Social Media tools, there’s loads. Everyday I’m discovering new one or being sold the next best thing, So I thought why not create a post as to what I use and why.
So here it is, my Social Media Arsenal.
Social Media Tool 1 : SproutSocial
This bad boy is my go to tool. I have over 20 clients to look after and flicking through various accounts on Twitter, F
acebook and Google+ becomes a bit of a nightmare. In the early days there was the occasional post on the wrong page.
Sprout social lets me quickly flick through clients with a simple drop down. Each item in the drop down list is a group of channels under each brand. So when rolling out those content plans for the day or week, simple click it, choose and crack on.
The drop down is obviously not the only reason I use this tool. Sprout Social is great for team delegation and monitoring. Even giving your client access for Crisis comms. When a post comes in that you need to react to and its pretty important, you can assign it to members of the team that are ready to deal with any issues, such as customer services or the PR guys. The monitoring allows you to see how often members of the team are responding. (handy to shit out the non performers)
On top of this, some of my retail clients are big on their customer service, and as you probably know, Social Media customer service comes down to speed of response. The quicker you get to those users the better. Sprout social has a great feature for you to keep on top of that.
Discovery tools, Keyword monitoring, a central inbox and scheduling are some of the other great features but the standout one for me is the ease of use for reports. One click and a great looking PDF is good to go to clients. Obviously adding your insights and campaign advice.
Check out Sprout Social.
Social Media Tool 2 : Tweetdeck
Tweetdeck, nothing much to say here, but when it comes to live events or TV Tweetdeck does the job. I look after a big Sports-entertainment client and each week there is a live TV event. I need to keep an eye on the participants, the fans, influencers and engage on the fly. Tweetdeck does the job. Just add the columns you need and boom good to go.
Social Media Tool 3 : Buffer
Everyone has heard of Buffer. This tool has made my posting life so much easier. Theres a free version and a piad. Basically, you signup, add your social accounts – In my case I added my personal and business accounts – then install an extension in your browser of choice. Then when browsing and seeing something on the web you maybe want to share, you click the extension and add it to your buffer.
What this does is, as you find interest things you want to share, you add it to your buffer. Through your own defined or recommended schedule the posts will go into a queue. This queue then staggers your posts. Instead of those 7 tweets at a time, you know who you are, you release your great content slowly over time. I swear by Buffer. Use it.
Social Media Tool 4 : Sysomos
This is pretty expensive and most of the time you will find it being used by agencies. As far as buzz monitoring goes, Sysmos does it for me. Add your brand, keyword or phrase and you are good to go. Sysomos will return mentions across a time period you define, help you find influencers (another topic some other time), sentiment, opportunities, research for a pitch and loads of other helpful pieces of data. I use Sysomos when planning strategies for clients, looking at competitors, or where there is an opportunity for a brand to get in on the conversation. In some cases its even helped inspire ideas for campaigns. This post won’t do Sysomos justice, but its a pretty powerful piece of kit. One thing to point out, its a Canadian company, so sometimes popular newspapers in the UK are listed under Blogs.
Thats it!
My personal Social Media tools arsenal :
Sprout Social + Tweetdeck + Buffer + Sysomos
Granted there are other tools for things like curation or optimisation. But for now thats what I use. How about you? Comment below on some tools you prefer or what works for you.
Cheers!
