Social management tools are software programs designed to help people operate multiple social media accounts from within a single, unified view or application. Often these apps are called social media management tools, or more simply social dashboards.
HootSuite and TweetDeck are the top two social management tools in use these days, but plenty of alternatives exist. Newer apps are gaining in popularity, too, such as the high-powered SocialBro.
HootSuite arguably is the single best, broadest social dashbaord available today, especially since its chief rival TweetDeck has slipped after being acquired by Twitter in 2011.
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8 Best Apps That Make Social Media Management Easier[/caption]
Why Use Social Management Tools?
Social media management software can help automate your use of social media, which in turn will distribute your content more widely in the long run and help you reach a broader audience. For that reason, social dashboards are seen as helping with SMO, which means social media optimization.
Below is a look at eight of the best social management tools. All are apps used widely today to monitor and post to multiple accounts on multiple social networks.
Some of the tools are free, others cost money, and still others offer a freemium blend that includes a free option with premium upgrades. Regardless of which you choose, these tools can enhance your social media management.
Top Social Dashboards
HootSuite is a web-based dashboard for managing most leading social networks. This one's great for a group of people jointly administering one or more social media accounts. It's optimized for team management of social networks. Integrated with Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ Pages and more. Offers free and premium versions. The free one lets you manage up to 5 social profiles. A $10 a month premium account offers unlimited profile management.
TweetDeck is focused mostly on management of the Twitter network and Facebook. This powerful, free app historically also allowed management of Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn, but its 2011 acquisition by Twitter raises questions about whether it will be developed with a closer Twitter focus in the future. Support for some social networks such as LinkedIn was dropped in recent makeovers of the Web-based version.
An easy-to-use social media manager, Seesmic runs on all the major operating systems and mobile devices. It integrates with Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Tumblr. While Seesmic has a free version, that only allows 10 posts per day. Premium accounts start at $5 a month, which offers 50 daily posts to up to 10 different social media accounts. Works from within a web browser, or a downloadable desktop app, or most major smart phones. Seesmic also bought a similar app called Ping.fm and offers it as a service "Seesmic Ping," which integrates with a wide variety of social media platforms.
SocialBro is a high-powered, free app for managing Twitter and other networks, It performs strong analysis of your networks, too. SocialBro is available as a downloadable desktop app. Its built-in analytics scour data from your Twitter stream to see who's reading yours and to advise you on when to tweet, who's not following you back, what your followers are talking most about and other information. SocialBro works with Facebook and Google+, too.
SocialOomph is a collection of tools for managing social media. In addition to monitoring and posting to Twitter, it offers a URL shorter and will create a custom RSS feed for you to zap messages directly to subscribers. The premium version integrates with Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Plurk, and allows teams to do collaborative updating. The free version basically is aimed at Twitter users. Premium plan costs $18 every two weeks, or a little more than $36 a month.
Crowdbooster is a newer free tool to help businesses managing their Facebook pages and Twitter accounts. It does some cross-comparison analytics of those two networks, too, and will make recommendations on the timing for your posts as well as who you should engage with more often. The free version lets you monitor one Facebook page and one Twitter account. A premium option costing $39 per month offers monitoring for up to 10 accounts.
A newer, premium business app that's been gaining in popularity, SproutSocial is focused on helping companies monitor social media for content posted about them. It provides advanced features and allows teams to post to multiple social networks. It integrate with a wider variety of social media than most dashboards, including Yelp, Foursquare and more . Offers a 30-day free trial to start, pricing starts at $9 a month after that.
Originally an instant messaging app, Digsby has expanded to offer email and social networking management (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and MySpace) along with chat in one application. Free downloadable software runs on the desktop.
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