When it comes to social media, it’s important to ensure that you’re managing it all well. You probably have multiple accounts as well as contractors helping you with the duties involved in a successful social media strategy. You have so many social media accounts like Pinterest, Google Plus, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and others. And with all that comes the need to be able to analyze the metrics of each to ensure that you’re doing what gets the most results and not wasting time on ineffective tasks.
New tools come out all the time to help you with social media management. So always keep searching for better software and apps to help you manage the ever growing number of “must use” social media portals.
Let’s look at some that stand out as of right now.
Buffer.com – The three major players right now in social media are Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, and Buffer lets you manage all three from one application and more than one of each! The only thing that could make this better is the ability to integrate Pinterest, which is fast becoming a major player for many brands. They have plug-ins and add-ons for WordPress, Firefox, and more. It really is an app worth checking out.
HootSuite.com – This is the app has been around awhile but it’s still awesome. You need it if you are trying to monitor and listen to the buzz, which is what Buffer is missing. With both of these apps, you’ll be able to manage your social media easily, getting both scheduling and automation as well as analytics and engagement.
Gremln.com – Maybe this is the answer to giving you a combination of Buffer and HootSuite? With Gremln you get scheduling, analytics, and multi-network management all under one tool. You can use one dashboard to monitor Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin.com. It still doesn’t include Pinterest but it’s likely just a matter of time before these tools add in Pinterest. There is a free and paid version. You can also whitelabel this for your business and offer it to your customers.
Viralheat.com – Now we’re getting somewhere. With Viralheat.com you can monitor all of the above plus Pinterest, Google Plus, and more. This is definitely something you want to check out and try. They do offer a free but limited plan, with the most expensive being essentially $100 a month. However, with everything it offers, the price is more than worth it for a business that is serious about managing and monitoring all their social media under one service.
Choosing a service to help you monitor, management, publish, analyze and engage with your social media followers and users can be a big choice to make, but try out the tools listed above to get started bringing it all under control.
However, do keep in mind that social media is supposed to be social. Don’t get too tied up in automation and forget to engage and interact. Studies have shown that the more the users engage with the business, the more sales increase. Don’t miss out on those sales due to automating too much of the experience.