It seems like we hear about a new social media management tool nearly every day. As a marketer, it’s easy to get overwhelmed. You’re probably asking yourself how you could possibly decide which tools will help grow your business, and which are just a waste of time.
There are a few paid tools that stand above the rest in terms of functionality, but they come with a price tag that may be out of reach for smaller B2B companies or those just getting started in social media. If you fall into either of these groups, we’d like to help. We’ve compiled a list of our four favorite social media tools for small budgets and social media beginners below. Even if you tap into only these four tools, you’ll find yourself with a wealth of data and functionality that will help take your social media efforts to the next level.
What it does: TweetLevel allows you to search Twitter for a list of key influencers on just about any topic under the sun.
Why it’s useful: Social media is all about building relationships. TweetLevel helps identify other people who care about the same things you do so that you can begin to interact with them via social media.
How to use it: Identify key topics about which your business has the potential to be influential, find key influencers around these topics, follow them and begin to interact by reposting their content, replying to their posts, and answering questions they pose.
What it does: Brand Mentions’ Social Mention is a simple-to-use social media search tool that aggregates user-generated content from across the internet into a single stream of information, allowing you to track and measure what people are saying about your brand anywhere on the globe, in real-time.
Why it’s useful: Brand Mentions’ Social Mention allows you to discover who’s talking about your brand, ensuring you never miss a comment or mention. The tool provides useful customer insights so you can better understand user interactions and how social campaigns are resonating. It also allows you to quickly respond to social media mentions, allowing you to better protect your online reputation and improve your crisis management strategy.
How to use it: Set up an account and connect all of your sites and social media accounts. Define the country and language for the mentions you want to receive. Right away you’ll be provided a dashboard with all social media mentions. From there, you can fine tune your results to include or exclude keywords and/or domains, providing you with fewer, but more relevant mentions. Alerts will be sent to your primary contact in real-time.
What it does: DivvyHQ is an editorial calendar and content marketing tool on steroids. You can organize content ideas, send and track content assignments, manage deadlines and schedule posts all within this simple cloud-based app that is 100% spreadsheet free.
Why it’s useful: Content marketing requires a great deal of coordination, especially when it involves a team. DivvyHQ allows you to plan and schedule everything ahead of time so that your content goes up without a hitch. Just imagine the relief you’ll feel when you no longer have to remember to make time for daily Twitter or Facebook updates or track down an overdue blog post from a colleague.
How to use it: Sign up for an account (the paid subscription options will give you significantly more functionality) and begin brainstorming post topics for your various social channels. Then, assign your content to dates on a calendar, assign writing assignments to members of your team, and schedule posts as you complete them. DivvyHQ will even follow up with members of your team automatically when their content nears its due date.
What it does: True Social Metrics allows you to obtain the social media metrics that really matter. While likes and followers might be valuable numbers for some, they are relatively meaningless for others. True Social Metrics allows you to measure valuable data like applause rate, amplification rate, and even economic value of your social media interactions.
Why it’s useful: True Social Metrics solves the problem that marketers have had with proving the ROI of social media. It pulls only the data that clearly shows how your social interactions are contributing to the health and growth of your brand.
How to use it: Sign up for a True Social Metrics account and connect it to your Facebook, Twitter, blog and other social channels. Then, watch the numbers come in and use them to assess the true value of your efforts.
Learn more about our B2B marketing services or check out other helpful B2B marketing articles to further support your efforts.
(Click here to expand)
