Social Quickstarter by Constant Contact

Social media marketing is important for your business. But maybe you aren't sure what works best. Tons of options; where do you focus? Good news! The folks at Constant Contact have created a simple collection of guides to get you building online social connections fast, in a way that’s super easy: Social Media Quickstarter.

iMarc and Constant Contact created this easy-to-use site, designed for small business leaders with plenty of other things to do. Quickstarter is clear, concise, easy to understand and provides step-by-step instructions on how to use social media.

Quickstarter tracks your progress so you don't have to, and user-friendly tools like bookmarking and PDF lesson downloads add value. Existing Constant Contact customers can easily log in with their Constant Contact account; new users can login with Facebook, or create a stand-alone account.

Strategy

This usability didn't come easy. iMarc and Constant Contact worked around the clock to make Quickstarter powerful yet deceptively easy to use. The iMarc team lead on-site workshops, practiced iterative prototyping, and used rapid develop-and-test cycles to create a great result, fast.

Rich Content Management

Quickstarter is designed for its users, but it also has a comprehensive, easy to use content management system. It enables Constant Contact to manage chapters; create, review and approve drafts; add video and images; manage page templates; and track changes with a detailed audit trail. Rich text editors make it easy for non-technical content authors to manage the site, but there's also a special HTML editor mode for techies.

And yes, it's mobile-compatible. Quickstarter looks and works great on Android, iPhone, Blackberry and iPad.

Awards

The Social QuickStarter has been nominated for the 2011 MITX Interactive Awards in the eLearning category.

Accolades

Social Media Quickstarter has been earning praise:

• SMBs Get Social Marketing Crash Course – Kevin Casey, Information Week – “[It is] a new site for small companies hoping to engage with that growing audience, but are either unsure of where to begin or how to take a planned, results-oriented approach, rather than simply firing blindly and hoping social efforts hit their intended targets. […] the information does go into a fair amount of depth—without getting too complex or content-heavy—on various topics that keep small businesses up at night…”
• Getting Started with Social Media – David Strom, readwriteweb.com – “I was surprised at the richness of the various offerings: there are sections devoted to YouTube, to setting up a Wordpress blog, to understanding Foursquare and QR codes as well as the aforementioned other services. I actually learned a few new things, even though I have been using these tools for several years and teach classes on them as well.”