A successful social media campaigning requires more than just good content; it requires good planning, a constant source of content ideas and a good set of social media tools. When it comes to social media tools, browser extensions stand among the most valuable ones. These extensions are a valuable time saver, which means you can focus on being ‘social’ and worry less about managing the ‘media’. After thorough research work, I have collected six beneficial extensions that work for both Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox. These extensions will enhance the capabilities of the browser with additional features and improve your social media experience.
1.Hootsuite’s ‘Hootlet’
Size: 364KB
Download Link: Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox
Overview:
With Hootsuite’s Hootlet, you can quickly share web pages to all of your social networks via your Hootsuite account direct from the page as you search. First launched in 2009 for Chrome and Firefox, this free extension gives you access to all the regular Hootsuite functionality, with various options to choose the networks you share to and gives you ability to create and edit messages as well as scheduling selections. In addition to this, it will automatically shorten the link for the content before adding it into the message window.
Some great features of this extension are as follows:
• Share images and videos effortlessly
• Search social media alongside your Google search
• Highlight text to share directly to social media
• Share while you surf, with one click and without leaving your current window
• Discover geographically relevant social media with location awareness
2.Pinterest’s ‘Pin It’ Button
Size: 38.15KB
Download Link: Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox
Overview:
Make your whole “pinning” experience easier with Pinterest’s ‘Pin It’ Button. This basic tool is a great help in ensuring you remain active on Pinterest, as it will give you the ability to pin any image to your Pinterest page easily and quickly. Further, this extension is great for pinning relevant content to your Pinterest pages as you search and read; more importantly, it makes easy to pin your own images and blogs straight to your Pinterest accounts.
This extension works as a roll-over function; when you hover over the image the ‘Pin It’ icon will appear in the left hand corner. After clicking on the button, a pop-up window will appear that will enable you to save that image to a Pinterest board of your choice with a custom description. So, if you want to expand your Pinterest following and have your posts Pinned on Pinterest, this extension is worth downloading.
3.Klout (beta)
Size: 50.55KB
Download Link: Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox
Overview:
Influence on Twitter is not simply about the number of followers someone has, it is about a number of different factors, ranging from retweets to reach to interaction. Twitter influence analytics service “Klout” takes all of these factors and sums them up into a Klout score, which is the measurement of your overall influence online.
This popular Klout extension adds every user’s Klout score to their profile image in Twitter and gives you a measure of each person’s influence. Further, this extension ranks search results and lists, which is great, as it allows you to weigh how much importance you give to certain Tweeps. It uses over 35 variables on Twitter and Facebook in order to measure Amplification Probability, True Reach, and Network Score.
Now one thing might be coming in your mind, how to increase Klout score? Just follow below mentioned three steps to increase your Klout Score:
• Reply to people on Twitter and use @ sign. For example: @patnouhailler
• Consistent and repeated engagement on Facebook and Twitter will increase your score
• Interact often with people on Facebook in their posts via “shares” and “likes”
4.ShareAholic
Size: 151KB
Download Link: Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox
Overview:
Shareaholic is a must have browser extension for any blogger and is one of my most favorite social media tools for promoting content through various social bookmarking and sharing sites like Facebook, Gmail, Twitter, Evernote, Delicious, Digg, and many more. It has been the easiest, quickest and the most convenient way, by far, to monitor the success of my published content. Further, with this extension you can share any webpage with your friends, right from the page you are on.
Some incredible features of this extension are as follows:
• No registration required
• Save time and enhance your productivity
• Optimized to load instantly without slowing down browser
• Keeps your bookmark bar nice and tidy
• Makes all your shared links across all your networks searchable in one place
• Just one-click access to your favorite URL Shorteners (goo.gl, bit.ly, su.pr, etc)
• Ability to sync extension settings across multiple computers and browsers
• 100% secure
5.Pearltrees
Size: 151KB
Download Link: Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox
Overview:
Pearltrees is a free and unique browser extension that lets you bookmark your favorite websites in a uniquely visual way. It is a visual and collaborative library that lets you organize web pages, photos, files and notes to retrieve and share them anywhere easily. You can also share your website finds on Twitter and Facebook, as well as via email. If you are particularly proud of an entire tree you have created, you can also share it in the same way, and also embed it into your website or blog. With the help of Pearltrees’ community, you can discover amazing stuff related to your interests and enrich your account.
After you install the Pearltrees browser extension, you will have to create an account with a unique username and profile picture and then you have the option of adding several different Pearltrees toolbar buttons to your browser. Some incredible features of this extension are as follows:
• A great way to visually bookmark new web discoveries
• Share via Facebook and Twitter
• Embed your favorite Pearltrees in a blog or website
• Access your Pearltrees from anywhere: desktops, tablets and smartphones
• Keep everything you like: web pages, files, photos and notes
• Browse your favorite things blazingly fast
• Discover interesting new stuff in your areas of interest
• Collaborate on your favorite topics
6.Viralheat
Size: 17.79KB
Download Link: Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox
Overview:
Viralheat browser extension makes your social media sharing experience quite easy and quick. With the help of this extension, you can share stories, images, links & more without leaving the webpage. This extension spark’s your social engagement and helps you grow your audience.
After installation of this extension and signing up for free, users can click the Viralheat logo on the webpage they wish to share and after that Viralheat box appears with the information pre-populated. In addition to this, users can select an image, quote, link or text on any webpage and then right click to share via this extension with the option to use any of the publishing suite features to edit the post before sharing.
Some key features of this extension are as follows:
• Easy sharing to social media accounts like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google+
• Scheduled publishing with time zone support
• Text clipping & Image sharing with right click
• Shorten URLs with bit.ly integration
• With Geo-targeted publishing, you can target updates to Facebook according to state, city, country, or region
• Review and edit image selection, titles, descriptions, and more before posting with post preview feature
• Drag and drop images into your posts for more compelling content
• Saves your publishing history so that you can delete or edit scheduled messages or review previously published posts at a later time
According to social media prediction 2014, social media will grow exponentially in 2014; therefore, many marketers will be shifting a big portion of their marketing budgets to social media marketing. In order to survive in this fierce competition, you should determine perfect social media strategy and for that, you should choose smart social media tools. Above mentioned six extensions are my personal favorites and will definitely make your social media experience enjoyable by making your day-to-day social media tasks hassle free. These extensions will save you major amounts of time and help you work smartly not only for yourself, but also for your precious clients.
