Online tools help you do your job. They do it right, and they do it fast.
Right now, these tools are becoming more and more indispensable to digital marketers, mainly social media managers. The problem is these tools are an additional cost to your business operations. That is why it is understandable for a small business to be reluctant to purchase one or to subscribe to monthly deals to use one tool – and there are lots of them.
In this article, you will understand how taking advantage of social media tools and utilizing them can be helpful to your business.
But before anything else…
Why Market Your Business in Social Media?
Here’s why.
The power of social media is so immense that more than 3 billion people use social media platforms every month. Here are some statistics that you might want to know as a marketer:
The world’s most widely used social media network, Facebook, is the current market leader in the B2B and B2C spectrum. It has over 2.8 billion registered users or MAU’s (monthly active users). This platform is still the top choice of most online marketers. 65.9% of Facebook users, or the equivalent of 1.908 billion people, are considered DAU’s (daily active users), who login on either desktops or mobile devices every single day.
Business-to-business or B2B companies sell their products or provide services to other businesses. Business-to-consumer or B2C companies sell directly to consumers.
This photo-sharing platform has over 2 billion active users all across the globe.
This microblogging service had 206 million daily users across the globe as of the second quarter of last year. The United States ranked first with an audience reach of 77.75 million users. Japan follows this with over 58 million, and India in third with 24.5 million active users.
YouTube
Do you know what YouTube’s current share of registered viewers? Over 2 billion. The internet is being used by 4.88 billion people worldwide. Or the equivalent of 62% of its entire population. Half of this number uses YouTube.
Tiktok
Tiktok has a billion active users as of the last quarter of 2021. The United States was in the top rank (outside China), with over 120 million active users aged 18 and older. Indonesia had 87.5 million, and Brazil in third with 72.3 million.
The search engine presently has over a billion MAU’s and is still growing. It’s the most visited website, boasting a staggering 2.5 trillion searches per year.
Given the stats, if you are a business, you should already use some of these platforms to your advantage. And if you are having trouble managing all of your accounts, you can use various social media marketing tools to help.
Why use tools to automate your social media marketing tasks?
Also read: Top 10 PPC Tools for Advertising Campaigns
Here are Eight Reasons:
8 Reasons Why You Should Use Social Media Marketing Tools
Authorities in the marketing and advertising niches say that well-established brands attract followers on social media more than celebrities. So why not take that virtual ride and get extra mileage from it? You get to effectively keep up with half of the world population for a lesser cost. Here are why a reliable social media marketing tool is worth every penny.
1. Cut down on your advertising bills.
Keeping an active online engagement to promote or sell your products or services isn’t only economical. It’s also far-reaching compared to traditional ads that appear on billboards, newspapers, and tv.
2. Have your inbound and outbound messages organized.
This allows you to keep a tab of all messages sent to your online accounts and your responses to those messages, arranged in separate threads, without constantly logging in and out of multiple accounts – which can be confusing and time-consuming.
3. Get constant updates.
You will be notified whenever there are any comments, mentions of your brand, and tags across your social accounts. For you not to miss out on what’s relevant. You get the chance to give a personalized and timely reaction to both the positive and negative comments you receive. If any, act on clients’ complaints or concerns and take note of their feedback. This raises brand awareness and fosters better customer relations.
4. Adds value to your business’ online visibility.
Long-term exposure for your products or services is invaluable in the world of business. Having a massive number of followers on social media gives you a competitive edge over others in the same market niche as you. Also, you get the opportunity to turn followers into potential buyers and customers to loyal patrons by interacting with them in real-time.
5. Sales monitoring and analytics.
You get to keep a record of the marketing process – the rate of how your product/s sell, your projected sales based on market demand, etc. You should also track down product movement and identify the weak areas to intensify advertising to introduce your brand to a broader audience.
Also read: Top 5 B2B Tools for Your Sales Teams
6. You get to focus on your target audience.
Marketing tools provide pertinent statistical data (average age, gender, ethnicity, etc.) of a particular group of people in an area where you can focus on your target audience. This means allocating funds and redirecting your branding efforts to specific groups to best cater to their demands and preferences.
7. Allows you to post scheduled content on multiple accounts.
Most businesses are on multiple social media networks like Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. Using a tool that streamlines the posting process allows you to send messages and tweak things when needed. It likewise lets you post timed content simultaneously on said platforms several times a day from a single app, without hopping from one account to another.
8. Also, a tool can enhance your posts by letting you edit or add stunning visuals.
Tweets and Facebook posts that include images are proven to get more retweets and shares than those that do not. Hence, increasing web traffic in your favor. There are also free tools available to help with graphic editing tasks. You can add background to pictures, resize, or add filters to your social media visuals.
9. You get to assess how your business performs.
A social media marketing tool enables you to monitor and control your marketing and advertising campaign as a whole by showing the metrics. This makes assessing overall performance easier for you to make the necessary adjustments to boost online engagement.
The same metrics can be used as proof to show stakeholders how much ROI (return of investment) your campaign has generated from investing in a social media marketing tool.
Business owners and marketers, especially those who run simultaneous ads campaigns on social media, rely heavily on various marketing tools to help them upscale and automate the entire marketing process, optimize content, or even make last-minute changes. So here are some of them:
Recommended Social Media Marketing Tools
Investing in the right social media marketing tool/s for your business can save you time, effort, and in the long run, resources. Plus, you get to oversee how your marketing strategies work. Take a look.
Hootsuite
It does the job (some of it) of a social media manager. Curate data for content creation, schedule various posts on multiple platforms, measure ROI, and even manage your social media team. All from just a single social media management platform.
It was created by an American named Ryan Holmes in 2008. Its user interface resembles a dashboard and can be integrated with other platforms like Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.
Hookle
It is one social media management tool designed for small businesses. It is best for busy entrepreneurs because it allows you to upload posts while on the go. You can easily manage your business’ social media accounts from a single app, wherever you may be. You can install it on mobile.
Hookle lets you connect with a few people from your social media channels so you can work together as a team. You can draft posts while on the go, create content, customize and publish it on multiple accounts with just a few clicks. And a lot more functions. It’s an all-in-one app that you can install on either android or desktop.
Also read: 7 Perfect Key Element to Launch A Product and Service
Agorapulse
This was created by Benoit Hédiard and Emeric Ernoult in Paris in 2012. It started as a social media management tool that focused on just Facebook. Twitter was added shortly, and eventually LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram.
Agorapulse is one of the top social media management tools. It offers many options for publishing content, scheduling posts, and reporting social account usage. You can use it to track down mentions of your brand on different platforms.
It has an integrated inbox that allows you to manage all incoming messages, comments, and reviews from your social media accounts in one spot. Hookle gives you options to collaborate with others as a team, and schedule content for all your social media channels, among other features.
Pixelied
This tool is more of a graphic design platform than a social media marketing tool like most on this list. But if you are using visuals every time you post on social media, this addition makes a lot of sense. You can create and edit posters and documents, add background to pictures, create illustrations and visual content needed in the digital world.
Pixelied has an impressive design library, making it a must-have app for graphic designers and social media marketers who use the platform to enhance their visual content. The app offers templates and is free to use. It also has free and paid subscriptions for additional features.
Buffer
This tool lets you manage several accounts on social media, schedule the uploading of posts, analyze the results, and engage in various online communities. It advertises on social media to promote blogs for a wider audience.
With Buffer, you can have one free social media account to manage. Facebook (profile or page), Twitter, or a LinkedIn account with up to 10 pending updates in your buffer or scheduler.
Or an option for a paid subscription of $10 monthly – for you to have up to 12 social media profiles and be able to access the total stock posts in your buffer. You can even add up to two team members to help manage your accounts. It also has a Chrome extension that allows users to post directly to their social media accounts from web pages.
BuzzSumo
This is a cloud-based social media marketing tool specializing in content analytics and curation. It helps you find content and outreach opportunities across all your online accounts. Based on that search, you’ll discover trending stories, new keywords, and customers’ queries while keeping track of what’s relevant to your brand.
This software allows content creators and marketers to analyze and identify which content did best in a particular niche, which has the most shares, the domain from which it was published, and its author.
Buzzsumo’s advanced search engine helps users understand what content resonates well with their brands and target audience.
Takeaway
If you own a startup company or are still planning to put one up, any of these tools’ free versions or plans are worth trying.
But with every business competing for consumer attention, there’s a dire need to invest in premium marketing tools not only to simplify your workload but to stay ahead of the game.
So get the facts here and take action. Explore social media marketing tools today.
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