Your Guide to the Most Effective Social Media Tools
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Why do you use social media?
It’s important to start with this question. And it’s not one to be considered flippantly. Every decision requires a ‘why’. Using social media is no different because aimless use of social media is distracting and unproductive.
Knowing why you need social media can help you properly align your social media activity.
Let’s go through some functions that are possible using social media which may help you respond fully to that question.
- Engaging
- Scheduling
- Designing
- Analysing
1. Engagement
One of the main reasons to be on social media is to engage with your ideal prospects.
Just like any social media network, we build it by
- Talking
- Listening
- Updating
- Sharing
- Connecting
You don’t need to be on every platform. Pick one to two channels and focus on those.
And always keep the #1 rule of social media engagement in mind: just be you.
2. Scheduling
Social media stays on 24/7/365. You can’t.
This is where social media scheduling comes in. Scheduling varies from the necessary posting to sending out links to evergreen content at a predetermined date and time. This way you get to have a presence on social media and meet your people where and when they are there, even when you can’t be or choose not to be.
3. Designing
Social media has grown from regular text posts to full visual and audio experiences.
With every social media channel now saturated with content, it’s more important than ever that content is not only captivating and engaging but also highly valuable. It’s not enough to stand out and catch their attention, you’ve got to be able to justify the investment of their TIME and ATTENTION.
Designing is no longer about what your post looks like.
It’s about the transformation experience. That’s the ultimate value-add.
4. Analysing
Good data and our ability to analyse the data is going to be what separates us from the rest of the pack!
Depending what your goals are some of the important aspects to analyse include:
- Post engagement
- Video views
- Reach
- Split testing
- Strategic scheduling
- Conversion
The list goes on.
Once you have identified the reason WHY you use social media and what you want to achieve from it, we can help you create a matrix that would help you analyse the impact of your actions.
We tell our clients all the time – do not fly blind. You’re wasting precious resources on social media doing things that do lead you closer to your goals.
Recommended tools:
1. Buffer
Buffer is our social media management tool of choice here at stepupprofits. In addition to its clean interface and unparalleled user-friendliness, Buffer provides great insights to help any marketer make the most of their social media marketing efforts especially if you’re focusing on Facebook and Linkedin like most of our consultants / B2B clients do.
2. Hootsuite
Still surprisingly the gold standard for social media management tools. Hootsuite allows you to schedule, track, and collaborate on your social media accounts. It’s particularly good for large organizations or agencies who manage multiple accounts and pages.
If you’re a business who has multiple platforms or brands, this is going to be our recommendation based on its superior analytics and ability to view your brand performance all in the one place.
3. Post Planner
Post Planner has a unique point of difference – it claims to apply science to social media and content to identify the best content for your audience. Users can browse Post Planner’s recommended feeds to discover new content, and its algorithms measure data from previous posts to predict future engagement and help shape social strategy. If you have a strategy that plays on what’s trending at the moment, you might want to give Post Planner a go.
4. Coscheduler
CoSchedule is actually a full-fledged marketing calendar embedded in your website. It works off the premise that your website is your central asset and links all of your platforms to your website using CoSchedule. You are able to plan, promote, and execute your entire strategy from a single tool.
5. Later
Later is the quintessential Instagram post scheduling app, used by brands like GQ, Yelp, and The Huffington Post. Later features an intuitive calendar view, bulk uploading, and a search function that makes it easy for Instagram marketers to find and repost engaging content.