The new year is here and with that comes new year resolutions. Perhaps your resolution is to try to take your business to the next level. In the past you may not have had the time and you may think that it is going to be expensive. One of the easiest ways to take your business to the next level and to make it more efficient is to make your online and social media organization more efficient. There are some tools that can make this easier for you and they come cheaper than you might think.
What is going on in the world around you? You might not have time to visit the numerous news sites to stay as informed as you would like or so that you can get content for you to share on your website or social media. There are a lot of services out there that can help you aggregate news and content or find out what is trending on the web or social media and this extra help may be less expensive than you think.
Followerwonk
Follwerwonk helps you dig deeper into your Twitter profile’s analytics to help find out who your followers are, where they are located and when they tweet. It also helps you to find and connect with influencers in your particular niche so you can find out what is going on in the Twitterverse. It provides visualizations to compare your social graph to others and reports that can be shared with the world while hopefully helping get more followers. Find common users with the people who follow you and breakdown your followers by their social authority, tweet count, follower count and more. It can also tell you when your followers are active. One profile can be registered for free with limited data and plans with more access are available.
Google Scholar
When you need to find anything on the Internet chances are the first place that you go is Google. You may be looking for something more than just regular articles or news stories. You might need something more substantive like academic journals and articles. You want the facts and how conclusions were arrived at. If that is what you want Google can help with that too with Google Scholar. Find academic articles or case law quickly using the Google search that you have come to know and love. And it’s free to use.
Google Trends
What is trending on Google? It’s an important question since Google is the world’s most used search engine. Google Trends can tell you. It analyzes the top search queries around the world and can compare them to search queries over time. What is the world searching for? What are Americans searching for? Find out for free with a Google account.
Feedly
Everyone wants to be in the know today and with the Internet we all can be but on occasion it can be information overload. You may not have the time to look for stories or to figure out what is opinion, what is fact and what is spin. Feedly can help you with that by helping you discover content from numerous different sources. These can be regular publications, blogs or YouTube channels. You can also monitor keywords or follow your favorite Twitter influencer. Feedly will organize your content for you into a clean and minimalist environment and content can be saved for later or shared to social media. It is free to use and accounts can be linked via Google, Facebook, Twitter and more.
Content Row
What is going on in the world today? People used to sit around the TV or radio for the nightly news but the Internet has changed that. News can change in seconds or minutes and to get the most up-to-date news Content Row can help. It allows you to see the day’s trending topics and what is most discussed online. The program is in beta testing now but Content Row can do more. It can help with your own content as well by generating attention-grabbing headlines, counting words and converting your content for the web. Signup can be done through your Google account and is free.
Alltop
The US has many of the leading news agencies and outlets in the world, so what if there was a way to compile them all in one site along with some of the leading digital outlets thrown in. Add in some of the world’s leading news outlets and you would have a one stop shop. Alltop is just that. Want to be in the know? Head here to stay up to date with the top news stores here in the US and around the world. And its free.
What is going on in the world? What are people talking about? Find out with Flipboard. Flipboard is a news and social network aggregator so you can get stores from many of the most important sources in the world. It is customizable so you can also get stories about the topics that you care most about. Users can flip through articles like flipping through a magazine and stories can be saved. And it’s free to use.