Social media marketing: here’s 10 of the best tools
Sharing – that’s what social media marketing is all about. You may have the most entertaining, informative, educational and humorous posts, videos, infographics, and articles in your business niche, but if they are not being shared by those who initially receive them, all of your work is for naught. To make social media work for you, you have to identify those who are in your target market, share with them and then somehow inspire and motivate them to share with all of their networks. This is a tough task, to be sure, but here are some social media marketing tools that might just help in big ways.
PageModo: You know that great visuals, contests, and surveys are always appealing to social media subscribers. They see a great photo and want to share it; they read a great story and are compelled to share; they hear about a contest, enter it, and then share that information so that all of their friends can get in on it too; they take a survey and wonder how their friends would respond, so they share it. All of these things you can do through PageModo, and it is so easy, the most unskilled novice can create great stuff!
AddThis: Of all of the social media marketing tools, this has to be one of the most important for any entrepreneur who is trying to spread his/her brand. We have all experienced this. We read a news article, for example, and at the end we are given the option to share the article with all of our friends on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest. Just by clicking a button, the article is shared and the user never has to leave the page s/he is on. AddThis allows you to do this with your blog posts, forum discussions, videos, infographics, and surveys/contests/announcements. The idea here is to make it really easy for a viewer to share, with no inconveniences involved.
BuzzSumo: If you are still trying to determine the needs, desires, pains, and issues of your target market, then you will want to use this great tool. Here’s how it works: you enter keywords or keyword phrases that are related to your business niche (e.g., handbags, home improvement, HR consulting, etc.). BuzzSumo combs the web and delivers to you all of the articles, blog posts, forums, videos, etc. that relate to your niche and, even more, tells you how popular they are. Think about what a great amount of information that is. You can read through all that has been delivered and know what is being discussed, what questions your market audience has, what issues are presented – in short, what your target market is talking about. This information will then drive the topics and content venues for all of your social media channels.
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SproutSocial: How cool is this? With this tool, you can publish anything you write, design or create on a set schedule ad to all of your social media channels from a single place! You also get some great analytics, such as who is viewing your stuff and at what time of day. You can then target your audience more specifically and arrange to publish when that audience is on social media.
Snip.ly: You have come across a news article, blog post, video, image, or infographic that is compelling and really engaging. You share it on all of your social media channels and add some type of call to action and a link back to your site. Perhaps you have a related survey you want them to take; perhaps you have a free e-book you want to give them. The point is to get them engaged with what you have posted and then come and visit!
Socedo: One of the biggest challenges facing any business is the generation of leads. Socedo is attempting to help somewhat. Here, you can enter keywords, and the tool will generate leads based upon those who are engaged in conversations or commenting on content that relates to our niche. You can then reach out to these potential customers with great content of your own!
SocialToaster: Everyone wants a superhero once in a while, and you can create superheroes out of your customers with this tool. You develop a “fan club” from among your customers. In a bit of a competitive atmosphere, you encourage them to sign up for the fan club and earn points each time they share your content with their friends on social media. Those customers who become “superfans” by sharing your content with the largest audience earn specific rewards for doing so.
Share as Image: If you have great fresh content to share, you already know that getting a target market to actually read it is quite another thing. Share as Image allows you to create images that will present your content in visual ways, rather than just through text and make them much more attractive and memorable. Of all the tools listed here, this one is the easiest to use – no skills required at all – Share as Image does all the work.
TweetDeck: If you have multiple Twitter accounts, you know that managing them all is really challenging. TweetDeck allows you to seem them all at once, to manage them, and to Tweet from any or all of your accounts at a specific time and/or schedule. This tool is limited to Twitter, and it does not support any other social media channels.
Picreel: Statistics tell us that the majority of visitors to any given site leave without being converted to customers. Obviously, you would like not to be a part of this statistic, and here is one strategy you can use. Picreel allows you to grab a visitor before s/he leaves your site and make some type of special offer, in order to entice the visitor to stay a bit longer. Research also shows that the longer someone stays on a site, the more apt they are to purchase.