The Best Social Media Tools for Businesses – Top 5

It is no secret that social media is now essential for promoting your business and driving traffic to your website.  Any business can take advantage of the opportunities provided by social media no matter how big or small their marketing budget. The biggest cost with social media is the time it takes to develop content and effectively manage numerous social media channels. This cost can be significantly reduced with the right tools at your disposal. Thankfully, there are many free tools available, some of which we will share with you in this article.

There are different tools for everything that you need to manage social media such as scheduling, video creation and URL tracking. We have used many social media management tools over the years and here are our top five choices. These are our favourite tools due to the fact they are easy to use and they are intuitive. Each of the below tools provide a specific benefit and make life a little easier in their own way.

1. Bit.ly

Bit.ly is an excellent tool to use when sharing links on social media posts. The biggest benefit of this extremely powerful tool is that it is free and very easy to use. This tool allows you to customise, shorten and track URL’s which is important as long-tailed URL’s can look very unsightly on social media posts.

Tracking the amount of website traffic a URL receives is also very important as it will give you a quick indication if a social media post has been successful and if it has resonated with your target audience or not.

2. Hootsuite

Hootsuite is a fantastic social media tool for scheduling posts. This platform covers all the major social media channels and allows you to manage three separate social media accounts for free. The interactive dashboard allows you to view all the posts for each channel and to publish and schedule posts directly from Hootsuite.

Many businesses manage all of their social media accounts from Hootsuite as it is a central location which saves a considerable amount of time visiting and working on separate social channels. Hootsuite is a life saver for any business as it allows you to set up and schedule your weekly posts for all of your social media channels within a few minutes over a cup of coffee.

Need more help with keeping on top of your company’s social media campaigns? Check out our top tips for social media management at the link below.

– Free Tips For Effective Social Media Management

3. Canva

Canva is a great tool that anyone can use for their graphic design needs for images or infographics they share on social media. This platform has thousands of templates and over a million photographs to work with. The simple drag and drop functionality of Canva makes it extremely easy to make striking graphic designs for free.

Custom templates are available for all social media dimensions needed such as the optimum image sizes for Facebook, Instagram and Twitter posts. You can also upload and create your own custom designs if you want to be extra adventurous.

Want to add that “wow” factor to your social media graphics? Check out this article by our Creative Director Lee Grace.

– Finding Creative Inspiration

4. Piktochart

Piktochart is an amazing tool for using infographics in your social media posts. This visual tool is very useful for sharing complex information through infographics with a target audience. The beauty of Piktochart is that is makes it extremely easy and less time consuming to make visually appealing infographics. There are several templates to choose from and you can add or remove blocks depending on the information you wish to present.

Infographics can be a powerful addition to your social media content. Research has highlighted that if someone hears information, they are likely to remember 10% of it after three days. If the same information is displayed via a visual medium such as an infographic, people will retain 65% of the information.

Check out this resource below to learn more about the benefits of using infographics in your digital campaigns.

– How Can Using Infographics Benefit Your Business

5. Promo

Promo is a brilliant tool that will allow you to create videos for social media posts in a fast and easy way. According to recent studies by Facebook, people lose concentration after 8 seconds. Videos are very effective at capturing audience attention and driving conversions.

This video platform has a library of over 12 million video clips and templates. You can pick any video you like to edit and enhance with music, images and your company logo. The interface for Promo is very user friendly and you should be able to make high quality videos by simply playing around with the software for a few minutes to familiarise yourself with it.

Use these tools to make the most out of social media

These five social media management tools will really help you take your social media presence for your business to the next level. The hardest part of social media is staying disciplined and committed to sharing remarkable content with your target market every week. Just remember not to saturate the timelines of your audience with too much content from your business. This will have the opposite effect of what you are looking for.

If you would like any further tips and advice on social media for your business, feel free to contact our team today on (051) 853 650 or email us on info@marla.ie. We would be happy to meet for a coffee and help you get the very most from you digital marketing efforts.