Social networking isn’t easy – with so many pages and profiles to manage on a regular basis, things can get confusing and time-consuming quickly. Fortunately, there are a variety of tools and services available to help make things a little easier for you. Here are five of the best tools that will allow you to access and manage all of your social networks from one place.
HootSuite is one of the most popular and useful social media management services. You can manage just about any social network you can think of with HootSuite’s dashboard, including your WordPress accounts. With this service, you can perform all the necessary functions to keep your social networks updated and running smoothly. Most importantly, HootSuite gives you access to all of your analytic data in one place, and it helps interpret it for you with valuable custom reports. There is a free basic account, but businesses are better off with the $9.99/month pro account.
Sprout Social is another service that’s especially helpful for your business. You can update, manage, and track all your social network profiles and pages in the easy-to-use dashboard. Sprout Social will also keep an eye on your business and brand for you, letting you know when you’ve been mentioned, or checking out what your competitors are doing. It also monitors and analyzes your data and lets you know the effectiveness and reach of your marketing efforts. The pro plan costs $9/month and includes up to ten profiles. More expensive plans ($39 and up) include more profiles and additional features.
Tweetdeck is another more popular tool for active social media users and businesses, and it’s free. While it doesn’t offer as complex or in-depth features as some of the other paid services, it’s very helpful for tracking and updating your social networks. Beyond Twitter, you can manage Facebook, LinkedIn, Foursquare, Flickr, and more, and new features are being worked on regularly.
NutshellMail is a great tool for businesses who want their social networks to come to them. Instead of using a dashboard interface, NutshellMail will send you a single email report of all the activity and data you need to know about from your Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Yelp, Foursquare, and CitySearch pages. It includes information like comments, mentions, analytic data, requests, messages, recommendations, reviews, and more. You can even respond or react to the activity directly from the email. Another great thing about NutshellMail: it’s free.
SocialOomph has a wide variety of features and tools that will help automate and track your Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn pages. Features are very customizable, so you can get SocialOomph working for you in the ways you need it the most. Besides scheduling updates, you can integrate blogs (WordPress, Tumblr, and more), learn information about friends and followers, segment them into lists, make custom spam controls, and more. Many Twitter features are available with a free account, but a professional package with total access costs just under $36/month.
