One thing I’d like to clarify before continuing. Online social media promotion tools (such as the sites mentioned above) are best used as an extension of your existing, traditional marketing activities. The benefits in most cases result in:

• More targeted audience.
• Greater geographic reach.
• Reduction in marketing costs.
• Save time (in other words using time in a more productive effective manner).

However, the above are only some of the most immediate that come to mind.

One thing I always try to advise clients is to break down their business or blog promotion requirements to reflect the jobs (or responsibilities) at hand. Generally, there are four primary groups:

Management. Your are the blog and/or business owner. Your primary goal should be to raise awareness and visibility of your products, services, content, etc. You should work towards being the leader in your niche (whatever that is). Additionally, you’re the one that should seek out talent you require to that end.

Public Relations. You are the one that should be monitoring what visitors, blog followers, clients, etc. are saying about your blog and business. You should be responding to them and illicit discussion, creating “spins” and attention to your blog and the business or community it represents.

Marketing. Your job is to ensure you’ve targeted the appropriate venues to stream your information to (the blog, products, services, etc.) You are doing this to build traffic, that is one of your primary functions.

Sales. Your role is to find or create new business leads. As such, you need to establish an effective network in order to move forward, expanding it as new contacts are added to your database.

As I’m sure you can appreciate, most people who launch and maintain a blog, provide the functions at each level above. For many of us, that is where some of the questions begin. Which tool is best for which function?

The illustration below illustrates this issue:

As I’m sure you could appreciate, there are hundreds of social media tools available. In the above diagram, I’ve only selected a few of them. So… Let’s recap:

Managers/Blog owners can use tools like Pownce (closed on Dec. 15, 2008), Plurk, Twitter, etc so as to increase awareness of their information (as well as their visibility) within online communities. You are using a blog, right?

Side note: You can follow me on twitter here: @BloggerSavvy

Marketing gurus however, can best capitalize on tools like Stumbleupon, Digg, Flickr, Reddit, Furl, Delicious, Youtube, Newsvine, Mixx, etc. to get the “word out” where communities can access it and visit the appropriate content on your blog. Such tools provide a superior venue for increasing your blog traffic and at a cheaper cost, than traditional solutions.

The sales people need to maximize their contacts and find others contacts. Tools like LinkedIn, hi5, Bebo, MySpace, Orkut, Facebook, Freindster, etc. are best able to facilitate this. You can build your contacts much faster then via traditional methods.

Of course the PR people need to keep their fingers on the pulse. They need to be aware of what is being said and need to respond (which I’ll note in a moment). Some good tools to help monitor what’s being said about you in the blogsphere are Technorati, Backtype, GetSatisfaction, Twitscoop, etc. As I just mentioned, PR people need to respond to some of the things they find. Commonly, tools like Dig, Reddit, Flickr, GetSatisfaction, etc. provide the facility for effective responses to individuals and the community as a whole.

In conclusion, one point I’ve also tried to impress is to ensure you’re using the right tool to get the right response and right traffic. After all traffic just for the sake of traffic is a futile exercise. For example, I’d rather have visitors to this blog that are genuinely interested in the contents, than to have a ton of disinterested traffic that does nothing other than use my bandwidth up (costing me more money).

What tools do you use that I’ve not mentioned? What are your thoughts? Feel free to let us know in your comments! Any new startups we all should know about? – Announce them below.

• Enhanced blog visitor experience.
• Increased traffic and blog promotion.
• Improved security and blog performance.
• Simplified blog management and productivity.
• Better visitor communication.
• More effective search engine optimization.
• Greater integration with popular Internet communities and services.

In my post “Why Every Business Can Benefit From a Blog“, I discussed some of the tangible benefits inherent to businesses and people who maintain a blog. How blogs can improve your business growth. These plugins further enhance the effectiveness and usability of your blog.

All these plugins work with WordPress 2.6.3. Without further ado, below is my top 25, most beneficial plugins list (in alphabetical order).

1) Admin Management Xtended

Extends admin functionality by introducing: toggling post/page visibility inline, changing page order with drag and drop, inline category management, inline tag management, changing publication date inline, changing post slug inline, toggling comment status open/closed, hide draft posts, change media order, change media description inline, toggling link visibility, changing link categories.

Why I like it:

I can manage page/post visibility, order and more all from one single page – Easy and fast! It improves productivity.

Where to get it:

For WordPress 2.5+ only. http://www.schloebe.de/wordpress/admin-management-xtended-plugin/#english

2) Akismet

It checks each comment visitors type on your blog against the Akismet web service. If any of them appear to be spam, they are automatically marked as spam and automatically deleted after one month.

Why I like it:v

Automated spam removal and blocking. I don’t spend time filtering out spam. It keeps blog comments spam free, which improves visitor experience and reduce blog administration.

Where to get it:

It’s automatically included in the source files for WordPress. You just need to get a WordPress.com API key for it to work.

3) All in One SEO Pack

It automatically improves each post or page SEO by improving Titles, Descriptions, Keywords and Duplicate Content issues on a per post basis.

Why I like it:

You can leave it running on automatic, or more importantly tweak the SEO aspects of each page or post individually as you create and publish content. Also, you can return latter and make tweaks to improve SEO performance for each page. It helps build more targeted search engine traffic.

Where to get it:

http://semperfiwebdesign.com/portfolio/wordpress/wordpress-plugins/all-in-one-seo-pack/

4) Avatars

Makes it simple to include local Avatars. WordPress (from version 2.5) includes native support for global avatars. But, what about adding local (private) avatars for your users? Maybe your users don’t want a global avatar or are not able to set a gravatar up.

Why I like it:

It makes setting up user Avatars a snap. Avatars are a good way to not only add a bit of artistic flair to a blog, but more importantly to make it easier to spot comments from a specific individual (as his or her avatar will always be the same).

Where to get it:v

http://www.sterling-adventures.co.uk/blog/2008/03/01/avatars-plugin/

5) Better Comments Manager

Better Comments manager allows you to view your comments post wise, it also allows you to reply to your comments from within admin panel without you having to visit the site to respond to comments.

Why I like it:

Simple comment management and response from one page. Again, it improves productivity in that I can communicate with visitors (responding to comments and questions) from one page.

Where to get it:

http://techie-buzz.com/wordpress-plugins/better-comments-manager-wordpress-plugin-release.html

6) Better Howdy

Removes the “Howdy” and restructure the “Howdy” line in the administrative interface.

Why I like it:

We don’t say “Howdy” where I live, that’s lame. Also It provides better links and information (logged in user) on the Howdy line.

Where to get it:v

http://sivel.net/2008/10/better-howdy/

7) cforms

It’s a very flexible tool to deploy contact (and other) forms across your blog. It supports captcha, Spam protection, tracking and more. It was be a bit tricky for me to get working properly.

Why I like it:

It made the building of my contact page very easy as I needed a captcha feature to filter out spam messages emailed to me. It save me time.

Where to get it:

http://www.deliciousdays.com/cforms-plugin

8) Chunk Urls for WordPress

Shortens URLs in comments so that they won’t break your site design.

Why I like it:

Keeps things neat and professional looking. Shortens URLs automatically. An readers don’t see excessively long URLs in comments.

Where to get it:

http://www.village-idiot.org/archives/2006/06/29/wp-chunk/

9) Comment Approved Notifier

Sends an email to your commenter when you approve their comment.

Why I like it:

It allows me to communicate with readers. They see their comment was approved and are invited to return. Also, it’s automatic! That way, a reader can return and add more if they wish, or follow up on responses.

Where to get it:

http://www.yakupgovler.com/?p=291

10) Dashboard Editor

Allows you to edit the dashboard in the administrative interface.

Why I like it:
Keeps the dashboard clean, only showing what I really need to see.

Where to get it:

http://anthologyoi.com/plugins

11) FD Feedburner Plugin

Redirects to feeds to Feedburner.

Why I like it:

I can change the location of my feed without losing subscribers. Browser friendly and keeps count of my subscribers.

Where to get it:

http://flagrantdisregard.com/feedburner/

12) Google XML Sitemaps

Generates a sitemap which is supported by Ask.com, Google, MSN Search and Yahoo. Each time you add a page or post, it regenerates the sitemap and then pings (notifies) the search engines to tell them you have updated content.

Why I like it:

It’s automated and I can also tweak the post priorities, change frequencies, etc. I can even exclude specific posts or pages from the sitemap. it’s a nice tool to let Google know the blog is “alive”.

Where to get it:

http://www.arnebrachhold.de/projects/wordpress-plugins/google-xml-sitemaps-generator/

13) MySpace Crossposter

It enables automatic crossposting from your blog to Myspace.

Why I like it:

It’s automatic, I don’t have to keep manually logging into Myspace to add blog my posts. It’s a good to to help build blog traffic.

Where to get it:

http://noumenon.roderickrussell.com/wordpress-to-myspace-auto-crossposting

14) Register Plus

Enhances your blog’s Registration Page. You can add a custom Logo, password field, invitation codes, disclaimers, captcha validation, email validation, user moderation, profile fields and more.

Why I like it:

In addition to branding the registration/login to be consistent with the blog theme, it also avoids duplicate email registration. A big plus is that it also helps build blog traffic via the use of invitations, etc.

Where to get it:

WordPress 2.5+ only. http://skullbit.com/wordpress-plugin/register-plus/

15) Simple Tags

Extends the tagging in your blog.  Includes autocompletion, suggested tags, tag cloud widgets, related posts, mass edit tags, etc.

Why I like it:

When posting, I don’t have to manually type all the tags, just click the pertinent ones. If a tag does not exist, I can add it on the fly. It drives the tag cloud automatically – Simple to use! It’s another nice way to help promote to search engines. Viewing the tag cloud gives visitors an idea of the busiest topics on your blog.

Where to get it:

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/simple-tags

16) Sociable

Automatically add links on your posts, pages and RSS feed to your favorite social bookmarking sites.

Why I like it:

It does not slow your site down like some other related plugins do. I tested several of them and some of the better ones were very slow as they always connected to another web site first. This plugin is fast (local) and inobtrusive. It’s a great way to help get more exposure on some of the social sites, to let people know you have content they may be interested in. It can also be disabled on specific posts if need.

Where to get it:

http://yoast.com/wordpress/sociable/

17) Subscribe2

Notifies an email list of subscribed visitors when new entries are posted. Visitors can subscribe or unsubscribe to be notified at any time.

Why I like it:

It helps busy visitors with time management. Why visit a blog to see if there’s new content when you can be notified? Granted, another option is to use RSS, but I’ve found that email (like newsletters) is a great way to keep in touch and let visitors know what’s happening, and not everyone uses RSS. It’s also a traffic builder.

Where to get it:

http://subscribe2.wordpress.com/

18) Twitme

Automatically tweets your new posts on the twitter.

Why I like it:

Again, it’s an automatic cross poster, but more importantly, helps you keep in touch with your community and build traffic by letting twitter users know there is content of value for them.

Where to get it:

http://www.phpvrouwen.nl/twitme

19) WP-DBManager

Manages your WordPress database. Allows you to optimize the database, repair database, backup database, restore database, delete backup database , drop/empty tables and run selected queries. Supports automatic scheduling of backing up and optimizing of database.

Why I like it:

It improves my blog’s security by automatically emailing me a backup of my database every day. I don’t even have to do anything, just set it up and it runs. That’s a nice feature. If something happens, I can simply go to me email and restore the most recent database. You and your visitors don’t lose a lot of valuable content.

Where to get it:

http://lesterchan.net/portfolio/programming/php/#wp-dbmanager

20) WP-PostRatings

Adds an AJAX rating system for your WordPress blog’s post/page.

Why I like it:

It allows visitors to rate content, which helps you to see what is most in demand. As such, you’re better able to provide the content that visitors want. In a way, it’s another traffic building tool.

Where to get it:

http://lesterchan.net/portfolio/programming/php/#wp-postratings

21) WP-PostRatings Widget

Works in conjunction with WP-PostRatings above. Displays the most rated and/or highest rated posts and/or pages on your sidebar.

Why I like it:

It helps visitors queue into the most highly rated content. It helps them find the hotest content right away.

Where to get it:

Remember to install and activate WP-PostRatings first. http://lesterchan.net/portfolio/programming/php/#wp-postratings

22) WP-Sticky

Adds a sticky post feature to your WordPress’s blog.

Why I like it:

I can display announcement and sticky posts only when viewing categories or not. I can display an announcement banner or display the date instead of the announcement banner (on announcement posts).

Where to get it:

http://lesterchan.net/portfolio/programming/php/#wp-sticky

23) WP Super Cache

It’s a very fast caching module to help improve blog performance. Why have the server create your pages every time there’s a visitor? This plugin will cache previously created pages, to speed up surfing through your blog.

Why I like it:

I can turn it on or off as needed (even partially on). I can specify how long to keep cached content for. I can even prepare the blog for an expected spike in traffic by enabling the lock down feature. When this is enabled, new comments on a post will not refresh the cached static files. The lockdown feature is only useful if you are expecting a major Digg or Slashdot level of traffic to one of your posts or pages.

Where to get it:

http://ocaoimh.ie/wp-super-cache/

24) Wordbook

Allows you to cross post your blog posts to your Facebook Wall. Your Facebook “Boxes” tab will show your most recent blog posts.

Why I like it:

It’s automated and helps build traffic while letting Facebook visitors know when valuable content has been posted.

Where to get it:

http://www.tsaiberspace.net/blog/2007/07/29/wordbook/

25) Yet Another Related Posts Plugin

Returns a list of the related entries under each blog post,  (based on a unique algorithm) using titles, post bodies, tags and categories; with RSS feed support.

Why I like it:

It easily helps visitors find other content that may be of interest to them, and it’s also works automatically.

Where to get it:

http://mitcho.com/code/yarpp/

Again, these are the 25 I’ve found to be most beneficial not just to this blog, but others as well. Of course there are tons of other WordPress plugins that benefit us. Have a suggestion? Use a good plugin that I’ve not listed? Please, include the links in your comments below.

Update:

I’ve tested another plugin and it’s working great. It’s called What Would Seth Godin Do.

Why I like it:

It displays a custom welcome message to new visitors and another to return visitors; and I can place it at the top of posts and pages. I also like it because it automatic. (I like automated tools). Needless to say, it’s a good tool to promote features on a site, inform visitors, make announcements and lots of other benefits.

Where to get it:

http://richardkmiller.com/wordpress-plugin-what-would-seth-godin-do