Twitter Facebook LinkedIn Flipboard 0 Being actively involved in social media can be tiresome and time consuming. With the growing number of social networks, trying to spread out your efforts to stay visible on some or all of them could drain you, especially when you are the only one. Social media is in real time and works 24/7. You have to be the same or you lose out. On the internet, automation is the key to managing your time and making profits. When taking your business online, one thing to consider is effectively managing your online presence and not just being active. There are millions of people on the internet to give to and to gain from. The truth is you can’t do this on your own. This is where tools come in. By adopting the use of social media management tools, you can monitor, update and influence with little personal effort. But these tools don’t work like magic and can’t do just anything you ask. Before using any tools, you first need to know why you want to use them. Not all social media tools have the same functions. Therefore, knowing your reason behind the use of tools would help you streamline the functions you actually need. While some tools may help you view your social media channels in one place, other tools may give you concrete analysis of your social media marketing efforts. This implies that before a tool can effectively manage your social media, it must first have functions that you need. Regardless of the reason behind managing your social media, these six tools are must-have tools for your business or personal use. 1. CrowdBooster This tool works like a consultant, giving you advice about your social media. It is also good for monitoring as it shows you the number of retweets or likes you have, as well as which posts are making waves. It also gives you advice as to when to post, who to network with and what your audience wants. Through its monitoring features, you get to know which posts work best. Graphically, CrowdBooster hit the spot. The dashboard is appealing and simple. You can schedule posts and view your progress in form of charts and graphs. This tool has free and premium accounts and is especially good for tracking your marketing efforts. 2. HootSuite With HootSuite, you can manage your social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Ping.Fm, Foursquare as well as WordPress, track conversations and evaluate campaign results. You can simultaneously post on all your networks and even schedule posts. The good thing is that all your content is on one dashboard, making the navigation really easy. You also have an all-in-one view of all your social networks. HootSuite can save you a lot of time because of its tracking features and social media traffic analysis. For the free account, you can add up to five networks after which you upgrade to add extra accounts. 3. Raven Tools This tool comes with added features that internet marketers would love. Raven tools go beyond social media management and include advertising components and SEO services which you can manage from the dashboard. Although it supports only a few social networks, it is good for scheduling and social media tracking and analysis. If you are into affiliate marketing or have personal products to sell, Raven Tools comes with SEO services for your campaign management and research. It is also integrated with Google Adwords, making you create Adwords campaigns straight from the dashboard. It monitors your keywords and you can customize the reporting features. It has a 30 day free trial and starts at $99 per month. 4. Main Street Hub Main Street Hub makes it easy to make friends online. With this tool, you can build, monitor and manage your profiles on Twitter, Facebook, Yahoo Local, Google Places, Yelp and Foursquare. It helps you grow your fan base; post status updates as well as respond to messages and comments. By using this tool, you get a head start in growing a big network which can really be time consuming. They start at $199 per month and you can upgrade depending on the services you want. 5. Social Mention This operates like Google Alerts, only this time; it’s specifically for social media. With social mention, you get to stay aware of the latest gist about products, services, businesses and competitors. You accomplish this by setting alerts based on particular keywords. It then extracts related content from 80 sources, including blogs, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, etc. This tool is especially good if you want to see the feedback people have about your business. It helps you stay engaged with your customers through the feedback you get. This tool is free but you can upgrade depending on what you want do with it. 6. OnlyWire This tool supports up to 48 services including WordPress, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc. and it comes in handy for bloggers. You can choose to make updates on your social networks via your OnlyWire dashboard or you can add an RSS feed that will automatically update your channels. If you blog on the WordPress platform, you can add the OnlyWire plugin to your blog. This way, it updates your social accounts whenever you make a new post. Another good feature is the ability to integrate your Google Analytics account to track your stats. The free version is restricted by submissions, so you will have to upgrade to make more than 300 submissions. Managing your social media does not have to be expensive and strenuous. Depending on the features you want, these tools have removed the need to hire so-called social media managers who would do the same things. Although, you may need the services of professionals later on, these tools should get you started. Twitter Tweet Facebook Share Email This article was written for Business 2 Community by Jay Leonard.Learn how to publish your content on B2C Join our Telegram channel to stay up to date on breaking news coverage Author: Jay Leonard Jay is a UK-based cryptocurrency expert, specialising in fundamental analysis and medium to long term investments. Jay has a great deal of hands-on experience in analysing financial markets and performing technical analysis. Jay is currently focusing on the institutional adoption of cryptocurrency and what it means for the future of … View full profile ›More by this author:Top Trending Meme Coins: ELON, HOGE, SAMO, TAMA, MARVIN, BABYDOGE, MONAHotbit Exchange Forced to Suspend Service As it’s Under Criminal InvestigationCameo CEO Steven Galanis Wallet Hacked – $231k Worth of NFTs Stolen