Guest Article

Generating results from social media takes time. However, as a small business owner, time is our most important commodity. Whether you are managing social media accounts or one of your employees, you should always aim to maximize productivity. Here are 5 social media tools that will increase your productivity:

1. LikeAlyzer

Facebook’s evolving algorithm makes it difficult for small businesses to reach people in the news feed. Today, you can expect less than 20% of your Facebook fans to see your posts. However, if your posts get more interactions, you will reach more of your fans.

LikeAlyzer is a free social media tool that will help you improve your Facebook page to get more results. It identifies key areas for improvement in your Facebook page. It will analyze your posts and identify the peak time for you to post based on the performance of previous posts. It also will help you to identify what type of posts you should be posting to get more likes, comments, and shares. If there are Facebook pages that you admire, you can also use LikeAlyzer to look up their Facebook page and see what exactly they are doing to produce results.

2. BuzzSomo

Most social media managers spend most of their time generating quality content for their followers. If the content you post is not relevant and engaging to your readers, then you are not maximizing your results from social media. What if you could search a topic and see results based on what is trending on social media?

BuzzSomo will help you find the most popular content for any topic. It is a search engine that generates content based on what has been shared the most on social media. It takes Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Twitter shares into consideration. This will help you to generate social media content that has already been statistically proven to perform well. Small businesses can also leverage this tool to find key influencers in their industry or on a specific topic.

3. CoSchedule

If you blog often, you may find it very tedious and time-consuming to distribute your blog content to social media sites after writing a great post. Whether you log-in to each social media site individually or use content scheduling platforms such as Hootsuite or Buffer, it still takes additional time and effort to promote your blog on social media opposed to doing it from your website.

CoSchedule is a Wordpress plugin that will allow you to post to social media from your website or blog. It integrates with Buffer and your core social media accounts. It allows you to manage your entire blog calendar from the backend of your website. Once your posts are distributed to social media sites, CoSchedule provides you with performance analytics based on the amount of engagement your posts receive. This allows you to post and analyze your social media content without having to log-on to any social media site.

4. Ifttt

Today, you may spend time posting the exact same message on various social media websites. Or perhaps you are spending time searching various keywords on Twitter or Facebook, monitoring what people are saying about your business or industry. What if you could limit the amount of time spent doing this with a click of a few buttons?

Ifttt is a unique social media tool that automates certain functions on social media. The concept of the platform is based on “if” contingencies. For example, if you posted on Facebook, it could automatically post that same message to Twitter, LinkedIn, or Google+. In addition, you can receive alerts each time certain keywords are mentioned on Facebook. All you have to do is signup, add your social media accounts, and start automating various social media tasks today.

5. PicMonkey

While it may hurt to pay a designer to create graphics for your social media content, it is even worse to use tons of Google images throughout your social media presence. Unique visual content is more engaging and enhances your brand through the eyes of your consumers. Today, you do not have to spend hours in Photoshop or Adobe Illustrator to create graphics for your social media accounts.

PicMonkey is free photo editing platform that allows you to quickly design images or edit current images. You have access to various fonts that you can use to enhance the message of your social media content. They also provider various filters, shapes, and icons that you can use to whip up high quality graphics.

About the Author: Sherman Standberry is the cofounder of LYFE Marketing, a social media marketing & management company. He has worked with brands on the shelves of Walmart, Walgreens, and more to connect with their customer base online.