Social media platforms provide entrepreneurs with a number of key tools for branding and marketing. These tools can measure results, generate leads, increase conversion and awareness rates and improve the overall return on investment (ROI)
So why do so many small business owners adopt a ‘spray and pray’ mentality, or worse employ a no-show attitude, when it comes to social media campaigns? There are no easy answers to these questions, but what is certain is that the days of setting up a static outpost on Facebook, LinkedIn or any other platform are long gone.
Today, the best and most effective efforts not only engage a wide audience , but are also managed, monitored and continually tweaked based on the feedback and actions (or non-actions) of your target audience. Take Jet Blue for example. They launched an innovative campaign offering discounted tickets through its online Twitter stream that increased ticket sales at a time when the rest of the airline industry was flailing.
If you don’t think social media is for you, consider this: According to recent study from the Center for Media Research, 21.3 million people in 2011 discovered a new brand or company through social media, and another 22.5 million say they use platforms to learn more about brands and products.
The benefits to a business’ bottom line can be tremendous when social media is done right, however a proper campaign chews up a good deal of time and requires a concentrated, coordinated effort.
Don’t despair. There are several tools to help lighten your load and increase the probably of your message being heard out there in the wild. Try these five solutions to help better manage and monitor your social media efforts.
HootSuite
HootSuite helps manage your different social networks by enabling you to track conversations and measure campaign results; manage and update your Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Ping.Fm, WordPress and Foursquare; and simultaneously post information across all networks. Having all your social content available on a single dashboard is a major advantage when trying to navigate the entire landscape.
Bottom line: HootSuite has a great system for analytics, tracking brand mentions, analyzing social media traffic, scheduling and distribution. This all will save you time.
Cost: Free for up to five networks. Pro version is $5.99 per month.
2. Main Street Hub
Making new friends can be hard for anyone especially when you are trying to do it online. Main Street Hub provides a service that lets you circumvent part of that cumbersome process by helping build, manage and monitor your profiles on Facebook, Twitter, Google Places, Yahoo Local and Yelp. This includes growing your fan base, posting status updates, responding to messages and comments from customers.
Bonus: Building a big network is the most time consuming aspect of social networking. Main Street Hub gives you a big head start.
Cost: $199 to $299 per month, depending on the plan you select.
3. CrowdBooster
When trying to win new friends and influence people it’s important to know what is working. CrowdBooster is the kind of social media barometer that can help you effectively grow and manage an effective presence online. The tool provides graphics that show which posts or tweets receive the highest number of retweets or Likes, and measures the largest impact based on number of impressions. Let’s say you’ve been actively promoting a product but have received scant feedback from any of the many social media platforms you use. You start to wonder if anyone is listening. Well, CrowdBooster’s social media dashboard will report who is receiving your message and who is not, and will even notify you when influential (based on Klout score) users are available. CrowdBooster also recommends which course of action to take in order to best reach this desired audience.
Bonus: Analytics and recommendations show businesses how to more effectively reach important influencers, create relevant content that resonates with your audience, and send content at the most effective times.
Cost: Free
4. Klout
In today’s fast paced Web environment, measuring success in real-time is imperative. If you spend too much time barking up the wrong tree, you’ll end up chasing your own tail. Social media analytics provider Klout measures influence online using data from your social networks.
How it works: An algorithm measures several factors including amount of posts, the number people sharing these posts and the overall number of followers. It then calculates your Klout score to help users understand their influence and determine the source. Armed with this knowledge you’ll be better equipped to improve and extend your reach. For example, if you’re in the ice business you likely wouldn’t expend much effort trying to sell to people living in igloos.
Bonus: Measuring influence based on the ability to drive action in social networks leads to more targeted audience.
Costs: Free
5. Social Mention
Sometimes separating the medium from the message is a tough task, especially when it comes to social media.
However, if your goal is social awareness – eavesdropping in on what people are saying about your product, service, business and competitors – Social Mention can help. The platform allows you to program alerts based on chosen keywords and pulls content from more than 80 online spaces including blogs, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Flickr, YouTube, etc. —more than 80 in all.
If someone posts a negative comment about your business on Facebook, The Social Mention platform alerts you immediately. This allows you to engage with your customers in a real and meaningful manner.
Bonus: Understanding the conversation is one of the most important ingredients to social media success. If you know what they are saying, you can act accordingly.
Costs: Free with charges based on higher levels of use.
Conclusion
Just because companies are collectively spending hundreds of millions of dollars on social media marketing, doesn’t mean you have to donate a large portion of your budget to leverage the medium’s benefits. Although eventually you may need to enlist the services of a professional, these five easy to use tools are more than enough to put you on the right social media path.
Tim Gray is content strategist with Blue Fountain Media. He often writes about the innovative tools small businesses and entrepreneurs can use to be successful. Read more about Tim here.
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