Tweet this, update that, post something over there. With all the different social media platforms overtaking our lives these days, sometimes it can seem like an impossible feat to keep up with all of them at once.
Well, now the task of keeping all your connections compacted into a single source just got a whole lot easier manage, thanks to a few key apps and websites that streamline the process of staying social, and make sure you're always one step ahead of what's happening in the loop.
Alternion
If you're simply looking to consolidate the dozens of different streams you have strewn across several social media accounts into a one-glance experience, Alternion is the lightweight, easy-to-use desktop app that'll turn your dreams into a reality.
Alternion is a web application that will automatically pull down feeds from Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, G+, Tumblr, and 220+ other social networks and neatly organize them into a series of feeds that can all be seen from a single browser tab or window on your desktop. These means the next time some big news is breaking, you won't be scrambling to click through a deluge of different accounts to see what your friends are saying, what the media outlets are reporting, and who's taking pictures live from the scene of the crime.
Better yet, you can also use Alternion to keep all your email accounts neatly organized and feeding into the same window, so you never miss a beat whether it's in Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, or even your company's native email client.
Buffer
One of the first, and still one of the best, Buffer is a great way for both large companies and lone individuals to manage their social media presence through careful scheduling programs that allow you to strictly control when and how often content gets posted to your accounts. By carefully managing just how often your posts lands on a particular users dashboard, you can prevent people from getting fed up with you, all while leaving the business of posting to a robot who knows how to read their desires best.
Though the service is primarily designed for larger enterprise customers to feed out their daily content to users on a consistent, scheduled basis, it can also be just as useful for up-and-comers in the social space like aspiring YouTube stars, businesses who need their Twitter presence to work for them, or anyone who's still stuck thinking that Google Plus is a viable way to reach millions of readers at once.
HootSuite
Think one or two social media streams in a single window won't be enough for you? What if, while looking at your social media in one spot is nice, you'd also like a little extra information about how far your posts are reaching, who's reading them, and whether or not you're really having the kind of impact on the world that you think you deserve?
Hootsuite is a web app that shines out from the murky depths of the social media muck with its deep, rich analytics system that will keep you up to date on exactly how successful (or otherwise) each campaign or post is. It will also give you helpful tips for each that can aid you in adjusting when certain stories are posted, which audiences will see them the most often, and how you can use that information to maximize your exposure as consistently as possible.
HootSuite offers a risk-free 30-day trial, after which you can opt to upgrade to the Pro or Enterprise versions starting at $9.99 a month and raising from there depending on the number of accounts you want to pull under one umbrella.
Cloze
While most of the suggestions here suffer from being stuck on your desktop, Cloze will aggregate the glut of your social feeds into a swipable, mobile experience that's more intuitive than anything else you've seen before. Cloze is fairly similar in function to the other applications, though it boils the whole picture down into something that quickly and quietly tucks away in the smallest part of your pocket instead.
What we like about Cloze in particular is that unlike some of the other suggestions here, Cloze will actually monitor which accounts and companies you most frequently interact with, and use an internal algorithm to bring the most important people in your life to the forefront of everything you do.
Cloze can be downloaded on the iTunes App Store or from Google Play here.
Pixable
But, what if the real reason you use social media is just for the pictures? Like a storybook of all your friends, family, co-workers and loved ones, Pixable will automatically collect all the photos from the biggest social media portals like Instagram, Twitter (TwitPic), Tumblr, and Facebook and organize them into one consistent, scrollable stream of image-packed goodness.
Better yet, Pixable makes sure you won't ever get confused with which picture is coming from where by carefully outlining each new image in the color of its original source page. Facebook gets the blue and white treatment, Tumblr languishes in its deep navy, while Instagrams are framed in all their beige and brown glory.
Pixable is available as a desktop program, a web app, as well as being available on both iTunes and the Google Play store today.
Look, it doesn't take a sociology professor to point out that we're all suffering from a bit of social media overload these days. But who are they to say we can't make it a little bit more fun, and a lot easier to manage in the process?
Image Credits: Flickr/Yoel Ben-Avraham, Buffer Blog, Alternion, Pixable, HootSuite Blog, iTunes