In writing my new book on social media strategy and from teaching social media marketing and digital marketing for years I have collected a list if valuable references. Below is a list of what I have found to the be some of the top social media resources and tools in marketing, advertising and PR. Hopefully I have provided some references and links that you have not heard of and can benefit from today.

Click here for an updated list of free tools & resources.

For a view of the bigger picture. Look for my new book that lays out a comprehensive social media planning process for any brand, organization or individual. “Social Media Strategy: Marketing and Advertising in the Consumer Revolution” is coming out in October 2015 with Roman & Littlefield publishers.

It provides a step-by-step system for creating a social media marketing plan, but also looks at social media outside marketing for silo smashing integration across strategic business units. You can read about it here: http://bit.ly/Quesenberry

If there is a valuable tool or resource you use for social media that I have not listed, please let me know in the comments below!

Here is a list (by category) of social media strategy tools and resources.

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Social Media Monitoring & Metrics

Agora Pulse: www.agorapulse.com

Addict-o-matic: addictomatic.com

Brandwatch: brandwatch.com

Buzzsumo: buzzsumo.com

Cision: www.cision.com/us/social-software

Critical Mention: www.criticalmention.com

Hootsuite: hootsuite.com

How Socialble: howsociable.com

Iconosquare: iconosquare.com

Klear: klear.com

Lithium: lithium.com

Meltwater Ice Rocket: www.icerocket.com

Nielson Social: www.nielsensocial.com

NUVI: www.nuvi.com

Oracle Social Cloud: www.oracle.com/us/solutions/social

Radian6 (Salesforce): exacttarget.com/products/social-media-marketing/radian6

RankSpeed: rankspeed.com

ReviewTrackers: reviewtrackers.com

Simply Measured: simplymeasured.com

Social Mention: socialmention.com

Social Bakers: socialbakers.com

Socially Devoted Meter: www.socialbakers.com/resources/socially-devoted

Social Blade: socialblade.com

Sprinklr: www.sprinklr.com

SumoRank: sumorank.com

Sysomos: www.sysomos.com

Trackur: www.trackur.com

Twitonomy: twitonomy.com

Visible Measures: visiblemeasures.com

Unruly: unruly.co

Online Data Collection & Analytics

AlexaL alexa.com

Google Tools: www.thinkwithgoogle.com/tools/

Compete (Millard Brown Digital): compete.com

Cyfe: www.cyfe.com

Display Benchmarks: richmediagallery.com/tools/benchmarks

Google Analytics: www.google.com/analytics

Google Trends: www.google.com/trends

IBM Watson Analytics: ibm.com/analytics/watson-analytics

iSpionage: ispionage.com

Keyhole: keyhole.co

Kiss Metrics: www.kissmetrics.com

Kred: kred.com

Klout: klout.com/

ManageFlitter: manageflitter.com

Mention: en.mention.com

Moz Open Site Explorer: moz.com/researchtools/ose

New Share Counts (Twitter): newsharecounts.com/

Nexalogy: nexalogy.com

Omgili: omgili.com

Quantcast: quantcast.com

SEMrush: www.semrush.com

SharedCount: www.sharedcount.com

Shopping Insights: shopping.thinkwithgoogle.com

SimilarWeb: similarweb.com

Soovle: soovle.com

Talkwalker Alerts: www.talkwalker.com

Tweetreach: tweetreach.com

Twitter Advanced Search: twitter.com/search-advanced

Twitter Analytics: analytics.twitter.com

YouGovProfiles: yougov.co.uk/profiler#

YouTube Analytics: www.youtube.com/analytics

YouTube Trending: www.youtube.com/feed/trending

Social Media & Digital Media Research

Adobe Digital Index: cmo.com/adobe-digital-index.html

Affinio: www.affin.io/

Forrester: www.forrester.com/Social-Media

Gallap: www.gallap.com

Global Web Index: www.globalwebindex.net

Grama Hashtag Generator for Instagram: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/grama-hashtag-generator-for

IBM Watson Analyitics for Social Media: ibm.com/marketplace/cloud/social-media-data-analysis/us/en-us

Kantar Media SRDS: srds.com

Nielsen Social Media Reports: www.nielsensocial.com

Pew Research Center: www.pewinternet.org

Roper Center: www.ropercenter.uconn.edu

Simmons: simmonsssurvey.com

Social Explorer: www.socialexplorer.com

Social Media Collective: socialmediacollective.org

Statista: www.statista.com

Social Content Scheduling & Automation

Alltop: alltop.com

Buddy Media: www.exacttarget.com/products/social-media-marketing/buddy-media

Buffer: bufferapp.com

Chartbeat: chartbeat.com

Chhirp: cordproject.co/chhirp

Contentgems: contentgems.com

CoSchedule: coschedule.com

Crowdbooster: crowdbooster.com

dlvr.it: dlvr.it

Edgar: meetedgar.com

HubSpot: hubspot.com

IFTTT: ifttt.com

Later: later.com

Later Bro: laterbro.com

List-O-Matic: accessify.com/tools-and-wizards/developer-tools/list-o-matic

MissingLett_r: missinglettr.com

OptinMonster: optinmonster.com

Outbrain: outbrain.com

Post Planner: www.postplanner.com

Short Stack: www.shortstack.com

SocialOomph: www.socialoomph.com

Sprout Social: sproutsocial.com

Social Warefare: warfareplugins.com

Tailwind: tailwindapp.com

Thunderclap: thunderclap.it

TweetBot: tapbots.com/tweetbot

TweetDeck: about.twitter.com/products/tweetdeck

Uberflip: uberflip.com

Woodbox: woobox.com

Zapier: zapier.com

Zendesk: www.zendesk.com

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Social Media Content Creation Tools

Accelerated Mobile Pages Project: www.ampproject.org

Adobe Kuler: color.adobe.com/create.color–wheel

Canva: www.canva.com

ContenIdeator: contentforest.com/ideator

DesignFeed: designfeed.io

Design Seeds: design–seeds.com

Easelly: www.easel.ly

Emotional Marketing Analyzer (Advanced Marketing Institute): aminstitute.com/headline

Google Fonts: www.google.com/fonts

Google Image: images.google.com

Google Tag Manager: www.google.com/analytics/tag-manager

Grammarly: grammarly.com

Headline Analyzer (CoSchedule): coschedule.com/headline-analyzer

Hemingway Editor: hemingwayapp.com

LibreStock (Search Free Stock Sites): librestock.com

Over: madewithover.com

Phonto: phon.to/

PicPlayPost: www.mixcord.co/partners/picplaypost.html

Pictaculous: pictaculous.com

PicMonkey: picmonkey.com

Piktochart: piktochart.com

Pixlr: pixlr.com

Recite: recite.com

Relay: relaythat.com

Smartmockups: smartmockups.com

Spark: spark.adobe.com

Studio: madewithstudio.com

Tiny PNG: tinypng.com

Typorama: apperto.com/typorama

20 Free Stock Photo Sites for your Social Media Images:  blog.Hootsuite.com

Unsplash: unsplash.com

Word Swag: wordswag.co

Yost: yoast.com

Trade Associations, Awards, Conferences

Brand Innovators: brand-innovators.com/events

Content Marketing World: www.contentmarketingworld.com

INBOUND: www.inbound.com

INTEGRATE: imc.wvu.edu/integrate

Online Media Marketing Awards: www.mediapost.com/ommaawards

Social Media Marketing World: www.socialmediaexaminer.com/smmworld

Social Media Strategies Summit: socialmediastrategiessummit.com

Social Media Week: socialmediaweek.org

Summit: summit.adobe.com/na

SXSW: sxsw.com

SXSWedu: http://www.sxswedu.com

The Webby Awards: www.webbyawards.com

The Shorty Awards: shortyawards.com

The Mashies: mashable.com/mashies

Word of Mouth Marketing Association: womma.org

Social Media News & Insights

Chris Brogan: http://chrisbrogan.com/blog

Jeff Bullas: jeffbullas.com

Content Marketing Institute: contentmarketinginstitute.com/blog

Convince & Convert : www.convinceandconvert.com

FTC Disclosures: https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/business-center/guidance/ftcs-endorsement-guides-what-people-are-asking

Gartner Digital Marketing: blogs.gartner.com/digital-marketing

Grow: www.businessesgrow.com

Hubspot’s Inbound Hub: blog.hubspot.com

Marketing Profs: www.marketingprofs.com

Mashable Social Media: mashable.com/social-media

RazerSocial: www.razorsocial.com/blog

Social Media Examiner: www.socialmediaexaminer.com

Social Media Explorer: www.socialmediaexplorer.com

Social Media Marketing Magazine: www.smmmagazine.com

Social Media Today: socialmediatoday.com

Social Mouths: socialmouths.com/blog

Social Media Law Bulletin: www.socialmedialawbulletin.com

YouTube Video Creators: www.youtube.com/videocreators

Social Media/Marketing Podcasts

Content Inc.: contentmarketinginstitute.com/content-inc-podcast

Content Pros: convinceandconvert.com/podcasts/shows/content-pros-podcast

Influence Pros: convinceandconvert.com/podcasts/shows/influence-pros-podcast/

Social Media Examiner: www.socialmediaexaminer.com/tag/podcast

Social Pros Podcast: convinceandconvert.com/podcasts/shows/social-pros-podcast/

The Art of Paid Traffic Podcast: rickmulready.com/category/aoptpodcast/

The Business of Story: convinceandconvert.com/podcasts/shows/business-of-story-podcast

The Marketing Companion: marketingpodcasts.com/the-marketing-companion

This Old Marketing: contentmarketinginstitute.com/pnr-with-this-old-marketing-podcast

Social Media Channels

Wikipedia List of Social Networking Sites: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites

Also Download Overdrive Interactive’s 2016 Social Media Map for a list of social media channels and categories:

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