Inspired Magazine

14 iPhone Apps to Help Manage Your Social Media Accounts on the Go

Posted: 31 May 2010 10:08 AM PDT

This series is supported by Appboy – the most popular social outlet for mobile app lovers. Find out more about Appboy and be sure to check out their blog.

There are dozens of social media services available with hundreds of apps to support them. Figuring out just which apps might be useful can be a challenge.

Hopefully I can help. I’m not a Social Media guru, but Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and blogs are a part of my job on a daily basis. With only a couple of exceptions, I use all of the apps I’ve listed here on a regular basis, depending on what I’m working on or looking for.

Official Apps

When it comes to mass social media sites, there are really only three that I connect to on a regular basis, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. Each of these services offers an official iPhone app and for the most part they’re pretty good at doing what the service was originally created to do.

Facebook – Free

Easy access to your Facebook account. The grid interface gives you easy access to key areas that you might be looking to explore. Push notifications let you know when you have new messages or other details. Overall really easy to use and great for managing your primary Facebook account.

Twitter – Free

Tweetie 2 was regarded by many as one of the best twitter clients for iPhone. Well now it’s been bought by Twitter, had a couple of little tweaks made and it’s official. It’s still a great app, with a nice clean interface and easy navigation for one account.

LinkedIn – Free

This is the only app I use for LinkedIn. As soon as you open the app, you can easily see anything that requires your attention (new messages, etc.) that you have not responded to. The app also allows you to easily download contacts from LinkedIn into your address book.

Multi-service & Multi-account Feed Management (Twitter and Others)

If you’re anything like me, you’ve got more than one account, not just for Twitter, but for other services too. In fact, when it comes to Twitter apps, I actually have about a dozen on my phone, some I use more than others.

TweetList for Twitter – $1.99

A simple Twitter client that manages multiple twitter accounts. The clean interface is great and this app is really great for lists, which, in my opinion, is one of the greatest features that’s been added to Twitter.

Seesmic – Free

I don’t use the web or desktop version of Seesmic, but I do find the iPhone app quite handy. It’s great for quickly navigating between several Facebook, Twitter and Ping.fm accounts very easily. It doesn’t get too bogged down in features for each feed, whis is why I like it, it’s very quick and works well.

Brizzly – Free

Brizzly offers a nice simple iPhone app that works nicely with the Brizzly.com web service. I particularly like the “News” tab where stories and trending topics are explained by other Brizzly users.

HootSuite for iPhone – $2.99

HootSuite is my go-to web app for Twitter account management. The iPhone app gives me access to all of my tabs and feeds from the web version (I have over 30 columns/feeds) in an easy to sort through fashion. A lite version is available for free if you’re just looking to try it out.

Handy Apps for Facebook

For me, Twitter is mostly about information sharing and written content. Facebook is where I share more media content with Friends and Families. It’s also a repository of contact information.

VideoUp for Facebook – $0.99

It does what is says – allows you to upload video content to Facebook from your phone. Of course this only works for the iPhone 3Gs.

SmartSync for Facebook – $4.99

Sync all of your friend’s information to your address book, including profile pictures. Keeping your contacts up to date just got easier.

Facebook PixSter – $0.99

Easily upload pictures to your Facebook account. That’s it.

Blog Management on the Go

Most of the time when you’re writing a new post, you’re probably going to be sitting down in front of your computer. But what about when that great idea strikes and you’re nowhere near your computer? Maybe you just want to check in and moderate comments, or see what other contributors are up to. There are apps for that.

WordPress – Free

The official WordPress app gives you access to any WordPress blogs that you’re a part of. The app does allow publishing directly to the web, however in my experience it is best suited to drafts, particularly with my fumbling fingers. I actually started this post using the app.

TypePad – Free

The official TypePad app, if your blog(s) are on the TypePad Platform. I haven’t used it, but it seems to be well received and get good feedback.

iBlogger – $9.99

As iPhone apps go, this one is on the pricier side. If you’re a serious blogger though, iBlogger gives you the capability to do just about anything with a blog post that you might want. It really is a comprehensive blogging tool for your iPhone.

As ever, there are limits to how many apps we can include. I know there are more great ones out there, and would love to hear your thoughts on which apps you use for your social media management. If I’ve helped you find even one app that will help you, then I’ve accomplished what I set out to do.

header photo Martin Cooper – Inventor of the Mobile Phone – by Mark Berry

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Monday, May 31, 2010