Social Media Engagement tools are communication platforms where users take action and can respond, engage, interact or communicate directly on social networks, including Facebook, Twitter, blogs, forums, and more. Users provide the login credentials and offer OAuth permissions and can Tweet, comment on a blog post or respond to a question in a forum without leaving the Social Media Engagement platform. These are highly customized dashboards where you can interact real-time and often offer multiple accounts, a shared workspace for many users and the ability to respond in multiple places with one click. Don’t mistake these for Social Media Management tools, which are used to primarily analyze activity. Social Media Engagement tools are beneficial for anyone who wants to save time, stay organized, or especially has multiple accounts to manage.
Below are a few of the applications I have either used for an extended period of time, or have evaluated for the purpose of this post. This is just part of the list, and I will do a follow-up article at a later date.- CoTweet offers many features, including scheduling, conversation history, email notifications containing your latest mentions, team collaboration tools, and easy access to Twitter follower profiles. As the name indicates, this platform ONLY works with Twitter. A couple more cons to CoTweet is when you have more than one account, they are not streaming through separate columns, you only get a tiny avatar next to each line. This could prove problematic if managing multiple accounts and if you have bad eyesight! Another con to this application is it doesn’t import your lists from the original Twitter web application. It looks like you have to start from scratch, but I can’t tell for sure. I attempted to create a new list with the same name of an existing list on the web app of Twitter and it “encountered a problem”. I then attempted to create a list not already established on either account and it “encountered a problem” again. CoTweet offers a Standard and Enterprise edition if you want to do a product comparison. I only evaluated the free application, but from what I’ve seen and compared to the rest, I would not recommend this one. This app works on the web and iPhone.
- Tweetdeck I like this app and use it because it allows you to update all your friends easily on Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Foursquare and Google Buzz. I’ve only used it for Twitter, but that’s just me. All you need to do is compose messages in the update window, view your character count, and then click send. Plus with just a few clicks you can add and shorten a link, send a picture, send your location or record a video to share. I like the fact you can manage all your Twitter accounts from TweetDeck without switching between them. (I’ve had as many as 18 accounts on TweetDeck with no problem.) View all of the information you need from all of your accounts at once, cross-post tweets to different accounts with just the touch of a button. Tweetdeck is one of my favorites because regardless of the number of accounts you monitor, it’s always FREE. This app works on Mac and Windows as well as Androids and iPhones.
- Hootsuite Monitor and post to multiple social networks, including Facebook and Twitter using the HootSuite dashboard. Hootsuite allows you to create custom reports from over 30 individual report modules to share with clients and colleagues. Track brand sentiment, follower growth, plus incorporate Facebook Insights and Google analytics all without leaving the dashboard. I started out on Hootsuite but as soon as they started charging for multiple accounts(over $1000 a month for the number of accounts I was managing) that turned me off and I was so upset I uninstalled their application! When I re-installed this app it still had my old avatar and other old login information (I had since changed my Twitter password). Updating the information was a little glitchy, but I was finally able to get a single user account imported. Sure, Hootsuite offers great reports, but you have to go with their Pro feature and pay for them. (I use other apps for my reports, so I don’t need to pay Hootsuite too.) I know there are die-hard Hootsuite fans out there – are you one? (Be honest, is it because you are an affiliate?) Tell me why you like it more than another Social Media Engagement tool. I’m still not convinced Hootsuite is better than the competition. This app works on Mac and Windows as well as Androids and iPhones.
- MarketMeSuite I LIKE this app! A LOT! You have the ability to brand your tweets, GeoTarget Reply Campaigns based on your niche and location. (This looked particularly interesting to me for a couple of my clients.) I liked that it showed me who was not following me and allowed me to easily follow and unfollow users. You can post to Facebook, schedule unlimited tweets, and there’s even Google Calendar to schedule. The next feature I like and don’t like for the same reason. When you add an additional Twitter account, you get an entire screen just of that profile with the same columns as the original account you set up. It’s easy to toggle back and forth between multiple profiles. What I don’t like about it, is sometimes I like to tweet the same post simultaneously from my personal and my business Twitter accounts, I don’t think you can do that with MarketMeSuite. The pros definitely outweigh the cons of this Social Media Engagement tool and if you are looking for an alternative to Hootsuite and TweetDeck, I would say give this one a try. MarketMeSuite does so much and is FREE. This app works on Linux, Mac & Windows.
- Seesmic This is another great tool! Manage and post to multiple Twitter accounts, Facebook, LinkedIn, Foursquare, and your Google Buzz accounts. I like that it imports your saved searches from Twitter’s web app and you can easily search, save and access all your searches. Saved searches will be also be saved on your Twitter account. (The only glitch to the search feature is it doesn’t work with refined searches.) You can create unlimited columns, view in minimal mode in each column, and threaded message conversations in your messages. You get a rollover view of Twitter user statistics and view all of your Twitter users with a contact management system. It’s easy to “like” and comment to your Facebook platform, and it imports your Facebook fan pages. This is another tool that is a powerhouse, easy to maneuver and is FREE. This app has a web app and works on Mac, Windows, Android, iPhone and Windows phones.
Notable mentions include:
Sprout
Social,
Twimbow,
Brizzly, and
Simplify 360.
source: yoursocialmediamogul.com
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