Top 100 Social Media Tools

Social NetworkNot sure if this is something to be proud of, or ashamed about, but I’m using (or have used) about 70% of the applications in the list. The encouraging thing is to note how many of these applications are free to use. Others might have applicable promo code discounts.

The list has been compiled from a cohort of learning professionals who shared their Top 10 Tools for Learning both for their own personal learning/productivity and for creating learning solutions for others.

If you want to influence the list and rankings, then head off to the Centre for Learning and Performance Technologies.

TOP 10

Key to availability: D=download; H=hosted; C=insert code onto page

Ranking

Tool

Votes

Description

Cost

Avail

2008

2007

1

2

del.icio.us

58

del.icio.us
Social bookmarking tool

Free

H

2

1

Firefox

50.5

Firefox
Web browser

Free

D

3

3=

Skype

43.5

Skype
Instant messaging, VoIP tool

Free

D

4

7=

Google Reader

42

Google Reader
RSS/Feed reader

Free

H

5

3=

Google Search

38.5

Google Search
Web search tool

Free

H

6

6

WordPress

35

WordPress
Blogging tool

Free

H/D

7

5

PowerPoint

32.5

PowerPoint
Presentation software

£

D

8

14

Google Docs

29

Google Docs
Web-based documents

Free

H

9

11

Audacity

28

Audacity
Sound editor and recorder

Free

D

10

7=

27

GMail
Web-based email

Free

H

TOP 11-20

Ranking

Tool

Votes

Description

Cost

Avail

2008

2007

11

26=

Wikipedia

26.5

Wikipedia
Online encylopedia

Free

H

12

9

Blogger

26

Blogger
Blogging tool

Free

H

13

12=

Moodle

26

Moodle
Course management system

Free

D/H

14=

17=

iGoogle

20

iGoogle
Personalised start page

Free

H

31=

Slideshare

20

Slideshare
Hosting/sharing presentations

Free

H

16=

22=

YouTube

19

YouTube
Video hosting/sharing site.

Free

H

16

flickr

19

flickr
Photo storage/sharing site

Free

H

43=

twitter

19

twitter
Microblogging and social network

Free

H

19

31=

Ning

18

Ning
Social networking tool

Free

H

20

15

Wikispaces

17

Wikispaces
Wiki tool

Free/£

H

22-91

Ranking

Tool

Votes

Description

Cost

Avail

2008

2007

21=

22=

Articulate

15

Articulate
Presenter/Engage/Quizmaker

£

D

101=

VoiceThread

15

VoiceThread
Collaborative slideshows

Free/£

H

23=

12=

Bloglines

13

Bloglines
RSS/Feed reader

Free

H

26=

SnagIt

13

Snagit
Screen capture tool

Free/£

D

10

Word

13

Word
Word processing software

£

D

26

17=

Captivate

12

Captivate
Demo and scenario-based tool

£

D

27=

17=

Facebook

11

Facebook
Social networking site

Free

H

26=

iTunes

11

iTunes
Music and podcast player

Free

D

29

17=

Outlook

10

Outlook
Email software

£

D

30

43=

Flash

9

Flash
Animation authoring tool

£

D

36=

Google Calendar

9

Google Calendar
Web-based calendar

Free

H

-

Jing

9

Jing
Record/share screen captures/casts

Free

D/H

101=

Pageflakes

9

Pageflakes
Start page

Free

H

57=

Zoho

9

Zoho Suite
Online office suite

Free

H

35=

50=

Camtasia Studio

8

Camtasia Studio
Screencasting tool

£

D

31=

LinkedIn

8

LinkedIn
Social network

Free/£

H

17=

MindManager

8

MindManager
Mind mapping tool

£

D

38=

31=

OpenOffice

7

OpenOffice
Office software suite

Free

D

43=

PB Wiki

7

PB Wiki
Wiki tool

Free/£

H

57=

TypePad

7

TypePad
Blogging tool

£

H

41=

26=

Dreamweaver

6

Dreamweaver
Web authoring tool

£

D

36=

Google Maps

6

Google Maps
Maps of the US. UK, etc

Free

H

101=

SecondLife

6

Second Life
Virtual world application

Free

H

44

22=

Excel

5.5

Excel
Spreadsheet software

£

D

45=

72=

Adobe Connect

5

Adobe Connect
Web meeting/conferencing

£

H

-

Blogs/Blogging

5

Blogs and blogging tools
Of all types

Free/£

H/D

72=

diigo

5

diigo
Social bookmarking

Free

H

72=

Edublogs

5

edublogs
Blogging tool for educators

Free

H

72=

eXe

5

eXe
SCORM content authoring

Free

D

50=

FreeMind

5

Freemind
Mind mapping tool

Free

D

-

Garageband

4

Garageband
Personal recording studio

Free

D

57=

Google Alerts

5

Google Alerts
Keep track of new information

Free

H

101=

Google Apps

5

Google Apps
Communication/collaboration

£

H

31=

Internet Explorer

5

Internet Explorer
Web browser

Free

D

43=

iPod

5

iPod
MP3 player

£

-

72=

Keynote

5

Keynote
Presentation software

£

D

26=

Netvibes

5

Netvibes
Personal start page

Free

H

-

Nvu

5

Nvu
Web authoring tool

Free

D

-

Wetpaint

5

Wetpaint
Wiki tool

Free

H

58

72=

Adobe Reader

4.5

Adobe Reader
PDF Reader

Free

D

59=

50=

Adobe Photoshop

4

Photoshop
Photo/Image editing tools

£

D

-

Basecamp

4

Basecamp
Collaborative, project management tool

Free/£

H

50=

Elluminate

4

Elluminate
Web meeting/conferencing

Free/£

H

40=

Google Earth

4

Google Earth
Geographic information

Free

D

36=

Google Scholar

4

Google Scholar
Search for scholarly literature

Free

H

-

Linux/LAMP

4

LAMP
Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP

Free

D

72=

Notepad

4

Notepad
HTML and text editor

Free

D

-

OneNote

4

OneNote
Personal Information Manager

£

D

-

Opera

4

Opera/Opera mini
Web browser

Free

D

-

Paint.NET

4

Paint.NET
Image and photo editing

Free

D

-

Stumbleupon

4

Stumbleupon
Social bookmarking tool

Free

H

-

Ustream

4

Ustream
Live, interactive broadcasting

Free

H

-

Wink

4

Wink
Software demonstration tool

Free

D

72=

Yugma

4

Yugma
Web meeting/conferencing

Free/£

D

73=

22=

Thunderbird

3.5

Thunderbird
Email client

Free

D

74=

101=

Blackboard

3

Blackboard
Course management system

£

D

101=

Bubbl.us

3

Bubbl.us
Mind mapping tool

Free

D

-

ClassTools

3

ClassTools
Create Flash-based learning

Free

D

72=

Drupal

3

Drupal/DrupalEd
Content management system

Free

D

-

Filezilla

3

Filezilla
FTP client

Free

D

72=

Furl

3

Furl
Social bookmarking tool

Free

H

-

Google Analytics

3

Google Analytics
Website analysis tool

Free

C

101=

Google Sites/ Jotspot

3

Google Sites/Jotspot
Wiki tool

Free

H

-

iMovie

3

iMovie
Video editing software

£

D

-

Lectora

3

Lectora
Course authoring tools

£

D

36=

MediaWiki

3

MediaWiki
Wiki tool

Free

D

-

Polldaddy

3

Polldaddy
Polling and survey tool

Free

H/C

-

RSS

3

RSS
Really Simple Syndication

Free

-

-

Skitch

3

Skitch
Screen capture tool

Free

D

-

SMART interactive whiteboard

3

SMART Board
Interactive whiteboard tools

Free

D

-

Survey Monkey

3

Survey Monkey
Survey and questionnaire tool
Free

H

57=

3

Yahoo Mail
Web-based email

Free

H

91

57=

TeacherTube

2.5

TeacherTube
Instructional video sharing site

Free

H

92-133

Ranking

Tool

Votes

Description

Cost

Avail

2008

2007

92=

72=

Adobe Presenter

2

Adobe Presenter
Narrated presentations

£

D

72=

Cmap

2

Cmap
Concept mapping tool

Free/£

D

-

Comic Life

2

Comic Life
Create comics from photos

£

D

101=

CourseLab

2

CourseLab
Course authoring tool

Free

D

101=

CutePDF Writer

2

Cute PDF Writer
PDF Conversion tool

Free

D

-

digg

2

Digg
Social bookmarking and rating

Free

H

101=

eSnips

2

eSnips
Upload and share files

Free

H

101=

FeedBlitz

2

FeedBlitz
Feed to email service

Free

H

101=

Gabcast

2

Gabcast
Phone in your podcast

Free

H

-

Gcast

2

Gcast
Podcasting service

Free

H

-

Geogebra

2

Geogebra
Mathematics software

Free

D

43=

GIMP

2

GIMP
Image/photo editing tool

Free

D

72=

Gliffy

2

Gliffy
Diagramming tool

Free

H

40=

Google Desktop

2

Google Desktop
Computer search/organiser

Free

D

50=

Google Notebook

2

Google Notebook
Personal online notebook

Free

H

-

iPhoto

2

iPhoto
Photo management tool

£

D

-

Joomla

2

Joomla!
Content management system

Free

D

101=

Meebo

2

Meebo
Instant messaging tool

Free

H

101=

MindMeister

2

MindMeister
Mind mapping tool

Free/£

D

101=

Mozy

2

Mozy
Online backup tool

£

H

-

OmniFocus

2

OmniFocus
Task management tool

£

D

72=

OmniGraffle

2

OmniGraffle
Diagramming tool

£

D

-

OmniOutliner

2

OmniOutliner
Keep track of projects

£

D

-

ooVoo

2

ooVoo
Video chat and conferencing

Free

D/H

72=

Paint Shop Pro

2

Paint Shop Pro
Image editing tool

£

D

57=

Picasa

2

Picasa
Picture editing tool

Free

D

-

Portable apps

2

Portable apps
Suite of apps for a USB stick

Free

D

72=

Quicksilver

2

Quicksilver
Interface to work with PC apps on Mac

£

D

-

Remember the Milk

2

Remember the Milk
Manage your tasks

Free

H

72=

Safari

2

Safari
Web browser

Free

D

-

Scratch

2

Scratch
Create interactive stories/animations

Free

D/H

50=

Scribd

2

Scribd
Document hosting and sharing site

Free

H

-

Sony Vegas Video

2

Sony Vegas Video
Video production tool

£

D

72=

Tiddlywiki

2

TiddlyWiki
Personal wiki tool

Free

D

-

Trillian

2

Trillian
IM Aggregator

Free

H

-

tumblr

2

tumblr
Micro-blogging platform

Free

H

-

Ubuntu

2

Ubuntu
Linux-based operating system

Free

D

-

Wikis

2

Wikis
Of all types

Free

D/H

-

Windows LiveWriter

2

Windows LiveWriter
Desktop blogging tool

Free

D

50=

Yahoo Groups

2

Yahoo Groups
Community tool

Free

H

-

Zamzar

2

Zamzar
Online file conversion tool

Free

D

72=

Zotero

2

Zotero
Firefox add-on to support research

Free

D

About Steve Dale

Stephen Dale is both an evangelist and practitioner in the use of Web 2.0 technologies and Social Media applications to support personal development and knowledge sharing. He has a deep understanding of how systems and technology can be used to support learning and facilitate smarter working, where connections and conversations are the key to self-development and creativity within the organisation.
This entry was posted in Social Media, Software and tagged socialmedia. Bookmark the permalink.

50 Responses to Top 100 Social Media Tools

  1. Debi K says:

    Thanks for pulling this list together – with your feedback we can get more than two votes! Let us know what you’d like to see:)

    Note: Gliffy is a hosted program.

    Many thanks,
    debik at gliffy dot com

  2. Steve Dale says:

    Debi,

    thanks for the feedback. Have corrected Gliffy.

    Steve

  3. Peter - Camtasia Guide says:

    Amazing list of tools :-)

    Happy to see both Snagit and Camtasia on the list.

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  9. Jane Hart says:

    This list is not up to date. The up-to-date list is available at the Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies: http://www.c4lpt.co.uk/recommended/top100.html

    Jane Hart
    Head, Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies

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  14. F. Hill says:

    Thanks for the great list but I think that one tool is missing here – iSpring Pro (http://www.ispringsolutions.com), very accurate PowerPoint to Flash converter.

  15. Steve Dale says:

    Thanks for the comment re iSpring Pro. It’s probably not the only missing app, but so difficult to keep up with these things!

    Steve

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  19. Net Magellan says:

    The P in LAMP is PHP, not Perl.

  20. Steve Dale says:

    Thankyou – now corrected.

    Steve

  21. Twitter, facebook and digg are probably the most popular social media services today. Very good compilation covering almost every popular social media service.

  22. says:

    Good list but as a french langage webmaster i judge that dailymotion a video sharing service deserved to be part of this list.

  23. Steve Dale says:

    Ernesto – thanks for the comment. I wasn’t aware of Dailymotion Will look into.

    Steve

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  26. Paul Lewis says:

    Good list and a few more news ones that are worth taking a look at here –

    http://pglewis.co.uk/social-media/2009/12/10-top-social-media-tools

  27. Steve Dale says:

    Thanks for the new link Paul.

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  33. Carrol says:

    Nice site with good article information. Keep the good information coming.

  34. When I originally commented I clicked the -Notify me when new comments are added- checkbox and now every time a comment is added I get four emails with the identical comment. Is there any manner you possibly can remove me from that service? Thanks!

  35. Steve Dale says:

    Jeremy,

    not sure why this is happening, or how to stop it. I’ll look into.

    Sorry for the inconvenience.

    Steve

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  37. Michael says:

    Awesome,

    I really learned a lot about this subject, keep the nice work!

    Will bookmark this site for sure!

  38. List of Social Bookmarking Sites says:

    Good point. Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the visibility of a website or a web page in search engines via the “natural” or un-paid (“organic” or “algorithmic”) search results.

  39. Buddy says:

    $author Great thread. Enjoyed the posts

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  42. Excellent round up – many of these I’ve never heard of! I’m really excited to try Moodle.

  43. Reynaldo Beckelheimer says:

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  44. Raleigh Kolarik says:

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  45. Janice says:

    Today, while I was at work, my cousin stole my iphone and tested to
    see if it can survive a 30 foot drop, just so she can be a youtube
    sensation. My apple ipad is now destroyed and she has 83 views.
    I know this is entirely off topic but I had to share it with someone!

  46. karen says:

    Thanks for sharing these social media tools. But I wonder what tools marketing pros are using successfully.

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