Being a traveler, running a blog, updating a facebook page AND sending tweets are all very time consuming. The last thing I want to do everyday is have a million webpages open to do all of the above. I enjoy being able to manage my time online, especially if I have to pay by the hour to use a wireless hotspot somewhere!

Let me introduce you to my travel companion, Hootsuite.

Before I knew anything about Hootsuite, I had the usual issue of having multiple tabs open all the time. One for facebook, one for Twitter (and only one account at a time!), this blog and whatever else I was researching at the time.

Hootsuite is a Social Media Dashboard. It puts streams of your favorite Social Media websites all on one page! This means that you don’t have to constantly switch back and forth between tabs or windows to figure out what’s going on. You can post updates and comments to each of your accounts from Hootsuite without leaving the page.

The free account of Hootsuite lets you add five social media accounts and up two RSS feeds for distribution. and 30 days of (their URL shortener) stat history. I use the free account because I’m poor, but it really isn’t much, it’s only $5.99 a month. But the pro version allows you to do SO much more that I’m sure I could take advantage of if I could afford it. You can add unlimited social networks, RSS feeds, stats history and Social Insights. You also get to add Facebook Insights, removed advertisements and much more.

As the Travel Blogger, I recommend Hoot Suite for the time and budget conscious social media enthusiasts as an online web app for the masses. It certainly has helped me manage all of my social media outlets and let me spend more time doing stuff that I love, like traveling!