Are you connected? Do you tweet? How many “Likes” or followers do you have on Twitter or Facebook? Social media can be the 800 lb. gorilla in the corner of the Web that business owners don’t know what to do with. Moreover, if you are a business owner-chances are, you have more than one social media account. Consequently, you can find yourself spending exorbitant amounts of time updating your status, promoting sales and cultivating customers.
These actions are necessary, but they do not have to invoke hours of time online. There are dozens of social media tools that can help you save time and money, yet still build your business. In fact, a report released by the Century Link Resource Center shows that by using some of these social media tools, one mid-sized company saved $42,000 in just one year and reduced the amount of time spent on updating social networks and designing a keyword campaign-all by making a $6,000 investment.
If you are looking for social media tools that can save you time and money, then take some time to check out these social media tools.
- Virtue – Using this tool allows you to integrate Facebook and Twitter accounts. It has three main components-Virtue tabs, Virtue Publisher and Virtue Apps. With Virtue, you can create surveys, videos, polls, coupons and other social media tools. Virtue has two packages available, the lowest of which begins at $300 a month.
- Sprout Social– Have a small business and $300 a month is a bit more than you can afford? Then Sprout Social may be just the answer! Ranging in price from $10 to $50 a month, Sprout Social can help you manage multiple social media accounts from one place. You can also opt for messages, geotargeting, Foursquare and Yelp support, the ability to create special offers and promotions, monitor and cross-prost to networks and much more.
- HooteSuite-Whether you are looking for unlimited profiles, RSS feeds, analytics, geo-segmented social network monitoring or other social media elements, HooteSuite is likely to have it. Integrating with Facebook and Twitter, this tool is a boon to business. It ranges in cost from free to $2,000 a month and offers a 30-day free trial for its stats-tracking service.
- Shoutlet– This social media tool is a multi-user application that helps global brands, small business and marketing agencies through expediting marketing communication with one platform. It can provide multiple account and platform support, social CRM and e-commerce for social sites.
- Involver – With tools such as RSS feed, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr and others, Involver is one of the social media tools used by Facebook’s internal marketing team. It has four packages-Basic (free), Professional ($99 a month), Business ($549 a month) and Enterprise ($2, 749 monthly). Available features vary by the package you choose.
- CoTweet-Recently acquired by Exact Target, CoTweet offers a way to integrate multiple Twitter accounts. The Standard Plan is free or you can opt for the Enterprise plan, which cost a minimum of $7,000 per year. The Standard package offers Tweet scheduling, e-mail notifications, click tracking, multiple account publishing, message assignments and basic analytics reporting, but does not include Facebook account access; the Enterprise has more analytic resources, a lifetime archive of customer interactions, faster Twitter updates and will help with account support.
- Sprinklr – Known for its Social Intent Revelation Engine (SIRE) platform, Sprinklr is an ideal social media tool that provides consulting services for consumer and B2B marketers and agencies, as well as social media audience research, acquisition, content promotion and measurement tools.
- Awareness Networks– This social marketing hub is an on-demand software that helps brands to publish social media content, as well as manage, measure and engage consumer interaction. Awareness reaches across Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube and WordPress.
- Objective Marketer – Need a way to bridge Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and your blog sites? Then check out Objective Marketer. Here you can structure messages by campaign, schedule content and track analytics and reports all in one place.
- Spredfast – Promoted as a collaborative campaign management platform, Spredfast also offers features such as scheduling content and managing, measuring and monitoring your social media interactions across multiple social media channels.
- Media Funnel – Working primarily with Facebook and Twitter and integrating with SalesForce, Media Funnel works with permission based workflows with roles for contributors, admins and publishers.
- Syncapse – Originally known as SocialTalk, Syncapse integrates with Facebook, Twitter, WordPress and MoveableType. It allows you to create text, photos and videos, manage workflow and approval, publish to multiple platforms and track analytics.
These social media tools can make a significant difference in how you do business on the Web. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean that you should sign up for every tool you see here. Nor, does it mean that you should flood the Internet with constant updates, videos, promos and Tweets.
Of course, there are numerous other social media tools to choose from, and each of them performs specific functions. So, how do you determine which one(s) will be best for your needs? Check in next post to get tips on choosing the best social media tools for your business. Or you can always hire the social media experts at Page Progressive for more help!