As a digital marketer it’s important I am aware of all the conversations online, who my audience is and how best I can interact with them. There are lots of tools out there but it’s important you’re using the best ones for your business goals and objectives. Here’s 5 social media tools to get you started:
1. Mention.net – This alert tool was recommended to me recently as a replacement of Google alerts and I love it! It allows you to pick up important conversations and respond right away. It’s very user friendly and captures more online mentions than any other platform I have used. Check it out!
2. Facebook analytics – At first I was overwhelmed with the number of charts and stats but I soon got used to using them. Facebook analytics has got to be one of the best free analytics tools I have come across. They are only available via your company Facebook page under the insights tab. Some of its key features analyse your followers demographics, geographics and you can measure the engagement and interaction of each of your Facebook posts.
3. SocialBro – This is a great tool to analyse your Twitter community. I use it to monitor my followers, competitors and engage with my influencers. You can create your own dashboard, build DM campaigns and benchmark yourself against your industry peers. There are some other tools out there that have a similar functionality like PeerIndex and Tweetreach but SocialBro is one of my favourites. Try the 15 day trial and see what you think!
4. Hootsuite – This social media management tool is always a good tool to begin with. With over 9 million users it’s one of the most popular tools out there. It helps you keep track and manage many social network channels, like Facebook, Twitter and Google+. It enables you to monitor what people are saying about your brand and help you respond instantly. I have always been a fan of Hootsuite, again like many of these tools, there are a number of packages on offer depending on what you want to use it for.
5. Bit.ly – For those who haven’t heard of bit.ly this tool is used to shorten your URL’s. Historically, bit.ly is a great tool for Twitter users, only having 140 characters to play with, using full URL’s would be a waste of space so this is why bit.ly was invented. Bitly is popular for its fantastic analytics. In my dashboard I can track how many times a link in a post has been clicked as well as identify what network they were using. If you want to look really posh you can even customise the look of your short URL with a custom URL. To be honest, you’ll be overwhelmed with all the tools out there but like I said you don’t need them all. Always ask yourself, what do you want to get out of them? Use the free trials where you can to test what works for you and your business first.