Manage Your Social Networks
Okay, so you’ve got your Twitter account(s), your Facebook account(s), your company’s Facebook page(s), your Linkedin account, your wordpress blog… not to mention your two-dozen e-mail accounts. How are you supposed to manage all of those? There are tons of platforms out there, but here’s information about my top 2 favorites.
Digsby
Digsby comes with tons of customizable features and supports for Instant Message clients (AIM, MSN, Yahoo, ICQ, Google Talk, Jabber and Facebook Chat), Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, Linkedin and E-mail accounts (Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo Mail, AOL/AIM Mail, IMAP, and POP). My problem is that I wanted to be logged in to all of my accounts, without having a internet browser constantly open.
Some Benefits:
- Instead of occupying your Windows Taskbar, Digsby disappears nicely into your systems tray with a button for each of your social networks so you can access them quickly and easily.
- Get pop-ups when new e-mails arrive without downloading them to your desktop.
- You can stay logged in, without logging in!
- Loads of customizable options. Meaning you can customize not only how your chat text looks, but the entire appearance of the chat along with different options on pop-ups and sounds. I’ve put my pop-ups in the bottom right corner to match Windows 7 new unobtrusive system-tray notifications and I only hear a sound when someone starts a chat with me.
- Read about Digsby’s other benefits.
The Downside:
- Well, the biggest downside to Digsby is the update process. Usually the updates are done as you open the program, causing a delay before you can access your accounts. However, the updates are beneficial because they allow the developers to let you know about any problems and fixes in the program – the developers are great about keeping users a part of the Digsby experience.
HootSuite
As I logged onto WordPress the other day, I saw a notification that sent me to a blog post about how HootSuite now has a WordPress Beta ability. I’ve noticed tweets sent from HootSuite, so I thought I’d check it out myself. Hootsuite has already become my favorite web application for managing the social networks I use most. HootSuite connects with Twitter, Facebook, Facebook Pages and Linkedin and now WordPress Accounts and makes them easy to interact with.
The BEST feature by far of HootSuite is that you can send tweets into the future! This fantastic feature is highly beneficial for small businesses to manage their business’ Twitter, WordPress blog and Facebook page. By sending updates into the future, you only have to sit down once to remind your followers of upcoming sales and ideas for the rest of the week. Or, at dinner time you can let your followers know how great your coffee shop is at 8AM!
As far as downfalls, I haven’t been playing around in Hootsuite enough to find any. It’s not a desktop application, so it hasn’t replaced Digsby’s place in my opinion, but it has made it easier to switch from computer-to-computer without downloading a program.
You’re definitely not the only one who is desperately trying to figure out how to manage your new lifestyle. Whether you like it or not, your life now revolves around your social networking accounts, especially as someone in the small business industry. You are your marketing and public relations representative, so represent your business wisely! I highly encourage you to check out both of these programs and discover others. You won’t know what is out there until you try it.
Contrary to traditional business practices, the internet is all about change. In order for your business to continue to succeed, you need to be willing to change with it.
Good luck!!
