Social Media Management Tools.

Social media has become a daunting task for many marketing communication professionals. Social media tools are very efficient, cost-effective tactics to have in your marketing communication mix. But, as more tools are introduced for our use, how do we manage the flow of information and monitor the communities?

Time is the bulk of the expense when engaging in social media. Once you have decided to engage in social media, you now have to manage the space, customize your spaces, creating the message and graphics, interact with outside influences, constantly monitor and analyze, and consistently stay engaged. For many, this is a full-time job!

There are some tools that could help you manage all of your social media profiles in one place. Let's explore some of these tools.

TwAitter
No, the name is not spelled wrong. TwAitter is a twitter management tool that allows you to manage multiple Twitter accounts. Some of you may have several company accounts and it gets difficult switching between all of the accounts to post a message, see who ReTweeted you, or who sent you a direct message. If Twitter is what you want to monitor, then you can try this tool and see how you like it.

 

 

CoTweet
CoTweet is another Twitter-only management tool, but is a bit more sophisticated than TwAitter. CoTweet will allow you to manage multiple accounts, but it can also alert you via e-mail when there are items waiting for your response. Some of you may like to get notified when there is something for you to respond to instead of having to continually check your accounts. CoTweet also has a phone app for those of you that need to be constantly connected.

 

Seesmic
Seesmic takes things one step further and allows you to manage multiple Twitter and Facebook accounts. This is great for those of you that are only using the two social media tools. This tool will allow you to publish posts and respond to comments on any of the profiles you have loaded into the Seesmic software. A nice added bonus is that you can allow for multiple users and all of you can see the same dashboard. This tool also has a phone app for constant connection.

 

TweetDeck
TweetDeck is a web-based and desktop tool primarily for Twitter, but also works with Facebook, MySpace, and LinkedIn. It is a powerful tool that allows you to do more than just manage your own profiles and pages. It will also allow you to monitor the Twitter-sphere. This tool will also allow you to post to any of your networks with added links, photos, and videos.

 

HootSuite
HootSuite is our tool of choice and the most powerful. This tool will work with Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Ping.fm, WordPress, FourSquare, and RSS Feeds. That is a lot of social media platforms! This tool will allow you to schedule posts with added links, photos, and videos and even alerts you when there is something to respond to. HootSuite also allows for multiple users to a single account so that you can share the management of your social media spaces with others at your company and will also work on your computer or phone.

 

What tools do you use to help manage your social media presence? Visit The Idea Drawer and tell us your thoughts and comments on these tools.