How to Use Social Media to Find Good Deals, Fast

The internet is ripe with deals, and you can save on everything from toilet paper to technology if you know where to look.

Here's a quick guide on how to use social media to find the best deals online, fast.

1. Your first step is to find a favorite frugal blogger or two. You'll want to be pretty selective. The number of coupons and deals sites has exploded in the past few years. Some of these sites run the same codes from a subscription service, and many are for stores you'd never think of shopping from – and that means it will take you some time to sort through and find the good deals.

The best blogs will have handpicked deals, coupons and even freebies that are handpicked by an actual person who doesn't post every offer that comes along. If you're looking for cheap baby items, you'll probably want to follow a different set of frugal bloggers than does someone who's looking for tech deals.

Once you've found those blogs you love, sign up for their email newsletter and or RSS feed. "Like" them on Facebook and follow them on Twitter, so you never miss a deal.

You'll also want to check for money-saving blogs that are particular to your region, so you can be updated on events, freebies, and coupons for local restaurants, stores, and events.

2. Find your favorite companies on Facebook. Because of its immediacy, Facebook has become a preferred way of broadcasting information about new freebies and deals, especially those offers that are valid for just a day or two.

"Like" the companies and online retailers that you do business with regularly. Many companies will give coupons and free samples to facebook fans and friends, as well.

3. Follow your favorite merchants, brands and deal-icious bloggers on Twitter. Just like facebook, the immediacy of Twitter's updates make it ideal for broadcasting the best deals, fast.

Keep a lookout for hashtags such as #printable, #couponcodes, #coupons, #deals or #yourfavoritebrands. If you're always looking for deals in specific categories, look for twitterers and hashtags in your niche: @travelcoupons or @officecoupons, or @babycheapskate, for example.

4. Join social coupon sites. These daily deal sites, such as Groupon and Living Social, are a bit different from your normal coupon site, and here's why: Many of their discounts depend on a particular threshold of people wanting a particular deal. Once that minimum is met, the deal is on.

There are daily deal sites for the general population, as well as for niche groups. If you have young kids, make sure to sign up for Zulily and Mamasource. If you buy a lot of sporting goods, check out Active.com's daily Schwaggle emails.

5. Don't forget about all the supermarket savings. This is perhaps the best way to use the internet to save money because these are typically items you'd be buying anyway. Sign up with Coupons.com, Redplum.com and Catalina's CouponNetwork.com for grocery coupons you can print at home. These are refreshed each week (and sometimes new coupons are released for the weekend, as well.)

Other sites, such as SavingStar.com and Cellfire.com, allow you to save grocery coupons directly to your store loyalty card, so you don't have to print anything at all.

If you do any of your grocery shopping at Target, check for printable coupons at coupons.target.com – or download Target's mobile app from the Target site. If you grocery shop at a Kroger store, download the Kroger app to load coupons and view weekly ads on your phone.