Some say that hard work will take you far, others say working smart is more important. In this article, I am going to show you that social media requires both working hard and working smart. As social media is progressively dominating the eyes of the internet and for this reason we have decided to write about tools to help you capture more visitors from billions of social media users around the world. We want to help you with the best practices and the tools that maximize best practices in social media today. Having used all of these with our own clients, we can confidently share them with you today.
Content curation and distribution tools
1. Buffer (free and paid plans)
Content curation is one of the main foundations in social media, and having the ability to schedule and post social content on multiple social channels is very important. Using Buffer to schedule posts to Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest will save you a lot of time and energy. Being able to schedule future posts will also help you provide consistency for your growing audience. Our favorite part about Buffer is the analytics behind the posts. You can learn from your audience by looking at the best performing posts, impressions, and other conversion data.
2. Dlvr.it (free and paid plans)
Most businesses looking to increase organic traffic have a blog, and if you blog, you can automate new articles as social posts via RSS Feed, thereby increasing your social traffic too. Dlvr.it will automatically create social posts and provide analytics based on link shortening technology.
Audience growth tools
3. Slide.ly (free trial)
It’s been proven that video gets more attention and engagement on social media. We love this tool because it allows us to make engaging, high-definition videos in a few short minutes that we can share on our social networks.
4. Social Quant (free trial)
What is the point in spending time curating content when no-one is reading it? This tool allows for twitter growth on steroids. Social Quant uses keywords and other metrics to gain real followers most likely interested in your social media content and business. The whole thing is automated and will bring lots of traffic to your social posts and website if you set it up right. They also offer great tips to optimize your twitter marketing which is all free.
5. Instagress (free trial)
Again, without followers we can’t get our amazing memes in front of people. Instagress will automate your Instagram follower growth. It works by liking photos and following people on Instagram who have keywords that match similar interests and goals of your own. It takes a little bit of setup initially, but it completely hands-free once it is off and running.
Audience engagement tools
6. Zapier (free and paid plans)
Now that content curation and growth have been established, it’s time to engage your audience. Zapier will allow you to create Zaps that automate your engagement with direct messages, @reply, and other forms of communication through the social channel. Get the most of our your new followers by engaging them directly. Most businesses don’t have the manpower to do this work manually, so make sure your automations are as human as possible.
7. IFTTT (free and paid plans)
Short for, if this then that, IFTTT is a logically-developed, sequenced-based tool. You can build custom events based on rules and events, and there are also thousands of pre-made applets ready to go that other businesses have made. So depending on what kind of CTA you’re trying to convert on, IFTTT can help you automate the process.
Social research and discovery tools
8. RightRelevance (free)
Have you ever heard of the term social influencer marketing? Learn who is influencing your market and do some content discovery. This tool will allow you to peruse through relevant articles, journalists, and social influencers with ease. Reach out to influencers in your niche and try to make brand advocates for your business.
9. Spike (free and paid plans)
Pre-viral content has been found here so many times, it’s laughable. Machine learning and content interest predictors will help you discover topics and information relevant to your business and social followers.
Social listening tool
10. Warble (free)
With millions of social posts per day, Warble can help you identify social conversation you want to be a part of. Target keywords, phrases, hashtags, and @mentions to be more involved on social media for conversations that matter. Spending 10 minutes a day with a laundry list of targeted, relevant conversations can help drive meaningful engagement.
Social analytics tool
11. Raven Analytics (free trial)
Here’s a few extra tips from our experience in social media management. Take advantage of the analytics to optimize the performance of your organic social outreach. When you have a social post that is very engaging, considering turning it into a paid ad for a Page Post Engagement (PPE) campaign. Take the time to personally reach out to your influencers using RightRelevance and develop a working relationship with them. I hope you find these tools as useful as we do, if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out below!
Curtis Boyd runs a small digital agency in Los Angeles, he also helps organizations with their social media management. You can find him traveling, or cruising the beach in sunny Los Angeles, California.
