Social Marketing Tools

Here is a list of some useful tools you should know for your social marketing campaigns.

Alert Service

Google Alerts — email updates of the latest relevant Google results (web, news, etc.) based on your choice of query or topic.

Bloglines — blog search engine and news aggregator that allows users to search for, read, and share updates from news feeds and blogs; founded in 2003 by Mark Fletcher; acquired by Ask in 2005.
Google Blog Search — an important blog search engine; launched in 2005.
IceRocket — blog search engine; founded in 2004; backed by Mark Cuban.
Technorati — important blog search engine; founded by Dave Sifry in 2002.
Yahoo Buzz — blog search engine.

Spinn3r — is a web service for indexing the blogosphere. It provides raw access to every blog post being published – in real time. Spinn3r provides the data, and you can focus on building your application, mashup, or search engine. Spinn3r finds the weblogs and RSS, index their content, fetch the links, index their comments, etc.

RAMP — is a Content Optimization platform solution for major publishers, media companies, and broadcasters. RAMP Content Optimization solutions provide customers with workflow, discovery and engagement solutions to drive monetization of online content. Leading global brands have deployed RAMP to maximize the reach and market opportunity for their online initiatives across web publishing.

Flickr — online photo management and sharing site that hosts billions of images and videos; launched in Canada in February 2004, bought by Yahoo! in March 2005.
Photobucket — photo, graphics, and video management and sharing site founded in 2003; bought by the Fox Interactive Media division of News Corp in July 2007 for about $300 million to complement MySpace.
Scribd — document library where users can publish and find information; founded in 2006.
Wikipedia — multilingual, Web-based, free content encyclopedia project written collaboratively by self-selected users from all around the world and overseen by volunteers; the most popular Internet reference site, it established in 2001.
Yahoo Answers — service that allows users to ask and answer questions; after Wikipedia, the 2nd most popular Internet reference site.
Yelp — local information guide with user listed and reviewed restaurants, night life, shopping, outdoor recreation, coffee and tea shops, salons and spas, events, and more; founded in 2004 by former PayPal executives Jeremy Stoppelman and Russel Simmons.
YouTube — service for uploading and watching on websites, mobile devices, blogs, and by email; founded in February 2005 and bought by Google in November 2006.

Google Groups — service that enables people who want to discuss common interests, both in traditional Usenet groups and in groups similar to mailing lists.
MSN Groups — service that offers free discussion websites that are created and managed by users; launched in 1995.
Yahoo Groups — service that allows users to set up both electronic mailing lists and Web-based discussion groups.

Eventful — service that allows its community of users to find, promote, track, share, and create events.
Going —service that allows users to search for events in thirty or more cities, and connect with others before, during and after those events; for 20-somethings; launched in November 2006; formerly HeyLetsGo.
Meetup — network of self-organized clubs and community groups that enable people to find others in their area who share their interests.

AOL Instant Messenger (AIM)
Meebo — enables over 100 million users to instantly connect, share, and communicate with all of their friends. Because Meebo integrates all social network and communication channels into a single, simple-to-use interface, users can easily share content and communicate in real time with the people who matter to them. Meebo connects people to their friends on the thousands of websites that have installed the Meebo Bar, on mobile devices, and through Meebo Messenger. Founded in 2005, Meebo is privately held. Investors include Sequoia Capital, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, JAFCO Ventures, Time Warner Investments, True Ventures, and KTB Ventures.
Windows Live Messenger
Yahoo! Messenger

Twitter — social networking and micro-blogging service where updates are displayed on the user’s profile page and instantly delivered to other users who have signed up to receive them; the service has been adapted for a wide range of notification purposes by users including universities and the Los Angeles Fire Department; founded by Jack Dorsey and Biz Stone; launched in October 2006.
Tumblr — micro-blogging site that hosts “Tumblelogs,” which have short, mixed-media posts that emphasize creative writing an videos rather than commentary; founded in 2007 by Jason Kottke. Tumblr lets you effortlessly share anything. Post text, photos, quotes, links, music, and videos, from your browser, phone, desktop, email, or wherever you happen to be. You can customize everything, from colors, to your theme’s HTML.

Podcast Alley — podcast directory launched in 2004 by Chris McIntyre. Podcast Alley is the podcast lovers portal. Featuring the best Podcast Directory and the Top 10 podcasts, as voted on by the listeners.

Flock — social network integration manager with its own browser; launched in 2005 in Redwood City, California by Bart Decrem and Geoffrey Arone.
FriendFeed — social network integration manager allowing users to keep up-to-date with friends’ web pages, photos, videos and music; launched in 2007 by former Google employees.
Plaxo — “Stay in touch with the people you care about”;social network integration manager that allows users to transfer their address book, friends list, and content to whomever and on whatever other participating sites they choose; it also provides automatic updating of a user’s contact information.
Yoono — “Get a life”; social network integration manager with a browser sidebar that shows friends’ pictures, online status, and updates of his friends on multiple sites; launched in 2008.

Feel free to share your preferred tools 🙂