What tools do Social Media Marketers use?
There are a variety of tools that can reduce the heavy lifting of a Social Media Marketing campaign and raise the bar of creativity too. Some of the handiest tools include:
Hootsuite
As the world’s first social media management platform, Hootsuite has been at the forefront of social media for over a decade. As an integrated platform, Hootsuite allows you to schedule and publish content to all of your social profiles, track effectiveness in real time, and amplify your most important content.
Hootsuite also allows you to set up customisable streams that allow you to monitor trends and stay notified about customers, competitors, or any topic relevant to your brand.
Buffer
Buffer is a multipurpose tool that’s most commonly used to draft and schedule posts. Buffer started as a scheduling tool for Twitter, but now supports many of the biggest platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Pinterest.
Buffer subscriptions are split into two services, Publish and Analyse. The former enables you to plan and schedule your posts, while the latter helps you assess the impact your posts are having.
Biteable
Social media is increasingly driven by video content. With Biteable you can easily create engaging, entertaining, and informative short videos.
With an array of free video templates, footage, music, and animated scenes, Biteable is perfect for anyone aiming to create studio-quality content without needing expensive equipment. Best of all, most of the features are available with free accounts.
Buzzsumo
Buzzsumo is a research tool that enables you to optimise the impact of your content. Buzzsumo generates detailed metrics that can be used to analyse the impact of your content.
Buzzsumo allows you to track content trends, find influencers related to your brand, and even receive updates on the most popular keywords and search terms.
Mention
Mention is a comprehensive social listening tool that, as its title suggests, tracks mentions of your brand in real time. Mention can also be used to track audience responses to the posts of your competitors.
Mention makes it easy to be part of the hottest conversations. You can respond to comments and responses from within the Mention platform, while you can also use Mention to find suitable influencers for influencer marketing campaigns.
Social Sprout
Last but not least, all-in-one social media management tool Sprout Social can be used for scheduling, publishing and team collaboration.
Sprout Social differs from other social media management platforms in its emphasis on data. Sprout Social provides in-depth data and actionable insights that can be used to manage social conversations.
What platforms do Social Media Marketers use?
When it comes to delivering an end-to-end content strategy, there’s a range of platforms that Social Media Marketers can harness to reach their target audience.
Some of the industry’s most tried-and-trusted platforms include:
Facebook
Facebook has 2.93 billion active monthly users, which often makes it a Social Media Marketer’s number one choice. With the Facebook Ads Manager, you can create ads that target users according to age, location, gender, relationship status, education, interests, job title, purchase history, device usage, etc.
For organic social posts, Facebook also allows you to create Custom Audiences from the list of phone numbers or email addresses that you’ve collected, meaning you can target specific customers. You can also use Facebook Pixel to reach customers who’ve already visited your website.
YouTube
YouTube may be 15 years old, but it still attracts over 2 billion users each month. As the second most popular social media platform, YouTube marketing is now an essential part of many successful content strategies.
When visitors view your channel, they can access your video content and link back to your website. They can also view any content you ‘follow’, or even content about your business that’s shared through other channels and platforms.
Instagram
Instagram has 1.2 billion users, with each user spending an average of 7 hours a week browsing content. Instagram is distinct from other social media platforms in its heavy emphasis on visuals.
For brand’s that want to highlight the design or aesthetic qualities of a product, or for those offering a service that brings about a visually remarkable end result, Instagram is often the best platform to showcase what your business has to offer.
LinkedIn
With over 830 million users in 200 countries, LinkedIn is the platform of choice for Social Media Marketers trying to appeal to a professional audience. LinkedIn marketing is the process of using LinkedIn to make connections, improve brand awareness, generate leads and foster business relationships.
Many marketers will also share cutting-edge content to establish themselves at the forefront of their industry. LinkedIn is now a core component of many successful marketing strategies because of how effective it is when it comes to expanding professional networks and building an industry reputation.
TikTok
TikTok has received over 3 billion downloads globally, making it the first ever non-Meta app to attract so many users. With marketers searching for new ways to engage audiences, TikTok’s videos have become an effective means to tell a brand’s story, share a value proposition, and nurture relationships with potential leads.
Today’s social media users often prefer video over all other content forms, with 67% of marketers claiming that sharing videos on social media has the highest ROI of all channels.
Twitter
Twitter hosts 238 million users daily and offers Social Media Marketers the chance to keep their brand involved in the most important conversations. With Twitter, you’ll focus on generating a healthy mix of replies, organic tweets, retweets and Twitter takes, while you might even pay to feature your brand in Twitter Ads.
By posting links to useful articles, or creating your own informative content, it’s possible to establish your business as a thought leader in its industry. This is one of the most effective ways to build a Twitter following around your brand.
Snapchat
Snapchat has 347 million daily users, with over 5 billion snaps sent each day. Snapchat allows businesses to connect with customers through the temporary sharing of photos and short videos.
Social Media Marketers can promote businesses on Snapchat by using traditional ads, as well as by applying branded filters, lenses and geotags.