So you’ve set up your business’ social media accounts. You’re actively posting and creating content, but you’re a little unclear on how this content is being received by your followers, and if it’s working well enough to promote your business or brand.

You’re also pretty tired of having to develop and create informative and shareable content day to day, and also don’t even know how to start building your audience.Sound familiar?

Funnily enough, when I talk to various business owners and bloggers, I find that these questions or situations pop up quite often.

Without the proper tools or plans in place, managing social media can become extremely overwhelming.

However, with the right tools in place, it can be a breeze (you’ve just got to know the tricks of the trade!).

For the past few years I have been managing various social media accounts for both myself and other clients, and have really immersed myself into the social media space.

So, to help you develop your social media management skills, I’m sharing with you 13 Must-Have Social Media Tools.

TOOLS FOR MANAGING YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA POSTS + SAVING TIME

Hootsuite – This is a social media scheduling tool that I have been using for quite some time now. It saves a lot of time.I like to use it to manually schedule in my social media posts for my personal account and client accounts, as it allows me to schedule content to publish at a later date and time. Hootsuite can also publish content for you at a time that they think is going to get you the most traffic.They also have great analytics and reporting methods so that you can measure how your content is being received by your audience. Hootsuite also has a great dashboard that allows you to monitor all your pages and social platforms.

An alternative to Hootsuite is Buffer, which is a smart and easy way to schedule content. Buffer is used as a type of virtual queue that you can fill with content and stagger your posts throughout the week. It allows you to also keep a consistent social schedule.The difference between Hootsuite and Buffer is that Buffer is primarily used as just a scheduling tool, whereas Hootsuite also has the ability to show a dashboard of your social media channels.

TOOLS FOR BUILDING YOUR AUDIENCE

Tweepi: This is a unique management tool for Twitter that allows you to flush the unfollows, cleanup the inactive’s on your account, reciprocate following of other accounts, as well as bulk follow/unfollow up to 200 users at one time. This is a great tool for those who need a complete Twitter overhaul.

Social Flow: This is quite an interesting resource that is used to watch real-time conversations on social media so that you can predict the best times to publish content in order to find peak times and target specific audiences. Social Flow also analyses social signals to help identify where you should be spending your money on promoted and sponsored posts.

Crowdbooster: A great tool for no-nonsense social media analytics that will give you suggestions and resources to boost your online engagement. This platform provides recommendations on engagement and timing, and audience insights so that you can determine what content is working best for you.

Unfollowers: Are you wanting to track who has unfollowed you on Twitter or Instagram – who doesn’t! A fantastic tool that you can use to connect with people and get an insight into your audience and how they are connecting with you.

TOOLS FOR ENGAGING WITH YOUR AUDIENCE

Bit.ly: A reliable resource to use to get to know your audience. This tool can be used for shortening links to use on social media, analysing your audience and managing the success of the links.

Tags For Likes: I refer to this site regularly to find hashtags to use on each Instagram post. Tags For Likes has a great range of hashtags that you can use to connect with a variety of audiences. Ever wondered how to centre your Instagram bio too? Tags For Likes can help you out with this.

Hashtagify: Another good hashtagging tool that helps you find the best hashtags that are relevant for your brand and will get you noticed.

Iconosquare: Great for obtaining stats specific for your Instagram account. Get your total number of likes received, your most like photos ever, your average number of likes and comments per photo, as well as follower growth charts.

TOOLS FOR GENERATING INTERESTING CONTENT

Have a blog post idea but struggling to formulate a topic or title? Head to Portentor HubSpot, where you’ll find tools that will help you form the most SEO attractive blog title ever!Finally, if you’re like me and have multiple Notes written on your iPhone of passwords to various accounts – then definitely get LastPass in your life! This is a tool that remembers your passwords so you won’t forget them ever again!

Contact us today to talk about how your business or brand could benefit from these tools!