Acquisition Pros Need 3 Social Media Tools
There are three tools that you will soon learn to swear by when it comes to handling social media – Threadsy, TweetDeck and Ping.fm. Using these three tools will not only help you handle social media, but also improve your ability to communicate over acquisition.
So-called “information overload” has come to the social media landscape. I alone have accounts on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and GovLoop (just to name the ones I check daily), but I’m able to manage them easily and effectively. However, each tool must be:
- Easy-to-use
- Save time
- Able to integrate with multiple social media accounts
(Note: I do not get any sort of incentive to use these tools; fun, possibly-unhealthy obsessions with technology and efficiency are why I’m telling you about them).
Threadsy
A relative newcomer (launched 9/15/2009), Threadsy is definitely one of the best free web tools in existence. It combines multiple email accounts, IM, Facebook and Twitter. Before Threadsy, no service combined all communication options into one page. It has definitely made my life much easier and much more manageable.
As awesome as it is, I’m hoping Threadsy will get even better. If it integrated Google Voice along with all my recorded phone conversations, texts and MMS, it would be one of the most innovative tools on the planet.
My only complaint is that Threadsy takes a long time to load. But a free service, I’m more than willing to put up with it. (Admittedly, it’s a crappy picture, but people are sensitive about emails and social media).
TweetDeck
This free Adobe AIR app (for Windows and Macs0 is useful for when you have a bit more time. It allows for integration of LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace (who cares?), and multiple Twitter accounts. Real-time updates appear in separate columns for different social media accounts (i.e. Facebook has its own column, LinkedIn has a separate column, etc). Get TweetDeck here.
Hashtags can be given their own columns, so you can monitor updates and find links to certain topics you wouldn’t otherwise find. (So all tweets mentioning #acquisition, #acq20 and #contracts can be easily discovered). More so, you can share information and links through any of your integrated accounts.
If web tools are more your taste, a free alternative is HootSuite. (And yes, that’s an old TweetDeck version below, but you get the idea).
Ping.fm
This free web tool lets you update all (or selected) social networks at once. Unlike TweetDeck, Ping.fm can hook into both popular and obscure social networks. When integrated as a tool into a Netvibes or iGoogle homepage, you can quickly update all your networks without the temptation and distraction of seeing new updates.
This is very valuable for when you don’t have a lot of time, but you still want to post information to targeted audiences. Go to Ping.fm here.
