Do you want to broaden your social media footprint without taking up any more of your valuable time? Whether you are a web profits or internet marketing professional, or if you simply want to organize your Facebook, Twitter and Blogging messages, posts and uploads efficiently to save time, there are a number of applications that can help you. So far, none of these applications can qualify as the complete one-stop-shop for every service. So you have to often take up two or more of them. How do you choose which application will give you the functions and services that you want?
There are at least four of these widely used solutions now available - Hootsuite, Socialoomph, Tweetadder and Tweetdeck. Each of them claim to offer everything that you need. But, in practice, it does not turn out that way. You need to carefully select which of the functions you need the most, from each application. So we put forward the functions from each applications that can work well, for you to decide who to manage all of your social media activity.
And why not extend your footprint with a number of tools? This also stops you from too much reliance on one application provider. Plus it gives you the all-important patient spread of programmed tweeting, which always needs a prudent approach to avoid the dreaded Twitter De-Activation. So let's look at how to get the best from each tool?
1. Tweetadder. This let's you program Twitter direct messages, but their real USP is a search for multiple targets to follow, based on those keywords that you have selected. Some great exclusive programming into the Twitterland API gets you thousands of targets. Then you can program how and when you follow, and at what daily levels. There can be an easy temptation to create a large list of targets, unless you are restricted and smart with your keywords. It's actually much better to do this for just one keyword, in a small burst of a few hundred targets at a time. Then see the relevance of whom you are following and who follows back. There is also a neat app to decide how long you should wait to be followed - and then unfollow, if you are not then followed back within a certain period that you have selected.
2. Tweetdeck - let's you display a number of accounts together and select the contents and fields that you want to view. Not very innovative in our opinion.
3. Hootsuite - let's you manage multiple accounts like tweetdeck, but across more alternative social media. It makes it easy to retweet and then track your own messaging. However, there are two points of difference that we really prefer about Hootsuite. First is the 'Hootlet'. You can paste this into your browser bar. It allows you to capture a web page that you want to tweet out to your followers, onto your Facebook pages, etc. It is very simple to add the page title, heading, reduced url and often choose a thumbnail visual too - all with one click on your hootlet button. Then you can select the accounts in your Hootsuite lists that you do, or don't, decide to send the headlines of the page to. It even let's you add some of your own text. And it has a box for you to add a secondary url, that you want to highlight to the recipient. It's brilliant for multiple tweeting of news or new information. But beware of two things that can get you banned from Twitter - one is using that secondary url to a direct affiliate link or cloak. It's much better to use your own web page urls and then carefully re-direct. The second risk to beware of is re-editing a hootlet, to highlight a high profile @username. And if you put this in a re-edit at the beginning, then Twitter's special control monitors will ban all your accounts in that hootlet. In a heartbeat, without appeal. Every one. Sotry to use hootlets to spread a broad level of new content to your audience. And give due credit to the sources of the pages. Second, Hootsuite lets you run programmed distribution of tweets. It's not that easy to manage, using excel columns and re-phasing all the dates, but it can let you run those important tweets out, on your terms when you choose.
4. Socialoomph - this is our preferred solution. It does not give you very good search applications, or much of an account-viewing dashboard facility, but it has a wide range of innovative functions, including multiple blogging. And it let's you run very long lists of tweets and Facebook message programmes, for far longer than Hootsuite. The text files are much easier to set up too. And they will compress long urls for you, in their software. Beware of using the same url (even if it is shortened), in scheduled tweets, for more than one account though. Twitter will block that tweet across all your programmes and, again, you put that account at risk to de-activation. We love the cool Socialoomph function to shorten your urls, because you can select your own new codename to use across your entire web footprint and therefore stay close to your brand or subject. But, once again, use it for your own web pages and not to just veil over those volatile affiliate links. You can also set up special email advice, so you know when your accounts are favourited, re-tweeted etc.
So we believe that it's worth investing in more than one service, under their monthly subscription rates. Be prepared to need a few more hours per week to stay on top of your programmes, but it will merit accelerating your whole social interaction strategy up to an entirely different level of impact and coverage.
There are at least four of these widely used solutions now available - Hootsuite, Socialoomph, Tweetadder and Tweetdeck. Each of them claim to offer everything that you need. But, in practice, it does not turn out that way. You need to carefully select which of the functions you need the most, from each application. So we put forward the functions from each applications that can work well, for you to decide who to manage all of your social media activity.
And why not extend your footprint with a number of tools? This also stops you from too much reliance on one application provider. Plus it gives you the all-important patient spread of programmed tweeting, which always needs a prudent approach to avoid the dreaded Twitter De-Activation. So let's look at how to get the best from each tool?
1. Tweetadder. This let's you program Twitter direct messages, but their real USP is a search for multiple targets to follow, based on those keywords that you have selected. Some great exclusive programming into the Twitterland API gets you thousands of targets. Then you can program how and when you follow, and at what daily levels. There can be an easy temptation to create a large list of targets, unless you are restricted and smart with your keywords. It's actually much better to do this for just one keyword, in a small burst of a few hundred targets at a time. Then see the relevance of whom you are following and who follows back. There is also a neat app to decide how long you should wait to be followed - and then unfollow, if you are not then followed back within a certain period that you have selected.
2. Tweetdeck - let's you display a number of accounts together and select the contents and fields that you want to view. Not very innovative in our opinion.
3. Hootsuite - let's you manage multiple accounts like tweetdeck, but across more alternative social media. It makes it easy to retweet and then track your own messaging. However, there are two points of difference that we really prefer about Hootsuite. First is the 'Hootlet'. You can paste this into your browser bar. It allows you to capture a web page that you want to tweet out to your followers, onto your Facebook pages, etc. It is very simple to add the page title, heading, reduced url and often choose a thumbnail visual too - all with one click on your hootlet button. Then you can select the accounts in your Hootsuite lists that you do, or don't, decide to send the headlines of the page to. It even let's you add some of your own text. And it has a box for you to add a secondary url, that you want to highlight to the recipient. It's brilliant for multiple tweeting of news or new information. But beware of two things that can get you banned from Twitter - one is using that secondary url to a direct affiliate link or cloak. It's much better to use your own web page urls and then carefully re-direct. The second risk to beware of is re-editing a hootlet, to highlight a high profile @username. And if you put this in a re-edit at the beginning, then Twitter's special control monitors will ban all your accounts in that hootlet. In a heartbeat, without appeal. Every one. Sotry to use hootlets to spread a broad level of new content to your audience. And give due credit to the sources of the pages. Second, Hootsuite lets you run programmed distribution of tweets. It's not that easy to manage, using excel columns and re-phasing all the dates, but it can let you run those important tweets out, on your terms when you choose.
4. Socialoomph - this is our preferred solution. It does not give you very good search applications, or much of an account-viewing dashboard facility, but it has a wide range of innovative functions, including multiple blogging. And it let's you run very long lists of tweets and Facebook message programmes, for far longer than Hootsuite. The text files are much easier to set up too. And they will compress long urls for you, in their software. Beware of using the same url (even if it is shortened), in scheduled tweets, for more than one account though. Twitter will block that tweet across all your programmes and, again, you put that account at risk to de-activation. We love the cool Socialoomph function to shorten your urls, because you can select your own new codename to use across your entire web footprint and therefore stay close to your brand or subject. But, once again, use it for your own web pages and not to just veil over those volatile affiliate links. You can also set up special email advice, so you know when your accounts are favourited, re-tweeted etc.
So we believe that it's worth investing in more than one service, under their monthly subscription rates. Be prepared to need a few more hours per week to stay on top of your programmes, but it will merit accelerating your whole social interaction strategy up to an entirely different level of impact and coverage.
About the Author:
Go to Web Profits Masters for everything you will need to create and run your own internet marketing strategy. Join up with Socialoomph to manage all your social media here
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