New business owners often avoid managing social media or get sucked into the addictive nature of the medium. Like any part of your growth strategy, it’s important to have tools to help you plan and measure your social media presence.
Thankfully, many social media management tools will not only make your social marketing more effective, they’ll also save you precious time.
Here are our seven favorite social media management tools. Most will allow you to write one message that you can distribute on different social media platforms at once, as well as write statuses in advance that you can schedule to post later.
1. Hootsuite
We highly recommend Hootsuite because it sends updates easily, monitors incoming messages, can queue up statuses ahead of time, is free for up to five social profiles and two RSS feeds, and best of all, shares across the largest number of platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Foursquare, and WordPress, with extensions to YouTube, Instagram, Tumblr, Reddit, and Vimeo, amongst others. This is a great service for any business wanting to simplify its social media presence.
2. Buffer
On Buffer you can queue up messages ahead of time and across multiple platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and LinkedIn. It also has extensions on Chrome, Safari, and Firefox that make sharing content easier to facilitate. It is free for up to two profiles.
One cool feature is BulkBuffer, which allows you to upload a large amount of updates (in a csv or text file) at the same time for free. This could be good to use if you’re planning on going away for a while.
3. TweetDeck
As you can probably tell from the name, TweetDeck is a great tool if you’re active on Twitter. It helps organize feeds, hashtags, mentions, searches, and messages. With these free features, you can monitor your brand’s presence, keep up to date with trends, and find relevant content in a more organized manner. However, the huge downside is that it no longer shares across any other platform besides Twitter.
4. Sprout Social
If you’re looking for a tool that will not only manage your social media, but also increase engagement, Sprout Social could be the right solution for you. It shares across Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+, as well as suggests new people to follow. Packages start at $39/month.
5. Crowdbooster
Crowdbooster is similar to Sprout Social, but is less expensive, with packages starting at $9/month. However, it only focuses on Twitter and Facebook. It reminds you to answer followers you haven’t responded to yet and points to influential new followers.
6. Swayy
Swayy is ideal for finding and sharing interesting content. It both drops interesting content into your dashboard and lets you share each piece of content automatically across Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn with the simple click of the “share” button. You can also schedule sharings in advance, and is free for one user.
7. Rignite
Rignite is great for teams that need to monitor a business’s social media presence on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and other platforms. You can start forums and chats and assign tasks to your team members. Packages start at $14.25/month.
Which social media management tool do you use? If you don’t use one, why not? Share your experiences with social media in the comments below.
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