We all know that using social media is a solid way to boost your brand awareness or gain the attention of potential customers. For instance, Google includes Tweets in their search results and your activity on social media sites is increasing being ranked by services like Klout, PeerIndex, PostRank, Quora and others. So the question for many of us is – how can we leverage social media sites like Twitter and Facebook to our advantage and get the most bang for our buck? Here's a list of the free online social media applications that I'm using and why you can take advantage of them too.
Timely – use Timely for scheduling Tweets so that you can Tweet while you sleep (among other things). The advantage of using Timely versus a multitude of other Twitter scheduling apps, is that Timely takes the guess work out of scheduling Tweets. Here's what I mean – when I use HootSuite for scheduling Tweets I try to make an educated guess what time I should schedule the message. Timely takes the guess work out of this process by analyzing my stream to determine optimal time for engagement. Essentially what Timely does is evaluate the performance of your last 199 Tweets and (based on native Retweets) applies additional filters to calculate when your Tweets will be more effective.
Here's what I like about Timely:
- I can manage multiple Twitter accounts
- Use bit.ly url shortening by adding my account key
- Invite collaborators to compose Tweets from the same account
- Set the number of Tweets per day (choose from 1, 3, 5, or 9)
- Schedule Tweets with the Timely bookmarklet (more about bookmarklets later)
Many of you might be using Buffer App which is another Twitter App based on a similar concept of scheduling Tweets during optimal times, but IMHO Timely is a better choice if you want to track results.
UPDATE: Based on some conversations here with Buffer Team Member Leo, Buffer is working on releasing some built in analytics features too. Read reviews from around the web about Buffer
Timely will show the number of clicks and retweets for each of the Tweets you distribute using the handy social media app – that's something that Buffer doesn't offer!
Once you start using Timely don't be annoyed by the emails you get from them indicating that you need to schedule another Tweet. Simply open the email and click the box to stop the notifications and you'll never get notices in your inbox again. I manage 4 Twitter accounts in Timely and I haven't scheduled a Tweet from HootSuite since I started using it. Give Timely a try and let me know what you think of it.
Insider Tips for Social Media Success on Facebook
Scheduling posts on Facebook is an entirely different story and it's one that you will need to make a decision about if you haven't done it already. Prior to the recent Facebook Fan Page Upgrade I used Amplify to schedule shares to the Fan Page that I manage for my day job. As it turns out Facebook devalues the importance of posts coming from third party apps.
I know, I know this is shocking news and I would not have believed it myself until I watched a private YouTube webinar from Paul Colligan called new rules of Facebook. If you want to watch, you can get access from Paul's Facebook Page or by requesting the private link on his blog. I watched the entire webinar and I wanted spread the news because not many people are talking about this. Paul shows the details of Facebook posting experiments he's conducting and he also gives a comprehensive overview of the latest Fan Page Upgrade.
Paul makes his point by showing us that when he shared posts directly on Facebook, the number of impressions is significantly higher than when he shared them from a third party app. Wow, this is big news for many Fan Page owners, because it means that scheduling Facebook posts is somewhat obsolete depending on your goals. In other words, there's just no sleeping on the job when it comes to optimizing Facebook!
Personally, I can live without scheduling Facebook posts – or the impact from the potential loss of impressions if I do, but what I'd like is to have more control over is the thumbnail images that appear on my Facebook shares. Don't you agree? There's nothing more disappointing about finding a fantastic piece of content on the web and sharing it with your Facebook friends and fans with an inappropriate image! Third party services like HootSuite do a better job than Facebook of helping you assign thumbnail images – and creating naturally engaging headlines – for your Fan Page Shares. So guess what – there's an app for that too!
Handy Social Media Bookmarklets
Professional web developer Ashish K Saini aka Ashfame created an awesome WordPress plugin to fix FaceBook Like Thumbnail. Which is great for controlling the thumbnail that appears when other's share posts from our WordPress blogs. But what's really cool is that, after a comment I left on Ashfame's blog, he coded a Facebook Share Bookmarklet to fix the thumbnail problem when we share content from other blogs! This bookmarklet works like a charm and although I haven't compared it to other sharing tools, I like the convenience and I know you will too. Click the image (featuring the conversation from Ashfame's blog comments) and get the code for the bookmarklet. Just drag and drop it onto your browser bar.
Don't forget to download Ashfame's Facebook Thumbnail fix plugin and give it a rating in the WordPress repository.
Bookmarklet to Track Your Impact on Social Media
Ok, now that you've done your due-diligence and Tweeted while you were asleep and shared quality content on Facebook with the proper image and niche related branding, you want to gage the effectiveness of your efforts.
I'm sure you're familiar with a popular tracking service called BackType and how you can sign up for social media alerts. Now, thanks to a wonderful Bookmarklet from Kevin Sablan you easily use Backtype to Measure Engagement With One Click. Click the image to go to Kevin's blog and get BackType Stats.
BackType Stats allow you to track the following points of engagement:
- Retweets
- Recent Tweeters
- Retweets from Influencers
- Link Clicks
- Facebook Likes
- Facebook Shares
- Facebook Comments
- Digg comments
In this image you can see how I use the bookmarklet to easily track the performance on my enter to the personal finance blogging contest from Credit Cards Canada 5 Golden Rules of Money Management – A how-to Guide for Passing the Financial Torch. (By the way, the contest winners will be announced tomorrow, wish me luck).
Tuan from Tek3d left a comment on this post which reminded me that Kevin also created another bookmarklet called RealShare. This one is a simple pop-up that displays the counts for shares and likes on Facebook. You can get the tool from Kevin's post Facebook button count is wrong, use RealShare.
[box type=”important”]Twitter acquired BackType and this bookmarklet hasn't worked since. Try using Who Tweeted Me instead.[/box]
Judge Your Own Social Media Impact
In this post I provide you with some awesome tools to optimize your performance on social media and track the impact across the social web. These tools can help you discover what you're doing right so that you can focus on what gives you the best possible outcomes or ROI (return on investment). Remember it's important for you to take the time to test different apps until you find the social media tools that work best for your given circumstances and goals. I don't use the same apps each time I share on Facebook or send out a Tweet. I'm constantly experimenting and I'm on the lookout for exciting new ways to engage with my readers and you might want to do the same.
What's your favorite Social Media app?
What awesome social media apps or tips are you using to improve brand awareness and audience engagement?
Very “Timely” indeed Ileane. This app seems to be really a great form of scheduling Tweets. I for one do not schedule Tweets that much because it might not have any effect due to the “right” timing. I will definitely give this a go.
That thing about FB is really annoying. I have some content shared on FB and the images do not have anything to do with the content. In one occasion, it was even an ad. That plugin from Ashish might just do the trick.
Backtype also sounds very interesting. Thanks for sharing.
Hehe, yes it is rather Timely, isn’t it? 🙂
Trust me, my friend, I’ve been trying to write this post for weeks now, it’s just that I keep finding new tools to share with everyone and I finally had to stop exploring and start writing.
FB is so very annoying to me in more ways than just the one about the goofy selection of thumbnail images. It helps to have guidance from professionals and full time Facebook power users like Paul Colligan, Kim Castleberry and Mari Smith.
I’m really glad to see Facebook finally cave in and let us view Fan Pages in chronological order – well at least they’re giving us a choice now.
You’re back! Got worried for a moment. Hadn’t seen you post in a while.
Anyway, power post filled with lots of goodies…love it! I will be sure to check out Timely. Have not heard about it yet. I love new toys. 😉
As always, thanks for the all the valuable information. You are a force to be reckoned with girlfriend. 🙂
Hi Michele, I’ve been around. I had a banner week and reached the highest comments ever on my last post about StumbleUpon Traffic 🙂 and I was busy responding and doing follow up research. That also gave me a chance to fully test out these tools before giving my reviews. Thanks for the kudos.
Wow, that’s awesome Ileane. 119 comments? Woohoo! That’s great… well deserved. You are fantastic at what you do. Keep it up. 🙂
Hi Ileane!
I’m always slow about trying new apps – I’m stubborn I guess. But I like the idea of Timely selecting the best time to schedule my tweets. It is quite a guessing game and sometimes my brain just doesn’t have the capacity left for that 🙂
As always, you’ve got the juicy secrets that make all the difference.
Hi Kiesha, glad you’re finding my posts juicy. That’s a big deal coming from you – the Queen of Juicy Blog Posts! Thank you for the comment and for the retweets too. Is the excitement of the personal finance contest getting to you like it’s getting to me.
I hate to admit I’m getting impatient waiting for the winners to be announced! One thing is for sure, your post should be one of the winners. 🙂
Thanks, Ileane – although I’m pretty certain that your is going to be one of the high winners!
I was getting a little anxious over the waiting period – everytime I got an email update from one of the editors, my heart would start pounding, thinking that it would be the moment of truth, but wasn’t.
Our wait will be over tomorrow, though. Now, I’m on to promoting my latest contest entry over at Blog Engage… 🙂
Kiesha, send me the link to your Blog Engage contest post, so I can share it with everyone. Thanks!
That would be super! Any and all help I can get would be wonderful.
It’s called “Can your Blog Pass the Salad Test?”
Here’s the link:
http://www.blogengage.com/blogger/can-your-blog-pass-the-salad-test/
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Hi Ileane,
I love the features of BackType app very much. I just tried it but it just shows my 3 latest tweets and a graph of tweets and digg comments.
I couldn’t find out the Retweets from Influencers, Link Clicks, Facebook Likes, Facebook Shares and Facebook Comments like you mentioned above. 🙁
Tuan, take a look at this post from your blog on BackType http://www.backtype.com/page/tek3d.org/my-blog-not-reach-alexa-top-100000 You’ll see that Gail Gardener is the Influencer who tweeted the post for you. In order for you to see Influencer’s one of them has to retweet you. I’m not sure what qualifies users as Influencers in BackType but I’m sure the number of followers has to exceed 10,000. I’m going to do some research and see if I can confirm that. If you don’t see Facebook likes, but you think the tool is wrong Kevin also coded another bookmarklet specifically for Facebook called “RealShare” and you can get it here. Let me know if you find any conflicting counts in the tools, and if you do, go with the counts from RealShare. Keep me posted good buddy!
I’m not an Influencer but I just for the record, I’m always retweeting and sharing your posts 🙂
Tuan – I found this post on the BackType blog and here’s what they say
it looks like they are borrowing from the concept of the PR algorithm to determine influence. That doesn’t really make the definition clear but at least it gives us a hint 🙂
Oh thanks Ileane for the explanation.
So that’s because my blog doesn’t have many posts tweeted by influencers (I am surprised that you haven’t been an influencer).
I misunderstood the functionalities of this tool, I thought it is used to track all back tweets and facebook likes of the whole website.
Ealier I used a tool like this, we can even see who shared your posts on Facebook. Have you heard about it? I forgot to bookmark it and can’t find it now. 🙁
thanks Ileane for sharing such a great post. Google new search will really help big blogs like mashable, techcrunch, etc. not so useful for small blogs
P.S. Check this post links are broken and directing to 404 error page
Vivek, Thanks for the heads up, but I can’t find the broken link, please try again and let me know which link you’re referring to if you continue to get the error.
Link to facebook page is broken
Thanks Vivek, I fixed it! Just goes to show that Broken Link Checker plugin was sleeping on the job…
Hi Ileane,
Many thanks for mentioning Buffer in your post, it’s much appreciated. You are absolutely right, the analytics feature is something which comes in handy. We hope to have it ready for Buffer soon.
I just wanted to quickly point out, that I perceive Buffer’s nature to be quite different in comparison to Timely. Timely is a great product, no doubt about it. However the two operate in slightly different niches. Buffer gives you the chance to tweet at a higher frequency and at times of your choice, whereas Timely reduces the frequency and basis it on an algorithm.
So I believe there are users with different needs to use the two products. What do you think?
Hi Leo! Most of my readers don’t know that you and I have talked about my feelings about Timely vs. Buffer in the past. I feel like we’re old friends and I must say that you are doing a heck of a job with getting the word out about Buffer App. I wish I could gather up all of your guest posts and link to them here so that my readers can take a look.
For example:
How to keep up with the Evolving Twitter.
Leo, you are right to point out a few differences between Buffer and Timely that I neglected to mention, (but I sort of implied) in the post. You see the social media tool that I would really compare Buffer to is HootSuite. Here’s my logic, like you said, theres no algorithm integrated into Buffer same as HootSuite. So I really need to ask myself, what are the advantages of using Buffer over HootSuite – and honestly I can’t come up with any. I’m a power Twitter user and I need to access multiple Twitter accounts and schedule Tweets at least 12 – 24 hours in advance for each of them. I think Kiesha put it nicely when she said “sometimes my brain just doesn’t have the capacity left for that” 🙂
However you make another great point – for someone who has never used HootSuite or they tried it and found all of the columns noisy and confusing, Buffer App is a great solution. As soon as you guys incorporate analytics – or any new features for that matter, into Buffer, consider this a formal invitation to come back and do a guest post about the upgrades here. Do I have a deal?
Best wishes to you Leo and to the rest of the team over at Buffer. Cheers!
Ileane, many thanks for your kind words and yes, I most gladly accept that deal. You will be the first blogger we hit up with a walk through of our latest analytics features. 🙂
Indeed, we received lots of press in recent weeks and we are more than happy about it.
What I appreciate most about you Ileane, is that all you are after is a great and hassle free experience to use Twitter. Whichever tool helps you most with that is the one you will be using. This is exactly our approach at Buffer. We don’t want to recommend Buffer to someone, whom it won’t help to achieve this goal. Or if it just doesn’t feel right for that person.
Gradually we want to improve Buffer further and further to help out more people to use twitter effectively and in a genuine and human way. You are helping us a lot Ileane. Many thanks for that. 🙂
Twitter and Facebook are two main social media resources can bring to you good and a lot of traffic.
Hi Dave, you got that right! I get loads of traffic from Twitter. I’m starting to see sprinkles from Facebook too and I guess it would help if I had a Fan Page. 🙂
Sure. You should to have one fanpage.
Dave, I actually do have a Fan Page I just haven’t published it yet. I’d like to develop some unique content for it so that it’s not just a repeat of what I have here on the blog. Thanks for the encouragement.
agree fan page can bring a lot of visitor
it is important to create fanpage for every business
A few thoughts. First, so many people are using auto-tweet apps that Twitter is getting less and less useful for marketing directly. Just a bunch of auto tweeting machines tossing tweets back and forth. Lots of noise, but of little use. I make sure I keep a Tweet that shows up in a direct search, but I don’t look to make many sales directly from twitter. It looks to me that if you have an established “brand,” Twitter can be quite useful, but for establishing a new brand- not so sure. For me Twitter works best for political information.
Facebook on the other hand, has worked for me a time or two without attempting marketing. FaceBook has also worked out well for political information, more than anything else. People naturally see the service that I offer, and I have acquired several clients through FaceBook, but this is only a small % compared with search – and, I have a prior relationship in “real life” with these people.
I would not spend money on faceBook ads as well. Recent research has shown that FB ads only work for about 48hr, after that they fade out. Again, I’m into non-social marketing, so that is the perspective that I’m coming from. I use social mostly for the backlinks to help a site get top search listings rather than as an ends in itself.
Most of my clients have previously had little success with social, but fantastic results with search once I acquired listings for them. Like I say, you can drive 1000 visitors to a website every day with social, get a bunch of “THUMBS UPS,” and never get a sale. You can also only have 30 people come to a site through search and make thousands every month. The way most people use social, takes WAY too much time and energy for the little reward that you get – assuming this post is on branding a brand that is for sale rather than free.
Again, my focus is on small local businesses and how they can gain the most from internet advertising. My experience has been that search is the way to go, with social as a means to that end, rather than as an end in itself. The same is true with my approach to affiliate marketing.
Sure, I use Twitter, but I only Tweet live Tweets. I think auto-tweeting is destroying Twitter. However, I do use software to build Twitter followings. That would just be too much work with all the accounts that I manage.
Sure, I use social bookmarking and blogs – but not so much for the direct traffic as for the backlinks.
For the folks having great success with social, these all look like fantastic tools. Thanks for the information. (If you had a tip jar I’d pay my way. “-)
One funny thing; many of the successful online marketers that I personally follow, don’t have Twitter, and only very small and inactive Facebook accounts!
Chuck, glad to see that you’re creating backlinks with social media. I do too and most of the time I do it for other people not for myself.
There’s a big distinction between scheduling a Tweet and auto-Tweeting. Auto-tweeting is a method where by someone sends feeds into Twitter. A lot of times bloggers will auto-tweet feeds from popular blogs like Louis Gray, TechCrunch and Mashable (or even Basic Blog Tips).
One of the disadvantages of doing this is that you run the risk of Tweeting something that’s inappropriate, the other is that you end up annoying people. There are several tools you can use to set this up, including HootSuite and Twitterfeed.
What I’ve done is use FeedBurner to auto-tweet every time I publish a post which happens anywhere from one to four times in one week. Hopefully, that’s not going to annoy anyone. (Ironically it didn’t work for this post so I’m heading over to Feedburner when I’m done with this response to see what’s going on!)
Using Timely, HootSuite or Buffer App to schedule pre-selected Tweets from various sources in advance is not the same. Brankica mentioned a great use for scheduling Tweets and I use the same methods she does. When I’m reading blogs – and especially when I’m using StumbleUpon to digest a great deal of content in a small amount of time – I don’t want to tweet 10 or 15 posts over a short span of time like 1 or 2 hours. Timely (and HootSuite) make it easy for me to flow content to Twitter in a more natural looking way. And I always live tweet in between and engage in real-time conversations with other tweeple.
But back to auto-tweeting – I disagree that auto-tweeting is responsible for the noise on Twitter. I see more “noise” coming from live tweets than I do from auto-tweeting but that’s just my experience and it could be because of the way I use Twitter lists and columns in HootSuite as content filters.
When it comes to noise – I think Facebook takes the cake, but I find it much easier to segregate the noise and ignore by using PostPost.
You’re focused on a very specific business model – for example you mentioned the online marketing niche – in that case following auto-Tweeters has got to be super annoying.
Thanks again for reminding me about getting a tip jar 🙂 I appreciate the feedback.
Brankica, it’s so funny that I heard about Buffer App before on another blog that I was going to link to. But your post was like number 3 on the first page of Google – how could I resist linking to your blog!! Compare Timely against Buffer App and let me know what you think. Thanks for commenting and stumbling too!
Thanks Ileane,
Like you I’m always looking for better ways to increase the social footprint and create engagement. Looks like I have a few things to test and check out from this meaty post.
Good luck with the contest
Hi Jackie, let me know what you think of Timely or any of the other tools when you get a chance. Thanks!
Hi Ileane,
I’m glad to see that there’s a fix for the image situation when sharing on facebook. I’ve been blog hopping today and I have to admit to some overwhelm with all of the good advice I’m reading. Some of it is easy to implement. Others are making my head spin. I’m bookmarking this page to come back to it 🙂
Hey Cheryl, on the weekends I get a chance to really spend time researching and working on writing a good blog post. I guess everyone else is doing the same thing this week because I’m seeing some awesome new content too 🙂 Chat with you soon lady.
Hi Ileane,
Wow! The new customized apps seem more like its users, although we have to use them to easy promote our presence out there. Also it is important for us, to do not being perceived as outdated.
Although I think a good blogger have to know the importance of using new technologies—and who visit this Site and read are aware of that—I want to stress that in my experience visiting social media, if they look too automated, or as if the owner(s) were absent, or crowded with ‘advertisement’—even if only to their sites—then they will lose instead or at least I save clicks visiting that social media—as Chuck said— and go directly to the Site.
The important thing is the client, and it is good to give them information, updates, leads and those other things that can be automated using different Medias, but do not put you in light to be perceived as disrespectful using the Media. Do not try to overexpose the leads to the source we might be interested in a Media where I—still—expect ‘personal interaction’ with you. That too pushy thing can be effective with some people, but for short time if your content is not really good or what they expected.
Of course if you are big, with thousands of follower, and with the resources, you will have to outsource, but still act ‘as if’ representative of the enterprise. For the rest of us… we can expect that if thing keep like this, someday a scientist will invent a program—maybe using the genome of the volunteer—that ‘totally’, ahem, substitute the human task of the owner (and what will be the price? :)) —although I don’t think anyone can substitute you—and we can count with that technology innovations News, tips and analysis—in a lay, nice, or not geeky way—here when it happens.
Regards
Hi Mark, thanks for sharing your insights. I agree with most of what I could understand.
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In my humble opinion social media is, above anything else, a branding mechanism. Even if you’re just using it for social purposes, the moment you enter the social media world you’re projecting a certain image. The up-side of social media is that, if you’re brand aware, you can create a spectacular image!
If you have anything to offer, if you’re an expert on a particular subject, you stand to create a magnificent brand. It takes time, care, ambition and know-how. But the rewards are countless!
Social media can act as one component of establishing a positive image and brand online. But IMHO the very first step everyone that is trying to build a brand online should take is creating a Gravatar (and/or a Google profile. In my post about branding and Gravatars I show you why and how it’s done. If you don’t use a Gravatar or Avatar on social networks, you’re actually hurting your brand more than your helping.
Trying to build a brand on social media can go both ways. If you do it wrong, it can actually damage your business.
Just like you said about the Gravatar, Ileane.
yes agreed . Social meda should be used the proper way otherwise it can ruin your whole campaign . when you build your reputation within social media you need to focus on people . if you provide wrong information you cant take them back .
Thanks Ileane! There is always something new with you to share and I wonder the energy at your disposal. I’m back after a long break and now will look upon those services and plugins.
Hey Suresh, it’s really great to see you here! I hope all of your exams and training went well. Thanks for coming by.
I agree, social media is a great way to improve your brand awareness online. You introduced me to some impressive online social media applications, and the best part is the fact that they’re free.
Timely seems like something I would be interesting in using since I have multiple Twitter accounts I’m trying to manage.
I am new to the social media world so I need all the help I can get. Thanks for sharing these social media apps Ileane, I will definitely put them to use.
Hey John, I see you around here a lot and I really do appreciate your comments. But since you mentioned “branding” I have to ask, is there any reason you’re not using a gravatar? Let me know if I can help out in any way ok? Thanks John,
Ileane I’m always a huge fan of your blog articles. I don’t even know who you manage to keep up and continue producing such quality content. I’m going to check out timely now to see how it can benefit me and my websites. thanks so much for producing this amazing article! As always I have retweeted and voted @blogengage and @blokube!
Aww, thanks Brian, you’re such a sweetheart. 🙂
Hey Ileane,
Wow, what a great post and packed full of awesome app suggestions. I definitely will be trying out Timely for sure. I use a few myself right now and spread them out only because there are just not enough hours in the day to accomplish everything. Thanks for these tips.
I’m bummed about Facebook and my images never seem to show up unless I post it directly to my wall. But darn that is so time consuming. Glad you shared how to resolve that problem.
Thanks again for this post. I do believe I’ll be bookmarking this one and coming back a little later when I’m really to start downloading some of these apps. Thanks for taking the time to research all of this. I know it must have taken you quite awhile to finish.
Adrienne
Adrienne, LOL!! I like how you mentioned how much time it has taken me to research this. I should brag more about that around here, shouldn’t I. Thanks for appreciating me. 🙂
Please let me know what you think about Timely, and if you get a chance compare it to Buffer – either one might be more to your liking. Cheers Adrienne – I would say that you made my day but you and Brian from Blog Engage are tied so far (he’s a tough act to follow) 😉
Hey Ileane,
You definitely are appreciated knowing that you have shared such awesome info with us and I know how time consuming some of that can be. Next thing you know, your day is gone!!! Bummer!
I have not used Buffer but have also read about it. But when I read your input on Timely I had to immediately give it a go. That one definitely stuck with me.
I’m glad that Brian and I are able to help improve your day. How about that! I’ll just take that as a compliment that I helped make your day a little better with my comment. 🙂
Thanks again for all your work in researching this, it has not gone unnoticed.
Adrienne
This post surely proves to be a treat not only to budding agencies but also biggies in social media. After all even the top rankers too require apps to maintain brand image. We aim to boost our social media platform strategies and I think this might just help. Thanks alot!
Thanks Daniel!
I am a big app fan and always love checking out various social media apps but the problem is that most of them are about twitter and just a quite a few facebook one’s . I didnt know we can see for real how many like’s / shares on facebook . So that’s the good part of it 😀
Awesome researching . Waiting for more of ’em 🙂
Hey Ajinkya, a while back I promised to focus on providing more Facebook tips and I’m doing a great deal of testing and making some awesome discoveries. I wrote about my favorite Facebook app in Give Facebook a Facelift with PostPost. Ajinka, don’t forget to send me a friend request on Facebook ok? Thank you.
Timely sure looks like a nice tool to use. You mentions about Facebook is very interesting indeed. although I only manage few pages I will definitely check out the third party tool theory.
Hi Nishadha,
Welcome to Basic Blog Tips!
I’m not sure why Facebook has decided to give less impressions to 3rd party services. I would imagine that millions of people love to schedule posts to their Fan Pages and that’s a HUGE reason why they use HootSuite or other Facebook scheduling tools. So until Facebook allows scheduling from their site, I don’t think it makes sense to devalue 3rd party posts. Especially since 98% of the people don’t realize this is happening. What can I say? That’s Facebook for ya! 🙂
I use Timely too. I have 30+ messages lined up in it right now.
It’s practical and pretty. I don’t care so much about the sending metrics, as much about the bare ‘fire and forget’ function.
I also use HootSuite as my ‘social media dashboard’ but for scheduling and sending Tweets Timely kicks ass. 🙂
Hey Aloys, are you using the Timely Bookmarklet yet? It’s pretty handy if you’re tweeting from multiple accounts. For example the topics I’m interested in range from HipHop and Fashion to Engineering construction to Blogging and Social Media. Timely’s bookmarklet makes it so I don’t need to keep bouncing back and forth on different tabs to tweet from my various Twitter accounts. It’s really convenient when I’m surfing with StumbleUpon too. You’re right, Timely kicks a$$. 🙂
Nice tips. ‘Timely’ thing is also good to know. I will definitely use it. Thanks.
Hi Chris, you should also take a look at Buffer, they’ve made some upgrades since I wrote this post. Find out about the analytics and new features of Bufferapp in this post Master Consistency on Twitter – with Buffer [Review]
Hey Ms.Ileane,
This is a great list of social media apps. I find very useful because I haven’t heard of most of these tools. I have bookmarked this page so that I can come back and look at the list.
Thank you for sharing the list !
Jeevan Jacob John
Note : Btw, I just got a good idea for my next blog post @basicblogtips. I will start writing soon !
Hi Jeevan!
I look forward to publishing your guest post. Thanks so much for thinking of me. It should be ready tomorrow.
Social media has been a part of everybody’s life so it’s ideal for us to at least grab all the opportunity that this can offer. Using a social media apps. can help us maximize our time in dealing for our social media accounts for our own benefit of course.
Hi Samantha, thanks for the lovely comment. Have a great day!
Sometimes from the tweets we can get the most recent info, and i like that Google them in serps. I use Timely app. Hope, you do so too.
Everybody these days owns a social networking page, and in most of the cases, more than one. As of habit, if we come across plenty of nice things that we would love to share with others or would have wanted them to have a look at, we feel a need to have some widgets to assist us in doing so. So, as far as users are provided plenty of options, everything else will just keep running smooth.
Just know that it is more effective for direct sharing on Facebook. I will try to utilize this way and see the effect. BTW, I think it is because the Facebook users is very sensitive to third-party application.
I really like the BackType stats you shared. I’m going to check it out now!
Gr8 compilation of best social media apps! Thanks for sharing Ileane! Cheers!