Social Media Time-saving Tools

As promised in my last post, Will Social Media Really Help My Business, here are some tools you can use to prevent Twitter and other Social Media platforms from wasting too much of your time. Keep in mind that things are changing all the time, and new and improved software comes along very frequently. What follows is what has been shown to be effective as of today. Next month, or even next week, could bring along new tools that make it even easier.

Social Media Dashboards

There are a number of very good, and free, tools that allow you to monitor and control the flow of information from different sources. Mainly from Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn; which are the Social Media platforms that are most popular and used for business purposes.

One thing to keep in mind with Twitter especially, is to use the list creation feature. All of these tools that follow work best if you create lists and segment the people you are following. That reduces the flow of information from a fire hose down to a garden hose, where you can exercise more control.

HootSuite

HootSuite is web-based and doesn’t require you to download software. It allows you to keep track of Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, WordPress, MySpace, and a few other accounts. It also includes a link shortener for attaching stories and files to your communications. Most importantly, it gives you control over who you listen and respond to.

TweetDeck and Seesmic

Both TweetDeck and Seesmic are very similar to HootSuite, but they have to be downloaded to your computer and some people don’t like that aspect. All of these dashboards are very good and it usually comes down to personal preference.

NutShellMail

This one isn’t really a dashboard, but it provides a similar function in that it allows you to control the flow of information. NutShellMail was recently purchased by Constant Contact, the email marketing provider, and is a service that will feed you as little or as much from Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn via email. You schedule how often you get the email updates and how many posts you get with each update. Another nice feature is they alert you about who is a new follower and who has unfolllowed you. You can unfollow the scoundrel who did it to you and thank those who chose to follow you – unless they are spammers.

Social Media Lists

So OK, you are just getting started with this Social Media thingy and you barely have enough people to make one very short list. What do you do? I’m glad you asked. There are places where you can find lists that others have put together on virtually any topic. These are excellent starting places for the newbie as well as a great resource for the more experienced. This is primarily a feature for Twitter users. Although, you can segment your friends on Facebook; and I would recommend doing that as well.

Listorious

Listorious was one of the first to pop up right after Twitter instituted the list feature. It is a very extensive library of lists on all topics, and a good starting place. You can search for lists by topic, view the most popular lists, and add your own lists…once you have created some.

Tlists

Tlists is very similar to Listorious, but you can also apply to be added to lists. The list creator is contacted and can approve adding you to their list if it looks like a good fit.

PubliTweet

PubliTweet is a great way to make your lists easier to share and more usable. You are provided an embed code that presents your lists in a stream which includes the text of the tweet, the headline, a thumbnail and a blurb of the article being shared. You can take the code and plant the list anywhere on your website. Not only does PubliTweet make your Twitter Lists more useful visually, the tweets are also more shareable through convenient Twitter, Facebook and e-mail share buttons.

That should be enough to get you started. There are many, many other very fine tools; way more than could possibly be listed here. But, remember, the point is to save you time. Feel free to add some of your favorites and any suggestions you have for using them in the comments below. I’ll try and update this periodically and give credit to those of you making good contributions.