When running your own business it is often difficult to find time to manage your company social media accounts. Here’s a list of useful tools that will help you to keep up to date with making posts and how well they’re doing.
Buffer
Buffer lets you schedule posts for Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google Plus and Pinterest, all from one page. It is a great resource for anyone short on time that wants to tackle social media content in one session and, is perhaps the best free social media organisational tool on the web. Making a post works in exactly the same way it would do on the respective website and allows you to insert the pictures, videos and links that would usually be allowed. Buffer is split into tabs- content, analytics and schedule. From the Buffer content tab, posts can be made for all of the platforms linked with Buffer. They can be sent as a blanket post across all platforms or sent to specific ones. You can add as many posts as desired to the schedule, it’s easy to edit or delete them and, once scheduled they will appear on your content feed in chronological order. Buffer also has an analytics tab that provides a brief look into the analytics of posts made using Buffer, however it is very basic. The schedule section offers a list of suggested times for posting on each platform that can be filled with content for quick scheduling. Buffer also has a premium option called the ‘Awesome Plan’ that lets users add up to ten different accounts for each social media platform and see a more comprehensive version of analytics.
Buffer is available online or can be downloaded as an app.
Iconosquare
Iconosquare allows you to view, interact with and see analytics for your Instagram account from a computer. Its is one of the few tools out there that allows Instagram to be used on a PC (although it still doesn’t allow the posting of pictures/ videos) and provides an overview of all Instagram activity. As with Buffer, simply allow Iconosquare to access your Instagram account from the website to get started. Although the design looks different, Iconosquare has a similar layout to Instagram; it displays the newsfeed, likes, followers and a popular page through which you can perform all of the interactions available on the Instagram app (again, apart from make a post). The most useful part of Iconosquare is the statistics section; it details unique stats that can’t even be accessed on Instagram such as engagement/ reach percentages and the number of lost followers. The search page is also a very useful tool for following a database of customers/ clients.
Tweetdeck
Tweetdeck is a very handy Twitter application that posts tweets, views interactions and monitors any accounts or hashtags in a customisable column format. The app is perfect for any business that wants to monitor its own hashtag or a hashtag to join in with. Columns can be dragged and dropped into any desired order and easily deleted once no longer of any use.
Facebook scheduled posts
If you are simply looking to schedule your posts to go out at a later time or date on Facebook, the schedule post option found on Facebook pages is the most simple option. The great thing about Facebook is that everything that you want to use it for (i.e. analytics, scheduling, competitions) is usually available without leaving the site. To schedule a post on Facebook, write the post as if you would normally and click the dropdown arrow on the ‘Publish’ call to action, from there you will be prompted to schedule post. The Facebook insights tab will also provide a higher quality of analytics than you will find on any free third party Facebook website.
Twitter analytics
Twitter analytics is a branch of the Twitter website that provides a detailed overview of tweet and account stats. The analytics provided are again (as with Facebook’s analytics) better than any free third party app will provide and break down the activity to different tweets, days, weeks, months, types of interaction etc. Paying attention to these analytics can really help improve the success of your social media marketing campaign.
Special mentions
Instagram does not have an app that is optimised for tablets. Padagram operates in the exact same way as Instagram but fits to your tablet screen.
Social rank can be synced with Facebook or Instagram. It gives free stats on followers and tells you who is the most popular and what is most popular with their fans. It’s an excellent tool for anyone looking for information regarding what their own fans would like to see.
If Pinterest is the social media platform that you use the most, Tailwind is one of the only analytics sites around. It isn’t free but the website does offer a free trial. A couple of years ago there was several popular third party Pinterest sites but Tailwind appears to be the only one that survived.
How do you manage your business social media? What are your favourite tools? Feel free to share your tips and comments below.
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