I just found a great new tool for keeping tabs on the brands using social media, it’s called Tracking Twitter and you can check it out at http://trackingtwitter.com/brands. Why would you want to though?

1. Look for your contemporaries

I get asked nearly every day “why would I want to use twitter?” which is kind of silly, because no one person can tell someone they’ve just met what social media tool will appropriately connect them to their consumer. I don’t know you – I don’t know what you sell and I don’t know how you sell it. I don’t know the things that will kill you online: like being lazy, or having terrible customer service (when your csr hangs up on them you can bet they’ll twitter you about it), or having a terrible product. These are all things my clients and I talk about, and find the best course of action. Of course you probably want to see what your competition, kindred companies, and clients are doing – so a tool like Tracking Twitter makes that very doable. I am sure I’ll be using it to watch brands grow in their strategy, and see what their results are once these profiles have been active long enough to gain measureable results.

2. Learn what works

@Jetblue (the twitter handle for Jet Blue Airlines) just rocks. The airline presence is fantastic and in addition to giving you a headsup on specials, they give you great travel tips that will make your trip easier (security tips) and less boring (answers to questions about what movies are playing). If you do any kind of travel service then you should learn from them. Really.

3. Get comfortable with your persona

The 2nd most common question I get about using twitter (and any social media really) is “what should i say?” my answer is typically “what should you say?”. It comes back to the who are you/what do you do conversation I mentioned earlier. For tech companies and b2b firms there is often a tendency to be authoritative, to provide information (which typically means to be as boring as you can possibly imagine). Burger King has an icon – the king – and that’s who is doing their twitter-ness (check out @burgerking). He’s hilarious, and totally in sync with their current branding. On the tech side check out @delloutlet and any of the other dell twitter-feeds – it’s estimated that dell’s done over 1 million in business via their twitter handles in 2008… take that those of you who tell me twitter is a total waste of time!

The biggest and most important thing I can tell you is to think – think about what your goal is on social media, what you want to accomplish, and who should be working toward this goal – then you will have the direction to make “what should i say” a simple question with an easy answer. ’cause that’s what it should be.

@rebekah_king

Reading today on mashable I came across this awesome example of social media in use for the everyday needs, and just had to share it with you guys.

Parents love their kids, but everyone deserves a break once in awhile. If you don’t have family or friends nearby who would be willing to watch your children while you and your partner grab some together time, or even if you’re a single parent who just needs a break, having access to a trustworthy babysitter is a sanity saver.

It can be tough to find the right person to care for your kids if you’re new to your neighborhood or if you’re a new parent. If you’re in need of a caregiver-for-hire for a few hours, then here are some ideas on how to use the Web to find someone near you.

One thing worth noting is that there are a number of websites out there that can help you find a sitter for the kids. You can divide them up into two groups: sites that you can use for free; and sites that charge some kind of fee (normally a subscription fee) to give you access to their database of child care providers.

You can read the rest here: http://mashable.com/2008/10/17/how-to-find-a-babysitter-online/