is key. Let’s say that developing the structure for a new email campaign is of utmost importance that day. Commit (hypothetically) 2 hours that day to sit down and crank out that project.

5.    Utilize Gantt Charts

I was working on a large marketing project with many moving projects and several participants. I had written down with pen and paper all the to-do’s and due dates, but this was not easily shareable to my team. My boss suggested I develop a Gantt Chart to lay out each task, the owner, time frame and due date. I then shared this with my team in a Google Doc and now check up on it every day to ensure projects are moving smoothly.

I could honestly go on and on about ways to work smarter. The above five tips reflect new ways I’ve found extremely effective in getting work done to meet our aggressive team goals. I’m sure I’m not the only one in this boat. We’re all cranking on exciting ideas and projects – so why not find the best ways to execute? What are some other ways you have found effective in working smarter?

From the outside looking in, you may think getting a job at a startup is like getting a job at any other company – Starbucks, Staples, Macy’s, etc. I hate to burst that belief, but it’s a bit tougher than just filling out an application, having a formal interview, and hoping to get chosen among the multitude of applicants.

Getting into the start up scene is about who you know and how much you are willing to give to make a company succeed. Being in Boston adds another unique layer to this; we are a very tight-knit community. Although Boston is a relatively big city and it may seem like a large pool of companies and candidates, we all talk. Why? Because we all are on social media or go to events regularly!

Coming from a small town in Connecticut myself, I had to learn the hard way that getting involved in the startup scene in Boston was no easy task. However, it was the best journey I’ve ever been on. Being here a year and a half now, I want to share with you how you can go about getting a job in an awesome start up in Boston without wasting time.

1. Network – work the scene

Due to our tight-knit community, we all tend to navigate towards the same type of events. I find myself saying “Long time no see!” in a sarcastic manner to many people who attend the same events as I do. We all know the right events to go to, whether a casual beer and networking event or a knowledge-based event. Start attending events, talking to various people about the events they attend, look for patterns, and deepen your network.

This will allow you to become recognized in the area and allow you to learn from this group and get the ‘in’ on potential job openings.

2. Get involved on social media

Let’s face it – Boston is full of nerds. It is also full of social media enthusiasts – and we’re a bit proud of it.  I highly suggest you create Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and even YouTube accounts and start interacting with influencers in Boston.

You can find these influencers by noticing how many followers they have, how much they engage with others and by catching them in person at events. By following conversations and talking with other people in Boston, you will build up recognition of your skills and interests.

3. Create your own personal brand

Just like any consumer brand, it is important to distinguish yourself in the market. Making yourself both memorable and visible is crucial today. Chances are, if you are being interviewed for a job, the employer is Googling you to view your personal brand and digital footprint.

I highly recommend starting a personal website or blog that demonstrates what you are interested in, your past experience, and anything else career-related you want others to see.

For me, I blogged about digital marketing, posted videos on how to brand yourself online, and posted my video resume. On top of that, build out social sites like Twitter and LinkedIn demonstrating the same information on your site to create consistency.

People will come to expect certain content from you and will know where to get it. This is crucial when you are on the job hunt. Being visible and helpful online can go a long way.

4. Be yourself

It is important to first and foremost act like the same person whether online or in person. Your personal brand online should reflect who you really are. If you are a fun, bubbly person, write in a conversational, easy-going tone. That way, no matter which way a person is communicating with you, they know it is truly you.

At the end of the day, it is who and what you know that can get you into the Boston startup scene. Networking properly and demonstrating your expertise both online and offline are critical to getting seen and remembered by potential employers.

Most of us at BostInnovation have done these above four things to get jobs at really awesome companies and involved with this blog. Ask any of us, it was more than worth it!

Let’s face it: you probably have not found the perfect tool to measure all your online marketing activities. True, you may have found one that was ‘just good enough’ but still doesn’t give you exactly what you need.

Truth be told, in the grand scheme of things, social media and internet marketing is generally still new. With that comes developing metrics tools that do not quite fit our exact needs yet.

The great part about being in an awesome city like Boston is that we all know we’re in it together to figure out the best ways to use social media, optimize internet marketing campaigns, hone in on our funnel, and optimize conversion rates. We all want the same thing. We all work together to help get the results we need.

A few months ago, I was searching for that ‘perfect’ metrics tool, so I went to oneforty’s Managing and Measuring Social Media LinkedIn group to find an awesome group of people suggesting many tools. After an exhaustive search through, I decided write an article on my website about the Pros and Cons of Social Media Metrics Tools to give members my honest feedback on each tool I tested.

Through the process, I tested about 20 different tools, and found a few that actually fit the bill. While I did settle for a few ideal ones, none were perfect – even when combined.

As a marketer myself, I’ve identified the five critical metrics an ideal solution should have to help you become better at your job.

• Middle of the funnel statistics: Sure, Google Analytics can show you what referral traffic brought people to your site and your checkout system can tell you how much revenue you received – but what about in between those activities? What steps did these people take between visiting an outside link, to getting on your website, to purchasing? Did they visit the blog? Did they watch a demo video? Did they engage in a chat with a support representative? If you can figure out which activities people perform most that convert to sales, then you can optimize that funnel to get even more conversions.

• Customizable charts and reports: If you are a visual marketer like me and/or need to report marketing metrics to your boss or your advisory board, you need an easy way to compile specific bits of data. If a tool gives you the ability to create custom reports with specific data points, great! On top of that, if they can provide you with bar, pie, and graph charts (among others) to depict this data visually, even better! The easier you can present this data to others, the better your work looks.

• Percent changes amongst data points: Want to know how many people came to your site and purchased between April and May? Even better, wouldn’t it be great to know the increase or decrease in this traffic month to month? This can help you determine what you did right and wrong and how to optimize each channel with specific content and sales drivers.

• Dashboard activity: Wouldn’t it be great to log onto your metric tool to see a customized page of all the data you need to know up front? Some tools I currently use do this (Raven SEO Tools for example) but not for every aspect of my marketing program. It’d be great to choose the top 4-5 KPIs (key performance indicators) they need to know at a given time and be presented with that data as soon as they log in. That would make my day SO much easier, and probably yours as well.

• Ability to visually see conversion rates across mediums: You may have multiple tools in place that can track social media traffic conversions, email campaign metrics, and press-related data. What if there was one single tool that showed traffic, conversions, and percentage change across all these channels at any given time period? To me, this would be the absolute most critical piece of data to know. That way, not only can I better understand the overall performance of our marketing activities, but so can everyone else in a visually pleasing way.

Of course, this list can go on and can be altered depending on the industry you’re in, marketing challenges you face, and marketing programs you are running. This serves as a guideline for some of the most important aspects of a metrics tool you should look for before settling for the one that seems to be ‘good enough’.

If you have other major KPIs you are tracking and metrics features you need to correlate with them, please leave your feedback below to add to this list.

Just like in Boston, if we can all help each other figure out the main things we need to track as marketers, hopefully the ideal solution will appear sooner than expected to satisfy our needs and help us all become better at our jobs.

I owe you guys a good update on what’s new with me and this blog so you know what to expect from here on out.

This video will explain what my ‘new’ job entails, why I love working in the Boston start-up scene, and three main topics this blog will now be focusing on.

As I say at the end of the video, please feel free to share blog post ideas you’d like to see published on here (and I do welcome guest posts on occasion as well).

As always, thanks for being an awesome reader!

A light *sparked* in my mind.

People always tell you to be a go-getter. You never really hear the term go-giver. However, I stopped and thought about this – and continued thinking about it all the way home. If you’re like me, you would rather see others happy and successful than seeking out that happiness and success for yourself first. You thoroughly enjoy asking people, “How can I help you?” (and not in the Dunkin’ Donuts drive-up line manner).

I’ve started realizing through my proceeding conversations and actions that being a go-giver is a respected, endearing and selfless thing you can do that can benefit both parties if done right.

Especially in the Boston start-up scene, there are many, many hard-working people spending their days and nights and last few dollars trying to grow their startup. When they are asked if they need help, this is like spotting gold. Entrepreneurs are full of ideas and spark, but they need more minds and man hours to make the idea happen.

While I know I’ve told many more people I’d love to help them than what’s been reciprocated back to me, I’m actually quite content with that. To date, I am an advisor for four awesome startups in the Boston area, contribute blog posts weekly to BostInnovation and am about to start a non-profit website to help homeless animals. Not in any one of these circumstances am I ask for anything in return. I am genuinely interested in helping these ideas grow for the pure sake of seeing them succeed.

To revert back to my original conversation of a go-getter vs. a go-giver, I was also reminded that go-getters may still become extremely successful and wealthy, but all they have done is helped themselves. They probably have said “no” to many people who asked for their help or advice for the pure reason that they were devoting 110% of their time on their own endeavors. While there is nothing ethically wrong with this, I find it good business to help and then be helped.

This is why I truly enjoy helping and giving – and this will never stop.

The reason I felt the need to write about this is because I want each and every person who reads this to stop for a second and identify which one, a go-getter or go-giver, you are, and if you are content with that.

Have you asked to help another out in the past month? Have you given selflessly to a cause without pay or proper reward? Do you seek experience helping others for the sake of even just learning, if not monetary gain?

I ask you to try being a go-giver for a week. Attend networking events, identify one or two people who have great ideas you are passionate about and see where you can be of assistance – even if all they need is access to you to bounce ideas off of. How about contribute an expert guest blog post to a start up that could use your help? Why not stay a few hours extra at work just because you truly care and want to get things done? You may find that it’s even more rewarding than money. I do.

Enough from me - I’d love to hear your stories. Are you a go-giver? If so, what are some things you’ve done selflessly to help others and had a successful outcome? If you are not a go-giver, what are some things that would inspire you to become one? And also, I always encourage others to counteract my ideas if you feel strongly otherwise.

In lieu of loving to share the information and case studies I present, I’m posting my slides below.

For those who attended, thanks so much for coming by! It was a great panel discussion followed by some awesome audience questions and valuable networking afterwards.

It was about 5pm and I had only sat down by the dock to enjoy the evening sunlight on the river for about ten minutes when this man walked up to me. Naturally, when a stranger walks up to me I tend to tense up, not knowing their intentions. However, this man was looking for something very unique.

I found out afterwards that he spoke only Russian so he could not communicate with me. This man walked up to me, handing me two plastic cups and making a water-scooping motion to me with his hands. After a second, I understood he wanted me to fill these cups with river water for him because he could not bend down to do so himself. He nodded to me and went back to his fishing area. I watched and saw him take out some bread rolls, break them up into smaller pieces, and soak them in the cup of water. I then realized he was using this wet bread as bait for his fishing pole.

Not even five minutes after he first approached me, he came back over. In his hand were three candies. He was giving me candy in return for assisting him with getting water. All he could communicate to me was “Russian candy”. Sure enough, when I looked at them, the wrapper had Russian wording on it. I thanked him, he nodded, and went back to his area.

At that point I thought to myself, “Wow, just by me doing something so seemingly minuscule for this man, he was courteous enough to pay it forward by giving me a treat.”

This made me think.

You never know what others need in life, and how much a small act like filling up water means to them. I started to think about how this relates to marketing and customer service. During our busy everyday lives, we do and receive small acts of kindness, not really thinking twice about it. Other times, we are treated rudely and/or ignored – many times by bad customer representatives. On multiple occasions, I’ve experienced this with both a bank and cable company (not naming names – it’s beyond the point).

However, what if more encounters with businesses, clients, partners, etc. were as genuine as my prior encounter? What if everyone paid it forward? Small acts of appreciation can mean the world to someone.

Some business example of paying it forward are:

• Sending a personal thank-you email or even a gift card to a valued customer that has either been a good reference, blogged favorably about you, or has stayed loyal through ups and downs in the company’s lifetime. While they may just be great customers because they truly enjoy your product or service, it never hurts to show them it matters to you.

• Creating a special product feature that a specific customer requests. While it may gain you little to no revenue, if it is a fairly simple and quick feature to roll out, it will mean a lot to that customer. It (1.) Shows you truly care about the needs of your customers and (2.) Demonstrates that you take in customer feedback. If a business went out of their way to do this for me and the feature simplified my daily life, I would probably be a forever-loyal customer.

• Giving a valued customer some press exposure. I first was impressed by the idea of doing this when talking with a friend who spoke to a reporter regarding an awesome customer’s business. My friend was speaking to them not for the intent to get his business exposure, but to highlight a customer. Since the customer was running a small business, this press exposure was huge for them. I’ve since spoken to many other people who do the same thing and I have done it myself as well.

Editor’s Note: This is a contributed guest post.

Social Media Day isn’t just some vague recognition of social media. It’s actually something entirely new in human history. The human race has never been in instant contact with itself in real time before, without the limitations of nationalities, language and political boundaries. This was a unique event, where cultures could actually mix. It’s also a new sort of human interaction, “SEO for the soul”, as well as social media marketing, the newest, biggest thing in marketing.

The big day was a pretty good indicator of how strongly social media is influencing the world. Social media sites are making news in their own right now, and the response to Social Media Day was a lot bigger than the simple old broadcast cross links to other countries.

This was only the second annual Social Media Day, and it went off the scale in terms of participation.

The idea of “believing” in media is perhaps a little over the top these days, but in terms of putting social media into practice, there’s no doubt that Social Media Day was a big success. 90 countries across six continents were involved. The general meetups were more than double last year, another sign of expanding horizons in a medium which is still, let’s face it, in its very early infancy.

The truth is that social media is an entirely new medium and nobody’s really too sure what it can do.

It’s evolving in ways nobody would have dreamed possible. Nobody really knows how many people there are active on the social media sites, but it’s somewhere around at least three quarters of a billion people at the very least. That’s the biggest single demographic on Earth for any kind of media, ever. Facebook alone has more people than the entire United States.

There’s another interesting fact becoming obvious. The marketing industry is trying to get into this gigantic electronic super-power’s buying power. This is also the most mobile market on Earth.

The truth is that social media is very unlike any other kind of media, able to react quickly to information and spread the message around the world on its own terms.

Cynics may note that this means that marketing, of all things, is becoming a social media enabler, adding more commercial power to the social media phenomenon. History tends to follow the money wherever it goes. Facebook, for example, is becoming a lot better organized as the Facebook marketing companies figure out that social media is simultaneously the ultimate impulse buying point of sale and the most demanding.

Homo Consumer Sapiens can be a tough customer. Social media users are also real online users, determined to get what they want, looking for real information about their purchases, and trying to get the best deals. Social Media Day showed that there’s a new human reality at work, changing lifestyles with a few clicks. Don’t be surprised if the next Social Media Day or the one after it turns into the biggest media event in history. It’s just a matter of time.

Many friends have approached me asking the exact question proposed in the title of this blog post. “So, how do I get a job at a start up company?” Truth be told, it is tough if you don’t know the right people. It took me a few months to carefully network and feel out the startup culture.

When people tell you it’s all about who you know, they are right. When a small company like a startup is looking to hire, they are very reliant on referrals and recommendations of good hires as they cannot risk making a wrongful hire.

In short, below I’ve answered the most common questions I’ve been asked regarding getting into a startup:

How do you know who to contact?

First, determine what it is you’re looking to do. If you’re into marketing like I am, start contacting marketing professionals in the area (either via email or Twitter) to make an initial connection. Thankfully, through college, I received a marketing scholarship from an organization based around Boston, so those were the first people I went to when I was looking for a job.

Essentially, network creatively. Find out what topic of interest you want to start a career in and find others who are doing just that. Get their attention either by chatting on Twitter, sending an email or attending an event and making a personal introduction. I was able to meet many very successful marketers around the Boston area by doing just that. After you’ve made your first successful networking contact, they can surely help you branch off and meet others.

How do you know what events to attend?

It’s always good to make a personal connection. If you can attend the events that admirable professionals in your industry are attending, that is a great start. You can also get recommendations about events and conferences from your first few contacts. I’ve found that some networking events are more valuable than others. Here in Boston, there are events where it is just a social gathering involving small talk and beer. Then there are conferences with learning sessions and breakout networking times. I value both for different reasons. I started going to both when I began crafting my way into the Boston startup scene. I found that the social ‘drink-ups’ as they’re called were great to have casual conversations and get your name known. You may not learn too much, but there sure are a lot of people to meet. That’s actually how I got involved being a writer for BostInnovation.

Conferences are a great way to learn and get your name out there. Conferences tend to be larger, so it’s always important to find out who is going and make a point to meet them there.

How do you know when to take a chance?

Working for a startup does involve some risk. Unlike an established brand or corporation, startups are small and often bootstrap or VC funded. This meaning that there is a limited cash runway and hard work involved to push through the competition and challenges to make it to the top. Before I accepted my job offer with Backupify, our CEO Rob May made a point to explain to me exactly what taking a job at a startup meant. It meant there was risk of failure, hard times among the good times, and long hours. Thankfully, I was up for all of that – but many are not.

I’ve spoken with many colleagues who started their career off at a standard corporation, being a number among thousands of other employees, and just living day-by-day, not enjoying their job. I’m always interested to hear how one day they snap and realize they want to enjoy their career and find a company and a job that is truly rewarding. Many times, landing a position at a startup company can be just that opportunity with exposure to almost every activity in the company including being involved with executive decisions, being challenged like never before, and having a say in the direction of the company.

I’m thrilled I took the leap into the startup world as my first career job. It has been the most rewarding, creative and challenging job I could have ever wanted.

What other questions do you have in regards to learning about startup culture? If you made the move from a ‘regular’ job to a startup, what was your experience like? I’d love to hear from you!

• Minimize junk. Are you falling into the trap of putting every little detail about your life online? It is important that you keep focused on why you are involved in a certain group or medium. Remember that each of your posts needs to be important. Unless you are Brad Pitt and there is a mountain of followers drooling on your every word, make sure that you and others in your company are relevant.
• Keep it consistent. As with every element of your company’s operations it is important that you keep standards of communication. Setting rules regarding tone and appropriateness for all of those in your company is of utmost importance. This may take some of the fun out of it, but one mistake could spread and be very damaging for your business. Perhaps you should consider those working for you have both their own personal and professional profiles.
• Management. Some amount of randomness may be beneficial to creating and keeping interest, but using certain software programs to manage, schedule and assess the effectiveness of your company’s posting will be greatly beneficial to understanding your SEO efforts. Perhaps there are better times and better ways that your team can be collaborating (working together), and only analysis of your efforts will allow you to see this. There are several premium and free-ware options available.
• Encourage participation. Having the technical means and the content to stir debate amongst your followers and readers is extremely important. Making sure that you have your networks set up correctly so that you have specific areas for participants to engage in, and you can moderate, are of the utmost importance. The two skills of being a good content developer, and intangible asset, and having the technical know-how, are extremely important.
• Ahead of the curve. Learning from others in your industry can be very beneficial, however, it is those who are ahead of the curve, and dare to do something different, that often reap most of the rewards. You will need to use your imagination and creativity if you are to stand out. Respect the intelligence of your readers and understand that they are already getting used to many of the same tricks to get their attention floating around out there.
• Keeping it real. This must be one of the all-time important factors of any company’s activities. Remember, people are not stupid, and as soon as they even get a hint that your company is not being real, they will drop you in a flash. Just because you are not communicating face to face, don’t think that they cannot read between the lines. Let them know where you stand from the beginning unless you and your people are extremely experienced in true guerrilla marketing.

It is important to not get overwhelmed with the potential and possibilities of any campaign. Some people believe in an online social Karma. Take on your company’s online activities like any other element of your business, step by step, and seek professional advice, after all it is your financial future.

It was about a year ago that I came in contact with the CEO of the start-up I now work for, Backupify. I had just graduated college and was on the job hunt but had not really considered working for a start-up yet. College taught me to work for a stable, corporate job where I’d just be a number and have accept that.

I favored otherwise.

I knew a corporation job wasn’t for me (I had had a previous internship at one) but was still unsure exactly what company type I wanted to work for, I just knew I wanted it to be something different and exciting.

Upon having talks with Rob May, our CEO, and other employees, I saw a great fit between the company and I before I was even hired. Nine months later, I’m still here. We’ve gone through a Series A funding, have had tons of press releases and affiliated news coverage as well as grown our user base 400%.

It’s been quite the journey in such a short amount of time but it has been better than I could have expected.

Considering working for a start-up in the near future? Here’s what to expect:

1. Yes, you will work long hours. This isn’t the typical 9-5 job you would get elsewhere. It’s a ‘get here when you need to and leave once you’re done with your stuff’ kind of job. That may sound vague, but basically go in as early (or as late) as you desire – as long as that’s acceptable – and stay until your pressing projects are done (even if that means 7 or 8 p.m.). Usually since you’re in a small team, your projects are important and impactful for the company’s future so your work will usually be rewarding and exciting to work on.

2. Your team will be small – at least to start. The nature of a startup insues that you will be working in a tight-knit, small team. I find this to be a great opportunity for many reasons. First, you get to know everyone and their experiences and talents very well. Second, you get to learn what projects they are working on and ways you can help each other accomplish things. This is a great team building skill. Second, if you’re in the small, core team of a start-up like I was, you can see the company through it’s exciting growth but still feel very connected to the core of the business.

3. You may change direction – and fast. Start-ups are all about learning. Since you may be in an industry sector that is new, you need to learn who your target market is, what marketing channels resonate with them, what features are needed to satisfy them – and then you may alter who your target market is – and then all of this changes. Change, at least for me, is exciting. It is everyone’s responsibility to view the company in a strategic manner and give input if you think you’re moving off course or targeting the wrong people. This direction needs to be caught and remedied in time so you can get on the right track without wasting time or money.

4. Be ready to be your own boss. Especially if your company is really small, you’ll find that many times, there just aren’t enough resources to manage everyone. At times, you will need to set your own direction. This involves defining the important projects you will finish every quarter, attending the right events to get the word out, creating new projects and goals as time goes on, as well as evaluating your own work to determine what does and doesn’t work. This can be a great experience for you if you are organized, driven and confident in your work. It is a time where you can prove to yourself and your colleagues that you are capable of working independently when needed – and succeeding.

5. You’re going to have fun. With hard work and long hours comes some cool rewards. Whether it’s a monthly happy hour with the team, breaking out beers on a Friday afternoon, or traveling with the company to conferences, those are perks you may not get at a larger company. The friendships you’ll develop with your co-workers through working closely with them for so long can make work so much better and personable. At Backupify, we make a point to have about one happy hour a month and bring out some beverages of choice on Fridays to keep the team happy and rewarded for the week and month’s hard work.

6. Expect to take on many roles. Having a small team means there is still a ton to do but only a few people to do it. Your job title may be Customer Sales Specialist, which sounds very refined, but you may find yourself doing jobs including social media management, customer support, account management, and even office management if needed. This is a great opportunity to expend your skill set and/or volunteer for projects for which you’d love to contribute. I find myself involved in new projects every week but this keeps it exciting and helps diversify my skill sets.

There are at least another ten items I can think of to add to this list but the point of this post is that start-ups can be a lot of work but they also can be the most exciting companies you’ll work at and you’ll probably learn more than you would anywhere else.

I embrace the start-up life everyday. If you work at a startup, what are some of the best things you enjoy and worst things you’ve experienced? If you don’t work for one, do you think it’s for you?

While walking through the exhibiting hall during breaks, I saw many booths that advertised what they did using “empty” terms. After seeing some of these, they made me think of other brand slogans, product descriptions and advertisements I’ve seen in the past.

For the sake of everyone, make your USP better understood by avoiding these terms:

1. Integrated solutions

2. Innovative capabilities

3. A leading provider of…

4. Seamless integration

5. Next generation

6. Integrated approach

7. World-class

8. Dynamic environment

9. Entrepreneurial

10. High-performance

This is not to serve as a degrading post towards companies that do use these terms, just an observation that they are very over-used, over-hyped words that just don’t resonate with customers. Instead of using acceptable industry terms, why not describe yourselves using terms your customers use and understand?

Lets try to re-work the above 10 terms into customer-centric phrases:

1. … combined to give you…

2. New ways to…

3. Top

4. Simple process

5. New

6. Combined to…

7. High quality/performance

8. Exciting place

9. Thought-leader, forward thinking

10. Providing the best…

By simply turning around the seemingly complex phrases you’re using into digestible, customer-centric terms can do wonders to your business. Instead of glazed eyes rolling over your company slogan, why not have it instantly click and resonate in their minds?

What terms have you heard over and over that still don’t explain to you what a company does? How would you rework the 10 phrases? Add them below as an addendum.

This process took much longer than I expected, but I finally found the tool that fits exactly what I was looking for.

To me, a great social media metrics tool needs to have the following criteria:

a. A dashboard outlining the most important statistics (preferably, this should be customizable)

b. Analysis of several social media channels (i.e. Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc.)

c. Ability to write into Google Analytics

d. Web monitoring so I know what is being said about the brand all over the web

e. Ease of navigation. I don’t want to spend an hour trying to generate one report or finding one set of information.

To note, I wasn’t looking at the big guys like Radian6 and Awareness Inc., and I also knew that search.twitter.com and Google Alerts simply were not enough for me. I decided to set my sights on the little guys doing big things (I tend to support them as the company I work for – Backupify – is such).

Here are the pro’s and con’s of the services I tested out:

HootSuite Pro

hootsuite.com/pro

I’ve been using HootSuite for over a year now and find it great to schedule and manage Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn status updates. However, I was not able to gain any metrics from my messaging unless I upgraded to a Pro account. A few months ago I received an email from HootSuite offering a week-long free trial of Pro. I tried it out but was not too impressed with what it gave me.

Pros:

• Great for managing mentions
• Easy way to schedule tweets
• One platform to go to for message sharing which is a huge time-saver

Cons:

• I found it hard to manage re-tweets
• Analytics were definitley sub-par
• I wasn’t able to measure much more than overall activity. I could not drill down into any other types of data (i.e. keywords, mentions per day, etc.)

ViralHeat

I was introduced to this tool over a LinkedIn discussion. While it did have its benefits, overall I found it to be very buggy.

Pros:

• I liked the email alerts it gave me
• Good custom reports
• Showed me trends from week to week of activity on social media
• Easy distinction between Twitter and Facebook performance

Cons:

• Mentions were not accurate whatsoever. If I was trying to manage the term “Backupify” on the social web, it would show me a ‘relevant’ tweet related to something like “doctors in Botswana”…
• Interface was subpar – it took me awhile to figure it out
• Overall it provided me inaccurate information which made me not trust it. Most of the information it gathered for me made me scratch my head wondering how they even pulled in that data and found it relevant to my search criteria.
• My tipping point was when I deemed this tool as insufficient for what I was looking for and it became IMPOSSIBLE for me to unsubscribe. There was no unsubscribe button. I had to search around to even find a support email and when I emailed them to politely unsubscribe me, I received no response whatsoever. To this day I am still registered even though I don’t use it.

Actionly

actionly.com

While Actionly did have some good benefits, I don’t think they’re quite there yet in terms of providing what I was looking for.

Pros:

• Allowed me to compare social web buzz of Backupify in relation to competitors and other terms which was great
• Showed trends of increased/decreased followers, mentions, etc.

Cons:

• The generated reports were not actionable whatsoever, even if I tried to tweak them manually
• They did not have Google Analytics integration at the time (I believe they will be soon)
• No good dashboard view

Argyle Social

argylesocial.com

I still use Argyle Social today (and have been for about four months) but not to the capacity that I need. This along with my chosen metrics tool provide me what I need.

Pros:

• Great social sharing capabilities right from a web browser
• Shows general trend of clicks via social media on the dashboard
• The founders and developers keep me in the loop with all future developments and even made a point to contact me directly to gain my feedback on their app which I really appreciated
• Allows me to breakdown clicks based on different social campaigns I have set up
• Shows share of clicks by social medium

Cons:

• I wish the dashboard showed me stats such as: most clicked posts, top keywords, top influencers, etc. Instead, I have to dig in manually to find out what is working and what is not
• They do not yet have integration with Google Analytics

And the winner is…

Raven Tools!

Why I Chose Raven Tools:

raven-seo-tools.com

Raven Tools provides me with everything and more I was looking for:

• Comprehensive, actionable dashboard
• Keyword analysis
• Competitive monitoring
• Integration with Google Analytics
• Inbound link manager
• Analysis of Twitter, Facebook and YouTube
• Customizable reports
• Oh, and did I mention that they offer a 30 day free trial? I have yet to pay this service for all this awesome stuff! I never thought I’d say this, but I’m actually looking forward to being able to pay them for all they do for me!

Cons:

NONE! I honestly have not found one drawback of Raven.

As you can see, it’s been a long road to find the right tool, but sometimes when you know what you want and need, it takes a little longer to get there. I want to give a big thanks to all the people on LinkedIn that helped me learn about these tools and for those that ultimately recommended Raven to me.

Currently, I’m using a combination of Raven Tools, Argyle Social and Google Analytics (although Raven integrates with this, I can dig into more data on Analytics itself) to measure social activity, and therefore how I’m performing at my job. If I want to perform well, my metrics tool must as well.

Have you tried out any of these tools? Do you use Raven Tools? Are there different requirements you have for a social media metrics tool? Let me know in the comments section below.

Note: I am not affiliated with any of these tools in any way nor was I paid to promote or demote any of them. This is solely my opinion based on extensive trials and testing.

Follow these ten tips to learn how to become a better online marketer in 2011:

1. Read. Determine which bloggers and experts in your industry you’d like to learn from. Chances are, they have a blog. Pick 2-5 expert bloggers and subscribe to them. Take time out of your day, even if it’s a half hour, to read what they have to say. By reading their posts, you’ll learn new perspectives and techniques. I take time to read Dharmesh Shah’s blog, Darren Rowe’s ProBlogger blog, and Chris Brogan’s blog. From all the other blogs I subscribe to, these provide the most value.

2. Use analytics to your advantage. With so many free analytics tools available today, from Google Analytics to Facebook Insights and free trials to many other tools, use them to your advantage. The more metrics-driven you are as a marketer, the greater the decisions you make will be. Metrics don’t lie, so if you are seeing a trend, act on it. If you need to make a case in your favor, use metrics to prove your point.

3. Use your valuable contacts. Each of your contacts, whether in your company or industry, has something to offer. Schedule a half hour coffee meetup, lunch meeting, or plan to attend an event where your contacts will be to talk with them. Find out what marketing projects they’re working on, what has led them to success and failure, and what some of their own marketing theories are. This will help you learn a wide array of marketing views which will allow you to create a customized marketing approach to your company using a variety of their ideas.

4. Keep an open mind. Never discount an idea until you can prove it won’t be beneficial. Many people become close-minded and stop innovating when they find a comfort zone in a company. Don’t fall victim to this. Instead, always keep an open mind. Whether you’re reading a blog post, attending a webinar, speaking with someone at an event or brainstorming yourself, consider every idea as valid. By not closing out an idea ‘just because’ will not help you grow as a marketer. Instead, explore new ways to market your business.

5. Take some time to evaluate your marketing tactics. Think back on what marketing campaigns and activities you’ve done in the past month. What worked? What didn’t work? What would you like to see done in the next month? With this, build upon your successes, learn from the failures and create new ways to improve your efforts.

6. Maintain your own personal brand. I’m guilty of ignoring some of my personal brand by using the excuse of being too busy at work to take time to write for this blog. I’ve realized that it’s always important to maintain your personal brand even though you’re busy building up the brand of your company. Whether it’s writing a weekly blog post, following up with people on Twitter, building out your connections on LinkedIn or making an appearance at a monthly event, do it. Your personal brand is something that can never be taken away from you and can make you more valuable at your job.

7. Pay attention to industry leading companies. Determine which companies are leading the industry and practicing cutting edge marketing and technological methods. Is there a company that’s doing an outstanding community management job? Follow them on social media and see what tactics they use and who they engage with. Do you admire a company for always staying innovative, using the latest technologies? Follow their blog, attend the events they do and do a weekly news scan to keep on top of what they are doing. This will give you a good sense of their work ethic and ways of finding ideas.

8. Never forget original marketing theories. Theories like “the customer is always right’, “test, test, test”, and the like are always important. Just because there are new theories and technologies to use doesn’t mean old ways don’t work anymore. Instead, the new ways, for the most part, build upon the old ideas. You also need to consider your target market. While there are iPads, Twitter and text messaging mediums, your target audience may prefer the traditional radio advertising method to learn about companies, products and services. While it’s great to know about a new technology and theory, take into consideration how your target marketing would respond. If you think they’re in their comfort zone with the traditional ways you contact them, stay that way. Eventually they will migrate to the new ways, and you can either nudge them that way or go there with them.

9. Always be a step ahead of the competition. Set up alerts, subscribe to their blogs, follow them on social media and go to the events they go to. It may even help to create a spreadsheet to track what major announcements they are making and any sneak peak insights you may have about what they are going to do. That way, you can either pre-empt what a competitor is going to do, follow along with it, or simply be aware of it. Never get caught blindsided by your competition or a surprise new competitor.

10. Keep it real. No matter the technology, medium, or method, always be real with your customers. This aligns well with point #8 as it means to never forget the voice of your company and keep it the same throughout all types of communications. If you’re company is known as a bubbly, conversational company on TV ads, magazine ads and through in-person meetings, keep that same tone and attitude while interacting with customers on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. It’s also important to always be honest and upfront with a customer. The last thing I want a company telling me is that they will be more than happy to give me a month free trial because I was unhappy and then boost up my fee every consecutive month. That won’t make me happy. If I was used to them being very accommodating, I’d be even more taken aback by this approach. Just keep it real.

I could go on and on with ways to become a better marketer, as I’m learning them every day, but I know your time is valuable and I’m sure you have some ideas of your own to share. Please leave your resolution to become a better marketer this year in the comments section!

10.

Well, I’ve been very busy blogging on other sites (and I believe a few of you have found me there) for both work and as a contributing writer. As you may know, I now work at Backupify as a Marketing Analyst. Part of my job here is to blog several times a week. This involves a lot of research and planning on my part to get this done, as well as promotions after each post is published. In addition, every Thursday, I publish a post on BostInnovation in the New Marketing column. These posts require interviews with executives (many of which are hard to get in a timely manner).

So, this equates to me writing an average of 4-5 blog posts a week. Whewf! It started to become almost too routine to produce those posts every week and I (unfortunately) ended up neglecting this blog.

That is going to change. This blog is one of the main reasons why I landed the job at Backupify (story) and BostInnovation (story) in the first place. It’s not fair for me to abandon the platform and readers which helped me get to where I am today.

The Plan:

From now on, you can expect at least one blog post a week on here again. Also, since I write for my readers, I’d love nothing more than to hear you ideas about topics you’d like to read about on here. If you don’t know, I typically write on new marketing techniques, new apps and technologies, social media, and local entrepreneurs. If your ideas fit into those categories, I’d love to write about them!