Tweets & Hoots & Trills OH MY!!!

I have become a Social Media junkie lately.  Just when I think I have all the PM’s n posts n tweets I can handle, another one comes along that I just HAVE to be on.  The problem with this is that I am spending a LOT of time just logging in and out of all of these sites, and sometimes I forget to check them.  Mind you… I don’t just do this for me and MY businesses.  I also manage social media sites for some of my clients as well.  This has become a MAJOR part of my day, which I can’t really afford.  Then again… I also can’t afford NOT to be on these sites.  So… what’s the answer?

Several months ago… Michele, (the UN-techie one) told me to check out a program called HootSuite H O O T S U I T E.com.  I thought, oh no.. NOT another one!  I finally had time to check it out, and boy am I glad I did.  HootSuite is a program that consolidates a lot of your social media programs into ONE program.  I can open hootsuite and from there I am able to post status’ on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Ping.fm,  WordPress, MySpace & Foursquare with ONE CLICK!!  It’s pretty easy to use as long as you remember all of your passwords for all of your social media sites that you want to add.  Once you add them, hootsuite creates little picture icons right beside the status window.  You type what you want to post, choose the page or pages you want to post it on then click “send now”.  Voila!  All the pages you chose have been updated.  It also has a button to “send later” so you can schedule a time for posts to go out.  it’s really quick, really easy and now I find myself sitting here thinking hmmm I should be doing something… why am in not busy?  (like THAT would ever happen!)

Ok… so that takes care of most of my social media.  But what about all my different emails and the instant messengers?  Awhile back, I had a problem.  I had accounts on AIM, and ICQ and MSN Messenger and yahoo under several business and personal names.  I just couldn’t keep up with all of them.  After researching, I found this great program called Trillian T R I L L I A N.im.  I’ve been using this for years for my instant messenger accounts.  But in researching info for a show, I found that it’s come a long way baby.  Trillian can connect to multiple IM services, such as AIM, ICQ, Windows Live Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, IRC and a bunch of others, and email services, such as POP3, IMAP, Gmail, Hotmail and Yahoo! Mail which is what I’ve always used it for.  However, I found out it can now connect you with Skype networks; as well as Social Media Networks, such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace.  WOW!  now THAT’s a consolidator.  I have not tried it with Skype or Social Media yet, but you can bet I’m going to!

Trillian works as an instant messenger OR web based application and also has clients for iphone and blackberry.  Trillian has a free and paid version which is on sale as of this post for just $15.  I have been using the free version for several years now, but may just check out the paid version since it’s on sale.

I’m sure there are several more out there, but these are the ones I have experience with.  If you’re using something else that’s working LET ME KNOW and I just might feature it (and you) on an upcoming show.

I have one more thing before I shut up here… hehehe  previously, I’ve talked about email marketing services.  Using professional web based services to be sure the things you send out to your clients look and feel professional.  I’ve come across one that not only does that, but also request & accumulate customer reviews from your clients and will post your newsletters or announcements directly to your facebook and twitter accounts!!  There is a free 30 day trial and no credit card is necessary to try it out. Click here to check it out!

Until next time, this is Joannie Lenz The Girlfriends Tech Guru, Tweetin’ n Hootin’ n Trillin’ you the right way!!