7 Ways to Step-up Your Social Media Marketing

There’s no doubt that creating a significant online presence can be beneficial in marketing your business. But you should stop spending half your time juggling your social profiles and blog posts. While consistency and relevant communication is key in attracting online leads, adopt some social media upgrades in your marketing plan to help simplify your life and save your valuable time for business.

Here are seven enhancement tools — some subscription-based, others free — to help you hone your social media marketing efforts and get in front of your sphere more efficiently.

Flowtown.com: You don’t need to be on 80 social network sites. Find out where your clients are and go to them. Import your e-mail database into Flowtown to learn what percentage of your sphere is on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, MySpace, Flickr, and other Web sites. Flowtown will break down the data associated with your contact list by network, age range, gender, and location. Plans range from 10,000 e-mails for $17 per month up to 200,000 e-mails for $197 per month.

Ping.fm: Once you’ve established social networking accounts, Ping.fm can syndicate your updates to all your sites at once. Ping.fm also lets you post from your mobile phone, IMs, e-mail, and third-party apps. Although some marketing experts may argue that your content should differ among your social profiles, Ping.fm is a great tool for aggregating your blog posts to all your networks (see the tutorial video). Free.

HootSuite.com: This social media dashboard lays out your networks and blog account feeds on your desktop or smartphone, helping you to organize and publish messages quickly to multiple platforms. Don’t flood your contacts’ news feed; schedule your messages and tweets with HootSuite to be published throughout the day. This application also offers an integrated ow.ly URL shortener. Free.

Publitweet.com: Reading tweets can be like reading a foreign language to some people. Publitweet is a widget for your Web site or blog that translates Twitter lingo and abbreviations, such as @ and RT, for non-Twitter users to access your status content. Free.

Friendorfollow.com: Looking for a fast way to manage your Twitter contacts? Friendorfollow.com tells you who you’re not following back, and who among your follows is not following you. Simply enter your Twitter username and friendorfollow.com will generate a breakdown of your contacts. It’s a great way to make sure you’re reaching the right people. Free.

Fabusend.com: Put your networking profiles in front of your clients in every e-mail you send. This smart e-mail stationery company will help you create customized e-mail marketing with branded e-letterheads in which you can incorporate five live-link social media icons. When your contacts click on the icons, they’ll go straight to your Facebook page, Twitter profile, YouTube channel, blog, or LinkedIn profile. The service also provides tracking technology that lets you know if and when your e-mail is opened and how many times it was opened. Fabusend Premium version, with Live Links, is $238 annually. Use discount code RRF101 and receive $100 off, bringing the total to $138 per year.

Follr.com: An online social business card with Follr.com gives you the ability to display and link your social profiles, Twitter feed, videos, listings, and contact info in one professional spot. You can add a bio, work history, and personal introduction to your profile. This simplifies things when it comes to your old-school business cards — you need to include only one Web address (example: follr.com/user_name). Add it to your e-mail signature or make it your Twitter link. Free. (Add-on PowerSites, which are single-property Web sites, start at $50.)