one location to Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram, YouTube, and your blog, among others.
OnlyWire
OnlyWire (http://onlywire.com) updates up to 20 social networks simultaneously. It also passes updates between WordPress sites, RSS feeds, and social media channels.
OnlyWire also offers several handy mini-apps at http://onlywire.com/tools to facilitate sharing items quickly:
A developer API to custom-program content exchanges among your social media channels
A Chrome toolbar add-in that lets you quickly share web pages you like with your Facebook and Twitter accounts
A WordPress plug-in that automatically submits your WordPress posts to the social media services you’ve selected
An app to deliver material from RSS feeds to your selected social media channels
SocialFlow
SocialFlow (www.socialflow.com) is a high-end distributor of content and paid advertising across multiple social media networks. The company uses specific data to schedule posts and activities for times when your target audience is active on specific channels.
TweetDeck
Owned by Twitter, this tweet management tool at https://tweetdeck.twitter.com lets you schedule tweets, track engagements, and organize multiple accounts in one convenient location.
UberSocial
If you’re on your smartphone all the time, UberSocial (www.ubersocial.com) may be perfect for you. This Twitter smartphone app, available for Android and iOS, allows users to post and read tweets. Features vary slightly between the two device types, but all integrate LivePreview, which enables users to view embedded links next to tweets without closing the app and opening a new browser, making it an efficient way to use Twitter on your smartphone. Other features include cross-posting to Facebook, managing multiple accounts, and the ability to format your posts.
Snipping Ugly URLs
Long, descriptive URLs that are useful for search engines are also messy in email, text messages, text versions of e-newsletters, and blogs, and make it difficult to retweet within the character limits of some social-networking platforms. The solution is to snip, clip, nip, trim, shave, or otherwise shorten ungainly URLs with a truncating service. Take your choice of those in Table 1-2 or search for others.
The downside is that the true owner of shortened URLs may be a mystery, so it doesn’t do much for your branding unless you select the option to create a custom URL. Figure 1-1 shows a typical URL truncating service and the result.
TABLE 1-2 URL-Snipping Services
| Service Name | URL | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Bitly |
https://bitly.com
|
Free and paid versions, with history, stats, and preferences |
| Ow.ly |
http://ow.ly/url/shorten-url
|
Hootsuite’s URL shortener, free |
| Hootsuite blog |
https://blog.hootsuite.com/what-are-url-shorteners
|
12 of the Best Link Shorteners That Aren’t the Google URL Shortener |
| TinyURL |
http://tinyurl.com
|
One of the oldest and best-known truncators, free |
| Rebrandly |
www.rebrandly.com
|
Free and paid versions to share and track custom domain name URLs |
| 2 Create a Website |
http://blog.2createawebsite.com/2012/01/09/popular-url-shorteners-for-redirecting-tracking-affiliate-links
|
Comparison review article |
FIGURE 1-1: Enter a long URL at Bitly and receive a shortened URL in return.
Using E-Commerce Tools for Social Sites
If money makes the world go ’round, e-commerce takes the cybersocial world for a dizzying spin. Many options exist for promoting or linking to your online store from blogs and social networks, but several applications now let you sell directly (or indirectly) from social media pages.
Selling through links
The easiest way to sell from social networks and blogs is simply to post a banner or a text link to your own website or to other sites that sell your products (Etsy, for example). Additionally, you can post images on a site such as Facebook with links to your website or other sites.
Marleylilly is an online boutique
