With so many social media tools on the market, it can be difficult to determine which tools you need and which are uncalled-for. This simple guide will break down the five tools you can’t live without, and the five you’re better off forgetting.
Buffer
By tapping into key market research, Buffer schedules your social media posts for the time of day when they’ll be most visible to your audience. This will help you make more impressions and a bigger impact on your audience.
AgoraPulse
AgoraPulse is a management tool that offers many useful features, but we’re most excited about its unique ability to measure audience engagement—and the inbox tool that allows you to respond to comments, mentions, and private messages on your social media profiles.
Sprout Social
If you’re looking for a more streamlined social experience, Sprout Social may be for you. It expertly segments your social media activity, allowing you to keep track of all posts, interactions, and analytics on each unique social media platform.
Snip.ly
Running out of room on your tweets or status updates? Snip.ly allows you to created shortened links (“snips”) that opens a call-to-action at the bottom of the screen when clicked. You’ll enter a short message and choose your button—whether you’re looking for RSVPs or subscriptions to your newsletter.
Atomic App
This handy tool will help you analyze the strength of your content by checking your spelling and grammar, evaluating the emotional appeal of your titles, and double checking that your tone matches your intended audience. If your campaign is content-driven, this is the tool for you.
Five Tools to Ignore
Of course, there are always tools that don’t hit their mark. Here are five tools we recommend scratching off your list:
- TweetReach
- ReFollow
- TweetLevel
- TwitterSearch
- Google+
Streamlining your social media management is centered on eliminating redundancies, and many of the tools we see on the market will only duplicate your efforts. The tasks and analysis accomplished by the first four tools on this list can be absorbed by other, more in-depth tools. And Google+— well, that’s just a social platform that isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.
No matter what, your tools are only as good as the work you put into them. If you don’t have a strategy in place, you won’t get any use out of the analytics and insights provided by these tools. Start by creating a social media campaign and then incorporate these useful tools into your strategy.