Streamlining Google+, Facebook, & Twitter

Images courtesy of Komodo Media.

Last week, Simply Stacie posted about the retirement of Google Friend Connect for non-Blogger blogs. Since I am hosted on Blogger, I am not worried...yet. As bloggers, we know how important social networking sites are: cultivating, maintaining, and promoting them. We get excited when our fans/followers interact with us - a kind of validation of our existence in the world wide web. What I've learned from blogging this past year is that bloggers need to be dynamic. I'm not a maven, necessarily, but I have learned that if I don't adapt to the ever fickle and changing environment of the internet, I will get left behind. So, in addition to Facebook and Twitter, I also hold accounts for Networked Blogs, LinkedIn,  StumbleUpon, and now Google+, all for the sake of my blog. We work tirelessly to engage our readers through these sites. But how can we stay on top of things when we have so many sites to keep up with? 

Through my research, I found a tutorial on how to streamline Google+, Facebook, and Twitter. Instead of posting updates on all three accounts, all you have to do is post on Google+ and it will automatically post on Facebook and Twitter accounts. I've used dlvr.it and Networked Blogs to do the same thing, but neither of these sites will post to Google+. Through a simple browser extension, SGPlus.me, updating your current blog feeds on all three sites is now easier. Before I tried it, I researched to make sure that it was safe, and so far, there are no red flags about SGPlus.me. The tutorial was easy to follow, which made set up a breeze. The only caveat is that SGPlus.me posts to your Facebook profile and not your blog's page. I know, I know, it's pretty much useless at this point and developers are working on it. Some folks have found a quick solution to this. They link up their Facebook page to their Twitter account. So when they post to SGPlus.me and add Twitter, it's now posting to their Facebook page as well. The thing with this is that your Facebook status update is limited to the 140 character limitation of Twitter. Hey, no application is perfect. So, is it worth it to use this extension? I'm not sure yet. 

My question to you is this: How do you manage your social networking sites? Have you found a free application (or extension) that helps you stay on top of things? Please do share.


Disclaimer: I was not compensated for this post. The opinions expressed in this post are solely mine. Use tutorial and browser extension at your own discretion.