This is a guestpost by Dave Larson from Tweetsmarter.
If you’re using Social Media to do business, you don’t want to overlook something that can save you time… or make you money. With that in mind, here are 25 great tools and resources that can help you save time and make you money. The three key kinds of resources you need to be familiar with are:
- Traffic Maximizers.
- User Directories.
- Integrating Social Media With Your Site or Blog.
1. Traffic Maximizers
For power and ease-of-use, Buffer is at the top of the this category.
What is it? It’s a simple button that just says “Buffer.” Click it and the website you are visiting (or the tweet you are reading, if you use it to retweet) will appear as a pre-written tweet for you. Edit as you wish—or leave it as Buffer wrote it for you—and then simply click “Add to Buffer.” Your tweet will then automatically be sent at the best time to reach people.
A recent study showed how people using Buffer for the first time got 200% more engagement (clicks and retweets) on their tweets. You can use the Buffer button from your favorite browser, from Twitter.com, and many apps have begun integrating it as well. Some of Buffer’s features include:
- It tells you how many clicks, retweets and reach you get for every tweet you send.
- Complete customization of tweet times and days.
- Tweet recommendation feature when you are looking for something good to tweet.
- Has both free and pro versions, and Facebook integration coming soon!
Favorite Feature: Super-simple drag-and-drop interface to change when tweets are sent.
Also Recommended
Triberr allows you to create or join groups (“tribes”) that retweet one another’s content.
There is some controversy over whether you should retweet everything everyone in any group you join shares. Since this opens you to abuse if someone in your tribe begins oversharing, the best advice I’ve heard is to instead to read a feed of things from your tribe, and select from that what you want to retweet.
BlogGlue reviews your new blog posts and creates related links to them on other sites. That’s right, other sites will be linking to your blog posts! BlogGlue chooses partner sites that are relevant based on your blog’s topics. Through the links you receive more traffic, and can begin to grow your blog following. All users install a plugin on their site to allow the small “related links” section to appear under blog posts.
More to check out
Apps that show when your followers are active online include Tweriod, TweetWhen, Timely, When to Tweet ,and 14 Blocks. Queued.at is a little different, in that it attempts to automatically schedule your tweets for the most likely best times.
2. User Directories
Instead of forcing people to sift through the overwhelming volume of content and services to find you, why not add yourself to a Twitter or social media directory?
Twellow lets people search for people to follow by category of interest or expertise. Also known as the “Twitter Yellow Pages,” this is the granddaddy of all Twitter directories. Simply log into the site and create or update your profile. Favorite Feature: Twellow will auto-categorize you or let you add yourself manually to any category.
Also Recommended
- We Follow: Similar to Twellow.
- FollowerWonk: Turns Twitter profiles into a searchable database with analytics, including user comparisons.
More to check out
- Just Tweet It: A Twitter directory sorted by interest.
- FriendLynx: Find your Facebook friends on Twitter.
- Tweetfind: Twitter directory with social listings, Twitter tools and lists.
- TwitterPacks: Answers the question: If someone were joining Twitter today, who might they follow?
3. Integrating Social Media With Your Site or Blog
Work smarter, not harder to get traffic to your website. There are tons of tools that fully or semi-automate getting your content in front of people.
Dlvr.it is known as “your smart online mail carrier,” posting your content to where it can be seen on multiple social networks. You concentrate on creating content, and Dlvr.it promotes it for you. You are able to add many different blogs and publish to Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google Buzz, MySpace, Status.net and more. Favorite Feature: Plugin any analytics tool you wish, or use Dlvr.it’s built-in link shortener and analytics.
Also Recommended
- Twitterfeed: Post your blog to Twitter through your RSS feed
- Twitter Tools: A WordPress plugin that lets you integrate Twitter with your blog. You can send your updates to your blog as well as create tweets directly from your blog
More To Check Out
- PingTwitter: Automatically update your Twitter Account when you publish a new blog post.
- Add Tweets: Make Twitter Update Widgets for site or blog using JavaScript.
- Follow Me On Twitter Buttons: Follow me on Twitter buttons.
- LoudTwitter: Ships your tweets to your blog.
- Twitter for WordPress: Script displays latest tweets on your blog.
- Twitter Updater: Automatically sends a Twitter status update to your Twitter account when you create, publish, or edit your WordPress post.
- Twitter WordPress Sidebar Widget: A WordPress widget where you can send your tweets to your blog.
Over To You
This is a guest post by Dave Larson – Dave is the author of Tweetsmarter. He has won a Knight Foundation and Shorty award, been pictured on the front cover of CNN’s technology section, and answered thousands of questions for Twitter users around the world over the past 4+ years. Dave’s formula for social media success is by sharing, assisting, and empowering his followers.
