Social media marketing is hot for a good reason. More and more case studies are showing that when used effectively, social media can have a significant impact on a company’s bottom line. If your business is active on a number of social networks, you are definitely on the right track. Managing a lot of different social media accounts can get cumbersome and time consuming though. Luckily there are a number of great tools available that can make it easier to maintain your social media presence and improve your social marketing efforts. Let’s have a look at some of the best tools on the market.
Crowdbooster
Getting the most out of social media is all about tracking what works. Crowdbooster can deliver the data you need to better optimize your efforts. This social media analytics tool focuses on Twitter and Facebook, providing information about the best days and times to post articles, images or videos, suggesting new Twitter users that may be interested in your brand and delivering other useful analytics. The cheapest monthly plan currently costs $9 per month.
Bitly
Shortening URLs that you share is a must, especially on Twitter, which Bitly does well. But that’s not the only thing Bitly does however. You may not know this but Bitly also offers real-time analytics on every URL that you share using the service. Best of all, it is completely free.
SocialFlow
SocialFlow has developed an optimization algorithm that uses your own Twitter and Facebook data to determine what the best time to post a certain message on either Twitter or Facebook is. All you still need to do is create your posts, connect your accounts and let the magic happen. There’s a price to pay to be able to use this ingenious algorithm though, with plans starting at $99 per month.
Everypost
If you are active on a lot of different social networks, Everypost may be the right tool for you. The service allows you to post your content to Facebook, Google+, Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr, LinkedIn and also send it out via email. You can do this all free of charge.
Buffer
Buffer is one of the fastest growing startups operating in the social media space for a reason. Their tool for scheduling social media posts (only offering support for Twitter when they started out) has grown into a full fledged social media account management system that supports posting to Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and Google+. Besides scheduling posts, Buffer also helps you track how well your posts are doing through their built-in analytics service.
HootSuite
HootSuite has been around for a long time and is still one of the best and most popular social media management tools out there. Using HootSuite you can manage your social media marketing campaigns on different social networks from their online dashboard. They also provide great analytics capabilities so you can measure your results and quickly adapt based on your data. HootSuite even still offers a free (though limited) plan.
