Social media marketing
The popularity of social media marketing makes it an easy, efficient and cost effective way for small businesses to reach new customers and interact with existing customers. It’s the place all business owners should start their digital marketing because it can be set up and run without paying a penny.
Below we list out some of our favorite tools and websites that can help you improve, track and even automate your social media marketing.
Get tips and tools in other digital marketing areas:
*Disclosure: We will only recommend products we have used or would use ourselves. This page may contain affiliate links that could provide us a small commission. Read full disclaimer here.
Social Media Tools
These tools are designed to streamline your social media marketing. You can schedule posts in advance, edit images on the fly, monitor your posts for customer comments and track the analytics of how your social media channels are performing. This can give you valuable insights for future posts.
SocialPilot
SocialPilot is an excellent tool for allowing different members of your team or employees to help you run your social media. You can easily control their access to your social networks and keep track of posts, comments, messages and more. They have affordable prices plans and also offer a free trial.
Hootsuite
Hootsuite is a popular tool for social media marketers. It allows you keep tabs on all your social networks on one dashboard, schedule posts in advance, monitor those posts for comments and questions and even run some advertising. Their free version may be enough for your small business needs. If not, they have paid plans they may fit your budget.
Buffer
Buffer offers many of the same features as Hootsuite and also has a free version. They also offer free trials of their paid plans so you can give it a test run to see if it’s right for you and your business.
Sprout Social
When you need something a little more than what Hootsuite and Buffer offer you may find it with Sprout Social. It can do all the things the others can do with added tools for monitoring, analytics, review management and much more. But it does come with a bigger price tag so may not be the best fit for every business.
Social Media Examiner
Think of Social Media Examiner like an encyclopedia for all things social media. They do not offer social media tools, but they do have free articles, blog posts and podcasts on a topics covering all the social networks, as well as email marketing. They also host an in person, multi-day conference every year with workshops and networking opportunities.
Agorapulse
Agorapulse is another tool for managing all your social networking profiles in one place, including their Social Inbox which brings together all your messaging. They have a free trial as well, so take advantage of it before paying any money.
Analytics From Your Social Networks
Every social network has their own form of analytics reports. So whether you want to know the best time of day for Tik Tok, or the best day of the week for Instagram success you can find this data embedded in each network. You can even look back in time to see how posts have performed in terms of interaction. So for instance you can easily see which types of Facebook posts are having the most impact.