A Few of My Favorite Things // The Social Media Edition
It’s the most wonderful time of the year, and as a social media professional who is also an avid Sound of Music fan I thought I’d put together a little list of my favorite tools from 2016. Don’t worry, I’m not going to try to sing.
If you don’t know, now you know (okay, I kind of switch music genres there). If you haven’t been using Canva, then I’m not entirely sure what you’ve been using but feel free to tweet it our way. Create customized social media images, cover photos and business collateral using Canva’s templates or design your own. Short on creative? Purchase photos straight from the website.
Time tracking is certainly not the sexiest or most creative part of our social media business, but when you wonder at the end of every day where all the time went, Yast has the answers. The software is super easy to use and what’s more, it’s free!
Your customer is talking about your brand or product, your competitors and your industry on social. Are you listening to them or are you allowing all that rich data to go to waste? Brand24 delivers real-time information about what is being said online. This data allows you to tailor content, targeting and strategy around the areas that your customer is interested in.
An oldie but goodie (and can’t-live-without-ie). How else do you quantify your digital marketing efforts? Especially after Facebook’s most recent miscalculation scandal, Google Analytics is a must for measuring site performance generated by social media traffic. While it will take some time to become familiar with the platform, once you’ve created appropriate shortcuts, it’s the easiest way to measure the success of your strategy.
Social engagement is great and all, but if we can’t attach performance to an RIO, most of our clients are going to jump ship. SocialClout’s tagline is among one of my favorites because it relates so much to what we believe here at Matchstick: if you cannot measure it, you cannot manage it. SocialClout provides social media analytics that tracks engagement and calculates direct conversions.
When you work in the digital marketing industry, you’re essentially never off the clock. Social Media never sleeps, or so they say. With Onlypult, we can upload and schedule Instagram content straight from your computer. Yes folks, this means you don’t need to wake up at 6am to post that Instagram video! Bonus: Onlypult offers basic analytics and filter options.
Hootsuite has been around for quite some time now and is one of the best known social media management tools available. Just like Onlypult, Hootsuite allows you to schedule your social media content in advance from channels like Facebook, Twitter and Linked. Once you setup your account (which is extremely affordable even at the agency level), you can tailor your dashboard to display everything from scheduled content, to messages, replies and retweets. For this reason, many use Hootsuite as a social listening tool as well. Pro tip: skip the analytics, as we’ve seen inflated (or just plain incorrect) numbers over the years.
There’s a lot more to add to this list! Which social media tools are your favorites? Share with us on Matchstick Social’s Facebook.
