Top 5 Social Sharing Tools of 2013

It’s always good to come back to these types of articles each year to see what’s new. The social sphere seems to be always on the go, and new tools and processes are being developed at a rapid pace. It’s clear to everyone that social media is getting to be a somewhat daunting task for businesses for several reasons:

• It’s no longer just Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. More and more social networks are becoming relevant and necessary to stay competitive—StumpleUpon, Google+, Pinterest, Reddit, Foursquare, etc.
• Social media dashboards can barely keep up and therefore usually only works for three or four of the social networks you want to utilize. This forces businesses to still spend time visiting other sites.
• It’s recommended that you share your content throughout the day and throughout the week on both your businesses accounts as well as your personal accounts.
• There are now solid analytics you can gather from your social media presence. No matter how great this may be, it adds work to your plate.

Because of the potential that lies within social sharing, many companies have actually decided to hire a social media manager full-time to take care of all of the data and procedures. Whether you fall into that category or this is going to be tacked on to your job, there is no denying that a few social media tools are going to be warranted.

Unique Social Media Tools of 2013 to Help Avoid the Headaches

This year has brought about several new social media tools, but unlike the past where most of the tools were designed to help keep you organized, the tools this year seem to be more focused on ways to improve your success by connecting with other users (almost like a social network within a social network). It might sound confusing, but I’ve tried all of the following tools and found them to simply just take social media organization to a new level:

1. Viral Content Buzz. The tool makes it easy to share other’s content and get other’s to share your content on a variety of social accounts such as Pinterest, StumbleUpon, and of course Twitter and Facebook (along with other features which you can learn more about here). It works on a credit system so that people pay it forward—if you want your content shared, you have to share someone else’s content. One of the things I love most about the tool is that all content is moderated before it becomes available to share, so you always know you won’t have to sift through anything that’s poor quality.
2. Shareaholic. This tool was formerly Sexy Bookmarks, so many companies are missing it this year. This tool allows a company to add a row of social sharing buttons on a webpage. They look nicer and load faster, so in my opinion this one is a no-brainer. Below is a screenshot of how the buttons would look:

   

3. Spotify. This is a social sharing tool that I think is incredibly underrated. The tool allows you to share the music that you’re listening to with friends, and the idea is that it’s a great way to learn about new music that those interested in you have discovered. The sharing works on mobile as well as desktops and the tool is completely free. This isn’t talked about much in the business world because not all businesses see the need; however it’s important to get creative are realize that this is what is interesting to the youth of today. If you are targeting a younger audience, consider sharing some music and getting a conversation started. Even though your followers/connections might click for music reasons instead of business reasons, it will still help you generate clicks.

• Buffer or Markerly. Now this might not seem like a unique tool (it’s been in the news for quite some time), but there are features of Buffer that still just aren’t being utilized. One thing I love about Buffer is the fact that you can highlight a piece of text and then tweet out that particular sentence or section of the article. Tools like Markerly capitalize on this by prompting those who highlight something to tweet it, but I prefer just knowing that Buffer has this capability and not be constantly prompted to share something I find important (I find it gets in the way of my reading). In other words, this is kind of a bonus point: If your’e a highlighter, consider Markerly or Buffer.

What social tools have you discovered in 2013? Let us know your favorites and how they work in the comments below.