I do a great deal of article writing, blogging and social media
posting of content for myself and for clients. To distribute an article
or post through the maze of social media networks and article publishing
services can take a great deal of time. Therefore, it’s important to
utilize the right social media tools that will get the job done in the
best manner.
In addition to the publication of posts and blogs, to track what the
results are from your efforts is important, especially if you’re
reporting back to a client.
After trying out quite a few, I’ve compiled my favorite social media
tools and applications, listed below, that help make my social media
life simpler and more effective.
When deciding what tools would work best for your needs, the things to consider are:
* Simplicity of use
* Ability to Schedule
* Format of end distribution (what will the link/post look like when published?)
* Good API (application programming interface, which allows communication between different Web applications)
* Cost (free is great, but depending on what your or your company’s
needs are, it may well be worth it to pay to upgrade services)
Hootsuite
It’s one of the best social media managing tools around to monitor
your social sites, including RSS feeds, from one page. Hootsuite offers
plenty of tutorials and help to get started. If you have a small
business, and only a few social pages, then the free version will work
well. You get up to five social profiles, two feeds and you can schedule
your posts. Hootsuite integrates with Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and
more. Connect YouTube and upload videos directly from Hootsuite, as well
as respond to comments. You can post photos, links and messages
directly to your streams. If you upgrade to Pro at $9.99 per month, you
can have unlimited social profiles, do bulk scheduling of posts, and
assign more than one user to manage your accounts. With the Pro version
you also get several free analytic reports, which can get expensive if
you’re paying per report with the free version.
Raven
Raven tools offers all that Hootsuite does. You can stream Facebook,
Twitter and YouTube from one page, but the streams are mixed together,
making it difficult to sort, read and respond. You can post directly to
one or all streams, and schedule them. One downside about the posting
from Raven is you cannot post original or large-sized photos, only
thumbnails from links.
The best part about Raven is its research and analytical tools. Link
your blog, and use its manager to write custom posts focusing on
specific keywords that you choose. The manager will analyze your content
keywords for density, frequency and relevance, as well as the
readability for average age and grade level. In addition, with it SEO
tools, utilizing data from SEMRush, SEOmoz and Majestic SEO, you can do
deep research on detailed keywords, competitors, links and social
intelligence from any domain.
Another plus to Raven is that it provides an awesome custom reporting
platform, with which you can create custom, white labeled reports
pulling statistics from Facebook Insights, Twitter, Google Analytics,
saved keyword searches, SERPs, and a great deal more.
With the Pro plan at $99, you can have up to four users, unlimited
Facebook and Twitter accounts, 20 social monitor searches, 1,000 keyword
rankings, and a whole lot of link management. If creating reports and
SEO research is important, Raven is the best bet. You can try it out
free for 90 days. There is no free version.
ifttt
If This Then That (hence its acronym, ifttt) is one of the handiest
free social managing tools that enables you to link multiple social
media sources and blast your content across the Web all from one post.
The concept is based on “recipes” that users create to link their
accounts. If you post to your blog, then a post goes out to your
Facebook Fan page. You can then set up concurrent recipes–Facebook to
Twitter, Facebook to Blogger etc. Mix and match your recipes from nearly
50 social channels to your needs. And it’s completely free! ifttt
Ezine Articles WordPress Plug-In
If you’re utilizing Ezine already, this plugin will make your blog
publishing life much easier. After you install, simply write your blog,
and, following Ezine’s publishing rules, press submit and the article
automatically goes to your Ezine account for review and approval.
