This is a guest blog post by Leo Widrich, co-founder of Buffer, a Twitter publishing application. He writes Twitter Tips every week on his blog.
When Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg announced last year that we will be sharing twice the amount of content from just 12 months ago, there were some very interesting responses. Nova Spivack mentioned that this will cause a Sharepocalypse to happen.
Finding the right filters to optimize both sharing and consuming content is one of the most important ways of dealing with this information overload.
The current landscape of tools available to you is abundant, so let's narrow it down to 5 awesome tools that will help you battle social media content overload. This way, you can identify the top content, trends, and important news in your network and industry to stay in the know and ahead of the competition.
1. Summify
This tool allows you to connect your Twitter, Facebook, and Google account to feed it with the most popular stories in your network. The app picks the most valuable ones for you and gives you a digest of the top stories delivered via email, the web, or mobile. Users can customize the frequency by which they'd like to receive their digest (from once daily up to 4 times daily) as well as the number of stories highlighted per digest.
The suggestions are top notch, as the algorithm has been refined a lot in recent months to show top stories that suite your preferences well.
Bonus: You can now also “request stories on demand” with a new button whenever you need another dose of great stories.
2. Buffer
This tool gives you an easy way to master the sharing side of things. Whenever you find an article you like, simply click the Buffer browser plugin icon, and it will be added to your queue of tweets or Facebook posts. Buffer will "automagically" share it for you at a more optimized time as well as space out your shares throughout the day.
Spend a few minutes every morning to source your Twitter stream for the best articles that you can add to your Buffer account to be shared throughout that day. There's no hassle of scheduling involved, and doing so will help you build relationships with industry bloggers and thought leaders and make for an engaging and valuable Twitter feed.
Bonus: Now you can even Buffer your retweets right from Twitter.com if you have the Chrome, Safari, or Firefox extension installed.
3. SocialBro
An app that I've only recently discovered is SocialBro. It is a fantastic helper to understand your Twitter followers much better so you can offer them the right content. For example, you can click to see which countries your followers are from, what languages they speak, and identify their activity on Twitter.
It also offers a great analysis of the best tweeting times, based on when your followers are online the most.
Bonus: The app also gives you a list of your most engaged followers, so you can interact with them in a much more focused, targeted, and personalized way.
4. Bottlenose
This is the latest social media dashboard app from Nova Spivack, who wants to help you deal with the aspects of the Sharepocalypse. With Bottlenose, you have a great new way to activate monitoring functions that will only surface certain tweets and Facebook posts for you.
What's great about Bottlenose is that you can save your filters and create a whole new social stream that is much less cluttered and has a much higher quality rate.
Bonus: Be sure to check out the “sonar” map that allows you to visually see which topics you and your followers are talking about the most.
5. Twylah
Twylah analyzes your entire Twitter stream and then presents you with a new, beautiful rich-media site based on the topics you are tweeting about.
Especially if you have very little time to determine someone's tweeting habits, Twylah is a fabulous way to glance at the page and know what the person is all about.
Bonus: You are also able to publish “Power Tweets,” which help you to automatically group relevant content around the tweet you are sharing.
What other tools do you use to help overcome social media content overload and identify the most useful stories in your industry and network?
Kim Owens 7:05 PM on January 04, 2012
Great article Jeanne!
I use Hootsuite to manage my and my client's social networks, but they will require an Enterprise level subscription to also support Google+ pages ($$$$ per month), which is overkill for my purposes. What do you see as a viable replacement?
Leo Widrich 8:36 PM on January 04, 2012
Hi Kim, great to hear from you.
Oh right, yes, I completely understand, so unfortunately, there is no other app right now that supports Google+ as Google still has to release their API. Once it is out, I am sure that HootSuite and all others will offer Google+ support for you. :)
Robin from Summify 1:06 AM on January 05, 2012
We're honored to have the number one spot Leo, thanks! I personally use Buffer on a daily basis and find it extremely helpful for spacing out tweets and increasing engagement.
Leo also wrote a highly popular post on pairing Buffer with Summify: How To Be Awesome On Social Media In 20 Minutes A Day - http://smf.is/85Hcm
Aldo Baker 4:52 AM on January 05, 2012
Hi,
My name is Aldo Baker and I’m getting in touch with you regarding your website. I wanted to share the new infographic "Best Infographics of 2011", and thought this might interest your readers.
You can review the graphic at http://www.sodahead.com/fun/the-life-and-times-of-steve-jobs-is-the-best-infographic-of-2011/question-2374359/
If you like the graphic, I’d appreciate if you could add it to your blog or share it through your social media accounts.
I’m available Monday to Friday 8am-7pm CST, and can be contacted by my direct email me@aldobaker.com
PS. I am more than happy to help you share any future blog post you are trying to get more visibility to.
Thanks,
Aldo Baker
Marketing Director
Lindsay 4:54 AM on January 05, 2012
Leo - thanks, some great app's there, I give them a go today!
Nebulas Website Design Chelmsford 4:55 AM on January 05, 2012
Thank you for the great post. I have just installed Buffer into Chrome and works a treat. It saves time from using Hootsuite as I have to manually schedule posts within this. I will be using Buffer as well as Hootsuite from now on.
James Hicks 1:17 PM on January 05, 2012
Great tools - I use EACH one daily.
With all massive influx of data coming in via social media it can be difficult to keep track of, but being able to effectively monitor and respond to trends and events is where these 5 tools shine.
Matt 4:47 PM on January 05, 2012
I'd also reccomend Spindex and Cadmus
Josh 6:20 PM on January 05, 2012
I recommend Spindex and Cadmus
Boost-your-net.com
Kathy O'Reilly 7:57 PM on January 05, 2012
I personally love Summify! Which is how I grabbed this terrific article BTW. Thanks for a great piece. Very helpful tips!
- Kathy O'Reilly, Monster.com
James 8:38 PM on January 05, 2012
Great article. Hootsuite is my fav also. Nice to see there are some other great alternatives out there for filtering social content.
Karen O. 11:31 AM on January 06, 2012
I noticed you mention that SocialBro gives you a list of your most engaged followers. I'm a new user of SocialBro: how does one access that feature?
Dan 6:48 PM on January 06, 2012
I was curious as to anyone's thoughts on a similar tool that I have recently come across, called GIST...would love to hear user feedback?
Elizabeth Kramer 1:35 PM on January 09, 2012
Recently discovered Buffer myself and it is great. I would add Nimble to this list too and it keeps getting better as they add features!
Turki Fahad 11:07 AM on January 16, 2012
edintity - helps you manage your social content easily and freely. You can post to and stream from your added services and hopefully help you in your social content overload.
edintity.com
:)
Tammy 12:07 PM on January 17, 2012
"Finding the right filters to optimize both sharing and consuming content is one of the most important ways of dealing with this information overload." I'm surprised not to see MarketMeSuite on the list.
Maybe next time! This is the year of social curation and I think we've hit it on the head with our newest version (you can beta test it now :)
-Tammy