It’s all about the consumers.
Every business’ main goal is to get closer to the consumers. Making them aware of your service and getting them to purchase your product or pay for your service is what commerce is all about. It used to be a million-dollar venture, but today you can get similar (if not better) results for less than a hundred bucks. Sometimes even for free. This is all thanks to the dawn of social media.
According to a report on the State of Small Businesses in 2017, social media is the third largest marketing tool being used by small enterprises. The survey conducted by Wasp Barcode Technologies also revealed that the use of platforms like Instagram and LinkedIn have seen growth on the marketing front. With Facebook having more than 2 billion active users a month, and Instagram and Twitter combine for more than 1 billion users monthly, social media for small businesses is the most next logical step.
To help you out with your newest marketing venture, here are the 10 best social media marketing tools for small businesses:
1. HOOTSUITE
Created in 2008, Hootsuite is one of the most popular social media marketing and management tools available today. It is a platform that allows multiple social media accounts to be managed on a single dashboard. You can schedule posts to enhance your online presence without spending too much time on it. It also provides monitoring and analytics to help you understand your campaign and consumers better.
It has both free and paid options, depending on your budget and needs. Plans can go as low as $19.00/ month to $499.00. They also provide custom solutions for enterprises at a quoted fee.
2. ROOSTERLY
Roosterly is a content marketing solution built for professionals that offers high-quality post creation and media generation. Its aim is to build better social media presence for its clients by curating and posting relevant content to their different social media platforms. All contents are chosen using an algorithm to make sure they cater to the clients’ market-base.
You don’t have to worry about spamming too. Their social media strategy is based on research, making sure they only have the most effective number of posts on your accounts. Roosterly plans start at $47.00/ month.
3. SPROUT SOCIAL
A “collaborative social media management platform,” Sprout Social makes it easy for any type of business to build a presence online. It promises to provide solutions to small businesses, social media agencies, and even large enterprises. The tool offers both internal content dissemination within the company staff as well as options to help build a stronger brand presence among consumers through social media.
One of its main features is its own social media analytics reports. The different data metrics provide customized and an in-depth analysis on the user’s social media efforts to gauge the success of its marketing ventures.
Sprout Social offers a free 30-day trial, with paid plans starting at $99.00/ month.
4. MEETEDGAR
When you’ve run out of significant content to post, you may need to recycle the old ones and MeetEdgar helps you out with that. The social media scheduling tool doesn’t only make it easier for you to keep your accounts updated, but it also keeps the conversation going by recycling your relevant evergreen posts. It’s probably one of only a handful of tools that offer a content re-sharing option.
Edgar costs a flat $49.00/ month which includes an unlimited library for up to 25 accounts, an automated posting and re-sharing dashboard, and an account setup assistant.
5. BUFFER
Buffer is one of the most popular social media marketing tools right now. It allows users to control all their accounts on a central dashboard. It also offers resource material, including studies and guides on its blog for a more in-depth look at online marketing.
Aside from an easy-to-use Google Chrome extension tool and a special Buffer for Instagram service, it also allows users to choose the pattern frequency of scheduled posts — daily, weekly, or only on weekdays.
6. SOCIAL CLOUT
A social media monitoring tool, Social Clout is designed specifically to track and analyze your social media campaign’s success. It also serves as an aggregator, giving you access to a database of social conversations that are relevant to your brand. Its keyword search feature allows you to monitor different Twitter mentions, including those of your brand and your competitor’s products.
With its in-depth report and analysis, you can focus on the content that reaches the most users with the best conversion rate. It offers a free 30-day trial, with paid plans starting at $49.00 a month.
7. FEEDLY
Dubbed as the Best Content Aggregator by several publications, Feedly makes content collection super easy. Browse through hundreds of relevant content from thousands of credible sources all arranged based on your interest. It helps you keep track of business trends as well as the latest updates on your competition and industry influencers.
Feedly offers both free and paid plans.
8. GOOGLE ANALYTICS
Google Analytics allows you track almost everything on your website and social media platforms. From site and platform traffic to most visited pages to marketing analytics and content insights — Google Analytics has it all. The tool also integrates with other Google services, giving a 360 solution to your marketing needs.
Some of the biggest names in the business industry use this tool. And what makes it one of the best its price — the Google Analytics is FREE.
9. CANVA
Social Media marketing isn’t all about the text material. Actually, visuals get more user engagement than any other form of content — tweets with images get 150% more re-tweets, while 87% of Facebook engagement happens on photo posts.
If you’re no artist and hiring a visual designer is out of the conversation, than Canva is a helpful tool for you. The photo editing tool can help you turn a dull picture into thousands of Likes with its user-friendly photo editing dashboard. Just drag the elements around, brighten up the hues, and add a compelling text, and you’re good to go. You can also choose among its many templates.
Canva is a free software and is being used by some of the biggest online publishers, including Buzzfeed.
10. BITLY
Bitly is probably one of the most simple of tools, but it is also a powerful one. This social media service allows you to shorten and brand your links across platforms. Putting your stamp on the links you post — replacing “bit.ly” with your brand name — gives user recall to your brand as well as higher Click-Through-Rates of up to 34%.
It also provides link analytics which tracks content engagement and user feedback, helping you focus on the marketing efforts that work. Bitly offers a free version, as well as paid options.