As a consultant to both individuals and organizations in different industries, I am invariably asked one question early in the process: “What tools and apps are best for my business given the industry that we compete in?”. My answer is always the same: “There are different strokes for different folks!”. It’s true that certain applications apply better to certain users than others, but I have found that in most cases it is more important to ask how a client interacts with their clients than which solution is best for their specific industry or product.

One of the first solutions that I consider is the type of management application that will allow my clients to manage their daily activity across all platforms that they participate on. Some clients like to manage their Facebook, Twitter and blog platforms individually. However, most are looking for a new level of efficiency to handle the plethora of profiles that they have created over time. These clients want an aggregation tool that will allow them to post to one account and have it propagate across all of their profiles. Here are a few of my favorites:

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Flock This social media browser will feel familiar to any Firefox user. With a sidebar that gives you access to all of your favorite social sites and one-click access to your favorites feeds, Flock makes exploring your social media footprint a breeze. Though Flock isn’t an aggregation tool from the posting side it does allow users to access all of their favorite profiles from one screen.

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Streamy Streamy is a new find for us here at Vestor Logic but it delivers as an aggregation platform that allows users to dispatch their updates from a common interface to any and all profiles that have been setup in the system. The only problem I have uncovered so far is a frustrating process to import my feeds via an OPML file from my other reader. As of this post, I am still unable to pull them in. Hopefully, this issue gets resolved soon.

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Ping.fm A few of my clients have opted to use Ping.fm as a launch pad for all of their updates across each of their profiles. A list of simple codes can be used to post by email to a specific account or to all that are integrated in the system. Ping.fm is simple to use and gives the user the ability to post in one place and publish everywhere. It’s a good platform for anyone that is ok with the same posts appearing on each profile.

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FriendFeed I believe Friendfeed’s best days are still ahead. Real-time conversations and the ability to push updates out to tons of other platforms gives it a solid foundation in the aggregation space. Just be prepared to engage is speedy real-time conversations if you post something that others find to be worthy of a response. Friendfeed is a very powerful solution for anyone in the social media conversation.

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Like I said, there are different strokes for different folks, so the best advice is to give a few a try and see which one resonates best with your daily interactions. I think it goes without saying that each of these tools are in a constant state of improvement and revisiting your short list of solutions every so often may yield a surprising revelation as they continue to one-up each other. You may find that you fall out of love with one in favor of another. Don’t be afraid to make changes to bring even more efficiency to your online social media experience.