I wanted to compile a list of some of the best websites, blogs, services and resources on social media that you may not know. We all spend so much time on the same sites online that sometimes it can feel like we have blinkers on and that we miss all the good stuff. I spend lots of my time researching posts for this blog and find some of the resources below invaluable for that task. You may know some or even many of the names on this list but hopefully you’ll find a couple of gems in there that you can bookmark and use for future use…
I only just discovered this myself but for movie buffs among you the site will be a real revelation. You get to see movies based on your friends suggestions and comments via Twitter. Playing with the site for a couple of minutes shows you just how large the possibilities are and it really is an incredibly useful site.
Who would have thought there would ever be dedicated blogs targeting a social network? Well this is the first of a few on the list and you’ll always find great news and updates on this site especially for those of you who work in the industry and use Facebook on a daily basis
Quora
This is a fairly new question and answer site that was set up by some former Facebook engineers. The site is getting great early adoption with all the key tech heads and I can already see huge benefits coming from it. One to watch over the next year.
Facebook Username
So many individuals and businesses always ask me how they can grab their username on Facebook instead of having an ugly URL full of numbers. All you have to do is click on this link (And bookmark it for the future) to claim your Facebook vanity URL.
Ranker
The guys spoke about this on the Simply Zesty show last week and it really is a very useful little site that basically helps rank stuff in lists. Now we all know the internet is full of lists so having a service like this to help sort them really is welcome.
This very useful tool on Facebook lets you find people, pages, applications and groups on Facebook all broken down alphabetically for your benefit. The downside of this is that it is the perfect place for stalkers to hang out!
Inside Facebook
If you were surprised that there was one blog dedicated completely to the topic of Facebook then you will be interested to know there is a 2nd (there are some other smaller ones too). Inside Facebook gives great analysis and often breaks news about new features and upcoming releases.
Twitip
This blog features news and as the name would suggest tips and tricks that will help you on Twitter. The blog was started by well known blogger Darren Rowse and features guest blog posts from avid Twitter users every day.
Facebook Blog
Facebook uses its blog to bring you news about the community as well as new features and cool things that it is doing. There is great content on the blog and a surprisingly large amount of interaction and engagement.
Weeplaces
You all know that am not a massive fan of Foursquare but plenty of people are and out of everything this has to be the best tool I have seen to date. It creates a nifty little map that shows off all the checkins you have made as a Foursquare user.FourSquare Visualization by WeePlaces.com from Eric Wu on Vimeo.
Manage Twitter
Out of all the tools that are based on Twitter this is the one that I get the most use of and use most often. It allows you to see who you are engaging with, who you follow that is inactive and a variety of other ways of making sure you are following and engaging with the right people.
Foursquare Blog
Sometimes the best place to get news about hot new start ups is not people on the outside but right from the horse’s mouth. The Foursquare blog gives avid users news about features, events and news from within the Foursquare camp.
Twitdom
With 1000s of Twitter apps it can be hard to find the app that you once saw and wanted to use again or even find an app for a particular task at hand. With Twitdom you can easily search the site for apps in it’s huge directory.
The Raven Tool
This one is a very new tool that aims to do something that everybody needs and that is provide accurate reporting around Facebook pages. Not only does it track engagement and visits on your Facebook page but it will also show who is coming to your site and if they are converting or not.
Plancast
Great way of letting people what events you are going to be attending as well as using this simple tool to plan your own events. The beauty of plancast is it’s simple design and ease of use.
I wrote about this site a couple of weeks ago and I have to say it is one of the simplest and easiest ways of finding good content and reccomendations based on what your friends do. Its a checkin based game that has nothing to do with location and focuses instead on content.
GotoWeb20
This is basically a listing site for cool services on the web. They display logos in a simple to understand way and it lets you find some fo the best Web 2.0 services on the web. Doesn’t profess to do a lot but what it does do it does very well.
Last FM
All the hype is around Spotify at the moment but with many not able to access that music streaming site it is well worth having a play around with Last FM. It’s like a constant radio stream that learns what music you like over time and allows you to interact with your friends and listen to their music.
Again this is the poor man’s spotify but it really does everything you want it do with the added bonus that the service is free to use. You’ll find most tracks and artists on this site and although the social features are not great you can build play lists and create your own library of music.
This one has been around for a while now and I have personally made plenty of use out of it. With 100s of video sharing sites uploading your videos can be painful but Tubemogul takes that pain away by allowing you to upload your videos to the Tubemogul servers and they then upload to a list of sites that you choose saving you heaps of time.
Notcot
One of my favorite sites on the web. This site is more for your pleasure than anything as it features lots of useer generated content covering subjects of food, drinks and design. The site is so beautiful visually that browsing it really does make your day.
Wordle
Fun little tool that lets you create very visual word clouds that you can use as you see fit. You can either enter your own words or even pull in your blog, website or RSS feed to create a word cloud automatically. Here is one I created in a couple of seconds for this blog…
Guardian Viral Video Chart
If it’s the weekend and I have a little bit of time to kill then one of my first stops will always be the Guardian Viral video chart. It is never going to be award winning documentary content but it will give you a laugh and sum up the best viral videos on Youtube each week.
Social Media Section Alltop
This is a great start page if you want to find all the latest curated social media stories. It features links to some of the word’s best blogs as well as content that their editors find on an Ad Hoc basis. I don’t use the other sections of the site but I find this one page alone is well worth bookmarking.
Scobleizer Tech Feeds
Robert Scoble is a well known blogger who spends a huge amount of his time trying to find the best content for others. He is probably one of the few examples of the favorites button on Twitter being used well and if youbookmark that page and follow it on a daily basis you’ll get a noisy feed that does contain lots of gems from around the world as he is doing all the hard work for you!
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