How Tweet it is - or is it?

"Damn you, Stew Leonard," began a "tweet" posted on the Twitter instant message service on a sweltering morning in late August, freezing Rachel Begun momentarily at the grocer's Norwalk headquarters. "Damn you and your wonderful frozen yogurt."

In a single sentence, "2dolla_bill" captured the worst fears of businesses with respect to online social media bombarding the consumers that use their products and their greatest hopes to profit from such outlets.

If the flood of postings via Twitter, Facebook and other social media is dizzying to old-school businesses, entrepreneurs are fast coming up with tools to help those jumping in manage the deluge.

Want a ping when a keyword turns up on Twitter? Tap Tweet Beep. Need more than the 144 characters allowed for a Twitter entry? Count on TweetContd. Looking for a single page to view your Twitter activity? Check out Tweet Deck. Want to ensure loyalty among your Twitter followers? Go get some Twitter Karma. Are you a schedule freak who wants to compose a tweet for subsequent posting? Get in early on Twitterlater.