Connor BrookeDoing social media marketing right takes a lot of time and organization. And, many of us have other jobs or responsibilities, so spending all day posting and updating and engaging and THANKING just isn’t possible. Yet, you need consistency if you’re going to grow your social media networks and improve your ROI (Return on Investment) from your social media marketing campaign.
So, what do you do? Use some of these GREAT tools to lighten the load a little.
My favorite social media marketing tools
1. Hootsuite
Hootsuite Twitter Interface
I started using Hootsuite because it’s free. Then, I switched to several paid options until I realized none were as convenient, and cheap, as Hootsuite. So now I’m back to using Hootsuite. I can easily share content, interact and engage users across networks, and track results. Now,
- I get my Google and Facebook analytics integrated with the Twitter analytics provided by Hootsuite (through OW.LY).
- I’ve integrated my Google Alerts so I can easily share great content I curate from across the Internet.
- And, I have all my profiles (except Pinterest — please add Pinterest, Hootsuite).
- You can even assign tasks to team members through Hootsuite
2. WordPress App for Android (or iPhone)
Blogging takes a lot of time and it’s sometimes hard to squeeze in an hour or so at a time to blog. But, I still think blogging is one of the most important elements in creating social media marketing success because it gives you a platform to educate, entertain, and create interest among your target market. Ah, but finding the time.
That’s why I love the WordPress app — you can blog anywhere.
Stuck waiting at the doctor’s office; blog
Killing time while the kids finish practice; blog
Enjoying some rays at the park; blog
Just remember, you need to enable remote publishing on your WordPress dashboard for the app to work — this is a security feature in WordPress.
3. Storify
When you’re REALLY short of time or fresh out of ideas, Storify is your savior. Plus, Storify creates posts that people like to engage with and it’s super easy to use.
Storify curates content from across multiple social networks and inserts it into your WordPress blog. All you have to do is search using a keyword (or phrase), then drag and drop results into your post. You can add your own content between curated content to make the story flow. If you want to see some examples of stories created using Storify, check out their website or a post I created about Social Media Week.
4. Facebook Comments
Several plugins integrate Facebook comments on your blog. I like them because they increase engagement and make it easy for visitors to comment.
- Visitors use their Facebook profile to login to write comments on your website.
- Facebook users comment on posts from your Facebook wall or Pages and they’re automatically posted on your blog — and you don’t have to approve them, which saves you time.
5. Outbrain
Outbrain is another WordPress plugin. Outbrain helps keep visitors on your webpage longer by suggesting related posts that visitors might enjoy reading. But, the best part is it’s visual using large thumbnails of the featured image from your post to attract visitors to these older posts.
6. Webmaster tools
Webmaster’s tools give you more information and control over your website. It’s great for improving your SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and ensuring your website is working at peak performance.
7. Flickr
Visuals are great for attracting attention, whether it’s on your website or Facebook. But, who has time to take all those pictures or creating graphics. Enter Flickr. Many images on Flickr are posted under Creative Commons, which authorizes re-use for non-commercial endeavors and you can even search for only those images that offer such sharing.
Another great place to get images is FreeDigitalPhotos.net.
Both require attribution, so they won’t work if you’re adding the image in a place where you can’t or don’t want to use attribution. In those situations, I love 123rf.com. They have great images and you pay per image downloaded — usually about $1. And, search options help you narrow down your search so you can easily get just the image you want.
Your Turn
Suggestions. Add you’re favorite social media marketing tools
Hausman and Associates, the owner of Hausman Marketing Letter, is a full-service agency operating at the intersection of marketing and social media. Let us help you make your marketing SIZZLE. Check out our services or sign up for our newsletter to get cutting edge insights.
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This article was written for Business 2 Community by Connor Brooke.
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Since we’re all doing more with images now, I love using Plixr.
Great list Angela – thanks for sharing and recommending our humble dashboard. Here at HootSuite, we use Flickr quite a bit and are actually looking into using Facebook comments for our blog.
Let us know if we can help with anything.
-HootSuite Community
No problem. I love Hootsuite and I’ve tried a lot of other dashboards that cost more than Hootsuite, but find myself returning (to the paid version). Notice, I didn’t even use my affiliate link (staying pure).
I’d really love to see Pinterest added, though.
Also, I’d be interested in finding out how to give a class at HootSuite U.
Hi Angela — I have to agree with Connor: this is a great list! You really covered a breadth of different tools here.
Of course, I am a little biased in recommending this one, but my company uberVU just released a new version of our product and, as a social media/community manager, I’m using it to make my day-to-day social media work easier and faster — it does a lot of the work of tracking and surfacing insights for me so I can focus on engaging. Let me know if you are interested in checking it out!
Another tool I find really helpful is Rapportive: it connects to your Gmail to give you some “social context” like the person’s recent Tweets and info from their social profiles right next to the email you have open, so you can quickly see what they’ve been up to lately. Definitely saves me the extra steps of looking up the person I’ve been emailing with on various social networks. Plus, it’s free (can’t complain about that)! :)
– Elisabeth, uberVU Social Media Marketing & Community Manager
Elisabeth, thanks and I’d love to give uberVU a try. I’ve shared your infographics several times and find them very helpful. And, thanks for the recommendation. I’ll take a look at Rapportive.
Good list. I’d add Twilert, which will send you reports when people mention certain words, hashtags or replies. Very useful for companies that want to stay on top of their Twitter reputation.
Thanks, Jim.
These a great suggestions. I have one myself: http://www.nitrogr.am
Nitrogram is an explosive web-based solution for brands to use Instagram for Marketing. It includes analytics (just like Facebook pages), capacity to interact with followers from your web browsers and most of all, the possibility to use Instagram content on a brand’s onine outlets such as its Webpage, Facebook fanpage or blog. Curious to know your opinion, cheers.
I have used many of the apps you mentioned in your article and I agree that they are great.
Here are two of my favourites:
1. Engagio (www.engag.io) – I am bit biased (since I work there;) but it is one of my top 3 apps that I use daily. It focuses on social conversations and allows me to discover and engage with other commenters on different blogs and posts. It also integrates with almost all the major social platforms. Check out their chrome gmail extension (it is very popular). I hope you try it and let me know what you think.
2. Prismatic – I use their web application and it is a great way to discoer new content based on keywords. They have also recently added follow friend option and I hear that their new iPhone app is pretty good (I am on android so have not had chance to try it)
Thanks, Thibaut.