Alternative Content Distribution Services

You can select from several content-distribution services to syndicate (copy) your content from one social media service to another. All the services work roughly the same way, but each has its own peculiarities. Choose the one that's the best fit for you.

Some free plugins are available for WordPress for this purpose. Another good resource is IFTTT.

Reconfigure your settings on content-distribution tools whenever you decide to add or drop a social media service or create a new, special-purpose group for marketing purposes.

Buffer

An easy-to-use app, Buffer allows you to preschedule content distribution to multiple social media platforms. It uses its own built-in link shortener to gather and compare data about the performance of posts on various channels.

Hootsuite

Self-described as "the leading social media dashboard," Hootsuite has expanded from its origins as a way to manage only the Twitter experience. From scheduling to stats, Hootsuite now integrates more than 35 social media channels, allowing multiservice postings from one location to Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Foursquare, Google +, Instagram, YouTube, and your blog, among others.

OnlyWire

OnlyWire updates up to 50 social networks simultaneously. It also passes updates between WordPress sites, RSS feeds, and social media channels.

OnlyWire also offers several handy mini-apps 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

Postling

Like Hootsuite, Postling (https://postling.com) lets you cross-post to all major social networking services and blogging platforms: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, WordPress, Tumblr, Flickr, CitySearch, and more. You can post immediately or schedule posts to go out at a later time. When people respond to your posts, Postling organizes those responses in one place and allows you to answer them from the Postling site. Postling emails a daily recap of the most recent activity on your social network sites, Yelp and Citysearch reviews, and relevant metrics, such as click through rates. You can also add other users for specific social media channels to help you respond to posts.

TweetDeck

Owned by Twitter, this tweet management tool lets you schedule tweets, track engagement, and organize multiple accounts in one convenient location.

UberSocial

If you're on your smartphone all the time, UberSocial may be perfect for you. This Twitter smartphone app, available for Android, BlackBerry, and iPhone, allows users to post and read tweets. Features vary slightly between the three devices, 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 sending tweets of more than 140 characters.