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Social media enthusiast like you and me love to find new tools to increase engagement on our favorite social networks. Keeping on top of current events and trends on sites like Twitter and Facebook is also a great way to conduct research for our blog posts. Here are a few of my favorite tools to help curate content, sort through the noise, and focus our attention on the information and the users that are critical to the success of our blogs.

Twylah – In essence, Twylah is like your personal Facebook Fan Page only it’s for your Twitter stream. Pretty sweet right? Use Twylah to monitor your own behavior on Twitter. Your Twylah page will list the topics you Tweet about most often and this way you can ensure that you sculpt your stream with keyword rich Tweets for maximum SEO benefits. I spoke with the founder of Twylah, Eric Kim last week about what’s coming next. He said to be on the lookout in the coming weeks like analytics and he’s very hopeful we’ll soon have the capability to monetize our Twylah Fan Pages. Check out this video introduction to Twylah that I recorded for you and learn how to send a “Power Tweet”:

Pluggio – You’ll enjoy using Pluggio because of the user friendly interface and the plethora of functions you can access for Twitter account management. Pluggio can suggest new users to follow based on your preferred keywords and after using Pluggio for a few days, it will also suggest users to unfollow. On the right hand side of the interface, you’ll find over 20 short videos describing how to use each feature. Pick the feature you like and watch a 1 or 2 minute tutorial before you start your desired task. Scheduling tweets provides even more options than the popular Bufferapp allowing you to schedule different tweet times for every day of the week. You can authorize Facebook, LinkedIn and a host of other services via Ping.fm and discover new content by monitoring select RSS feeds.

Summify – signup for Summify alerts covering your Twitter, Facebook and Google RSS feeds and an email will show up in your inbox everyday with the top 10 stories from across these networks. It’s a great time saver and you can survive in a nice little “social media bubble” by reading and Tweeting exclusively from the list of posts in your Summify alerts for a few days if necessary. You can easily tweak the content in your Summify alerts and tailor them to your needs. Just, give the Thumbs down to bury any news sources you no longer have interest in.

Social Mention – is another email alert service that “monitors 80+ social media properties directly including: Twitter, Facebook, FriendFeed, YouTube, Digg, Google, etc.” BONUS TIP: Go to “Tools” and get a content rich sidebar widget from Social Mention with a scrolling search bar based on any topic you choose.

StumbleUpon – This may come as a surprise, because most people might not think of StumbleUpon as a Twitter app, but when you take a deeper look you’ll see how it works. Connect your Twitter account to StumbleUpon and take advantage of their custom URL shortener – Su.pr. Share stories on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn directly from the SU toolbar. On Twitter, links are shortened with a cutomized Su.pr link. Log in to to the Su.pr website to discover the number of likes and other Stumblers who retweeted your content!

Continue to Monitor Social Media Engagement

Check out these other tools to help you monitor engagement and evaluate your effectiveness at getting your message across:

EdgeRankChecker.com - shows you the Edgerank score of your Facebook Page

Klout -rates influence on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn and recently added a gaming aspect by allowing users to award each other a +K on topics they Tweet

PeerIndex – looks at authority and reputation across the 3 major networks

TwentyFeet – makes you aware of changes in engagement you might otherwise miss and integrates YouTube, bit.ly, and MySpace alongside the big 3

Paper.li - our favorite Twitter daily newspaper now incorporates Facebook searches too :)

Twilerts – track specific topics and emails you at given intervals

Google Alerts enhanced with YoLink – you already know about Google alerts but take them a step further by adding Yolink for a much more comprehensive report

Have you tried any of these yet? Pick at least one of them and take advantage of the wealth of information they provide. Just wait and see and in no time at all, you’ll have everything you need to become a social media research Ninja for your blog.

About Ileane Smith

I’m Ileane from Basic Blog Tips. On my blog you can learn how to use WordPress and Social Media effectively! Get free video tutorials for Twitter, Facebook, StumbleUpon, YouTube, CommentLuv, Podcasting and so much more! Check out my submitted posts here on Blog Engage and add me as a friend, from this link to my profile Ileane - I'm here to help so if you have a question, leave a message in my Blog Engage InBox!

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