It hasn't been that long since we first got to know the concept of "social media," yet we're undoubtedly one of the nations that took to it best. We all have accounts on plenty of different platforms, maybe even several accounts each. Things have reached a point where managing our social media accounts, for both personal and professional purposes, is a challenge in itself. For most of us, it's probably started to spill over into daily life. Fortunately, plenty of programmers who think the way we do turned the solution to this problem into different programs and put them in front of us. I wanted to share the ones I've loved and found most useful among this mobile, desktop, and web-based software. Let me get started without further ado.
1) HootSuite
First up, and one of the most useful for me, is HootSuite. So what is HootSuite? You could call it the best-known program for social media management. It only recently caught on in Turkey, but let me walk you through this software that's hugely popular in the US and Europe. You can sync all your social profiles in HootSuite, which means you can manage multiple profiles at once. That's a real advantage for both time management and staying organized. For example, if you want to share the same content across all your profiles, you can select the ones you want and post to them simultaneously through HootSuite, instead of logging into each one separately. Another nice HootSuite feature is scheduled sharing, you can queue your tweets or profile posts to go out on the date and time you choose. That cuts down a lot on time wasted on social platforms and boosts your efficiency for professional use. If you're curious about the software's other features, which offer plenty of options and conveniences aimed at professional use, I suggest checking it out here. Let's move on to the next application without further ado.
2) Buffer
Now I'll talk about the Buffer app. You can sync this system with your Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter accounts. Buffer is similar in concept to HootSuite, but it stands out with a few small differences and an appealing interface. Just like in HootSuite, Buffer lets you schedule your tweets or posts, setting a specific date and time for them to go out. In other words, you can even line up a full 1-year run of tweets or posts in advance. This feature, which suits corporate and professional use far better, is genuinely useful for time management and staying organized. What separates Buffer from similar systems, beyond that, is that it gives you options for what to post. It isn't a Turkish-supported system, but you can pick from English content suggestions and schedule them or publish them to your profiles instantly. One of Buffer's best features is that it gives you analytics on the content you've posted or tweeted through the system. For example, you can find out how many times a piece of content you tweeted, or posted, was clicked, retweeted, or shared.
3) Seesmic
Now it's Seesmic's turn. Seesmic is both a web-based and a mobile application, typically used to manage accounts on frequently used platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. It takes more expertise to use and, visually, doesn't appeal to the end-user as much as the other systems I've covered so far, but unlike the others, it offers desktop applications for Windows and Mac users. A Linux application hasn't been developed yet, though. Even though it's at a disadvantage on ease of use, it has features that satisfy both individual users and social media agencies in terms of functionality. Seesmic can also integrate with about a hundred different third-party tools, including Klout, Zendesk, and Salesforce Chatter.
4) TweetDeck
Now let's talk a bit about TweetDeck. Unlike the other apps, TweetDeck is designed solely for managing Twitter and Facebook accounts. Like Seesmic, it has a desktop version for Mac and Windows, but it has one more difference: it's also available as an app in your Chrome browser. Like any other social media management tool, TweetDeck lets you control your accounts' actions and schedule your posts. On top of that, when you use TweetDeck, you'll notice it's marked by Twitter on the logo. This is a recent and highly controversial development. TweetDeck's rapid rise in the United States caught Twitter's attention, and it was purchased for $ 40 million last summer. When you sign up to the site, you'll notice plenty of similarities with Twitter's theme. But here's the interesting, most-criticized part: why did Twitter buy TweetDeck, an app built to connect to its own platform? Couldn't it have spent $ 40 million more wisely? Even as those questions get asked on social media, only time will tell whether it was a smart investment or a mistake.
5) SpredFast
The platforms above serve both individual and corporate needs, but the one I'll cover now is generally geared toward corporate companies. So, finally, I want to tell you about SpredFast. If you run a corporate brand, keeping it valuable and consistent in your customers' eyes really matters. SpredFast offers high-quality social media management, especially for companies and corporate structures, even though its catalog pricing looks a bit steep. Along with the ability to combine updates and content that we mentioned with other tools, this app includes a benchmark feature that lets users manage and compare social media campaigns. There are also management tools that let you compare your campaigns against other campaigns and products in the industry. Its analytics feature is very different from other platforms offering this service, built around the number of pieces of content shared, the number of end users the campaigns reach, and the number of followers and viewers. SpredFast also plays an important role in collecting other social media information by tracking bit.ly links. These may sound complicated in theory, but SpredFast's user-friendly interface and documentation make them easy to convey through simple graphics.
If you're a corporate company, or an individual who values your reputation and brand online, I'm confident these 5 platforms, which I selected after a long elimination process, will be very useful to you. I think they'll quickly become indispensable, thanks to advantages like staying organized and protecting your corporate image through quality feedback. I suggest trying all of them and choosing the one that suits you best.