I am frequently asked questions by small business owners regarding the role that social networking should play in the promotional strategy of their business. The most common fear that business owners share regarding the decision of whether or not to join Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. is the amount of time that the effort will require. Good concern!

I would never recommend that any business owner invest time or money toward something that does not provide a measurable return on investment. And the results from viral social networking are highly measurable. So, I have collected a few of my thoughts from my latest book (Increase Online Sales through Viral Social Networking) to share about social networking aggregation tools. Theoretically, social networking aggregation tools are designed to reduce a person’s time commitment in managing all of their accounts.

Some of the aggregation tools are excellent, and in my opinion, one tool shines above the rest. See what you think.

Q: How many different social media accounts do you manage?

A: I personally manage accounts on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

Q: How do you go about managing all the different accounts?

A: I invest approximately 10-minutes per day toward managing the accounts. I follow the 15-step viral social networking process that is detailed in my current book. The process produces maximum results in the least amount of time possible.

Q: Are you using any aggregation tools?

A: I have experimented with HootSuite, TweetDeck, and Ping.fm with varying success in managing my online brand community. Right now, my favorite aggregator tool is by far NutShellMail.com from Constant Contact. I have experimented with NutShellMail for the last several weeks, and to say that I am impressed, would be a significant understatement. I recommend NutShellMail to small business owners because it compiles the activity taking place within your online brand community (compilation of your Facebook friends, Twitter followers, and LinkedIn connections) and delivers it right to your e-mail Inbox in about 10, easy-to-manages batches a day. NutShellMail is an excellent tool for anyone interested in reducing their social networking time commitment.

However, reducing one’s time commitment with social networking is actually less about the aggregation tools that are used. Being efficient is primarily rooted in only investing time toward knowing what works and what does not. For example, did you know that sending more than two tweets per day on Twitter is essentially hypertweeting. In fact, more people will likely “unfollow” than will begin following you. Avoiding these types of common mistakes will save a business owner a ton of time and help boost results.

Q: Is it a good idea to aggregate since the audiences on various social networks can be different?

A: I have made mistakes using Ping.fm to distribute a single status update across Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. What I did not realize at the time was that the context of the post was personal in nature and therefore more relevant to my Twitter followers and Facebook friends but not appropriate for my LinkedIn connections. I later received negative feedback (constructive criticism) from one of my LinkedIn connections who let me know that personal-related updates where not appropriate. That was great feedback because it helped me refocus and greatly improve my 15-step viral social networking process.

Q: What are some tips, besides tools, to simply your social media streams?

A: One of the best ways a business owner can simplify or reduce their social networking time commitment is to only tweet or write status-network updates regarding content that really matters to the members of their online brand community (Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn). A business owner should also avoid the temptation of getting involved in time consuming Facebook games or other applications…entertaining but they do not serve a business purpose. Instead, focus on writing two posts or status updates per day on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

A business owner should also resist the temptation to turn their online brand community into a selling free-for-all by following a simple six to one (6:1) ratio. A business owner can maximize results by writing six life or professional-related posts-tweets to every one product or service-related post. This will provide your online brand community members with balanced and valuable content. Your Facebook friends, Twitter followers, and LinkedIn connections will feel informed versus being sold. This is such an important point that I devoted all of Chapter 7 to explaining it precise detail.