Turn your Gmail account into a Social Media Managing Monster

If you’d like to be more active on your social media sites daily, but find that opening a multitude of windows and programs just gets overwhelming and so you miss out, check out these great add-on’s and widgets that can help you do more and be a social media monster, all from within your Gmail inbox.

1. Twitter is one of the most active social media sites, and it can be easy to spend lots of time there during the day. But if you run one of the many (great!) Twitter clients like TweetDeck or Twhirl, you might notice that it’s distracting, as well as possibly slowing down your computer a bit. For quick updates, try installing the Twitter Gadget for Gmail. While it may not have all the functionality of other Twitter clients, it lets you reply, retweet, or post an update quickly, and get back to business, all without leaving your email inbox.

2. Sharing Content – Looking for some content to share quickly through your Twitter Gadget? Try installing the Delicious Gadget. Essentially, you see a list of current links you’ve bookmarked, which make for easy reference for your social media efforts or to send via email.  Or, for Firefox users, you can install Google Reader as a sidebar in your Firefox window. Then, you can quickly grab a link to an article to share on Twitter, or you can share through Google, and again spread valuable content quickly without getting distracted by a new window.

3. Facebook is the definitely one of the most popular social networking sites, and I imagine many Gmail users have a account in Facebook. The Facebook Gadget for Gmail will allow you to see your friend requests, friend updates, photo updates and more within the comfort of your Gmail inbox

4. FriendFeed is a social networking aggregator that combines data from various social networking sites into a single place, allowing you to keep an eye on everyone you follow without having to visit individual sites. If you are a Friendfeed user, you can easily view your update streams in the Gmail sidebar with the Friendfeed Gadget.

4. Want more? – There are even gadgets for Digg and Flickr.

These widgets and gadgets are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to increasing your productivity within Gmail. If you’re looking for more, beyond just social networking and social media, check out these great resources:

14 Add-On’s that make Gmail more awesomely productive

How to make Gmail your ultimate productivity center

Don’t have the time or know-how to get these set up on your Gmail account? This is a great task for a social media virtual assistant to work on for you!