Social media tools are web applications created to do a variety of tasks. There are free and premium applications available. They can work on desktop or mobile. Some are mobile-only.
Some of the things that social media tools can do include:
- Monitor performance
- Schedule and post to your accounts
- Follow and unfollow
- Monitor your competitors
- Aggregate content that you are interested in or would like to share
- Design attractive posts
- Shoot and edit video
- Collaborate with colleagues
Why use social media tools
Social media tools can help you create a richer experience for your visitors and better track your Return on Investment (ROI). They can also speed up your workflow. Doing a quick overlay in a social media app is much faster than opening Photoshop. Editing a video of your company picnic on your phone is easier and more economical than hiring a film crew.
Most importantly, these tools are designed to make sharing easier, which should help you better connect with your audience. If your tool doesn’t result in more engagement, you might as well delete it and try something else.
Popular social media tools
Hootsuite: Hootsuite lets you schedule posts and collaborate with others. A freemium model is in place which allows you to try it out for free and only pay when you want to add additional accounts.
Tweetdeck: Lets you schedule your posts and monitor your feeds and mentions. On the downside it only works with Twitter. On the upside, it’s free.
IFTTT: IFTTT stands for If That Then This. In other words, it works on conditional logic to let you set up actions such as posting your blog post to Facebook automatically.
Buffer: Buffer is similar to Hootsuite. It will let you schedule your posts to social media. Free and paid plans are available. It also lets you track and set the best times to post and “re-buffer” your popular posts.
Sprout Social: Sprout Social is similar to Hootsuite, but also provides customer management. Unlike Hootsuite, there is no unpaid option, but you can start with a free trial.
Twitonomy: Let’s you analyze your Twitter account and that of your competitors. You can use this tool to analyze your competitor’s tweeting strategy, follow people interested in similar topics and find out their best hashtags for your niche.
SocialOomph: This is another social media scheduler that lets you fill up your feed with your blog posts. When you run out of posts it will start over. The goal is to space them out so your followers don’t get tired of seeing them. If you have fewer posts, you will schedule longer gaps between sharing.
ManageFlitter: This tool allows you to schedule your Tweets at the time your followers are most likely to be online. You can also manage your followers and read suggested content.
Canva: Canva is a quick and easy way to design attractive graphics to post on your social media, such as quotes or promos. It has a wide range of templates for any type of social media platform or you can design your own from scratch.
BuzzSumo: BuzzSumo is a great application for discovering new content in your niche. If you are interested in connecting with influencers for guest blogging or social connections, it is also a good way to identify the most popular in your field.
Feedly: Feedly allows you to save time by aggregating content related to your niche in one place. You can then keep up to date on the latest developments or post the content to your social media feeds or scheduling apps.
Bitly: This application allows you to shorten the links you post on social media and measure the performance of your content.
Tailwind: There is no doubt that image based social media is becoming more popular, especially for lifestyle and product niches. This social media scheduling tool is optimized for Pinterest. You can try it out for free, but it’s a premium tool.
Shella Gardezi is a marketing, PR and SEO specialist with experience doubling website traffic and sales and getting features in national publications and on the airwaves.