If you are just starting out in social media or just confused about social media, you will find there are a lot of social media tools out there for you to pick from to help you.

There are social media tools to post, analyze, list, email…you name it, it’s out there.  Having the right tools will help you to create a successful social media campaign or even your own social media business.

I have pared down the list of everything out there to these 8 essentials and yes, I do use them all.  Since there seem to be more Twitter management tools out there over anything else, we will start with that.

1. ManageFlitter

ManageFlitter is a great tool to use to manage your Twitter followers.  With their free program, you can sort through who follows you, who doesn’t, who hasn’t ever tweeted and who hasn’t tweeted in a really long time.  It’s a great Twitter clean-up tool for you to use to keep only the best of your Twitter followers.  They have a Pro version that you can upgrade to that provides more advanced tools.

2. TwitList Manager

I talked about TwitList Manager in a previous post, 3 Programs to Effectively Manage Twitter.  This is great tool to place your Twitter followers in a Twitter List. When you start getting tons of followers, you will want to organize them into lists to better follow them.  With Twitter, you can have up to 20 lists.  I have some for those on Social Media, Non-Social Media, Georgia Football and friends, to list a few.

3. Social Bro

Social Bro is a really neat Twitter analyzer.  I use this as an extension on my Google Chrome browser.  With Social Bro, you can analyze your followers – find out where they are from too, manage your Twitter lists, compare your Twitter account to a competitor, get reports on your best time to post and follow & unfollow people.  This is newest tool I’ve started using.  It does provide some of each of the previously mentioned tools, but you can use each for something different.

4. Twellow

Twellow is like the Yellow Page directory of Twitter users.  Completely free to use, with Twellow you can type in your industry keywords and Twellow will provide you a list of who to follow.

5. SocialOomph

I also referenced SocialOomph in my previous Twitter post.  This is a great program to auto-follow new followers and send automatic direct messages to your Twitter uses for a very low cost per month.  Very worth it!  SocialOomph provides other levels of use, but I use it primarily for auto-follow and direct messages.

6. Buffer

Oh how I love Buffer!  Buffer is a great program that you can also get as an extension for your Chrome or Firefox browsers.  According to the Buffer site (which explains it better than I could!), “Buffer makes your life easier with a smarter way to schedule the great content you find. Fill up your Buffer at one time in the day and Buffer automagically posts them for you through the day. Simply keep that Buffer topped up to have a consistent social media presence all day round, all week long.”  Talk about easy!

7. Overall Social Media Management Software.  There are 2 popular choices, so I am mentioning both.

Hootsuite
Hootsuite provides a platform for you to schedule your posts for Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.  You can also respond to posts and pull in your different streams to view them all on one screen.  Hootsuite is free up to 5 profiles.  If you need more than that, you can go Pro or Enterprise.

Sprout Social

Like Hootsuite, Sprout also provides you a platforms to schedule and respond to posts from Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.  Sprout Social does not have a free version, but they start out very affordable.  I use this one.  Sprout also provides detailed analytics on each of your linked accounts.  With Sprout, you can manually pick a time or you can pick from the peak posting times they give you.

8. Aweber

Every successful social media marketing plan includes an email element.  I choose to go with Aweber.  Aweber integrates nicely with WordPress, Twitter and Facebook to provide avenues to gain subscribers.  You can choose from hundreds of templates for your emails.  There are other programs to choose from, but if you are starting out, this is a great one to go with!

Hopefully I didn’t totally overwhelm you with this list!  These are all fabulous programs to use.  I encourage you to check each one out to see what works best for you.  If you have one you love that I didn’t list, please comment below and tell me what it is!!

If this did overwhelm you and you’d rather someone else handle it, please contact me and let’s see how we can work together!