Five Social Media Tools for More Buzz for Your Buck Tapping into social media management tools can help business owners get a handle on their Facebook, Twitter and other online marketing efforts.

Whether you've been leveraging social media from the beginning or are just now boarding the Twitter train into the forbidden forest of Facebook, it's time to get a handle on your social media efforts. With all the chatter, real-time updates and "Fail Whales" looming, managing a social media presence effectively can be a headache and a half.

There are a few ways to tackle social media: in-house, through an outsourced agency or with short-term or ongoing consultants. If you've decided a full-fledged social media company doesn't fit your budget, there are some great and economical DIY solutions available to small businesses.

"We use a variety of tools to manage our social media engagement, including Actionly, TweetDeck, Google Alerts and Hyper Alerts," says Stephanie Bullis of Grasshopper, a virtual phone system designed for small businesses. "The analytics that these tools provide allow us to better understand the social platforms that our customers are using most."