Six Essential Tools to Streamline Your Social Media Marketing

Most brands realize that they should be investing in social media. According to research from Ambassador, 71% of customers that have had a positive experience with a brand are much more likely to recommend it to their friends yet many brands don’t make any headway with their social media campaigns because they become very frustrated managing their social media profiles. These companies often have trouble maintaining multiple profiles, so they give up altogether. They also miss messages or fail to connect with their target customers which makes it very difficult for them to meet their branding goals.

You can significantly improve the effectiveness of your social media marketing strategy by using the right platforms to automate your social media marketing strategy. Here are some great tools that you can use.

Hootsuite

Hootsuite has been one of the most popular social media management tools for years. It has a number of valuable features including:

• Social profile monitoring
• Geosearch tools to learn more about specific areas
• Suggested content to share with your followers
• Ability to schedule posts across multiple platforms including Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus

Hootsuite is known for its versatility and you can purchase a plan for as little as $9.99 a month if you choose an annual subscription.

Vibbi

Instagram has become a powerful social media platform over the past couple of years. It’s particularly effective for brands that rely heavily on visual content, such as photographers, clothing companies, and other B2C companies that sell to women and web development agencies.

Despite the reach of Instagram, many brands have difficulty building their presence on it. The Instagram algorithm displays content more frequently after it has earned a lot of shares. This makes it difficult for new brands to penetrate the site. Fortunately, they can use Vibbi to build their presence. This platform has a number of amazing Instagram marketing options from which any brand can benefit. You can use the service to boost your follower base or get more Instagram shares.

TweetDeck

Facebook is still the world’s dominant social networking site, but Twitter comes in as a close second. Twitter currently has 310 million active users, so it should be a core part of your social media marketing strategy.

You should join TweetDeck to more effectively engage with your followers on Twitter. Ian Clearly of Razor Social created a spectacular overview of TweetDeck earlier this year. He points out that you can manage multiple Twitter accounts from your browser and take advantage of live streaming.

SocialOomph

SocialOomph is another great social media marketing platform that has a free subscription option. This service is similar to Tweetdeck, but has some additional functionality. Marketers can use SocialOomph to:

• Schedule tweets
• Track keywords
• Create and edit drafts of social media posts (if you don’t want to post right away)
• View follower activity, including retweets and mentions
• Be able to access Twitter without using your password (don’t worry, SocialOomph keeps it safe)
• Autofollow anyone that follows you

You can connect up to five Twitter accounts with a free subscription.

Buffer

Buffer is very similar to Hootsuite, but it has some additional features that Hootsuite lacks. The biggest benefit of Buffer is that you can use it to schedule posts on Pinterest, LinkedIn, and Instagram in addition to all social networking sites that you can manage from Hootsuite. You can also use Buffer to get browser extensions, RSS feeds, and mobile accessibility. Individual plans are free while company plans start at $10 a month.

Hubspot

Hubpot is an inbound marketing platform that offers a wide range of benefits. While it’s typically used for organic and paid search marketing, it has a number of features to improve your social media marketing strategy.

The biggest benefit of Hubspot is that it allows you to directly measure the ROI of your social media marketing campaigns. Most other social media management platforms only allow you to manage the activity on your profiles. Hubspot allows you to identify and terminate paid campaigns that aren’t paying off.

Featured photo credit: Pexels via pexels.com

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