Friday, 30 October 2015

4 Seriously Superior Social Media Tools to Manage Your Accounts

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Need Social Media Tools? Start Here!

My good friend and colleague, Ian Anderson Grey, wrote an awesome article in cooperation with G2Crowd.
G2Crowd ‘analyzed hundreds of detailed reviews from users of the top Social Media Management software’ and then created this awesome infographic about it. Ian then explained in plain English what it all means and why the top 4 ‘best’ are indeed the best social media management tools.
Here’s the impressive infographic!
The Top 4 Rated Social Media Management Tools of 2015

 Infographic brought to you by Seriously Social and G2 Crowd

What Tools Should You Use?

I am in no way, shape or form going to rehash all of the wonderful things Ian explained and touched on in his article. Just go read it here. Each person who manages social media will have a different objective and thus a different need for tools. Depending on your situation, and after reading Ian’s article, I would suggest you try out any or all of these
  • Hootsuite
  • AgoraPulse
  • SproutSocial
  • Sendible
*Full disclosure; I’ve used Hootsuite and I’ve had access to a trial version for both SproutSocial and AgoraPulse. Sendible I’ve never tried.
Why am I sharing with with you then?
I want to give you a few pointers in what to look for when deciding on what tools to use.
About two years ago I wrote about the best social media tool ever

Have you ever paid for a webinar, a conference, a tool or a subscription and you didn’t use it? What good did it do you? No good.
The best social media tool is one you like, understand and use!
Remember this! Don’t let anyone talk you into buying/paying for a tool you don’t understand or don’t need.
the best social media tool is the one you are actually going use

How To Find New Social Media Tools To Use!
(besides trying out the 4 tools pointed out earlier)

  • Ask your peers (“What tool do you use for content curation?”)
  • Sign up for free trials. Even get trials for similar tools and compare for yourself; yet then pick one to use for at least one month.
  • Create a list of social media tools as you heat them being mentioned (use your ‘notes’ app, create a ‘Social Media Tools’ Pinterest board or create a list in List.ly)
  • Follow ‘potential tools’ on Twitter (Put them on a list and check periodically for updates and new features!)
  • Don’t hesitate to upgrade to a paid version if you love a tool. If they are already awesome for free, they are going to rock it even more for the paid version!
  • Check your email! I get offers to try new tools all the time.

What Tools Do I use then?

So I haven’t really told you yet what tools I use, right?

Here is the truth… It changes often.
Ok, I understand you want to know… therefore, here is my most current list of favorite social media management tools.

Management/Scheduling

  • Buffer (paid)
  • Tailwind (paid)
  • Hootsuite
But how about other tools I use to manage my social media accounts? Surely there are other tools I use you ask? There are, so here is the rest of the tools of my trade!

Images/Video

  • Canva for Work (paid)
  • Clipping Magic (paid)
  • PicMonkey (paid)
  • Over
  • iMovie
  • SlideShare

Content Curation

  • Feedly
  • Facebook Trending Topics
  • Twitter Trending Topics
  • Daily (from Buffer)

Account Management

  • DropBox (paid)
  • Crowdfire
  • SocialQuant
  • SocialBro

Additional Tools

Before I go, I want to tell you a quick story to illustrate the importance of starting small, with basic tools. Before you immerse yourself in a bunch of tools it is important to know and understand what type of learner you are and what task you need done. Each tool will look different to everyone depending on if they are a visual, auditory or kinesthetic learner as some people love a full dashboard, big buttons and lots of bells and whistles where others get lost when they see those!
In a social media training session about two years ago I had a hard time explaining Hootsuite to my class. This was a group training and my computer was hooked up to a TV so everyone could follow along. This one person was very verbal (read: getting agitated) and explained they just didn’t understand what Hootsuite did, the potential it had and how using it daily could benefit them, and most people in class that day looked confused. After another frustrating 5 minutes, I opened a new tab on my computer and went to Twitter.com to illustrate a point.
Then magic happened!
Turns out, this person has never, ever logged into Twitter and the rest of the class had never really explored Twitter.com either.
They skipped point A & B and they’d gone to C only to get lost! Once we figured that out, we were back in business and I switched to teaching basic Twitter 101.
Tools are only going to be useful and helpful if you understand the basics of social media.
Tools won’t ever be able to replace planning a strategy, tactics and setting up campaigns and tools certainly can’t think for you.
Tools won’t replace common sense, kindness and common courtesy either.
In essence, tools are tools and should never fully replace human interaction on social media.
It isn’t called social media for nothing!