Social media plays a big part in modern life. Social sites have gigantic user bases and it is now becoming ever more difficult to find people that don’t use social media.
Social media is so popular that most people don’t just use one social media site, but often have multiple different accounts. The problem is not all social sites came about at the same time. This is an issue as people have numerous accounts, all of which have been set up at different times. This can mean that email addresses and login details are different for each separate account.
This becomes a hassle as you will have to constantly login and logout of your accounts to manage all of your activity. The more you use social media the more of a problem this becomes. But, don’t worry there are solutions.
There are tools that have been developed to gather all your accounts in one place making it much easier to manage your activity and analyse your social media activity.
Here are the best tools of 2012!
HootSuite
Hootsuite is a brilliant social media management tool, which offers a clean and easy to use dashboard for all of your different accounts. In one look at the dashboard you can see all of your social media activity such as messages, comments, retweets – you name it and you can see it. HootSuite is available for free but there is also the option of going pro for $9.99 a month. It is packed with loads of useful little features such as scheduling of posts and creating reports so you can see how effective your social media campaign has been.
Klout
Klout was launched in 2008 but is still one of the best tools you can use for analysing your social media activity. Unlike HootSuite, Klout is more orientated towards how well you influence others using social media rather than organising posts and campaigns. You can sign in via Facebook or Twitter and get your Klout score, which is between 0-100, instantly. The score takes 400 different variables into consideration, which is a pretty amazing feat. Some of the variables are things like the number of followers or friends you have, who is reading your content and who is sharing it.
Buffer
Buffer is designed to make sharing on social media a great deal easier. Buffer works by signing in with your social media accounts and then every time that you read great content that you wish to share you add it to Buffer. Buffer will then automatically post the content you have chosen automatically throughout the day. This means that you can maintain a social media presence constantly all day long without having to be constantly at your computer or on your smartphone.
Social Pointer
SocialPointer markets itself as the first dedicated real-time social media marketing platform. It enables users to track, monitor and respond to other users in real-time. It allows you to find and engage with new potential clients and gain genuine user feedback. You don’t have to have a business to benefit from this tool. For example you could be a part-time blogger building up a fan base and trying to get feedback on your latest post.
Yoono
Yoono offers something most other tools for social media management don’t. It displays the dashboard in your browser instead of having to sign into a website in another tab. This means that you can manage your social media activity no matter what task you are doing as all you have to is glance to the left and all the information that you need is there. It is available on multiple platforms and can be integrated with lots of social media accounts.
This guest post was written by Endre Rex-Kiss, an online strategist and social media advocate. He currently represents Jangomail, a popular email marketing service provider. You can follow his rants on Twitter, or Google+.