Maintaining your social media presence can be a daunting task.  Who has time to constantly post updates on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook -- much less read all the things posted by others?

First of all, you must come to the realization that you can't do it all and that not all social media platforms are worth your time.  For example, I only use Facebook to connect with my personal friends and family.  LinkedIn is my go-to social platform for business.

I used to have personal and business Twitter accounts, but it was too much.  So now I just have a business Twitter.  There are all sorts of tools and shortcuts that make managing social media easier.  Here are five of my favorites:

1. Word Press:  Without question, the best business blogging platform out there.  Templates make it easy to set up and the back end is easy to navigate.  If you want something custom, you'll have to hire a designer, but it is possible to do it yourself. If you want a more visual and edgy blog, consider Tumblr.
2. Buffer:  A tool that allows you to instantly share or schedule to share a web page, document, or just about anything else you can find in your browser on your LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, App.net, or Google+.  Top it up in the morning and you'll have scheduled posts all day long.
3. Feedly:  Replaces Google Reader as the number one RSS reader for collecting news in once place.
4. LinkedIn Share:  When you post a status update, LinkedIn gives you the option to also share it with your Twitter account. But Twitter does not share the photo or excerpt that appears on your LinkedIn update, so you may need to write something more descriptive. Also, once you've posted your update and it appears on your LinkedIn page, you can share it with your groups, too.
5. Twitter Lists:  Gives you the ability to organize the people you follow into groups.

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