Social media marketing involves carrying out marketing activities on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube. With millions of people using social media, you have a greater chance of reaching out to your target audience on social media. Most people think that social media marketing (SMM) is only about posting content on SM platforms.
There is a lot more to social media marketing. You can run full-fledged campaigns, monitor it, and get complete analytics about your campaign. All this is possible thanks to the various tools available. We present you a list of the best ten tools that you can use to make your social media marketing effective.
10 Best tools for SMM
1) Buffering
You need a scheduling tool to help you make a schedule to post content on SM. Initially designed for Twitter, Buffering now supports all top social media platforms. Apart from creating a content posting schedule, there are many other things that Buffering supports. You can shorten links to be shared. Photos and videos can be uploaded. There are analytics features that make using this tool easy. The best part is that you can reply to posts from within Buffer, without having to switch to the SM platform. It has a forever free plan for small users. Paid plans start from $6 per month per platform.
2) Hootsuite
If you are looking for a social media management tool with comprehensive features, then you must consider Hootsuite. With more than 18 million users, it is no surprise that Hootsuite is the leading software. You can use Hootsuite to manage all your social networks. You can use this powerful tool to drive engagement to your social media posts. More than 35 social network sites are supported, making it useful to handle all platforms. You can research keywords, do bulk scheduling of posts, and monitor all your accounts. The free plan is limited and paid plans start at $49 per month.
3) Buzzsumo
A key aspect of social media marketing is research. It is important to understand what the competition is doing and outscore them. Buzzsumo is an SM research tool that is very useful for marketers. You can analyze competitors based on their content. Keyword research and understanding trending topics become easier. You can get ideas for new posts and get insights on popular content. You can even find influencers for the topics of your choice. The basic version is free with some feature limitations. Paid plans start from $99 per month.
4) MavSocial
If you offer more of visual content and want a tool to manage it, then MavSocial can be a good option to try. Like all other SM tools, MavSocial has all the features you need to manage your social media accounts. You can schedule posts, monitor and analyze the posts, and get detailed reports. An added feature is an in-built digital library that you can use to manage multimedia. You can even get stock photos to use for your posts. Managing Facebook Ads is easy using MavSocial. The paid plans start at $19 per month.
5) Crowdfire
This is a social media management tool that offers many features for free. It is a great tool for small businesses to use. The main feature of this tool is that you can schedule posts on social media platforms. It also has an option to help you handle your Twitter account without switching over to Twitter. You can also use Crowdfire to connect all your online shops, YouTube channel, and blogs. It even suggests you articles to share. If you want the advanced features you can look at paid plans that start from $9.99 per month.
6) Later
Today’s generation of millennials use Instagram extensively. If they are your target audience, then you need a tool that works exclusively for Insta. Later is one such tool. It is a marketing platform that allows you to schedule Insta posts. It has a drag and drop feature making it easy to use. You can also connect your Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest profiles to your Later account. You can easily create a link to other websites or blogs using its link tool. It is a paid tool with plans starting at $15 per month.
7) Mention
This is a unique tool that focuses on social listening. What it does is scan through social media (or listen) to find out if anyone is talking about you. When you are running a brand, you need to know what people are saying about you. Mention helps you in this. You can even respond to all comments through this tool. Analysis of competitors is possible through the tool. It can also help you find social media influencers. Pricing starts at $41 per month.
8) IFTTT
This is a unique and useful tool that helps you define rules to manage your social media marketing. IFTTT stands for If This, Then That! You can create rules that carry out specific actions on certain triggers. This makes it easy for you to manage your social media accounts without having to be online all the time. It has a free plan with paid plans starting from $2.5 a month.
9) Zapier
While the basic concept of this tool is similar to IFTTT, it has more advanced features. While IFTTT is ideal for small businesses, Zapier is best suited for those firms who want maximum automation for enhanced productivity. You can use Zapier along with most other social media tools. It works with more than 5000 apps. If you are happy with 100 tasks per month, you can use the free version. Else, paid plans start from $19.99 per month.
10) Bitly
Everyone knows that Bitly can be used to shorten links, but it has many other features on offer. It allows you to track your links, so you can get a complete set of metrics. This helps you analyze the performance of your marketing campaigns. You can know everything about who clicked on your links, when, where, and what they did next.
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