Prior to last week, when I thought of StumbleUpon I thought of pictures of cute kittens or videos of puppies doing cute things. My friends at college all use StumbleUpon as a way to unwind from studying to take a break by looking at adorable pets, funny pictures, etc. However, that’s not what StumbleUpon is all about.

While looking through a how to guide on social media when we “stumbled upon” StumbleUpon, pun intended. At first, we thought there would be no way that it would work for a business—after all, we don’t have any cute pets in the office doing funny things as they play. After taking their search service for a spin and looking for key words like “Regulatory Writing” or “Technical Documentation” we found a myriad of sites from people who do exactly what TRA360 does. Even better, we found people searching for companies like us. Throughout this past week, we spent more of our time on StumbleUpon than any other online location, looking at potential business and how competitors use the internet. 

Think for a minute about how much time you spend weeding through Google search results to see if maybe the site you want is there. With the amount of times you click a link, click the back arrow, retype in your search field, you could have gone through at least three times as many sites on StumbleUpon. One click and you’re on a company’s home page, and if you don’t like it, with one click you’re at the next company. Here at TRA360, we think StumbleUpon is efficient way to flip through sites on the topics you want to look for. We are excited to try it out on a corporate level and see where it takes us!

Do you stumble? What are your thoughts on how StumbleUpon is useful? Tweet at us at @TRA360 and let us know how you feel about StumbleUpon. Keep Calm and Stumble On.

What did we do before the good ole’ Facebook newsfeed? What would we know about trending if it weren’t for Twitter? Or what our professional contacts are blogging about through LinkedIn? For better or for worse, society today has turned into a digital sphere; a never-ending black hole of information, pictures, videos, and social content. Yes, we may be nobodies without our beloved social media, but what about the importance of sharing content? As mentioned in our previous post earlier in the week, content means little to nothing without sharing it. You can generate award-winning articles, compelling blog posts, and interesting tweets, but with no one to see it, we ask, “what’s the point?”

The point, my friends, is the power of the share button, most commonly seen on Facebook and LinkedIn. See an interesting article your co-workers might like? Share it. Read about a devastating tragedy that just happened only minutes ago? It’s probably already been shared and found itself first on your newsfeed. The power of sharing content is the key to viral success and your own digital success. Sharing content does not have to be in the form of a button, either. Spreading your content through various social platforms, online forums, discussion boards and groups online relevant to your industry also counts. Show people what you are capable of accomplishing. Take pride in your work, become passionate about something, and others will too.

Don’t hoard your content to yourself! Go ahead and share the wealth! (We won’t mind if you share this blog post, either!)

Do you like yours glazed or powdered? Jimmies or cream filling? Is your mouth watering now? Introducing the sweetest global community for marketing professionals, DigitalDoughnut. DD, not to be confused with Dunkin’ Donuts, allows users to “build a definitive resource on all things digital” which, in turn, allows marketing professionals to help expand their content.

Although DigitalDoughnut is relatively new, marketers from major brands including Sony and Nestle are using the company’s services. Got content worth sharing? Send it over to DD to have more eyeballs view what you have to say about digital marketing! Unsure of how to register? Save time and connect through your LinkedIn account!

Here at TRA360, creating content is only a small part of what we do. Sharing and spreading your content through various social platforms ultimately brings your content to other people, without having them work to find it. DigitalDoughnut makes this process simple and painless.

Are you a doughnut lover? Us too! (Both the digital and confectionary kind!) You may even remember our blog post last winter about how eating a doughnut is like social media. Comment below and let us know your thoughts!

If social media found itself in a Lewis Carroll novel, the label on the bottle would read “Use Me!” Over the last few days, I’ve looked at how companies use their media outlets. I found that unless the company was a big brand the websites were awful. I stumbled across one company in my research that had an account with LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter and Facebook, but they might as well have not had any of them. They have a LinkedIn with listed employee titles, but no one has a name, a picture, or even a link.

As a newbie to LinkedIn, less than a month into being a user, but I was under the impression that the point was to be able to locate people. Searching this company and essentially coming up with a blank employee list blew my mind. This company made their YouTube account six years ago, but they haven’t updated their content in three years. Again, I don’t understand the point in having an account if there is no content being published. I found their Twitter with an amazing one thousand tweets. I was impressed for a minute, since the other two sites had been flops, but then the big goose egg in front of their followers brought my feet back to the ground. They tweeted over a thousand times prior to May 17, 2011, their last tweet, but no one took their bait—poor Twitter account. With a little hope left I reached at their Facebook page, 73 likes and no content beyond the linked Wikipedia article.

After returning to our social media pages, it was refreshing to view a steady stream of content. With an incredible tool like social media a mouse click away, I was amazed that companies go through the process of making a site, and then drop the bomb when it comes to maintaining the content. TRA360 is trying to use social media to the best of our ability. We update our blog twice a week, and we have three Twitter accounts! Check out our LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and the rest of our Blog.

Let us know how we’re doing with our social media, and your thoughts on corporate social media usage in general!