A study from the Pew Research Center revealed that seven in ten Americans use social media to share information, connect with others, entertain themselves, or purchase products. The same study reports that social media is part of every American’s daily routine. Seven in ten Facebook users – and six in ten Snapchat and Instagram users – visit their social media sites at least once a day.
The numbers say it all: everyone is on social media. So if you want your services and products to reach the most people, you need to be on social media.
Social media, however, can be time-consuming. It involves a series of different tasks that range from designing graphics to tracking analytics. It can be challenging to find the manpower and skills needed to implement a good social media strategy, which is why you need the best tools.
Whether you’re a mortgage lender serving locals or an ice cream shop, the following social media tools can help you revamp your current strategy or make a new one.
Must-Have Social Media Tools
Google Trends
This free Google tool helps users search for trending topics online. Businesses use Google Trends to monitor things that are happening in the industry. It is also a helpful tool in discovering and sharing information related to the most popular topics today. For instance, if BTS net worth is a hot topic today, how can your clothing business hop on this music trend? What type of content should you write?
You can also use Google Trends to see trending keywords and their current volume. Use this information to plan your social media marketing and content strategy.
BuzzSumo
This social media tool allows you to find trending influencers and the most shared content. Use BuzzSumo to analyze which content is performing well for a certain topic. All you have to do is search for a domain or a topic.
BuzzSumo gives you a better understanding of your impact on social media. It can also aid you in your creation of content strategies by showing your pages with the most engagement. This tool breaks results down by Facebook, Reddit, Pinterest, and Twitter shares.
Unsplash
Unsplash is the favorite tool of businesses when it comes to photography, graphic design, and videos. It is a massive library of FREE professional photos! The website’s photos can give your content a more polished and professional look.
Plus, there are endless Unsplash photo collections to discover. Try finding a couple of creators whose photos match your branding or are perfect for your content. Follow them so you can always find their most recent works.
Canva
Canva is another big must-have in your social media toolbox. Many times marketers, businesses, and social media managers need to create beautiful images sans the designer. Canva addresses this need with ready-made templates, illustrations, and icons to make your images look professional minus the actual design work.
Feedly
Do you want to keep up with industry news? How about work with influencers? If you say yes to both (and more) use Feedly to keep up with both. Add those RSS feeds to your Feedly account and save them there. Instead of browsing for hours and hours, your Feedly account can store them all – a huge time saver!
If you need help with content ideation, Feedly can also help. Add several writers, publishers, and bloggers whose content you like to one feed and see them all in one place.
Facebook Analytics
How do you measure social media ROI? Use insights from analytics; every platform will have its own.
If you are focusing all of your efforts on Facebook, make use of the Insights tab on your page. Everything you want to know about your followers, number of likes, engagement, and posts are under one tab. Facebook’s Pages to Watch also helps you compare your page’s performance against other pages like yours on the social media platform.
Twitter and Instagram each have analytics options, as well. With Twitter analytics, you can get more insight into your audience, the engagement status of your posts, and your best content. As for Instagram insights, you can see how frequently users interact with your posts, as well as the performance of your posts over time.
What Makes a Social Media Tool Good?
There are many tools apart from the ones listed above but you don’t need to have them all to make your social media strategy work. To narrow down your choices, make sure your tools:
- Saves you time. Look for social media tools that automate processes accurately since shortcuts may not give you the best results.
- Increase brand awareness. Your tool of choice should perform its services with brand awareness at the core of the strategy.
- Keeps you organized. Make sure the tools you use are tidy and efficient, not clutter in your toolbox.
Everyone is on social media – including your customers! Reach them faster by having the right social media tools in your box.
