42+ Social Media Marketing Tools

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...

Related Articles:

• 42+ Social Media and Online Content Marketing Predictions
• 15 Steps to Small Business Business Online Marketing Success
• 10 Content Marketing Tips to Start Now

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Comments

[Michael A. Stelzner]

Joe - What a fab list!!!

I think Twitter should be part of the basics :)

- Mike

[Joe Pulizzi]

Mike...ask and you shall receive. So moved!

[Meg Guiseppi]

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

[Kyra Reed]

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

[Joe Pulizzi]

Kyra...excellent. I added the first four per your suggestion (see above).

[Gaelen O'Connell]

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.

[Sarah Evans]

Thanks so much for putting this together!

[Brian Bearden]

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

[Joe Pulizzi]

Thanks Brian...appreciate it. Let me know if you need anything else.

jp

[George Kao]

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.

[Joe Pulizzi]

Thanks George...just added to the list!

[Ambal Balakrishnan]

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.

[Joe Pulizzi]

So added Ambal. Thanks

[Niti Dhani]

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

[Kate H]

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/

[Joe Pulizzi]

Thanks for reaching out Kate. So added.

[Michelle Corsano]

VisualCV
Best Online Social Media Resume
www.visualcv.com

[Laurie Dunlop]

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.

[Joe Pulizzi]

Laurie/Michelle...great suggestions. Added above!

[Cheryle]

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.

[Greg Padley]

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/

[Mark Bubner]

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

[Brad Hays]

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)

[Judith Berkowitz]

Also there's

Plaxo (like LinkedIn: business)
http://www.plaxo.com/

MyLife (formerly Reunion)
http://www.mylife.com/

Classmates
http://www.classmates.com/

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