5 Apps I Use for Cause Marketing

I'm frequently asked what apps I use to stay abreast of the latest news on cause marketing, how I add my two cents and find the occasional prospect. My list is actually a lot shorter than you might think.

Tweetdeck. Twitter is my main source of information on just about everything, including cause marketing. Just 18 months ago I read a slew of magazines and three newspapers a day. My inbox was peppered with daily keyword alerts from Google and marketing newsletters. Today, I only use Twitter. And on my desktop to manage the influx of info is Tweetdeck.

When I come across a tweet with a link I want to read later, I no longer save it to Delicious. I just favorite it in Tweetdeck. If I want to save it longer, I ship it off to Evernote.

Tweetdeck is great because Twitter search, Facebook and Linkedin can now all be viewed on one magnificent screen. Having access to Linkedin has been particularly helpful as I can see with whom my fellow cause marketers are connecting (thanks for all the great leads @davecause!). Sometimes they're people to learn from; other times prospects for business. Tweetdeck helps me manage both.

Tweetie. Tweetie is my iPhone app for Twitter. Minus the integration with other social media sites, it keeps me well connected with cause marketing news and with my followers. When I'm just tweeting, I almost prefer it to Tweetdeck.

PicPosterous. PicPosterous is the app I use to export pictures to my Posterous blog. But I use it even more now because Posterous is my default image service on Tweetie. So right from my iPhone I can snap a picture of a cause marketing program and use PicPosterous to instantly post the image on Posterous and instantly ping Twitter, Facebook Delicious, etc. In short, it's been a great way to share cause marketing pictures on-the-go .

Evernote. Check out my post Better Cause marketing with Evernote.

Foursquare. The location-based service is more than just something I use to check-in to Starbucks twice day. It's become a central conversation point for my talks with current and prospective partners on what shape the transactional cause marketing I do will take in the years ahead. I spend a good deal of time explaining to partners the potential of location-based services like Foursquare to cause marketing partnerships.

Tweetdeck, Tweetie, PicPosterous and Evernote keep me on track with my daily cause marketing activities. But Foursquare is my crystal ball. And I see a lot of check-ins with Foursquare in my future.