We were asked for a list of Social Media Tools that we would take on a 'desert island'. After some heavy debate and a few laughs we settled on our favorite tools based on these five critical factors:

1. Ease of use

2. Affordability

3. Time savings

4. Tracking

5. Overall reporting features

If you're looking for online tool to make managing your social media profiles easier then read on to see what our experts had to say...

Overall Social Profile Management Tool

• Sprout Social - The 30 day free trial initially covers Twitter, Facebook, and Linkedin. Then if you upgrade (after the trial) you can add in Google+, Foursquare, etc. It allows you to set-up and manage clients via different profiles. We have a detailed resource titled Manage ALL your social media efforts with Sprout Social! available within SearchEngineNews.com.
• SocialOomph - This is a paid or a free tool based on the features you're looking for. It does allow complete management of all the major platforms. It was a top recommendation from our experts to set up keyword alerts.
• Hootsuite - This is a great social media management/reporting tool for clients working with Facebook and Twitter. It's also an indispensable tool for scheduling as well as Facebook and Twitter content management.
• SocialBro - A complete Twitter management tool that has all the extras a serious marketer could want.

Tools for Content Distribution & Analytics

• BufferApp - A Smarter Way to Share. Be awesome on social media with this free app. Easily add great articles, pictures and videos to your Buffer and they auto magically share them for you through the day! Distribute content to major platforms, track your impact with analytics and invite your whole team to make consistent sharing easier.
• ViralHeat - Allows you to track and monitor your social media campaigns for most major platforms. You can read our detailed report on this tool here.
• SimplyMeasured - This software streamlines the process from data to deliverables and eliminates the countless hours spent on everyday reporting tasks. They do this by putting cloud data sources at your fingertips, providing a marketplace of best practice reports, and generating beautiful deliverables on the web, in Excel and in PowerPoint with a couple of clicks.

Tools to Help You Find Great Content Ideas

• GroupHigh - Blog outreach program. GroupHigh provides software that helps public relations, seo, and social media professionals reach out to bloggers.
• Help a Reporter - No such thing as free PR? There is with HARO. Help-A-Reporter-Out connects news sources with journalists looking for their expertise. It also allows you to easily monitor press requests and potential media opportunities for clients and our company.
• Scoop.it - This is a tool that allows you to create your own magazine or digest on the topics of your choice. In turn you can use this information to find really outstanding content to share or blog about.
• MuckRack - Cut through the clutter of Twitter to see what journalists are saying about any topic. Search journalists by name, beat, title, tweets or even by articles they link to.
• Zite - This is a tool that allows you to create your own magazine or digest on the topics of your choice. In turn you can use this information to find really outstanding content to share or blog about.
• Pulse - Pulse takes your favorite web sites and transforms them into a colorful and interactive mosaic. You can then take this information to create blog posts or share within your social media profiles.
• Flipboard iOS - This is another tool that allows you to curate all of the information from the sources of your choice so that you can use it to get caught up on the news within your industry at a glance.

Specialized Tools

• InboundWriter - Introduced in May 2011, InboundWriter is a cloud-based content optimization application that makes it easy for content marketers and professional writers of all types create more relevant and web-friendly content. InboundWriter integrates real-time search and social intelligence directly into the writing process itself, making it an indispensable tool for improving content reach and engagement.
• Scribe - This is THE BEST SEO tool for WordPress and other blogging platforms. It assists with content creation using the right keywords, optimizing the post for search engines and then walks you through sharing it as well as building incoming links.
• Woobox - Facebook App. Create coupons, sweepstakes, photo contests, polls, and custom Facebook tabs to woo your fans.
• Promoboxx - This is a brand to retailer marketing kit that allows brands to create turn key local marketing plans for their distributors.

We also have a great article recently published that goes over some of the very best, Must See Tips & Tools for Fresh Content Creation, Optimization & Distribution. Be sure to check it out for more depth.

Do you see your favorite tool listed above? If not, let us know what we're missing and I'll get it added to the list with your direct recommendations!