Starting a company social media profile can feel like a tough job. Plus, managing that profile can be really overwhelming. I’ve often seen people put in the effort to create their social media accounts, only to neglect them and let them slowly disappear because they felt too busy to keep up with the constant flow of updates from platforms like Facebook and Twitter.

So, I’ve assembled a short list of the Social Media Applications I absolutely love, because they actually save you a lot of time and energy. They make managing your online social network a heck of a lot easier, and the best part, they’re all free!

HootSuite

Hootsuite is a very popular social media aggregation tool, which essentially means it’s a website that allows you to manage your Twitter, Facebook, WordPress, PingFM, LinkedIn, FourSquare and MySpace profiles.

Having all your profile information in one place is a big time saver! With Hootsuite, you can schedule your social media posts to be sent out when you choose. Write all your tweets, status updates, blog posts, and more in one spot and have them shared online while you’re away from your computer.

Hootsuite’s ability to easily sort the information coming in to you from your networks means you’re going to get the messages you want to hear while clearing out a lot of the chatter.

SocialOomph

Socialoomph is another great management tool. What it lacks in sexy design and site partners, it makes up for in the analytics and friend & followers management.

Using SocialOomph to send out your tweets gives you the ability to schedule, save drafts and see all your updates in one place. There’s also a tool to track link click-throughs to get a sense of how successful your tweeting is.

But my favorite part of SocialOomph is its followers and DM management applications. On SocialOomph you can easily clear out your Twitter DM box, set up automatic DMs to new followers, vet your followers, and have the option to automatically unfollow anyone on Twitter who unfollows you.

TwitterSearch

Becoming a Twitter Search master is not as hard as it sounds. And once you know how to harness this amazingly powerful search tool, you’ll be able to finely target the Twitter conversations you want to be a part of.

Want to know what people are saying about their dog? Enter it into the search. Want to see who many people need gardening help? Enter it into the search.

Use Twitter Search to find Tweeters in your area. In the search bar on the home page enter: near:location within:distance in miles or kilometers. You can even enter a postal code or zip code into the “near:” query and get accurate results.

And check out the advanced search option to help get the exact information you’re looking for, fast.

TweetMeme

When it comes to successful social media marketing, if you don’t have people tuning in to what you are saying you might as well be talking to yourself. And one of the most powerful ways to build a Twitter and Facebook following is to share interesting links.

The tough part can be finding the links that will draw people to you.

Tweetmeme is a great site that collects the links that people are tweeting into one place. You can easily see what people are sharing and re-tweet it yourself. Plus, knowing what’s being passed around the networks gives you conversation starter ideas. So when you post a Tweetmeme link, don’t just re-tweet, use the link as an opportunity to engage with your followers.

Alltop

Like I said before, sharing interesting links from other web sources is a powerful way to gather people to your Twitter or Facebook feeds; also to your blog, and forums you post on. Sharing links is a great way to build credibility as being knowledgeable in your field.

Keeping on top of all the relevant links, however can be a daunting task. The web is full of information and sifting through the mass of articles to find something relevant can be very time-consuming

Alltop is the quick and simple solution to finding tons of links. Once you sign up with Alltop and create an account, you will be able to do a search on your relevant topic and find a wealth of information from across the web. And one of the best parts of Alltop, is you create your own homepage of links that you can refer people to.