Had a great time yesterday at the MagsU workshop on “Opening the Emedia Toolbox – Social Media Tools”. In the session, we reviewed numerous online tools on how to develop social media strategies for personal branding, new revenue streams, search engine optimization, new content initiatives and more for content providers/publishers. Here’s a taste. If you have some social media tools you’d like to add, post them in the comments. Special thanks to those who made recommendations.
The Basics
- LinkedIn – Start the practice of connecting with every business card you receive from contacts.
- Facebook – Consider a “Facebook Movement” – creating a topic or trend in Facebook outside of your personal or brand fan pages.
- Twitter – A staple for all of us. Here’s a must read basics of Twitter article. (Courtesy of @mike_stelzner).
- Google Profile – This is a Gold rush here. Secure and verify your personal name (i.e., Joe Pulizzi – Content Marketing Expert), before someone else gets it.
- Plaxo – organizes business contacts via the web (courtesy Judith Berkowitz).
Conversations and Listening
- LinkedIn Answers – Listen and answer.
- LinkedIn Groups – Find groups that make sense for your business.
- Yahoo! Answers – Listen and answer questions. Position yourself as the expert.
- Google Alerts – Get updates on who’s talking about you, your industry, your customers.
- Google Groups – Find the group relevant to your job and get active.
- Alltop – The digital magazine rack. Find the alltop for your industry – here’s content marketing.
- Google Reader – Organize RSS feeds from media sites and blogs (courtesy Andrew Davies, Simon Henault).
- Backtype – Follow and share comments on the web (courtesy Andrew Davies).
- Ning – Create your own social networking site (courtesy of Kyra Reed).
Twitter Management
- Tweetdeck – The ultimate Twitter management system.
- Hootsuite – Manage multiple twitter accounts from one dashboard.
- Twitterfeed – Set your RSS feeds to post automatically on Twitter.
- Twitter Search – Find anything on Twitter real-time. For tagging, use the # (hash) tag (#magsu event)
- Tweetmeme – Find what’s hot on Twitter.
- Twilert – Twitter search alerts via email.
- Yammer – It’s Twitter for inside the company walls (courtesy of Paul Dunay)
- Tagalus – Directory of Twitter hash tags (courtesy of Kyra Reed)
- MyTweeple – Manage tweets and followers. Especially good for managing multiple profiles (courtesy of Laurie Dunlop).
- Twitter Facebook App – Updates Facebook via Twitter (courtesy of Greg Padley).
- Selective Twitter Facebook App – Updates Facebook only when you use #fb (courtesy of Greg Padley).
- Seesmic – Managing with multiple accounts (courtesy Brad Hays).
Content Sharing
- delicious – Share your content through bookmarking. Great way to share with teams (courtesy Michelle O’Hagan).
- Slideshare – Upload your PowerPoint presentations for all to see.
- YouTube – The #1 video sharing site.
- Vimeo – an alternative to YouTube
- Tubemogul – Distribute your video to them and they’ll spread it to other video sharing sites for you.
- StumbleUpon – Randomly generates content for users by interest area.
- Digg.com – Content sharing site (great for tech and news).
- Marketwire/PRWeb – Distribute your content using social media online news releases.
- Google Custom Search – Set up your own niche search engine on your site or blog.
- Scribd – Share original writings with others (courtesy Andrew Davis).
- Squidoo – Set up your own targeted vertical content lens (courtesy Ambal Balakrishnan).
- Flickr – Share/upload/find photos (courtesy Wendy Boyce).
Blogging/CMS Tools
- WordPress – My recommendation for a blog CMS platform. Our custompublishers.com blog uses WordPress. I also recommend using this CMS for any small-business website (also courtesy Tina Bentley).
- TypePad – Set up and blog in just a few minutes. This blog uses TypePad (also courtesy of Britton Manasco).
- Joomla – Another option for blogging/CMS platform. Joomla users praise it.
- Drupal – Extremely versatile CMS platform (courtesy of Dan).
- Technorati – Blog directory. Find the blogs in your industry so that you know which ones to listen to.
- IceRocket – Search for blogs and blog posts by category. IceRocket’s Trend Tool will tell you how “hot” your keyword is.
- Google Blog Search – First rate blog search tool.
- Tumblr – Post anything quickly and easily.
- Zemanta – Great for adding additional content and links (courtesy of Drew McLellan).
- Posterous – Post to a blog by sending an email (courtesy of Richard Shatto).
- Tipjoy – Simple social media payments (courtesy of Greg Padley).
Measurement
- Google Analytics – I recommend using Google Analytics even if you have a paid analytics service (courtesy Cim Buser).
- Hubspot – I’m a customer. I use Hubspot to track the performance of my keywords and competitors’ keywords (courtesy Gretel Going).
- Website Grader – Hubspot product that will grade your website on a number of analytics and social media indicators. Great free tool!
- Alexa – Some high-level information on website traffic for any site.
- Compete.com – Excellent comparison tool for web analytics-type information.
- Quantcast – Provides good overview of analytics and site demographics (courtesy of Kyra Reed).
- Woopra – Analytics on steroids (courtesy of Kyra Reed).
Operations
- Google Apps – Runs all email and calendar functions through one place. We use it and love it. Basic option is free.
- Google Docs – Share Word documents, spreadsheets and presentations via secure invitations. Great for editing a document with multiple people involved.
- Microsoft Live Workspace – Like Google Docs but with Microsoft. 5GB free space (courtesy Kate H).
- Teamwork Project Manager – Easy-to-use project management tool.
- BaseCamp – An alternative to Teamwork Project Manager. Also very easy to use.
- aMember – Handles paid memberships for websites (courtesy Simon Payn).
- Junta42 Match – Finds expert providers for web content projects.
- Freemind – Open source mind-mapping software.
- Mindmanager – One of the best mapping software programs around (courtesy Kavita Jhunjhunwala).
- Mindmeister.com – It’s like Google Docs for mindmapping (courtesy George Kao).
- Box.net – Save everyday work files…access from anywhere (courtesy Michelle O’Hagan).
- Xobni.com – Outlook plugin that helps track down files easier (courtesy Craig Hodges).
- ExpertMagnet.com – Free service to find professional service providers.
Other Cool Online Tools
- Blinkplan – Creating flatplans for magazines (courtesy Kevin Lund).
- Jing- To create screenshots for clients when something needs to be explained (courtesy Tom Deeter).
- Gimp – Quickly edit images from Flickr (courtesy Tom Deeter)
- VisualCV – Online social media resume (courtesy Michelle Corsano).
What did we forget? Comment below…
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65 Comments
Joe – What a fab list!!!
I think Twitter should be part of the basics
- Mike
Mike…ask and you shall receive. So moved!
WOW! What a terrific, indepth list!
I’ll definitely pass this on to my c-level executive clients as great starting point for e-branding.
Thanks for taking the time to put together such an exhaustive list.
-Meg
Nice list!!
I have a few that you missed:
Twitter
Tagalus – a dictionary for hashtags
http://tagal.us
Analytics
Woopra – analytics on steroids
http://woopra.com
Conversations/Listening
NING
http://ning.com
Measurement
Quantcast
http://quantcast.com
SEO
SEOBOOK Tools
http://tools.seobook.com/keywords-tools/seobook
Kyra…excellent. I added the first four per your suggestion (see above).
Wonderful list, I’m going to compare it with the sites I already visit and dive into some new opportunities for Mindjet! I’m also excited to see MindManager here, I hope it is providing you with some nice value.
Thanks so much for putting this together!
Joe,
Thanks for taking the time to put this list together. I will be glad to promote your site on my CNN Houston local radio program. This information will be valuable to my listeners.
Thanks
Brian
Thanks Brian…appreciate it. Let me know if you need anything else.
jp
Mindmapping:
My favorite tool is http://mindmeister.com — it’s like Google Docs for mindmapping. The free version is excellent. I pay for it to have unlimited mind maps.
Thanks George…just added to the list!
Joe: Great List! Thanx for putting this awesome list together. I would also like to add squidoo.com to your mega list. Squidoo is a popular publishing platform and community that makes it easy for you to create “lenses” online. Lenses are pages, kind of like flyers or signposts or overview articles, that gather everything you know about your topic of interest and put it all in one place.
So added Ambal. Thanks
Amazingly comprehensive list-all at one place! I am a social media enthusiast and like to read up on such news and posts. I also came across a series of webinars on the social media and business by Dave Evans-noted social media expert. The latest one on the social web and operations is today-you can register at-https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/971324730
This is truly an incredible list! I really appreciate the brief descriptions.
One addition for the Operations List: Microsoft Office Live Workspace. It offers users the ability to create, save, access, and share documents and files online (5 GB of storage for free!) and fully supports the whole MS Office Suite. There is even a plug-in for MS Office that lets you save your files to your online Workspace directly from whichever Office program you are using.
Cheers,
Kate
MSFT Office Live Outreach
http://www.officelive.com/
Thanks for reaching out Kate. So added.
VisualCV
Best Online Social Media Resume
http://www.visualcv.com
Thanks for compiling this wonderful resource page Joe! The categories are spot on. I also like http://www.mytweeple.com. It is a much quicker way to manage friends and followers, especially if you use targeted Twitter accounts for differernt customer profiles.
Laurie/Michelle…great suggestions. Added above!
Thanks for the great list, Joe. It’s especially helpful that you’ve broken everything down into categories and included brief descriptions. I will be sharing this with my peers at Xerox.
Here are a few more for the listing:
http://tipjoy.com/
simple social payments for great people
twitter facebook app – update fb status via twitter
http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=2231777543
twitter fb app that updates status from twitter ONLY when you tag it #fb
http://apps.facebook.com/selectivetwitter/
Thanks Joe, it’s a great list. I’m using a few of them already, but will look at the others.
Not sure if this should be in ‘Operations’ or ‘other cool online tools’, but I’d look at adding ExpertMagnet.com
It’s a web App that business can use free of charge to find professional service providers, or, if they sell those services, to get visibility of work in their area of expertise.
http://www.expertmagnet.com
Regards,
Mark
Joe -
I like TweetDeck, but I am disappointed that I cannot manage multiple accounts using this app. Tweetie and Seesmic Desktop are my “go-to” Twitter applications now.
Thank you for putting this list together, great job!
Regards,
Brad (bkhays)
Also there’s
Plaxo (like LinkedIn: business)
http://www.plaxo.com/
MyLife (formerly Reunion)
http://www.mylife.com/
Classmates
http://www.classmates.com/
Very nice list…but you left the best off! I know cause helped build it. Here comes the shameless offer… Try http://www.WebbyChat.com PROMO CODE = BLOGGER_CHAT to save bucks or the FREE plan to turn blog into sticky in under 5 minutes (use blogspot widget or cut and paste html) All visitors can chat as soon as they arrive (login is an option, but is not required like other chats) Full moderation and event scheduling features Current blogs that are using have seen a dramatic rise in time on site and viewership. We fully support. Responses to feedback are within hours not days
-Samwel http://www.webbychat.com
I like http://www.hittail.com for analytics. It builds a long tail of keywords over time and suggests keywords for which it’s worth to write an article.
Here in Germany http://www.tweetranking.com just started. It’s to recommend Twitter accounts. Plz try and recommend @torstenherrmann for categies #PR #Marketing #B2B #ContentMarketing
Thanks for the great tips and resources Joe!
Just made another update based on everyone’s recommendations. Keep them coming…great stuff.
Interesting!
I feel like there is a scarcity of good marketing today. Good marketing means which can convert the leads into sales. The only marketing that has moved me in the last couple of years is Social Media Optimization.
This is a fabulous list – I’d be interested to know why you did not include http://www.flickr.com in your list of social media tools. Would love to hear your insight on that.
Thanks!
@socialpmchick
Do-It-Yourself Public Relations- Use social media to get your business news out.
http://presskitn.com
Great list of things to look at! I will be trying a few of these today!
Felicity http://martec.co.uk/
A great list of things to look at! I will be trying a few of these today!
-Felicity http://martec.co.uk/
There is another Social Media Marketing i.e., through web comments. Advertisors can use tools like “commentino” with the help of their writers, can promote their business/products. “commentino” writers will post comments in right forums/discussions and give forum participants more choices. From Advertisers point of you its good ROI as they pay only for comments that meets their requirements. For commentino details follow
http://snipr.com/mf6jo
you got it all man! Social networks that give a high backlink points and traffic to your site.
Under Blogging/CMS Tools you need to list Drupal (http://www.drupal.org). It’s an opensource CMS with a large (and fast growing) base of users and contributors. There’s a large list of modules to extend its functionality, there’s control systems in place in ensure security, and it’s very flexible.
Drupal beats out Joomla and WordPress (if you want more than blogging) any day.
Thanks Dan, great addition and so added.
Dear Joe: this is an incredible list! A true act of electronic generosity. Thank you.
Really great list! Thanks for the quantcast link
great article as a refresher or anyone getting into social media
DropBox is missing. A great backup/file share web site… http://www.getdropbox.com
Great list Joe! Here’s another for the Content Sharing section: Screenr (http://screenr.com) which offers screencasts for Twitter. Free, no download, easy, very cool.
Fantastic List, thank you for putting this thing together. With this i find it no hard times for me to look on and do the research for my daily work.
Keep it up, hope you make a list also on how to look for a prospect in terms of marketing. Hurray!!!
I would add a tool to manage all your social media contacts in one place (your PC…).
I would like to introduce The Payer Player as a social media marketing tool. This portable social widget not only helps their members but all of the social networks that it is integrates with (including Twitter, Facebook, Youtube), plus provides Live Broadcasts, VOIP and PCMobile2Chat.
http://www.thepayerplayer.com/pittsburghseo – lets not forget the viral capabilities and that Shaquille O’Neal is endorsing it … this is a seious post. I hope you read the infomation and learn how to incorporate The Payer Player in your social media marketing process.
Your post is indeed very informative. These days not only amateur webmasters are doing internet marketing but also young grad students are promoting their less professional sites as their practice and projects. Articles on starting an internet marketing business are available on the internet easily.
Great post! more then 42 tools like this is by far more than anybody normally needs. I have personally used many of them but about 75% of them are still new for me.Some very good tools in there. Still, I wonder if there will be a free Facebook tool…
Thanks alot for putting this together.
Have a great 2010.
Best,
Magnus Lundin
http://www.Gamsun-Media.se
It’s really nice blog about online advertising and good to share this marketing Knowledge. Online marketing is really gaining rapid popularity. To promote our site or product we have to do advertising so that people should know about it. Even i used to promote my site and sell my product online through fullservicead.com and my business is really growing.
This is one of the forms of internet marketing and i found it very useful in increasing the traffic to the website.
What is there to say? It’s a huge list that needs to be explored, because there are so many sites I am unaware of. I bookmarked this post to be able to have a little time to check that out.
Thanks for breaking them up in sections.
AWESOME! What a terrific list!
Great list of Social Media Marketing Tools!! In SEO, using social platforms is a less cumbersome and more enjoyable way of letting people know more about your product..
Nice list ,
I have something you miss about twitter:
1- twitter directories:
-http://justtweetit.com/
-http://wefollow.com/
-http://www.twellow.com/
2- twitter analysis:
-http://twitterholic.com/
-http://twittercounter.com
3- twitter lists:
-http://tweepml.org/
4- make money with twitter:
-http://www.revtwt.tk
Great list. A fantastic checklist and resource.
I would add a few others. Here are three:
Gliffy: http://www.gliffy.com – simple and free website design tool (also has other functions).
Your Open Book: http://www.youropenbook.org – search unsecure Facebook status updates for social media monitoring.
Postling: http://www.postling.com – simple tool for posting and scheduling updates on WordPress, Facebook, Twitter and Flickr. Handles multiple accounts.
I have not gone for native searching of Outlook emails ever since I started using GetMail of http://www.searchterrain.com. GetMail has fetched them for me with just a few character input. It is interactive and responds to each character input.
Amazing information. Great list and easy to navigate. Got new ideas and learning from this posts. Excellent!
This is a fabulous list – Allaboutsite is also good one.
thanks for the big List of Social Media Marketing Tools
Thanks Joe, Really I got very useful tools to increase traffic and goal conversion.
What a list! WOW! it will keep me reading for a while!
thank you so much for posting!!!
What a great list. Thank You so much. I recommend docstoc.com and 4shared.com for content sharing?
amazing……..
What about social media marketing content creation tools? Check out zingzag.com (currently free). Rich media mashup software and cloud service that allows you to easily create mobile rich media docs with embeded share tools – drop into you Facebook Fan Page or Blog or broadcast over 37 social channels (or do ALL of these…makes reaching out across social media fast and easy).
Hey Joe.
Great list here. I think I use most of these myself with Hootsuite being my favorite. I would like to however add a tool you don’t have here and is quite important in todays social world I think. We created http://www.faseeo.com to combine the benefits of social media and seo together with real world users. The effects on marketing campaigns has been really good. I am available for questions or interview if you would like.