Marketers cannot afford to ignore social media. But, managing social media accounts isn’t easy especially if you have a large social media following or if you run an agency and manage social media accounts on behalf of other businesses. Let’s start with the fact that a successful social marketing strategy means you have to juggle many tasks, these include:
- Content research
- Content creation
- Content curation
- Repurposing content
- Sharing other’s content
- Engaging followers and the community in general
- …and much more
With all these hats that a social media manager must wear, the only way to remain sane is to leverage social media management tools that improve efficiency and deliver better results.
The social media management tools below help you manage various social media tasks. Many have similar features but they differ in the sense that each has one or two strong points and, the choice of each depends on the particular circumstances.
Pursue and pick the one’s that suit your needs.
1. Hootsuite
Hootsuite is a scheduling and posts analysis social media management tool. You can connect accounts from a large number of social media networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+, LinkedIn and more. One of Hootsuite’s strengths is its team tools. This helps it more suited to organizations as opposed to small businesses where the social media effort is a one man show.
2. Agora Pulse
Agora Pulse is predominantly a post scheduling tool. You can connect all your social media accounts and post automatically to all of them. Its main strength lies in its dynamics reports as well as the ability to market content and run promotions right from within the interface.
3.Social Oomph
With SocialOomph, you can schedule content on several social media accounts and post on an automated schedule. One of its strongest features is the ability to create Twitter welcome messages. With its premium option, you can also schedule photos on Facebook and LinkedIn.
4. EveryPost
EveryPost is a visual content curation tool. Once you have curated visual content, you can schedule it and share to several networks at the same time. It is one of the best tools to post from a mobile device (iPhone or Android).
5. Bit.ly
While there are dozens of link shorteners out there, Bit.ly is definitely a cut above the rest. One of its strongest features is the link analytics which helps you know how well your links are performing in social media.
6. Sprout Social
If you run a social media agency, then you will find Sprout Social to be invaluable. With Sprout Social premium plan, you can manage multiple Twitter and Facebook accounts.
7. Crowd Booster
As the name implies, Crowd Booster helps you boost the size of your social media audience. It makes this possible through analytic reports that let you schedule tweets at the most optimal times.
8. Edgerank Checker
Edgerank Checker by Social Bakers gives you insights into how best to optimize your Facebook content. With Edgerank checker you can engage your audience with custom content and optimize your newsfeed response.
9. Audiense
Are you big on Twitter? If you are, you should definitely check out Audiense. With Audiense, you can schedule content, create reports and Twitter ads.
10. Tailwind
Most of the tools mentioned in this list are cross platform by Tailwind is specifically a Pinterest and Instagram social media marketing tool. With Tailwind, you can schedule pins/images, upload bulk images, create multi-board pins and even find out the best times to send out your pins/images for the best engagement. Tailwind is also one of the best tools to manage multiple Pinterest and Instagram accounts making it a must-have for agencies.
11. Buffer
Buffer is hands-down the best social media scheduling tool. With Buffer, you can create and auto-schedule up to ten posts using their free account and up to 100 posts using their Awesome plan that costs $10 per month. The post analytics also provide you with interesting insights such as the optimal posting times. Buffer can be used to schedule Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Google+, and Pinterest posts.
12. Oktopost
If there is an identifiable difference between Oktopost and all the other social media tools mentioned above, then it is the fact the while all the rest help businesses manage their social content, Oktopost directly helps you find customers. Oktopost is a lead generation tool you definitely want to check out.
13. IFTTT
Finally, we have IFTT. IFTT is an acronym for “If This Then That”. This is a term from mathematics and computing. Essentially, IFTTT is an automation. All you need to do is to connect all your social accounts to IFTTT and then choose a “recipe”. The recipe is a set of rules, for example, “If I post on Facebook, send out a Tweet”. With some creativity, IFTTT is one of the most powerful social media management tools you can deploy.
Conclusion
Suffice it to say the appropriate selection of a social media management tools hinges on your own understanding of your needs. While many tools look cool, you may or may not need all the features. A good rule of thumb is to select a tool that helps you improve on what you are already doing on social media.
