8 Powerful Tools for a Social Media Marketer

Let’s face it – a brand that isn’t utilising social media in some way or form in 2020 might as well not even exist. Sharing quality content on social media, that adds value to people’s lives, is proving to be one of the best ways to find and connect with customers. So, how do the best social media marketers publish quality content day in and day out? Where do they find their ideas? How do they know which hashtags to use, or where to source images? Let’s find out:

Answer the Public

Every great social media post starts with a great idea. Posting content without any planning is never a good idea, but coming up with good ideas is tough. This platform lets let you take a look at trending questions that people have typed into their Google search bar. Simply type in a topical keyword or phrase, and the platform spits out hundreds of questions that you can answer using your social media content.

Unsplash

Once you’ve decided on topics for your social media posts, the next step is to source images that relate to your content. Before Googling ‘free stock images’, visit Unsplash. All images are high resolution, and completely free to download and use. They’re royalty-free, but the website gives you the option of promoting the amateur photographers by adding a link to their profiles on Unsplash.

Canva

Some social media posts are perfect with just an image and some accompanying text. However, if you need to add text onto the image itself, you’ll need to use some sort of design software. If Adobe Photoshop is a bit too advanced, why not try Canva.com. It’s a free online image editing platform with loads of different fonts, shapes, and filters you can use to craft stunning social media graphics in minutes.

Hashtagify

So, you’ve planned your posts, sources stock images, and edited them using a design tool. The next step is to write your accompanying copy and add relevant hashtags. These will help social media users find your posts when searching for related topics. Gain access to the most trending hashtags on Twitter by using Hashtagify.me. Simply type in a topic, and the website will show you related hashtags, as well as popularity and usage statistics.

Bit.ly

A lot of social media content that gets posted for a brand are links, like when promoting blog articles, service pages, or third-party content. The issue with many website links is that they are long and take up a big chunk of a post’s character limit. By using a URL shortening tool like Bitly.com, you can shrink website links down to just a few characters. The best part about using Bitly? It’s totally free! Just paste your URL into the text bar, hit the SHORTEN button, and you’re done.

Buffer

You’ve planned, designed, and written copy for your social media posts. You’ve researched the trendiest hashtags around your topics, and all of your links are short and sweet. The next phase is to share these posts on the various social media platforms you’re promoting on. You could manually share each and every post, logging into each social account each time one needs to go live, or you could use Buffer.com. Link up all of your social accounts to one easy-to-use online tool, and save yourself time by scheduling your posts in advance!

Mention

Social listening tools have grown in popularity over the last few years. These remarkable tools scan the Internet, finding anywhere and everywhere that a brand is being spoken about online. Whether in blogs, review websites, social media channels, or the news – if your company is being mentioned somewhere, Mention.com will find it and allow you to monitor the conversation. This means you can step in and interact with your followers in spaces other than just the ones that you promote on.

Slack

For social media marketers that are collaborating with other people on campaigns, communication is key. In an industry where timing is everything, social media marketers need to be able to communicate effectively, and timeously, without things like unseen emails or attachment issues causing speed-bumps. Slack is a tool to effectively organise team communication, and instantly share resources, and is the world’s leading social media project management platform.

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