Any successful marketing plan in today’s day and age must include a solid social media network. The web has taken over the world of networking, media, public relations, communications, and virtually (no pun intended) every form of marketing there is. However, with the world of social media continually growing and changing, it can be hard to keep up, especially for those who are unfamiliar with the topic in the first place.

Promoting Group has found a great software application, however, that allows you to combine several instant messaging programs that are found on the top social networking sites. Pidgin allows you to use one screen name to log on to a whole variety of instant messaging programs, including AIM, Facebook Chat, Google Chat, Bonjour, MSN Messenger, MySpaceIM, and Yahoo! Messenger among others. Pidgin is free, easy to use, can be downloaded directly from their website, and has won the Linux Journal Readers’ Choice Award for Favorite Communications Tool for the second year running, ahead of Skype.

By using Pidgin, you have the ability to keep all of your instant messaging programs straight, and you can be available for chat, file-sharing, and profile-viewing without having to log into each one separately. This will increase the number of people with whom you can communicate instantly, and you will not have to worry about lack of communication due to use of different programs. You can also impress your clients and customers with your vast social networking knowledge by immediately having access to sixteen instant messaging programs just through the use of Pidgin.

While most people tend to use one of the AIM, MSN Messenger, Facebook Chat, or Google Chat instant messaging programs, it can never hurt to branch out to those who use the less common programs, such as Groupwise. However, keeping track of sixteen different programs is nearly impossible in itself, let alone attempting to be available for communication on all sixteen at once. Pidgin allows you to combine your lists of contacts from each separate program into one list, separated by original application, in one window on your desktop. When singing into your Pidgin account, you will appear signed in to all of your other accounts, so you can communicate with others who have AIM or Google Chat regardless of whether they also are using Pidgin.

Check out the Pidgin website today and try it out for yourself. Like we said, it is free and easy to use, and easy to remove if you decide it is not for you. We think you will find it extremely useful!