Are you hoping to launch a successful social media campaign? The process can be overwhelming: between producing content on a multitude of platforms, publishing at the right times, interacting with followers, and more, it can seem like a full-time job in itself. Aren’t there tools to make it easier? Absolutely—but now the question is, which tools do what?
Some tools are channel-specific, and others can help you manage multiple accounts from one platform (don’t you think it would be convenient to be able to tweet and respond to Facebook comments all in the same place?). Because executing a social media campaign is not an overnight process, the order in which you take your steps matters, too; and some tools are best for helping you with particular milestones. Here are some of the best social media tools, in order from campaign launch to completion:
Hootsuite
Hootsuite is known as a scheduling tool, but it also offers social listening capabilities. If you are a fledgling brand, you might not have the budget for intricate social media management resources that charge monthly fees, so don’t worry—Hootsuite offers a limited free plan. Social listening is when you monitor the Internet for mentions of specific keywords. It could be your brand, your products, your industry, or other related topics—keeping your ear to the ground enables you to understand what people are saying about particular subjects.
The reason behind starting with social listening is because doing so can help you with finding a niche audience. The first step of any social media campaign: decide who you are going to appeal to. Sports fans? College students? Designers? You do not want to spread yourself too thin in an attempt to appeal to everyone, so obtaining insight into how people feel about what product or service you wish to provide is invaluable.
Loomly
Once you have an audience in mind, it’s time for the most important step: creating content. You can post videos, photographs, infographics, guides, or whatever else will communicate your message in an enticing way. Remember to keep everything on-brand; internet users will avoid you if they think your feed is all over the place.
Because content is so essential, thinking of what to publish and producing it can be creatively and physically exhausting. Sometimes, you need some inspiration—which is where Loomly comes in. Loomly not only offers scheduling features, but it can also give you ideas for what to post based on RSS feeds, events, holidays, Twitter trends, social media best practices, and more. When your content is both exciting and relevant, you have a higher likelihood of reaching the right people and retaining their attention.
Magic Social
Now that you have content to share, it’s time to start working on growing your audience. You can do it through trial and error, but it’s recommended that you leverage the help of powerful social media analytics tools. Another option is turning to a growth expert, such as those at the Instagram service Magic Social. Magic Social uses smart filters to target your desired audience for you, bringing you real followers and likes while you sit back and enjoy posting. Letting someone else worry about the strategy part of social media frees up your time to focus on other aspects of your business.
Sprout Social
Having an audience is not enough. If you want them to stick around on multiple social media platforms, you need to understand them (plus, the people who follow you on Instagram might follow you for different reasons than those on Pinterest or LinkedIn). With Sprout Social’s thorough management tools, you can get in-depth insight into who your audience is (including where they come from, demographics, online behaviors, etc.) and why they do or do not like the content that you post.
When you have a better understanding of how your social media campaign is performing, you can adjust it to make it more effective. Sprout Social also gives you information regarding how far specific posts reach and what kind of engagement you are getting on each channel. Executing a social media campaign without proper updates could result in wasted time, money, and effort, so don’t do it without support. In addition, Sprout Social offers social listening features, so you can monitor the internet for mentions of your brand when your online presence has expanded. Once you are driving traffic to your website (if you have one), you can also capture visitors’ email addresses with Sumo.
Marketing your brand on social requires patience and strategy, but there are tools available to keep the venture from becoming overwhelming. What tools will you use to make your social media campaign smoother?
I hope you enjoyed this blog post about the top social media marketing tools that your business needs.
Interested in more articles about social media marketing?
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