Time Saving Marketing Tools - An Introduction
According to Inc., the majority of small business owners work at least 50 hours per week, with 25% reporting they work 60 or more. For those already channeling so much time and effort into building their company or increasing its reach, tacking on the task of managing the business’ social media accounts can seem overwhelming. Time-saving marketing tools can be a life-saver when building a substantial presence on these platforms. Social media marketing takes a certain amount of dedication, and could easily add another hour to the workday.
Yet it is impossible to deny the positive effects social media marketing can have on your business: not only will it help build brand awareness, but it also encourages brand loyalty that can equate to sales. According to Sprout Social, 90% of social users report being more loyal to brands they follow on social media.
That’s why it’s crucial to have an awareness of tools that not only help business owners use social media, but allow you to reduce time spent marketing your brand. To #MakeSocialSimple, today we review PR Daily’s article, “8 time-saving social media marketing tools.”
Tweetdeck
Twitter might not be the best platform for increasing sales, but it certainly enables businesses to increase awareness of their brand. As noted in the article, “Tweetdeck helps you stay on top of mentions, ‘likes’, retweets, followers and tweet performance.” However, most of these are easy to monitor through Twitter itself. Curiously enough, what is not mentioned in the article is what might be Tweetdeck’s most valuable tool: allowing users to schedule tweets. Just compose a variety of tweets, select the time you’d like them to post, attach a visual, and don’t worry about needing to promote your campaign for the rest of the day (though we do recommend you keep an eye on your mentions, in case a client needs assistance).
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Hootsuite
The Hootsuite software is “a comprehensive dashboard that enables you to manage all your social media accounts on one screen.” Like Tweetdeck, it allows for scheduled posts—but across a variety of platforms. Another Hootsuite feature is that it also tracks engagement and monitors analytics, while allowing social media teams to easily curate content. It’s not stated in the article, but Hootsuite can get pricey: for just one user, with 10 social profiles, it’s $49 USD per month; with businesses that have 35 social profiles and up to five users, it costs $739 USD per month.
Sprout Social
PR Daily calls Sprout Social “the meeting spot for all your social media mailboxes” and notes it also includes analytics tools and offers the ability to schedule posts. At first, it’s difficult to understand why it would be preferred to Hootsuite—but there’s one advantage that may be significant to your business: one inbox, managed by your social media team, that allows everyone to see when an individual is replying to a message, or to know who is tasked with doing so. With messages taking more time out of a social media manager’s day, this can be a real time saver.
Google Alerts
According to the same PR Daily article mentioned above, Google Alerts is handy because “digital mentions of relevant topics are delivered directly to your inbox.” We can see how this would be helpful for keeping track of the sites that are mentioning your business. However, signing up for too many Google Alerts, about topics that are far too broad, are likely to simply suck away the time that you’re trying to save—or increase your stress levels by increasing your tally of unread emails.
F5Bot
It seems Reddit is the fifth-most popular site in the world … yet most companies do not have a “Reddit presence.” The article argues that business owners can find success by using TrackReddit to locate the terms that relate to your brand and respond accordingly. Unfortunately, TrackReddit was shut down in 2020. However, several alternatives emerged to track brand mentions on Reddit, the best of which is F5Bot. This handy tool monitors Reddit and emails you anytime your brand and/or selected keywords are mentioned on the platform. As of late 2022, the service remains free!
ReviewTrackers
The last thing you want posted on Facebook or TripAdvisor is a harsh review of your business—particularly if you are unaware of said review, and unable to respond in a manner that demonstrates to other users that your customer service is top-notch. Enter ReviewTrackers, a tool that allows you to monitor reviews on more than 100 sites. Pricing starts at $119 USD per month, but this will decrease as you assign more sites for ReviewTrackers to keep tabs on for you. ReviewTrackers could be a reasonable investment if your business is in an industry in which online reviews carry a good deal of weight.
Spike and NewsWhip Analytics
A version of this article first appeared on the NewsWhip blog, so it’s not surprising to see its tools featured. According to the article, “NewsWhip Analytics gives you the insight to outperform your competitors” by providing access to four years of data from top social media platforms. Meanwhile, Spike ranks the top-performing posts on Facebook and Twitter, providing a “comprehensive look at the themes and topics that are driving conversations in their niche.” What the article doesn’t disclose is that Spike is also a NewsWhip tool; quite honestly, it is difficult to discern which a business owner should choose and why. If you’re having trouble identifying trending topics or knowing what stories to mention to catch your audience’s attention, you might give Spike a try. As for Analytics, we’re not convinced it’s a time-saving tool, but simply another means of gauging analytics, with the added promise of easily identifying influencers on popular topics.