Get Tooled Up!

by Linda Coles, Speaker and trainer on building and maintaining relationships online.

There are so many different social media sites to choose from and they each seem to do something different.  I thought I would put a list together of a whole bunch of different resources that you can use in your own social media world. They range from some great tools you can add in to your website, or simply other websites of value that you can make use of in your efforts to promote your business.

Most of these are free with some offering an upgrade for a monthly fee but see how you go with the free version first.

I have not used all of them myself, and there are many sites and applications to include, but these are probably the most common and popular ones at the moment.

You are probably aware of the main ones such as:

• Linkedin.com – A business to business only networking site worldwide
• Twitter.com – a micro blogging site to network with and listen in on
• Facebook.com – build a business and personal presence for greater exposure

But now let’s add in some Twitter tools for you the check out:

• Search.twitter.com – for helping you search twitter for what you want
• Twellow.com – Yellow pages for twitter
• Listorious.com – another twitter directory
• Tweetdeck.com – enables you to view your twitter dashboard and create columns easily to keep tabs on specific tweets
• Hootsuite.com – very similar to Tweetdeck
• Twittergrader.com – how influential are you on twitter?
• Tweepi.com – in Beta mode, but it helps you clean out your Twitter account
• Friendorfollow.com – who is following you that you are not following back and vice versa?
• Socialoomph.com – automate your account to follow others that follow you

Some Facebook tools:

• Networkedblogs.com – allows you to add your blog feed easily into your personal profile page or business page
• Vpype.com – the only live, interactive video broadcast application made just for Facebook
• Clobby.com – a group chat room for your Facebook page
• Facebook.com/placewidget – will let you add Foursquare and a location map to your page. You must first go to foursquare.com/businesses and claim your business.
• Wildfireapp.com  - allows you to run promotions and competitions from your Facebook page
• Tabsite.com – add a welcome page plus other tabs to your Facebook page

Some Video tools:

• Youtube.com – create your own channel and load your videos up
• Facebook.com and search for YouTube Channels application – allows you to feed video in to your Facebook page from your channel
• Vimeo.com – an alternative to YouTube
• Viddler.com – another alternative to YouTube
• Tubemogul.com – analytics for your video campaign

Some Linkedin applications:

• BOX.com – add your articles and PDF’s for others to download
• Slideshare.com – upload your PowerPoint and video presentations for others to see
• Docs.google.com – allow you to add video and PowerPoint

Some general tools:

• Wibiya.com – allows your reader to interact with their social sites without ever leaving your website. The “bar” sits neatly at the bottom of their screen.
• Addthis.com – add share buttons on to your web site so people can share and bookmark easily. Analytics available
• Bitly.com allows you to shorten and track links so you can see how many people have opened it.

On the move:

• Echofon – twitter for iphone and ipad
• Tweetdeck – twitter for iphone and ipad
• Foursquare – location based application for iphone, Android and Blackberry

There will be many more that I have not covered in this list and new sites are born every day, but these should give you plenty to work with.

Enjoy finding out if they are of benefit to your campaign.