Social Network Automation refers to tools that are used to semi/automate the process of posting content to

social networking A social network is a social structure consisting of a set of social actors (such as individuals or organizations), networks of Dyad (sociology), dyadic ties, and other Social relation, social interactions between actors. The social network per ...

and

social bookmarking Social bookmarking is an online service which allows users to add, annotate, edit, and share Internet bookmark, bookmarks of web documents. Many online bookmark management services have launched since 1996; Delicious (website), Delicious, founded i ...

websites. Tools can range from mostly manual and free to semi-automated tools which are either commercial standalone software or paid subscriptions.

Background

Social networking sites (ex:

Digg Digg (stylized in lowercase as digg) is an American news aggregator with a curated front page, aiming to select articles specifically for the Internet audience such as science, trending political issues, and viral phenomenon, viral Internet iss ...

Reddit Reddit ( ) is an American Proprietary software, proprietary social news news aggregator, aggregation and Internet forum, forum Social media, social media platform. Registered users (commonly referred to as "redditors") submit content to the ...

Propeller A propeller (often called a screw if on a ship or an airscrew if on an aircraft) is a device with a rotating hub and radiating blades that are set at a pitch to form a helical spiral which, when rotated, exerts linear thrust upon a working flu ...

, etc.) run on a virtuous cycle of content (stories, pictures, videos) attracting users who interact with the content (voting, commenting) and who are then inspired to provide new content (original or culled from outside sources), thereby attracting more readers, etc., etc. (see

Web 2.0 Web 2.0 (also known as participative (or participatory) web and social web) refers to websites that emphasize user-generated content, ease of use, participatory culture, and interoperability (i.e., compatibility with other products, systems, a ...

) While much of the content is submitted by so-called-casual users a significant portion of stories are created specifically for social networking sites. These stores are generally submitted to several sites to maximize the return on investment. (Note that the motivation need not be commercial but may be personal or political (see Ron Paul for President) To aid people submitting stories to multiple social networking and bookmarking sites, a number of tools have been created.

Mostly-Manual Solutions

These solutions are characterized by the following common attributes: * Standalone, web based * Free * Direct URL submission * Significant breadth of sites (20 to 70) supported * Attractive UI * Lack of workflow * Low levels of error reporting

Semi-Automated Solutions

These solutions are all commercial software and do not seem to have been reviewed by an independent third party. They seem to all be standalone Windows-only based systems. They all claim to have the following features: * username/password login * low number of sites supported (20-30) * semi/automated site navigation * historical activity reporting

Miscellaneous Solutions: Buttons

Some vendors offer "buttons" that you can place under your blog posts that will automatically start the submission process for your content or which will more easily allow your readers to find and "vote" for your content on that service. As these seem to be less about automation and more about convenience they have been separated from the automation tools. However, there is some overlap, with some automation providers offering buttons. Many of the social networking sites also offer buttons, the most commonly seen being, of course, Digg's ''Digg This'' badge. and OnlyWire's

Miscellaneous Solutions: Toolbars

Many social networking sites also offer toolbars (mostly for Mozilla/Firefox and Internet

Explorer Exploration is the process of exploring, an activity which has some Expectation (epistemic), expectation of Discovery (observation), discovery. Organised exploration is largely a human activity, but exploratory activity is common to most organis ...

) which aid in use of the social sites. These toolbars also offer easier submission of articles to and voting on stories. However they seem to be more about convenience than automation, so they are separated as well. One of the best known toolbars is from

StumbleUpon StumbleUpon was a website, browser extension, toolbar, and mobile app with a "Stumble!" button that, when pushed, opened a semi-random website or video that matched the user's interests, similar to a random web search engine. Users were able to ...

Miscellaneous Solutions: Fully Outsourced

There are a large number of firms offering fully outsourced solutions for posting content to social networking and bookmarking sites. These are traditional consulting engagements and should be evaluated as such. Social network analysis