Social media is probably already a key part of your marketing strategy (if it’s not…crawl out from under that rock).

But as many of you will attest, doing social media marketing effectively is a rather time consuming process. And when time’s a commodity that many small business owners lack, it helps to have tools to streamline the process.

Now before the social media purists out there cry fowl about automating your social media efforts – let me explain.

YES – I agree that often the most effective business connections and social media marketing efforts happen when you take an active role in the process.

BUT – there are many parts of the social media marketing strategy that can successfully be automated without compromising the quality of the results too much.

SO – Best Social Media Marketing = Blend of Manual & Automation

Anyway…now onto my favourite free social media automation tools:

• Social Oomph

http://www.socialoomph.com/
Social oomph does just about everything, from scheduling tweets and Facebook updates, auto-following, auto-Direct Messaging, to managing multiple accounts and tracking activity related to yout profiles.

• Hootsuite

http://hootsuite.com/
Hootsuite is a slick collaborative “Social Media Dashboard”. That said, it’s much more than a dashboard with scope to manage multiple accounts, assign tasks to team members and track/monitor your presence.

• Twitterfeed

http://www.twitterfeed.com
Twitterfeed is not just a feed for twitter as the name might suggest. It’s a great way for you to syndicate content (that’s available in a feed) to your other social media profiles…e.g. Your latest blog post shared on twitter, Facebook etc.

• Gist

http://www.gist.com
I’m only new to Gist, but it’s already proving very useful. Gist combines the information you provide into consolidated Gist profiles. Then, Gist goes to work on your behalf aggregating sources like blogs, Twitter feeds, company information, and news articles from thousands of news providers.

• Social Mention

http://www.socialmention.com/
When it comes to tracking social media mentions of yourself, your company, your brand, your products or even your competitors, there’s no easier way than through Social Mention.

Now – there’s plenty more tools and automation services out there in “social media” sphere…
If there’s a FREE automation tool you use to streamline your social media efforts, share it with us via the comments below.

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• Top 10 Free Social Media Tracking Tools
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• How to Use Social Media to Own Your Brand in Search Engines
• Dominate Searches for Your Company Using Social Media Profiles