Social media doesn’t sleep. There aren’t any days off. There aren’t even any minutes off. If your job is social media marketing, then your job is to be on top of your social presence 24/7.
It can obviously be stressful. And often, you can’t do it alone. You need the best tools – anything you can get your hands on to make your online life easier. That includes everything from new tech standards like fiber optic internet to data-reporting tools like SEMRush. That’s also why marketers use tons of different tools to help them along the way.
Here are a few tools that if you aren’t already using, you should add to your social media toolbox!
The obvious:
- Analysis tracking: Google Analytics (GA). If you run and operate your own website or have a blog that you share on social media, you’ll want to track your visitors. GA can do it all – tell you who visits your site, how long they’re on your site, provide customizable dashboards, the works. Tracking visits is the best way to determine if your online presence is taking off, at a standstill or decreasing. Based on the tracking information, you can react in the appropriate way. If you're already using GA then you know their Universal Analytics tracking code will sunset in July 2023. Make sure to migrate to Google's new GA4 analytics so you can begin to take advantage of the new offering.
- Content management: Hootsuite. Remember how social media doesn’t ever take a day off? That can make creating fresh content tough. Hootsuite is a great content management system with one super-important feature: scheduled message and tweets. With this dashboard, you can manage all your social sites and make sure that you schedule out posts consistently.
- Cloud storage: Dropbox or Google Drive. Content strategy, branding materials, marketing plans, videos – anything that you draft up to use in your social media campaigns needs to be stored somewhere. By using cloud storage platform’s like Dropbox or Google Drive, you can access all the materials you need, no matter which computer or device you’re on.
The specific:
- For videos: Instagram. When Instagram and Twitter both introduced video around the same time, there was a lot of debate over which one was better. It looks like Instagram came out on top. The extended length, the filter options and Instagram’s overall culture make it ideal for social media marketing. Brands have done an awesome job using the amateurish, hipsterish, naturalish vibe Instagram exudes to promote products without being pushy.
- For promotion: HARO (Help a Reporter Out). Essentially, it’s a forum where reporters can put in a request for information and you can respond to their post. This is a great way to get free publicity, without having to do the leg work. Then, you can link your to your story on social media. It solidifies your reputation as an expert, while getting that free PR.
- For better integration: HubSpot. What makes HubSpot helpful are new features like a Social Inbox, which integrates social monitoring, and gives you the data you need to “make social media personal.” You also can integrate with platforms like Facebook or Instagram to deliver lead-generation ads, then have your submissions sync with your CRM automatically. In addition to this HubSpot offers analytical support, a Content Optimization System and many more awesome tools.
