Social media marketing can be tricky to manage. There are an ever increasing array of different websites that it is recommended to try and engage customers through such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Google +. A planned and structured approach is critical to success. While some companies in very rare cases get lucky with their social media marketing content going viral, in most cases social media marketing is another channel that must be managed effectively to attain worthwhile results. Like any other kind of marketing, carrying out an analysis and understanding what needs to be done to attract customers and then taking those steps is essential. As Business 2 Community (2015) puts it:
“There is no magic trick in digital marketing, just plain old skills and tools, the same as any other marketing avenue.”
However, there are a number of tools that can help with this. Some of these are the following:
CoSchedule – this tool is good for scheduling the times for publicity when you post a piece of content on a blog. You can use this tool to help you to post messages about your post on social media sites. CoSchedule can be set up to do this. One helpful thing about this tool is that you do not have to do all of your media postings all at once. Rather you can pick different days and times for each social media platform. This allows you to post at times when you will be most likely to get attention.
Crowdbooster – the way that Crowdbooster works is that it helps you to understand from which social media platform your web visitors were driven by. In learning this information you can gain a better understanding of which social media platforms drive more traffic for you and when, and this allows you to create a digital marketing campaign that revolves around this information. Steps are taken to specifically understand which sales results can be linked back to which digital marketing campaigns. While it only utilises Facebook and Twitter for now, arguably these are the most beneficial to understand since they have high user volumes.
Buffer – Buffer is a bit more of an all-round tool as it allows both the scheduling of content on social media platforms and the analytics of what is working and what isn’t. Of course this comes at a price, and the price is higher than for the preceding two tools. It may be worth taking up the free seven day trial first to make sure if you think it will be worth it for you to invest in this area.
Hootsuite – Hootsuite is a tool that focuses on reputation. It works by monitoring the social media platforms to try to see what is being said about you. Consequently it monitors comments that people make about your organisation’s products or services, or about the company overall. It will flag up comments that are negative or positive, both of which can be helpful in improving your brand. The good comments and reviews you can highlight to customers and potential customers, and where possible you can take steps to eliminate negative comments about your organisation.
Tweepi – since Twitter has fairly poor reporting capabilities, Tweepi can help out and fill this gap. The tool is focused on understanding how well your twitter campaign is going. Once you know this you will be able to address any problems that you have identified using information gleaned through Tweepi.
IFTTT – IFTTT stands for If This Then That. The tool was created to help you to undertake certain activities by acting as a trigger. For example you can set it up to send social media messages if you create and publish a blog post. This will automatically prompt social media activities regarding the blog post.
SocialFlow – SocialFlow works to monitor comments and posts that your competitors make. It operates on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google +. What this enables is creating content that is of interest to followers. It provides an understanding of what the interests of followers are at any given time for you to be able to create content accordingly and then this can be scheduled and promoted in relevant conversations.
Paula Newton is a business writer, editor and management consultant with extensive experience writing and consulting for both start-ups and long established companies. She has ten years management and leadership experience gained at BSkyB in London and Viva Travel Guides in Quito, Ecuador, giving her a depth of insight into innovation in international business. With an MBA from the University of Hull and many years of experience running her own business consultancy, Paula’s background allows her to connect with a diverse range of clients, including cutting edge technology and web-based start-ups but also multinationals in need of assistance. Paula has played a defining role in shaping organizational strategy for a wide range of different organizations, including for-profit, NGOs and charities. Paula has also served on the Board of Directors for the South American Explorers Club in Quito, Ecuador.
