With the increasing ability to reach millions of customers globally, social media has quickly become one of the most important digital marketing tactics. If your small business isn’t taking advantage of this incredible marketing opportunity, you could be missing out.
Benefits of Social Media Marketing
There are many benefits of implementing social media into your marketing plan. Below are just a few:
- Improve brand awareness by spending a few hours a week pushing out relevant content and interacting with users
- Utilize many cost-effective platforms and advertising opportunities that fit different objectives
- Engage on a more personal level with customers, responding to their questions and inquiries quickly
- Improve brand loyalty among the customers you’ve already engaged with
- Increase website traffic via sharable content that gives users a reason to click through to your website
- Enhance SEO rankings by sharing content on social media platforms
- Improve overall brand image by creating a voice for your small business that customers will interact with
Social Media Automation Tools
As we list the benefits of using social media, it may look like you need to execute a lot to get to the point of seeing the ultimate payoff: an increase in followers (which leads to more engagement, leads, sales, etc.). Social media automation tools are great resources to increase your following while reducing the amount of work it would take to get there. The eight social tools below are our top selections, all focusing on different areas to help you reach your goals.
This simple yet powerful social media automation tool lets you schedule posts in advance to publish on different platforms, manage responses, and report on your content through a single dashboard. Hootsuite integrates with over 35 social media platforms, including Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and more. The dashboard provides real-time updates of all activities taking place on various social media accounts, such as when your business is mentioned and what was said.
Buffer is a great social media scheduler for any business that puts out a lot of content through several social media handles, but its uniqueness lies in the available analytics. Buffer has enough data to suggest the most optimal time to post content, and it can provide useful insight into how your social media strategies stack up against your competitors. This can give your business a huge advantage.
This platform allows you to have a deeper understanding of your social footprint by helping you establish more innovative content strategies. It lets you discover the most popular posts — as well as the influencers who wrote them — through the use of keywords. Once the content and users are identified, it’s up to you to connect with those individuals and build a relationship. Now more than ever, valuable content is important to connect with your customers and build a strong brand; BuzzSumo will help you get started.
Mention is a platform that will alert you when your brand is mentioned in social media conversations on various platforms. A small business would benefit from this tool for help performing competitor analysis, managing a crisis/unhappy customer situation, and monitoring your brand in the social atmosphere more closely.
Agora Pulse is similar to Hootsuite, but it gives you an opportunity to engage more with your customers. Not only does Agora Pulse allow you to plan and schedule posts, but you can also conduct contests, promotions, and quizzes — all tactics that have become more popular in social media to increase user engagement and followers.
This platform makes campaigns more efficient, which typically translates to increased revenue. SocialFlow tracks conversations in real time while gathering insights that help determine the best time to publish posts so you can capture the attention of your followers and audience. This tool will also show you how your content is performing, which will help increase your value and further connect with your audience.
No matter which social media automation tools work for you, know that they will provide assistance in maintaining consistent content, give you control over your social media strategy, and give you back your time — all while growing your business’ following.
For more business marketing tips, check out Incfile’s blog. There are tons of posts on important topics such as how to increase customer loyalty and additional ways to drive traffic to your website. And when you’re ready for help managing your growing company, Incfile is here to assist with everything from filing your business taxes to changing your company name.
