Best Social Media Tools

With the abundance of social media tools around today, there is a huge array of ways that you can start looking around at all of the ways to stay in contact with others. From the very simple, to the highly advanced, it is possible to stay connected to people in ways that were never previously possible which makes it much easier to get the results that you are after for both staying in touch with friends, to actually helping to spread the word about your business to the masses so that you can reach a huge audience in relative ease.

Social Networking Websites

With the abundance of websites such as MySpace and Facebook you will quickly see that it is possible to reach friends that you have not spoken to since you were a small child. Combine this with the power to reach out to friends that you still communicate with frequently and it can be a lot of fun to explore. By taking advantage of all of the options available, it is possible to not only share messages with your friends, but also engage in some games, discussions, and even sharing of messages, pictures, and special events.

Searching around the social networking websites like Facebook can generally quickly turn up a huge assortment of people that you know, and allow you to reconnect, schedule a reunion and chat back and forth quickly and easily. With a short amount of time, it is easy to see how sites like Facebook can quickly become addicting with the conversation style posting, and the ability to talk to everyone quickly and easily.

Usage of some of the additional applications that are included, such as Polling, and even Twitter can really take your Facebook page and improve it to a level that you are really happy to use as well as able to easily understand for the very best results possible instead of getting lost amongst the confusion of many of the more complicated options.

Using Facebook to its full potential can be quite rewarding, not only for reaching out to people that you know, but also making connections to others for business, marketing and even just looking to meet entirely new people. The groups, discussion boards, and even the fan pages are all great way to reach others that you might not have known before without complication since you are able to find people, groups and fan pages that are of interest to you based upon your own personal style and preferences.

Microblogging

The idea of blogging took the internet by storm, but who really has time to read tons of blogs? For those times when you have only something short to say, or very little time to do some catching up then microblogging is perfect. This hard pressed need for more time, and more information has lead to the abundance of microblogging sites such as Twitter, Plurk, Jaiku, and even Yammer. With different features across each of these popular websites, it is possible to find the perfect match for your preferred style of microblogging.

Some of the biggest reasons to choose amongst the various microblogging sites is the actual features that they each offer. While Twitter is the first site that typically comes to mind when microblogging is mentioned, it is far from the only option. With the ability to text, e-mail or login to the website to update the blog feed, Twitter prides itself on allowing millions of people to share their thoughts in condensed 140 characters posts at a time.

Another popular microblogging site is Jaiku, which is named after Japanese haiku referring to the way that the posts on the site actually look. Jaiku refers to posts as Jaikus and gives members the ability to add a badge, select their location, include web feeds and even create a customized background to fit their personality.

One of the most popular options, particularly in the Asian countries is Plurk, which allows short plurk messages of 140 characters to be shared amongst users. Allowing a unique timeline interface, Plurk allows for both friends as well as fans, and even cliques to break down friends even further. Getting started on the path towards Plurk greatness can even be paved with qualifiers, which are brightly colored words to help lend a colorful burst to the short plurks.

Yammer is heavily designed to be perfect for those who are looking to make business connections. With a business slant on Twitter style microblogging, Yammer only allows users with identical e-mail domains to join the same network which helps to further limit who you are able to interact with. With mobile clients that service most of the popular smart phones, as well as plenty of security features and even public or private groups it is designed to make it really easy to manage for business owners.

Videos

There is a huge draw to viral video. This can be one of the best ways to grab attention, just by getting in front of a camera; you can share your message and ideas with literally thousands of people in only minutes. Encouraging this phenomenon is sites such as YouTube and others that allow viral videos to reach the masses. Encouraging communication amongst users with comments and replies makes it even easier to stay in touch and the ability to use subscriptions to stay on top of your favorite channels can get you even further in touch.

Alternatives for those looking for live video feeds include Utterli, Ustream, Sessmic and even others. Trying to determine which is better amongst live feeds and standard viral videos will often depend on what you are looking to do, though the traffic to standard videos such as YouTube offers tends to be much higher, and can result in a much larger overall audience.

If you are looking to really reach out to people, video is a great way, with many people getting thousands of subscribers quickly, it can spread a message, or idea very quickly. Keeping in mind though that most people tend to get bored with very long videos is extremely important so that you can be sure you are looking for the best tactics to take in regards to all of the videos that you are looking to create and share.

Blogs

Bringing the ability to write online to the masses blogs have been a highly popular form of social media. With the ability to blog about anything that crosses your mind from a wide range of topics, to the specifics of only a single niche there is a huge array of ways that blogs can allow you to connect to people and share your thoughts.

From blogging for the purpose of just sharing your ideas, to blogging about products and businesses, there are blogs that are designed for personal usage, and others that are designed to help business owners connect to useful and valuable information that can actually help them and their business. Taking some time to carefully look over a few blogs, can allow you to learn more in a shorter time than most other websites which has helped to encourage their popularity.

For many, blogging sites such as Wordpress.com and Blogger.com are great options for blogs that are both free. With the ability to change the layout and style of the blog to fit your personal tastes, this is a way for you to quickly and easily tap into your favorite styles, and really find the best way to share information. Additionally, with plug-ins that allow other tools such as microblogging sites Twitter and Plurk to easily plug in, you are able to really create a truly custom solution that works perfectly for any usage.

Photos

Capturing the imagination of people all around the world is powerful, sharing information though used to be quite difficult. Now with the abundance of social media tools to help such as Flickr, Snappish and even Photobucket it is really easy to share pictures that can be e-mailed, linked to a blog or even shared around. Using the various websites can enable you to upload your pictures to a single location and share them across several locations while they are hosted on only a single site.

With picture streams created for both personal as well as business usage, there is a huge assortment of ways that they can be tied into a complete social media campaign. Many people use these types of sites to host the pictures that they post on microblogging, or even blogging sites so that they are not using excessive amounts of bandwidth that could get their accounts pulled.

Using tags, you can quickly and easily tag each photo with a few keywords to make it easier for others to find that have similar interest. This will allow you to really spread the exposure that a picture or photo can have, without feeling that you are running out of options. While traditionally you would have to e-mail links to all pictures you wanted to share, using the new methods for social networking you can spread them around very quickly.

Events

Organizing an event and actually getting the word out can be difficult. Trying to tap into as many resources as possible is very important and luckily there are a few options that you have to choose from quickly and easily. Some of the most popular include Yahoo! Events, Facebook events, and even Evenful. Using the tools that these event tools offer can help you to spread the word about your event much faster than you could otherwise do, plus enable you to reach a much larger audience. Making the time to really tap into the entire options that are available can help you to make your event a success, while perfectly fitting into all of your overall plans.

Working with an event tool within the array of social networking tools can be very helpful. Not only does this allow you to quickly schedule an event, but you can also invite people, obtain a RSVP and even respond easily, quickly and simply. You can also forward information onto others quite quickly which will make it even easier for you to share information about the event, without having to directly pass along all of the information yourself but rather use the social networking events tools to aid in your efforts.

Social Bookmarking

The power of social bookmarking is quite large. Taking advantage of the ability to quickly and easily share bookmarks to favorite sites, blogs, and even pictures with lots of friends can be a great help. By tapping into the resources that are all around, many find that social bookmarking is one of the best options for driving traffic to their content and getting attention from people from all around the world. Sites such as Delicious, Digg, Google, Reddit, and others are all huge helps when it comes to looking for a great site to use for bookmarking items to share with others.

By submitting the link, adding a few keywords and brief description you have the perfect way to send out information on articles, blogs and other interesting tidbits that catch your eye. Sharing the information with others can be great since it allows you to easily pass along ideas, advice, events and anything else that catches your interest without having to spend forever gathering links, and sending them in an e-mail.

Additionally, these sites offer the benefit of a link back to the website that was submitted which can be a great boost for page views, traffic and search engine optimization since it will enable people to reach the website much faster than would otherwise be possible, and make it much easier to get the results that are really needed, without any serious problems or complications. Getting information passed along quickly can often mean the difference between being factual and timely, or being a bit stale which can really impact the usefulness of content.

Social Networking Communities

As you are looking around for a slew of social networking options, the communities are a huge part that should never be ignored. With sites such as Ning helping to lead the ring, these sites help to connect people that share similar interest by allowing them to easily communicate, share information and content and have fun. As you can only imagine, it is a lot of fun to discover exactly how changes occur, and find out how they impact your internet experience. These networking communities are great for this, they serve to help pass along information really quickly that can be quite helpful for people.

Social Network Community Software

For those who are looking to find a good piece of software to use to create their own social networking community there are a few options to consider that are not only powerful, but also highly expansive and enable you to quickly and easily add the plug-ins that you need to make the site uniquely yours. Some of the most common options include Joomla! and Drupal. Both of these are free and open source software solutions that include a wide array of plug-ins as well as backgrounds and templates so that you can create the perfect site for you.

With plug-ins that range from membership management tools to event calendars, to even wiki styled modules there is an option that will help you to create the perfect community site for your needs. Joomla! Also offers a huge array of add-ons connected to the ever popular Community Builder plug-in that helps to create a full community similar to MySpace in many ways including profile pages, instant messages, friends and more.

While the software can be great for getting started building a social networking community, there are also times when it can be a bit limited. Getting it modified to perfectly fit your needs might require hiring a programmer which can get a bit pricy depending on your actual needs. Additionally, for those who are unsure how to get started, both Joomla! and Drupal are a bit complicated at first due to the large number of options that they include which results in a bit of a steep learning curve.

Wikis

For those who enjoy contributing to the websites of others, a wiki is a great idea. It allows the collective user base to readily make additions and changes that can then be published and modified as necessary to provide the most accurate and useful information possible. This can be a great help as you are looking for the ways to publish information but have no idea how to get started. The most popular and well known wiki is located at Wikipedia.com and allows users from all around the world to edit the listings to create a truly unique and user generated content base.

With the wiki software easy to add onto any website, it is quick and easy to add a wiki to any site which allows users to submit content to be reviewed and analyzed. As you can guess, this is a great way to obtain a large amount of content in a small period of time, but also makes it much easier to get the information that you need quickly since you are able to pull from the collective wisdom of users rather than severely limiting the options that you have.

White Label Communities

Using a white label community, you can create your own custom and branded social networking site. Working with the help of a company, you are given the actual hardware and software that you will need to make this a reality, as well as the required technical support to make it work. Getting a free solution such as Joomla! and then adding on a component to create a social networking site can be complicated due to the need to actually know what you are doing, and have the patience and time to install and set everything up. With a white label community, you are able to essentially receive a turnkey website that you can use for your employees, customers or any other purpose quickly and easily.

By utilizing a white label community, you are able to get your site setup completely for your needs when you need it. Examples of this solution includes sites such as WordFrame, Jiva, and Mzinga all offer complete white label community solutions that are able to adapt to your exact needs on a scale that works for your business.

Commonly used by corporations and other large businesses, the white label community options are not only good at helping to ensure a total branding experience, but also up to date on all software aspects without the need to have a full scale technical department overseeing the operation. The biggest downside can be the costs associated with the packages which can push it out of reach for many smaller businesses that are just starting to get a good social network built up.

Pulling it Together

With the rather large array of options that are available for getting in touch with people from all around the world, it is easy to see exactly how the internet has helped to create a large network of people all interacting together. From videos, to pictures, to articles, blogs, microblogging and more, there is enough ways to stay together that even telephones are often used.

Putting the right tools to usage for your particular situation can allow you to really ensure you are getting what you want and need, and at a price that is reasonable for your expectations. Getting a firm grasp on all of the aspects of your social networking goals can help you to ensure you are achieving the results you want, but also know what else is even possible that you might have completely overlooked in the process.

Seeking out the different tools can help you to know that you are getting the best reach possible, and sharing information faster than you ever thought possible, without the need to worry about what you are going to do, but rather enjoy yourself as you work to steadily increase customers and work out the best social networking options around.