This is a incomplete, random list of tools I use with social networks. Not that I know what I am doing quite yet with social networks. It will take a while. I am just an app, software, and addon junky. So I look for software all the time and usually find something. Be sure and add your own in comments. I will probably try all of them.

First, I would like to invite all of you to Social Median, a different sort of network. It works like Digg, because stories can be "clipped" and commented on. It works like FriendFeed because you follow other "News Makers" and has groups. And it’s new and for some reason I can’t stay away.

Keeping Your Social Profiles Current

• Atomkeep – Yesterday I wrote a post about this one. I really like this service. Keep your profile details in one place and update your social networks and resumes from there. It saves time and helps you avoid multiple personality disorder. I still need to fill out my profile though. Anyone who signs up for the beta gets to keep their account for free.

Streaming Your Social Activities

• Friendfeed – The most popular.
• Profilactic – The most adaptible.
• Swurl – Archive and search your activities.
• OnASwarm – Find friends automatically
• Second Brain – Browse through your content with ease.

What’s News

Sometimes news just does not get around that quick. A story may be popular on a niche social site and may have not made it to StumbleUpon or Digg yet. Most social sites have a an upcoming or new submission page and sometimes this page has feeds. If you are in the right place at the right time, you may spot a story. Sometimes, the daily digests from social networks have stories that you can submit to other networks even a day later. What benefit do you get from this? Possible reciprocation. Getting known as a person who finds great stories and more subscribers to your blog.

Firefox Social Tools

• Shareaholic – Choose from multiple sites to submit to.
• StumbleUpon Toolbar – Self explanatory. One of my favorite sites. So I have a dedicated addon.
• TwitterFox – Not as obtrusive as other addons I have tried.
• ShareThis – Another addon that submits to multiple sites.
• Delicious Bookmarks – A necessity. I only use local bookmarks for logins and the like.
• MySocial 24×7 – For FriendFeed. I wish it would autorefresh
• GreaseMonkey Scripts – Only found these less than a year ago. Look around and search. There are a lot there. You will need this addon to use them.
• The sidebar trick – Screw addons. Do it yourself. The example is for the mobile version of Twitter, but this works for a lot of mobile web sites.
• Bookmarklets – No link. I just add all bookmarklets not covered by one of the tools above into one folder on my bookmark toolbar called "Link". This also has the bookmarklets for posting to my blogs and adding links to their blogrolls.

WordPress Social Tools

• Alinks – Install this plugin and link all your references to social networks to your profiles in every post so your readers can find you elsewhere.
• Disqus Comment System – Comment in the network
• FriendFeed Widget – A lifestream widget.
• Sezwho – Another commenting network.
• Twitter Tools – Notify your followers about new posts among other things.
• Profilactic Widget – I added mine manually, but here is a plugin.
• FriendFeed Plugin - Allows reader to comment on your post via FriendFeed.
• ShareThis – Allows readers to social bookmark your posts at multiple sites without cluttering your site up with button.

Desktop Social Tools

• Twirl – I like the ability to tweek the interface for FriendFeed and Twitter.
• TweetDeck - The ultimate Twitter listening tool with panels.
• Alert Thingy – Detects duplicates from Twitter and FriendFeed and gives you one.
• FeedDemon – A feed reader, but throw your network feeds into one folder to see them all at once

Online Social Tools

• HelloTxt – Notify multiple sites from one spot
• SocialPoster – Bookmark at multiple sites and choose dofollow sites, if you want.
• Ping.fm – Update all of your social networks at once.

Your Social Inbox

I have yet to move everything to Gmail. I still use Thunderbird. I learned about filters long ago. With filters, I find all the comments from my blog, all my friend requests, and my daily digests into one folder. In Thunderbird, go to Tools->Message Filters. Instead of typing an example out, I made a screenshot of my filters. I keep coming up with new ones as I go, so it is not complete.

Not Done Yet

Like I said, an incomplete list. What are your favorite tools?

I have been so wrapped up lately trying to replace desktop software with web apps that I haven’t looked into desktop feed readers for a long time. I used Firefox live marks until I realized that 700 feeds will slow down the browsing experience.

After that I went to Google Reader and have kept my feeds there for a while. I maxed out Google Reader with Monkeyscripts to the point it runs real lyslow and then I went to the mobile version in the sidebar of Flock.

But after I have seen what some desktop feed readers can do, I may be changing my mind about Google Reader. And a few will synch with Newsgator online so you don’t lose that "Access Everywhere" feature of Google Reader. This is not an exhaustive list, but just the few I found that went above and beyond the average features to a few you might not have thought of, but now you really must have. And I put free in the title because I actually found a few nice feed readers that cost.

FeedDemon

I downloaded this on a lark a few days ago. I figured if so many people liked it, I would give it a try. Google Reader was running really slow on refreshes and switching folders. Running my own web-based reader may not be faster in the the directory of a live site but running a desktop feed reader may be more responsive.

Within a few hours I had all my feeds in folders, something that would have taken forever on Google Reader. I then created three custom filters on the topics I now cover at three of my blogs. I then took the feeds of the top and upcoming stories of the social sites I visit and through them in one folder. I took the comment feeds of my blogs and put them in a To Do Folder along with the feed of the gmail account I use specifically for contact forms and social network friend requests. I might add a ReminderFeed in there. I am going to turn whatever I can into a feed. Your schedule, your contacts, your news rebuilds on the fly via one OPML file.

You notice a DoFollow folder, this is growing via using Fast Blog Finder.

Omea Pro

There’s sliced bread in there somewhere. So this is the best thing and sliced bread, if you need everything in one place. I have to admit that I have been looking for a way to minimize the amount of inboxes I have. But for now I have Thunberbird set up perfectly so that everything goes to the right place and I can usually blast through my emails in about 10 minute.

Newzie

I tried FeedDemon first. If any one of the feed readers in this list may replace it, it will be newzie. It monitors webpages as if they were feeds. You can set up word watches. You can create bulk channels, making multiple feeds at like one. It has a slideshow feature that allows you to blast through items

Aggrevator

This one will download, permanently store and index thousands of feeds. It is cross-platform and uses a MySql database, which means that you can run the feed database in one location and access it via a user interface from multiple locations. It also has a smart rating system built in that learns what you like over time and picks items of interest for you. Great for a data junkie. If you know you read something somewhere in one of the blogs you subscribe to, you will find it in Aggrevator.

Awasu

Awasu downloads and archives all feeds. It also synchronizes with third party feed readers like Google Reader, Bloglines and Gregarius. It can use Internet Explorer or Mozilla as the embedded browser to give you a choice. It archives all feed content and has an advanced search engine. You can set up search agents and search channels. There is a feature called a workpad that allows you to annotate feeds items and put all of this together in a report.

Another features of Awasu is plugins. With these you can have Awasu do a lot of other things like update databases and send emails. There is even a webscraper plugin to subscribe to pages without feeds.

RSS Bandit

This was a feed reader I used back in the day. Now it supports a multitude of languages. It will subscribe to newsgroups like they are feeds. It synches with NewGator online so you can access your feeds anywhere. There is a nested categories feature. It is the only feed reader I’ve seen with it. It gives you the ability to post comments from the reader.

Snackr

This is one I will still use. It is a random feed ticker. It pulls random items from your feeds and runs them news ticker style across any border of your screen. I find I comment more when I have very random choices.

I got sidetracked by all advances web apps have made and went looking for an online solution. I am happy with this solution for now and want to look into more options of turning email and other inboxes into feeds and bringing everything to one place.

A feature I would like to see is the ability to create watches that include one or any number of the folders, instead of just searches of all subscriptions.