If you’re looking to take your business to the next level, you’ve probably already heard that one of the best ways to do it is through social media sites like Facebook and Twitter.
Social media websites are now responsible for millions of dollars in revenue every day, which means you can’t afford NOT to be on social media if your competition is. But starting out isn’t always easy – that’s why we’ve compiled a list of 10 tools that will help you build up your market quickly!
Bufferapp (www.bufferapp.com)
According to software development team, Buffer is an easy-to-use scheduling tool for marketeers who don’t have time to post content all day long (ahem… us). This simple tool lets you load up your account with links and graphics for all of the social media sites you want to use, and then queues them up for your postings throughout the day or week. No more checking Facebook every 10 minutes (although we don’t recommend it) – this lets you relax and know that everything will be posted on time.
Rafflecopter (www.rafflecopter.com)
Rafflecopter is a great tool for building how-tos, contests, giveaways and even lead generation! The best part is that they offer a free version , but there are also paid versions available if you want access to their pro features . Either way, this simple little app offers many different options for building your brand.
Hootsuite (www.hootsuite.com)
Hootsuite is like having an entire social media team at your fingertips… and it’s totally free! This powerful tool allows you to manage multiple accounts (including personal ones) by letting you view them all on one screen, respond to messages, gather new leads, schedule posts ahead of time… pretty much everything you want a social media marketing plan to do! The best part? It integrates with Buffer so that new posts are automatically loaded into your Buffer queue without any extra work from you! What more could you ask for?!
Google+ (plus.google.com)
Yes, really! Google+ is now Google’s main social network (although Facebook still has way more people using it), and if you’re looking to break into the market you absolutely must include it. No matter what business you own or sell, there’s a good chance that your audience is on Google+. The best part? It takes only 20 minutes to set up your pages so you can start gathering leads immediately!
Storify (www.storify.com)
If your business prides itself on being active in social media, then chances are that at some point you’ve run into a situation where the news breaks on Twitter before it breaks anywhere else. Storify, you can help save face by aggregating all of your company’s tweets and Facebook updates into one post that looks like you were right there in the thick of it from the beginning.
YouTube (www.youtube.com)
YouTube is evolving, and marketers need to evolve along with it! Even though YouTube is still a video-sharing site, many businesses have been successful using it for marketing purposes . If your business doesn’t have a YouTube account yet, get on board… quick! There are some amazing tips out there on how you can use this platform to its best advantage , so be sure to check them out!
Hearsay Social (hearsaysocial.com)
This is a great tool for those who are new to social media and want to see what kind of analytics they can get on their posts without having to shell out the big bucks for an expensive program like Hootsuite. Not only does this platform offer basic statistics (such as which posts got the most views), but it also features built-in post scheduling, analytics tools, lead generation forms… you name it! Plus it’s free
Autoclickers (www.autoclicker.org)
In case you’re not familiar with Autoclickers, they are a set of software programs that will click the “like”, “share”, “follow” and even “comment” buttons on other pages for you… automatically! OP auto clicker 3.0 is one of the best and it works by setting up a specified amount of time before the actual button is pressed to let multiple people be able to load at once. There are many different kinds out there , so choose one that works best for your needs.
Hootlet
If you’ve got a Facebook tab on your business’s website, this is a must-have tool. It allows you to share any article or post directly from the web without having to go through any third-party site (such as Hootsuite), and it even allows you to schedule posts! The only drawback: if you use Chrome as your browser, then there’s already an app that does the exact same thing at no cost for Google+ called “Hangouts”.
Tweetdeck (tweetdeck.com)
You don’t have to be a marketing guru or social media junkie to know about Twitter. This platform probably has one of the most intuitive interfaces out there , so it pretty easy to get started with. If you haven’t already made your own Twitter profile, now’s the time! The best part? You can easily view all tweets by mentioning “Mention me”, so it makes it really easy to reply to any queries.
LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com)
LinkedIn is an absolute must if you’re looking to network with other businesses and marketers just like yourself! While Facebook tends to be more geared toward personal use (and therefore has less potential for business), LinkedIn offers a plethora of ways in which marketers can network, collaborate and create opportunities together. This is important when searching for joint ventures or simply trying not to reinvent the wheel… because let’s face it, market how our peers are marketing and we’ll all be much richer for it
Conclusion
There you have it! That’s my top 11 list of marketing tools that will help you save a lot of time and money in your business adventures. Please note that I didn’t put any specific order to this list, but feel free to comment below if you think there should be some changes made! All in all, these tools go a long way towards making things easier for us marketers… so we can focus on our real job: growing our businesses. Enjoy
