Everyone knows that you must have a social media presence. Unfortunately, managing the multiple channels as well as posting updates can be overwhelming without the right social media tools.
However, there ARE people that have streamlined their social media management activities in order to get the most out of their social media channels. I decided to ask 100+ of them one question:
If you could use only 3 tools for social media management, which 3 tools would you use?
Let me tell you, the insights I received from these 100+ social media experts were nothing short of amazing. I’ve listed all the responses below.
But before we jump in, let’s take a quick glance at the top 10 most mentioned tools:
As you can see, Hootsuite and Bufferapp have a huge lead over the next closest social media tools. However, I’ll be updating this data as new responses are added to this list of resources.
Want to have your 3 favorite social media tools added? Drop me a line. I’ll do my best to add who I can, but unfortunately I won’t be able to add everyone in order to keep the list credible.
To view responses that discuss a specific need, use the dropdown filter menu.
Adel de Meyer
TWEET NOWHootsuite is an all-in-one social media management tool. It has a combination of scheduling, monitoring, engagement, analytics and 3rd party app store all accessible and managed from one dashboard. Hootsuite is easy to use to manage all your profiles from one place and that is what I enjoy about using Hootsuite the most. I can quickly read my notifications and even my emails from Gmail, pull up the latest analytics from my profiles and schedule or publish to various platforms in one click.
To be successful and to track your success or failures you need a robust analytics tool to give you all
the data necessary to adjust your strategies hence why Google Analytics will always be on my must-
use list for social media management.
A busy and big Twitter account can become unmanageable very quickly hence why I love to use a
tool specifically just for managing my Twitter account. I love to stay on top of my account by
regularly flushing out unfollowers, inactive accounts or spammy followers. I want to reach out and
find influencers about certain topics and the Commun.it tool makes all of this very easy to do.
Aimee Beck
TWEET NOWHootsuite: Managing multiple channels and keeping in touch with my audience can be extremely time-consuming. Seeing all my social accounts in one screen helps dramatically. Hootsuite also has a simple Chrome plugin and a good scheduler so I can reach my audience at peak times.
Bufferapp: Although very similar to Hootsuite, I like Bufferapp for its “suggestions” on topics I may have otherwise missed.
Good old fashioned spreadsheet: Ah, Excel, we go way back. It’s a work-horse and it never lets me down. I can import and track data, sort and filter messages, hashtags, keywords, dates and target URLs. It’s just super easy to us—no muss, no fuss.
Amy Purdie
TWEET NOWFor social media management, my top three tools would be Buffer which I use to update Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ and sometimes to post in my private Facebook groups. It’s well worth upgrading to get a bit of extra information and it’s so easy to use. Also Facebook’s own scheduling and insights is great. Both of these work wonderfully on my phone, which is my third tool – using my phone to manage social media, be it for scheduling or just actually using any network – makes it very easy to keep everything going. A few moments whenever the kettle is on and that’s all I need! I do drink a lot of tea…
Andrew Hutchinson
TWEET NOWThere are so many great tools, each purpose or process has its own best tool, but if I had to specify three I really like:
1. Hootsuite – Hootsuite enables me to do so much in one place. It takes a moment to work out what’s what, but once you do, the amount of things you can do via your Hootsuite dashboard is pretty amazing. I use it to track mentions of myself, my content and related topics in my region, to schedule posts and to remain aware of what’s happening across all my networks.
2. BuzzSumo – Over time, I’ve found myself using and recommending BuzzSumo more are more. It can help guide your content strategy by showing popular content by network and build your market awareness through competitor research. Also, influencer outreach – influencer marketing is going to become more important, BuzzSumo helps you find and connect with relevant people.
3. SocialBro – Obviously, it’s relative to the platforms you’re utilising, but SocialBro is my favourite tool for managing Twitter. There are so many options for managing your own account, and for analysing the profiles of other Twitter users.
It really is hard picking just the three, but that’s it, that’d be my list.
Andy Colwell
TWEET NOW1. Canva
I love Canva! Canva is a free tool to use whenever you need to design any visual for your
business.
I use Canva to create image quotes to post on my Facebook Page.
You don’t have to be a professional designer to use the too. Canva makes design super easy
and accessible to everyone.
2. Manage Flitter
I use Manage Flitter to grow my Twitter following.
You can grow a targeted following of people who are likely to be interested in your business.
Manage Flitter also lets you unfollow users who are not following you back.
3. PostPlanner
PostPlanner is a great content curation tool. PostPlanner helps you find proven content that
is already popular and has proven to go viral. A very useful tool for finding great content.
Ann Smarty
TWEET NOWHere are my 3 tools!
1. Tweetdeck: I use Tweetdeck to manage my multiple (both personal and business) social media accounts. I love this tool because it delivers important Twitter notifications right to my desktop so I can interact in real time! Here’s a detailed explanation on how to set up Tweetdeck to succeed on Twitter.
2. Cyfe: I use Cyfe to monitor my brand mentions, important hashtags and social media growth stats. Cyfe supports an array of social media networks including Google Plus, Pinterest, Youtube, Slideshare and many others: Everything within one handy dashboard.
3. Hootsuite: I use Hootsuite exclusively to manage my Facebook business pages. It makes sharing easy. It has started supporting tagging. Plus it allows you to monitor Facebook page interactions within one dashboard.
Ann Tran
TWEET NOW1) There are many tools to measure social, but it is easy to overlook Google Analytics. I am a big fan of GA.
2) Big debate on where to publish. I think it is still important to, in the end, own your publishing platform, e.g., http://ann-tran.com/. And in turn, one of the core free tools to measure the effectiveness of your publishing and the use of social is Google Analytics. “”Remember MySpace”” ツ
3) Simply Measured is a great tool with many clean readable charts. You can easily use to identify your influencers and start engaging them frequently. Sharing their content, etc.. We use it for our weekly #InfluencerChat
Brandon Shaw
TWEET NOWThere are a few tools I use currently for social media management that have yet to let me down. Buffer, Hootsuite and Sprout Social each have their quirks and benefits for helping me manage different types of social accounts.
Sprout Social is my current favorite in this ever-changing business, mainly because of the resources if offers. Not only am I able to manage multiple clients and their different social accounts, but Sprout also offers a variety of engagement reports. This certainly helps with monthly reporting and understanding your current demographics.
Hootsuite is a very reliable resource, and one that I typically recommend when it comes to community management and social listening. I jumped on the Buffer train a little over a year ago, and recommend anyone to give it a try. I’m a fan of Buffer’s clean dashboard, analytical platform and scheduling capabilities.
Brian Carter
TWEET NOWBuffer is the one I use every day. It’s the easiest way to queue up your content for multiple channels, and Followerwonk.com integration ensures the tweets go out when your followers are most active. Use the WordPress plugin “Buffer My Post” (https://wordpress.org/
I call Buzzsumo “The Google of viral content”. It’s a great way to find proven shareable content- and viral for the specific social channel you want to hit (by sorting the results for each channel).
If you want to ensure that curation isn’t completely taking people away from you, combine it with StartAFire. The early research I’ve seen from a couple of sources indicates that, contrary to what some might fear, people who respond to curated content do return to your site and are valuable users and customers.
Brian Fanzo
TWEET NOWMy 3 favorite tools for social media management are focused around engagement and social listening since I believe to be great at social media first you have to be social and second you have use tools that allow you to scale and have more time being social not just doing social. For me TweetDeck is my favorite must have tool for active real time Twitter Engagement. Buffer was a game changer for me as the scheduling, analytics and account management makes it easy for me to share, analyze, share again providing the most value at the right time for my audience. Third is Hootsuite, which might surprise many but I use both hootsuite and Buffer as Hootsuite gives me the ability to setup streams and feeds for certain social listening terms, keywords and hashtags while also allowing me to manage company, client and friends accounts in one easy to use dashboard. For me these 3 tools are my favorite but the key is having a great strategy that is linked to your business goals because those who manage social media the best don’t blame the tools rather use the tools to scale and amplify their message.
Brittany Harness
TWEET NOWAs I work with multiple clients across a variety of industries, I try to maximize my own time while still producing thoughtful, engaging, stimulating content.
Canva allows me to create grabbing, visual imagery to accompany content, Buffer allows me to strategically plan the timing of my outreach to target key audiences at peak times and schedule content accordingly, and SocialBro assists me in creating highly targeted audiences, identifying and interpreting other relevant analytics, and creating a reporting structure.
I find that in tandem, these three tools provide the best, strategic basis for designing, scheduling and measuring social media engagements.
Brittney Wilson, BSN
TWEET NOWIf I could only use 3 tools for social media management they would be Hootsuite, Google Analytics, and Canva.
Hootsuite will give you a powerful tool to help schedule and monitor the success of your various social media profiles. Google Analytics helps you monitor the overall success of your social media strategy and help you determine which of your website pages earn you the most business and from which social media channels. Images are key in a sound social media strategy, especially if you want to capitalize on the current Holy Grail of social media: Pinterest. Canva has got you covered on the image front and offers stock images for $1 a piece, if you need them.
Bryan Adams
TWEET NOW1. Hubspot
Hubspot is my complete inbound marketing dashboard of choice that combines and co-ordinates our email marketing, social media engagement, SEO and much more. It helps us focus all of our efforts towards generating a defined lead generation ROI and it provides an invaluable insight into what works, what doesn’t work and what should work in the future based on the current plan.
Having a decent marketing automation platform to co-ordinate and intelligently manage any multi channel marketing effort is an absolute must in this day and age.
2. Uprise.io
Uprise is a fantastic content research tool, similar to Buzz Sumo you can very quickly see what content your competitors are getting the most value from and also, you can see what content is currently very popular in a certain category. You can search with keywords and the way they return the results is very useful indeed. Seeing the results listed by, publisher, articles, sharers and influencers is extremely valuable and knocking hours off the week when researching for great ideas, insights into what gets shared and who to target to build a valuable community.
3. Nuzzel
Nuzzel is a small iPhone app with a big appeal. This simple app is fantastic for showing you what’s currently being shared by your immediate network (Twitter & Facebook) and also what’s popular with friends of friends. For finding content quickly, it’s tough to be beat because it even has a ‘new you may of missed’ feed in case you’ve had a busy day and it integrates with Buffer so you can schedule a raft of great content in one sitting.
Chad Pollitt
TWEET NOWYour question, “If you could use only 3 tools for social media management, which 3 tools would you use?” is a good one.
The fact of the matter is, I’m probably the only one of the people you asked that actually has real disdain for social media as a marketing channel in general. However, it’s a necessary evil in the business world we live in today. Most would never guess I feel this way based on my usage.
That being said, I do have three tools I use on a regular basis:
1. Relevance uses HubSpot’s Enterprise Marketing Suite which includes a very robust social media calendar, scheduling tool, measurement and tracking scheme, and listening platform. It’s integrated across both demand generation for the agency and the Relevance digital magazine. We also have most of our executives’ accounts dialed into the tool for easy management by our Content Coordinator.
2. Another tool I can’t stop using is TweetDeck. Without this tool I’d feel like I was flying blind in the digital marketing industry. I literally have my finger on the pulse of real time news, trends and insights across our entire industry – worldwide. While I do use it as a broadcast channel, its major benefit to me is in its propensity to deliver the timely information I need to make every day content and marketing decisions. TweetDeck keeps me in the know because for the last six or seven years I’ve painstakingly sculpted and curated the most relevant columns (lists) for me in the industry.
3. Believe it or not, I have an iPhone app that I use multiple times per week for social media – specifically, Twitter. The app is called Unfollow. About three or four years ago I noticed a trend of people following me and quickly unfollowing me after I followed them back. It was a trend back then, but today it’s an epidemic. I make an honest attempt to follow back everyone that follows me that is real and interested in marketing. However, when these people play bot games with the twitter API it downright pisses me off. Unfollow helps me identify the folks playing follow/unfollow games so I can purge them from my circles.
Chantal Bechervaise
TWEET NOWIf I could only use 3 tools for managing social media they would be the following:
1) HootSuite – I have been using HootSuite for close to two years now and could not imagine myself without it. I have tried many tools out there and it remains the one tool that I always fall back on. It is the first app that I open in the morning and usually the last one that I close at night. I like it because of its versatility. I can schedule posts to many social media accounts, create tabs and streams for tracking keywords, phrases, hashtags, competitors, and lists, plus it also has the functionality of using other apps within HootSuite itself. I use one for trending topics and my demographics. HootSuite also has analytics and various reporting features too. If I only had one tool to use, this would be it.
2) IFTTT (If This Then That) – I admit to still being a fairly new user with this one but it is quickly becoming one of my favorites to use. I love it because of how it is simplifying my life. I create and or use exciting ‘recipes’ and it does the work for me. I don’t need to remember to back up photos to the cloud, it does it automatically for me. If I want to create a new Twitter list with people using a certain hashtag, it does that too. It’s great! It’s like having a personal assistant behinds the scenes doing some administrative work for me so I can focus on other social media details.
3) My last tool is a good old fashioned agenda and pen. I love using tech and will try out everything that I can get my hands on, but there is something about writing down ideas and goals on paper that I love and can’t give up. I use an agenda to keep track of deadlines, content ideas, campaign ideas, metrics, and pretty much anything that pops into my head. Of course, you can use a variety of online tools and templates as well but I still like writing things down. It is my go to for inspiration and help me plan for the future.
Charise Strandberg
TWEET NOWSocial Media without a doubt takes up a large portion of my day and there are a number of tools and apps that I use to help make my process more efficient. In order to narrow them down, I have to imagine three apps that I couldn’t do without or be nearly as effective.
Buffer – My go to app for shortening links, scheduling (sometimes) and managing multiple accounts. They also provide great recommendations for curating content.
Feedly – I subscribe to about 50 blogs and use my RSS feed every day to scan and look for the latest and greatest breaking news, technology and other resourceful information that I can push out to my followers.
Zite – I love this magazine app that allows me to create a huge number of topics and then allowed me to search all current articles all related to those specific topics.
All of these apps are and important part of my day and keep me up to date by providing me a seamless and efficient way of delivering content to my audience.
Chris Abraham
TWEET NOWMan, which would they be?
I think I might use:
I know that SS can do most of what Buffer does but I just can’t quit
Buffer. And, GaggleAMP is indeed a super-secret weapon.
Chris Ward
TWEET NOWI only use 1 tool, Buffer. Does everything I need.
Then just a Twitter client, facebook website etc…
Chuck Bankoff
TWEET NOW
Codrut Turcanu
TWEET NOWI don’t play with Facebook for business. Never tried Pinterest. Rarely used Linkedin.
I love Twitter instead. That’s where my target audience is. It plays a key role in my online activity because I do expert roundups for clients as well as for my own projects.
I assume most of your participants will mention HootSuite, TweetDeck and BufferApp to manage their Twitter account(s).
Let me give you three tools that most people aren’t using or heard about yet.
GrabInbox – that’s how I schedule my Tweets in advance, particularly the expert roundups and respective quotes.
Twitonomy – that’s how I analyze my followers and competitors activity. Plenty of features for a cheap monthly price.
Commun.it – that’s how I manage my Twitter relationships with key influencers and followers.
These services I consider to be complimentary.
Quick tip: The Ultimate List of 35 Free Twitter Tools that each blogger should use
http://technocr.com/ultimate-list-of-35-free-twitter-tools/
Enjoy and follow me on Twitter for more social media tips.
Cori Faklaris
TWEET NOWMy 3 “desert island” tools for social media management are:
— Tweetdeck. It’s a great way to keep all of my conversations sorted and myself alerted to what’s going on. I rely on its scheduling function for Twitter so that I don’t have to feel like I must be onlin 24/7.
— HootSuite free version. I rely on its scheduling function for Facebook and LinkedIn. But: I’m not happy about how they handle images.
— Photoshop. Visuals are key to getting attention on social media, so being able to edit images and add text when necessary is vital!
Of course, considering I focus mostly on Twitter and Facebook, I often post directly using their own apps! And I’m looking at their native analysts consoles for that data almost constantly.
Craig Poston
TWEET NOWInteresting question. I’m constantly seeking out new tools I can utilize across our brands for various purposes whether it’s to automate tasks, increase brand awareness, improve engagement or a slew of other initiatives. I try to keep my finger on the pulse of the rapidly-evolving industry, so it can be difficult to not be distracted by every new and shiny tool out there (and there is a ridiculous amount!).
At the end of the day, it’s imperative to find the right tools that enable you to efficiently and effectively monitor your brands, communicate with customers (and prospective customers), while also aligning with what you’re trying to accomplish as an organization. Social media can be used in so many different and clever ways that usually your organizational goals can likely dictate some of the tools you should be using.
So, to answer your question, the three tools I use the most in my current role are:
Hootsuite – Managing 15 brands online across several platforms can be challenging as well as time consuming. Hootsuite enables me to set up streams of customized content so I can easily communicate with colleagues, prospects and customers of all brands on one dashboard. It also makes it simple to track trends, hashtags, and keywords in addition to integrating with other tools. The dashboard is highly customizable, so you can be as creative as you want in how you’d like to track and interact with content online.
Mention – If you’re a digital strategist or community manager, it’s absolutely critical to monitor your brands online. Prospects, customers, and even your employees are talking about your business. And more often than not, your brand is not being tagged, so it’s important to monitor what is being said and with what sentiment. Mention is a great tool that allows you to track several brands or keywords across the entire web… blogs, sites, social media, forums, images, videos… everything. Before you plan and implement a marketing strategy, you must first understand what the public perception is of your brand(s) and identify your brand advocates.
SumAll – Social media analytics are constantly evolving and becoming more and more robust. There seems to be almost an infinite amount of data we have access to nowadays which can be both exciting as well as overwhelming at the same time. SumAll simplifies this data and displays it in a way that is easy to comprehend. You can track several brands across many social media platforms (and integrate with other tools like Google Analytics, AdWords, WordPress, Amazon, and more), filter by custom date ranges, show data visually using graphs, generate and share reports, and so much more.
When it’s all said and done, you want to provide your prospects and customers with the best experience possible. There are so many tools available now that there will likely always be something better out there that you just may not be aware of yet, so use what you feel comfortable with while also allowing yourself to be as efficient and effective as you can.
Dan Marks
TWEET NOW
Dan O’Brien
TWEET NOWWith regards social media management tools the 3 ones I use are:
Tweetdeck – While this is solely for Twitter its one of the best tools around in my opinion. You can create as many columns as you want on lists, keywords, videos, news etc. Its is terrific for mining Twitter and the internet for relevant content. When I started work at BlueChief no one else had heard about it. Now they all use it.
Buffer – The extension for chrome and the fact you can manage individual profiles on multiple networks makes this a fantastic tool. I’m only new to using it but I already see the benefits. You can manage multiple profiles with a single button.
Hootsuite – Of the 3 this is the one I’m less enthusiastic about because its so clunky. However it is so organised and allows you to create tabs for each brand that you manage. This is its biggest strength.
Dan Purvis
TWEET NOWWhat a question! At Comms Axis, we routinely use several different tools as we have yet to find one that is “excellent” at all aspects of social media management. You need to monitor, listen, engage, curate and schedule. You need to analyse and benchmark in order to evolve and generate better ROI. You need to use visual content that is compelling and clear, yet not time consuming to source or create. With these three key areas (although they are not the only ones you need to consider), we love using Hootsuite, Talkwalker and MavSocial.
Hootsuite is great tool – it should be bread’n’butter for everyday social media activities. The popular social media marketing dashboard provides so many features, but we particularly like its ease of use. It’s very easy to schedule individually or in bulk, as well as simple to take advantage of the auto-schedule feature to help save a lot time. You can assign tasks to members of your team with other collaboration features too, monitor for hashtags and competitors and so on easily. We use it for our individual social networks and also for Comms Axis, as well as for our clients too. It allows us to manage all the necessary social networks and also provides various reporting and measuring features as well.
Talkwalker is a tremendous social data intelligence company that is undergoing impressive growth (they recently opened up a new office in New York) – certainly ‘one to watch’. Built on proprietary, state-of-the-art technology and catering for over 187 different languages(!), we love it’s real-time listening capabilities and rich data analytics. It helps us make very quick and informed decisions to help advise our clients on their social media strategies. There are so many tools like this out there, that we found it a struggle to identify one that was robust, easy-to-use and accurate. Search queries are easy to do – which is rare in this industry – and there are about 50 or so different filters that you can apply too. They have some great free solutions too: Talkwalker Social Search and Talkwalker Alerts, and an awesome resource on their site (Academy) which, aside for the expected case studies, white papers, how to’s and user video guides, provides numerous industry-specific social media reports, insights and trends. Very handy indeed.
MavSocial is the ultimate social media visual content management and publishing software tool. Through this single platform, we can organise, manage and analyse our (and our clients’) entire visual content library. It solves one of the biggest bug bears of visual content – having multiple images and visual content pieces stored on your server or in the cloud through the likes of Dropbox. This means you have to find the right, then upload it, then publish it. Or you have to create it, download / save it somewhere, then upload it to the network or tool you wish use, and then publish it. MavSocial’s Social Media Digital Library means you can securely find, store and publish your pics, images, infographics, videos and audit files too (the latter being unique to MavSocial). You can curate royalty free third party visual content from a library of 70 million(!), and also edit your images quickly and easily. And, to top it off, you can take advantage of its engagement module, which allows you to plan, manage, slice-and-dice by region and social network and language to make sure campaigns have the best chance of success. This tool is also the only such platform that lets you take advantage of Twitter Audio Cards – very cool.
Dave Schneider
TWEET NOW#1 Hootsuite – I use this to manage my twitter profiles. I’ve done Twitter outreach with it as well, where I schedule tweets at influencers and ask questions.
#2 Google Analytics – I check this daily to see my traffic sources. It helps me understand, which social media platforms are delivering the most value.
#3 Feedly – I subscribe to about 50 feedly feeds, which is more than enough for me to find great content to read, curate, and distribute.
David Galloway
TWEET NOWMy 3 tools for social media management would consist of Buffer, Buffer, and Buffer. I’ve found that since going with Buffer I don’t use as many other tools–it offers scheduled posting, multiple platforms, content discovery, link shortening, and basic analytics in one package. I really sound like a shill for them, but I’m really just a happy user. Plus their customer service is great, I support their values, and I very much enjoy their social media blog and side projects like Pablo.
David Hamm
TWEET NOWFor me, the three tools that I find I use the most, and rely upon for data and information are Hootsuite, Bitly, and Google analytics. I’d use Hootsuite to schedule,track, and monitor conversations. I’d use bitly to track the attractiveness of a tweet ( vary the language and tone of a tweet set) throughout a comm plan. Use analytics to desperate the productivity of particular messaging.
David Leonhardt
TWEET NOWMy three favorite social media management tools are Hootsuite, Crowdfire and Tweetguru.
Yes, these are all Twitter oriented, since that is the most unwieldy platform and I have multiple accounts. Hootsuite, for all the reasons others have listed – managing multiple accounts, timing posts, tracking multiple streams by function and by hashtag. Crowdfire, since it helps me track who is no longer active or no longer following me. I can better manage how I allocate my follows. Tweetguru, since it helps me network with select groups of individuals more efficiently, sending multiple DMs at a time. Managing the receipt of those DMs is one of the big advantages of Hootsuite.<
Deborah Reynolds
TWEET NOWThe 3 tools that I would use are:
Hootsuite: Scheduling, monitoring, targeting
Google Drive: Team collaboration and file sharing
Buffer: Content and queuing of posts
Dennis Yu
TWEET NOWThe three must tools I use for social media are quite non-social: Boomerang for Gmail, Skype, and Facebook Business Manager. If you want a bonus, add in Facebook Graph Explorer.
Here’s why:
Boomerang tracks when people don’t reply or when I need to follow up. In “doing social media”, follow up is critical, especially when you have a LOT of relationships. There is nothing magic about social– it’s another channel you must be on, so the impetus for organizational skills becomes even stronger. Sidekick by Hubspot is pretty good, too.
Skype is way bigger than whatever the latest chat tool is. The various marketing platforms have evolved into personal communication tools such as Snapchat, WeChat, and the like. But Skype is how I collaborate with people who I want to have an on-going relationship with. And on-going is what counts, not the 150,000 people that follow me on Facebook and Twitter.
Facebook Business Manager is how I manage all the various pages, ad accounts, and apps among the various people that need different types of access. You might have a HootSuite or Sprinklr, but nothing is going to be native apps, especially if you want to do it free. But even if not free, Facebook’s Business Manager is far ahead of everyone else in terms of tying in training, new features, and the like– it’s their own platform!
Donna Moritz
TWEET NOWAgorapulse: Agorapulse is my go-to-tool for engagement. I use it every day to respond to Facebook and Twitter posts and soon-to-be Instagram with their Instagram engagement tool. You’ll never miss a tweet or comment with this tool – I’d be lost without it now and it just keeps getting better and better.
Post Planner: Post Planner takes the guesswork out of Facebook for me and is my go-to tool for scheduling my content and curating content from other sources. They’ve now added Twitter to the mix too. What I love about Post Planner is their Viral Photo Tool – it allows me to share images and photos that have already proven to be share-worthy on Facebook. My engagement goes up three-fold using Post Planner.
Tailwind: The visual web is huge, and having a tool that helps me schedule pins and repins to Pinterest is just as huge. Not only does Tailwind allow me to post at the best times for engagement with its smart analytics, it gives me information on what my readers and fans are sharing from my website. 85% of content shared to Pinterest is shared by users not by brands, so having an insight into what they are sharing helps me to create more visual content that resonates. Tailwind is like having a key to the visual web in your back pocket. I would be lost without it.
Dorien Morin-van Dam
TWEET NOWI absolutely love the Feedly & Buffer App combination for content contribution for myself as well as my clients. I can easily distribute daily content to Twitter, G+ pages and LinkedIn with just a few clicks (I use the Facebook scheduler for everything Facebook)
I work in Chrome on my PC, and Feedly combined with the Buffer extension is powerful, to say the least. My Feedly RSS reader is filled with industry-related content for my clients. Each day I will go in and search for the newest articles to curate and share to their accounts. Buffer then lets me optimize the timing to the platforms. Together, these two tools save me a lot of time.
The third tool I can’t live without is Canva! Graphic Design is not my forte yet with this tool my graphics are professional and unique! I’ve gotten many compliments on the graphics I’ve created. The variety of templates as well as available photographs is huge, so it’s easy to create branded and unique images for your website, blog, Pinterest, Facebook posts, flyers and more. I highly recommend Canva to anyone doing social media management.
Doyle Wheeler
TWEET NOWIf I had only 3 tools? Hmmm…. In 2 seconds of thought:
–MacBookPro (connects to the internet REALLY WELL and will allow me to care for all internet platforms organically)
–iPhone 6+ (awesome camera for content, hotspot for emergencies, takes care of Instagram and has all the alerts and capabilities to respond at any hour)
This would be my wish list in a split second decision.
Dr Nancy Richmond
TWEET NOW
Dubie Bacino
TWEET NOWMy favorite Social Media tools are:
IFTTT is a great tool for aligning content across different social networks and automation. It saves time by letting you post your content on only one network, and then pushes it to your other networks.
CIRCLESCOPE is a Chrome extension for managing your Google+ following. It gives invaluable insights into engagement, so it’s very useful in marketing and targeted community growth.
SMQUEUE lets you easily schedule your posts for different platforms. It also has a recurring queue, and allows for bulk-import of posts. This way you can publish and re-publish your best blogposts over and over again.
Eric T Tung
TWEET NOWThe three key steps in social media management are listening, posting, and reporting. For most small-to-medium-sized companies, something like SproutSocial does a great job of scheduling and measurement. For real-time interaction, I love TweetDeck. You can track conversations around conferences and live events. Finally, I love suggesting Buffer for employee involvement. It’s really user-friendly, and relatively inexpensive for a license. These have been my main go-to tools for social media!
Eric Wilson
TWEET NOWTwo things about me: I love talking social media and love Disc Golfing. One of my favorite type of videos on youtube are the disc golf “ What’s in your bag?” videos. I thought that would make for a great social media topic as well. What tools are in your bag to use for your social media marketing campaigns. Since I primarily only use two here they are:
My first tool is hootsuite. I use this for the flexibility and the scheduling. I know they are tools that may better equipped but like my first car it is trust and reliability that keep it attached. I like to do most of my social presence manually and I put in the elbow grease but I have come to appreciate the ease at which hootsuite enhances my social engagement and awareness.
My number one tool and go to is google analytics. Now you can use any analytics platform you choose but the reason remains the same. Measurement. The most important thing to me in social media is the ability I have to measure my activity. When coming up with a social media marketing campaign I find it best to set a goal and second to set a way to measure results.
I know it is Old school to be so hands on. The social managers that work for me use a wide variety of tools and software but for me the best way is to be patient and measure the program set in place.
Esther Turón Perez
TWEET NOWThere are a lot of good tools to Social Media Management but my three favourites are:
Hootsuite. Although the free version allows you to manage three accounts
of Social Profiles, to manage more accounts , reports, teamwork, in addition to other social
networks and extras you need bare minimum Pro version.
Feedly. I love it, no doubt for me the best tool to sort lists, and read content. Thanks to Feedly I
can read lots of content and keep up in my sector. Allows schedule and publish, thanks to the
integration with social networks, Buffer and HootSuite . Me is a great time saver.
IFTTT. And The Magic Wand is.. IFTTT or “If This Then That”. It is the easiest way to program
actions building “recipes” that automate processes. So that, when I do something then directly
becomes the other. For example: “I want every time a new post is published on my blog tweeted
this directly”, with a recipe saved for this work is done only. ¡Wonderful!
My advice for the success: “If you Want Be Prof be PRO” Some free tools are OK, but the better and more effective resources never are real Free, you can paid with money or with time.
Faith Warren
TWEET NOW1) The top tool for me is likely one mentioned by several others as well – Hootsuite. While it has its share of limitations, overall I find it an effective way to monitor the brands we manage online, as well as their competitors. Their efficient social scheduling feature is my favorite component of the software. I can quickly optimize a post for several different platforms with just a few clicks.
2) RavenTools is another that saves me a LOT of time. I find Hootsuite’s reporting features very cumbersome and limiting, so I rely entirely on RavenTools’ fast reporting to provide daily and weekly updates across multiple platforms. Their automated scheduling means I can arrange to have social media reports land in my Inbox automatically. I can also choose which reports to send directly to clients, so they’re kept in the loop continuously about the effectiveness of their social campaigns.
3) Mention.com is the 3rd in my list of top 3 most useful social tools. Anytime a brand is mentioned or content we’ve put up is linked I receive an email notification and can quickly capitalize on opportunities to connect with those excited about our brand. It’s a great way to make new connections and network with industry influencers.
Fisnik Sylka
TWEET NOWI use a lot of tools for managing social media accounts of my clients, but I’ll mention three of the most important.
The analytics feature of Socialbakers is for me a must! With the data provided by it, I can understand how the brands develop on social media platforms and also compare that to their competitors across different platforms. This is a key feature to increase the brand awareness and build relationships with the clients’ customers.
For creating successful campaigns on Facebook, I use heyo. It is a great tool which lets you create contests, promotions, and deals in a few easy steps.
And last but not least, Buffer. It’s very handy for scheduling posts. I use it mostly for scheduling image content which I create with Canva.
Ian Cleary
TWEET NOWEdgar – Edgar is great for creating a continuous queue of content that is going out to your social channels at pre-determined times. The categorization of your content works really well so you can send different types of content at different times.
Agorapulse – For general management of my Facebook and Twitter accounts.
Circloscope – For management of my Google+ Circles.
Jacob Curtis
TWEET NOWA sustainable social media management strategy takes a mixture of community management, frequent content generation, and optimizing that content for social distribution.
The first tool that comes to mind when I hear the term social media management is Hootsuite. Hootsuite is great for community management and I enjoying having one dashboard that I can mange multiple accounts’ social feeds with. Even with the free version, you can schedule posts and get basic reporting to benchmark your progress.
For Content generation, I’m checking out Buffer pretty heavily right now as an RSS feed curator to help with frequent content generation and scheduling. So far, Buffer’s got an easy to navigate interface, loads of resources, and a pretty solid chrome extension so I can see myself falling in love with this tool.
When it comes to optimizing content for social distribution, i.e. adding relevant hashtags to post copy to increase its reach and shelf-life, I’ve found RiteTag to be very helpful. RiteTag provides trending hashtag and reach grading and integrates seamlessly with Twitter, Buffer, Hootsuite, Tweetdeck, Sprout social, and Facebook. Their latest updated also generates images (equally as important for content optimization) based on keyword for your social posts while you’re composing them.
Regardless of the tools you use, my best advice is to research, ask fellow marketers what they prefer, (use this blog’s comment section to start a discussion?) and take full advantage of the free trials most social media managing tools offer through their sites. In most cases, it’s worth spending the small monthly fee to make the most of what the tool was made for.
Jason Falls
TWEET NOWIt really depends on the business and the need. For most businesses, large and small, Sprout Social is a fantastic management tool. I would add on a more advanced listening platform, probably a Sysomos. And then, I’d go for a more advanced management tool for Pinterest and Instagram, provided you had a visual brand and those were important channels. I like Piqora.
Jason Squires
TWEET NOWPicking ONLY three tools to use for Social Media Management would be easy for me – HootSuite, ManageFlitter, and Twilert.
HootSuite is great for scheduling posts in advance, and for having an overall view of your social media profiles.
ManageFlitter also has a scheduling option, although the power with this tool is in finding relevant Twitter accounts to follow and interact with (hint: your competitors followers!).
Twilert is a lesser known app, but also worth its weight in gold. Twilert allows you to search the content of tweets, within a specific location (for example: “Can anyone recommend a web designer?”) – lead generation at its best!
So there we go – HootSuite, ManageFlitter and Twilert!
Jean Newman Glock
TWEET NOWHootsuite is first and a must when traveling to keep up and organized. Excellent photos are essential now for all social media ( and most especially for travel social media). Managing high res photos requires a good storage system. I use Dropbox and love it. And finally, still on the photo theme, I have 2 cameras that are wifi enabled and automatically download all my photos to Dropbox. I then can access both Hootsuite and Dropbox on my iphone, which always has a global data plan, so I can post anywhere in the world….and have.
Jenn Herman
TWEET NOWIf I could only use three tools for social media management, I would have to pick the Facebook (in-app/in-site) scheduling tool, Hootsuite, and PhotoGrid.
The native Facebook scheduling tool is my life saver on Facebook, allowing me to be able to plan out my content weeks and months in advance while ensuring I don’t get penalized for using a third party tool. I use Hootsuite for Twitter (and Google Plus) and it saves me so much time and hassle for scheduling content and monitoring content too. And, of course, because I love Instagram, I would have to narrow down my favorite Instagram tool (outside of Instagram itself obviously) to PhotoGrid which allows me to add text overlays and create graphics and collages easily and effectively for immediate upload to Instagram.
Jennifer Sable Lopez
TWEET NOWThis is a pretty easy one for me because these three tools are what we use every day at Moz.
1. Sprout Social – The entire team uses Sprout to manage our day-to-day incoming and outgoing messages on social. We mainly use it for Twitter, as Twitter is by far the most active, but we also schedule G+ posts and such there as well. We have *almost* around the clock coverage on social, so this is a nice, robust tool that allows us to handle things in one “inbox” with multiple users. We couldn’t live without it!
2. RivalIQ – Although RivalIQ is made for competitive analysis, we often find ourselves using as a content aggregator. We set up 10 different “competitors” which are essentially other blogs that talk about online marketing that our community probably reads as well. Then as we get alerts saying that Search Engine Land has a post that’s doing really well, we go check it out. Often times we’ll then share that post on Google+ (or other places depending), because we know it’s relevant to our audience. It also helps our team stay up-to-date on the major things happening in the industry. And this is just one tiny aspect of the amazing data you’ll find in this tool.
3. TrueSocialMetrics – There’s no other tool out there that breaks down engagement rates per channel in this way. You can read more about how we use TSM in a post I wrote last year: http://moz.com/blog/social-engagement-metrics-that-matter.
These are all the tools we use internally at Moz. If I could pick one more tool to add for my personal use it would be Buffer. 🙂
Kathryn Mager
TWEET NOWBuffer is great for content curation as well as basic auto social publishing and reporting. Most of all, I am a huge fan of their blog. I get lots of the latest and greatest news from them.
Oktopost is a tool I used for a long time and love. It let’s you auto social publish by campaign very easily, visually displays the publishing calendar in a way that’s easy to see and work with, allows for easy follow up to responses, and the reporting was so visually appealing and easy to see what was working and what needed improvement. It also provided great content that I could pull from and share based on my publishing history.
Hubspot is a great tool for teams that need to fulfill sales, marketing, and social media activities. This way each can fulfill their role, while staying in sync with the other’s activities. For example, if the sales team is giving a webinar on a specific subject, the marketing team can create a landing page to sign up, email campaign for it, and they can each track exactly what’s important to them. Parallel, social media activities can push out content that supports the webinar subject. It is great to simply align all sales, marketing and social activities, report and measure across the board, and have a very transparent overview as well as in depth view of all activities and results. I also really like their blog.
Katy Howell
TWEET NOWLet’s start with the basics. A set of tools that just make life easier. Scheduling tools. From Hootsuite, to Tweet Deck and Buffer, these technologies let you plan ahead and take the pain out of being always on.
For those serious about social it has to be analytics tools. Understanding customer social behaviours is the route to ROI. Best to use third generation, intelligent tools such as Crimson Hexagon.
My last tool, isn’t a tool, but is essential to social. Park the tech. Social is about people. They are your smarts when it comes to social media. Plugged into the social Zeitgeist, it is people that interpret the data, flex the tone of voice and deliver the best results.
Keri Jaehnig
TWEET NOWIf you make me pick just 3 tools for my social media management tool kit…
* BundlePost
* Hootsuite (though I’m being wooed away)
* ManageFlitter
BundlePost allows me to do many things: Brand Content Curation, RSS & Google Alert Feeds intake, Quick attribution through Follow Fridays, quick & easy hashtagging, and bulk scheduling. This tool is rapidly developing, and I don’t know what I would do without it, as it saves me TONS of time!
Hootsuite Pro – I use this in conjunction with BundlePost. While this is cost-efficient tool, and allows me to engage with followers, there are other tools out there that intrigue me as a social media manager.
ManageFlitter is an essential! Keeps Twitter the relationship catalyst it is. The free account offers great value, but the juice is in the Pro plan.
There are other favorite tools I use, but you asked for three. So, those are the bare minimum.
I currently use Instagram as a tool. Though it is also currently my favorite social network too.
Kerry Butters
TWEET NOWOK – tough choice!
#1: Rignite – I prefer this to Hootsuite, although I do use both, as once you have your strategy down it really shaves a lot of time off scheduling posts. I use a mixture of scheduled blog posts and personal posts and always reply to retweets personally.
#2: Post Planner – Great for Facebook, I’ve not been using this long but love the options it gives you to find viral photos and articles in your niche for quick and simple sharing that boosts engagement.
#3: Social Oomph – Excellent tool for managing your Twitter account, especially when it gets bigger.
Kim Fischer
TWEET NOWThe 3 tools always open on my computer at any time are tweetdeck, facebook, and now, periscope on my phone. All three allow me to connect with viewers in a very different way… and each has incredibly different audiences.
Facebook is an older audience, but the platform allows for more in-depth conversations. Tweetdeck really streamlines my twitter process… allowing me to separate important news and people. Finally, periscope is my new favorite. It enables me to interact with people while I’m shooting. I can answer questions in real time… and it’s a much younger audience. It’s a pretty amazing concept!
Kristi Hines
TWEET NOWIf I could only use three tools for social media management, they would be the following.
1. Buffer for social media update scheduling to keep all of my main profiles up to date with interesting content within my industry.
2. IFTTT for automation between various tools (like Buffer) and social networks. I find this service particularly useful for sharing the content I write on the top social networks, bookmarking, and blogging sites.
3. Rival IQ for research, analysis, and monitoring of my competitor’s social media and search marketing strategy. It also comes in handy for a lot of posts I write when looking for brands that do something particularly well on social media.
Larry Kim
TWEET NOWFor me, one of the biggest challenges for social media is related to content discovery – finding interesting things to share on social media. Two tools that I use every day to help me with this are Buzzsumo and Nuzzel.
Another time consuming area of social media management is related to creating visual content to increase engagement rates of your posts. Here, I use tools like memedad, Share as Image, and Canva so that every update and blog post contains an interesting meme or title image.
Finally, social media analytics is super important. I spend at least a half hour every day in Twitter analytics, checking to see which types of tweets drove the highest engagement, so that I can further improve engagement rates and be a better social media marketer.
Lauren Hug
TWEET NOWI’m a big fan of hands-on social media management. Time-saving tools are great, but they can also remove you from one-to-one interactions. So the only social media management tools I regularly use are Buffer and the scheduling feature in Facebook. Buffer makes it easy to queue up lots of great content for sharing on Twitter. Facebook scheduling allows me to implement weekly, monthly, and annual content calendars. I use other management tools, of course, but those are the two I consistently tap.
Lauri Stevens
TWEET NOWI have to admit that my social media use for my personal branding focuses on Twitter, followed by LinkedIn, Pinterest, then Facebook. So my answers will reflect that.
Tweetdeck – Because I’m mainly using Twitter, this is just the best way to filter and monitor my lists.
Tweepi – I use Tweepi for weeding out Twitter followers who are inactive or who don’t follow me back. It’s also pretty helpful to find new accounts to follow or list.
Buffer – Obviously for scheduling across social media.
My 4th choice, if allowed would be Hootsuite, but I use the above more.
Leon Spencer
TWEET NOW
Liz Azyan
TWEET NOWI use 3 main tools for my social media management.
First is my own tool called “Digital Matchbox PRO“. It helps me to not just find strategic and high quality content for me and my clients, schedule, queue them, bulk upload and manage them in content libraries. It also helps me find the best time to post them in just one click. It also generates all the reports I need so I can compare my social media performance every day, week or month. It’s saves me so much time and money every single day!
I also use Google Analytics, which is built into “Digital Matchbox PRO” to see if my campaigns and blog posts are performing well on social media. It helps me to understand what’s working and what’s not so I can ensure my social media is always generating a good return on investment (ROI).
Another tool I also use mainly for research purposes is Postradamus.
It sells itself as a “Viral Content Curator and Facebook Scheduler”, but I mostly use it as a research tool and benchmark to challenge myself. I use it to understand what content is working with different types of audiences because I manage multiple social media accounts for a variety of clients. It helps me to understand what is working and what isn’t so I can keep on top of my game. I think research is a HUGE part of social media management, which is why I love to use tools to help me get it done faster.
Liz Cramer
TWEET NOWIf I could only use three tools for social media management they would be the following:
1. Scoop.it: I like scoop.it because it helps to find and organize interesting content and pushes it to you privately before you send it publicly. Scoop.it allows you to create daily searches for topics that are relevant to you and your audience using search terms and hashtags. It searches a number of platforms (google, twitter, youtube, blogs, etc.) so you don’t have to. When you receive your daily list of possible content, you review and choose what content you feel is most relevant to you and your audience, add your own personal insight to each piece of content, and then share with your audience via Scoop.it, Twitter, Facebook or WordPress. You can also make Scoop.it boards to create a home for all the content you have shared. It has free and paid capabilities. I use the free.
2. Bit.ly: Free, quick and easy link shortener. No brainer. No need to eat up characters in a post with a long link. Also allows for some analytics.
3. Manage Flitter: Free and paid. Great tool for managing Twitter- finding interesting people, running some analytics, unfollow dormant accounts etc.
Luke Jordan
TWEET NOWMy favourite social media management tool has to be IFTTT, just because of the huge range of capabilities that it has. Admittedly, I don’t make big enough use of it although that’s something I’m looking to change in the near future.
Buffer is great from both the sharing and publishing side of things; I love giving people the ability to instantly schedule posts from my site if they don’t want to share things right away. Similarly, it’s good to be able to schedule posts for a future time so that I’m not overloading people with content on my social media channels all in one go.
I also really like ViralContentBuzz, you’ll need to pay to make the best use of it but it can be a good way to get some important amplification of your latest articles. Simply put your latest posts on there and you can invest between 1-4 credits for people to share your content; the price is automatically determined based on the size of the sharer’s following.
Madalyn Sklar
TWEET NOWMy top 3 social media tools are Hootsuite, Buffer and Echofon. I’m all about time saving strategies for me and my clients and have found these three to be the most effective.
I love Hootsuite because it’s so easy to quickly scan through columns of Twitter lists, saved searches and mentions. In seconds I can have a handle on everything.
Buffer is my favorite tool for scheduling tweets and LinkedIn posts. I love their interface on both the web and mobile and I like their robust analytics. When I’m needing good quality content on-the-fly, I can turn to their “suggestions” tab. It’s well curated articles that always generate a great deal of attention.
When it comes to managing Twitter on-the-go, I absolutely love Echofon on my iPhone (it’s available for Android too) because it syncs with Buffer. Those two together in unison are amazingly powerful due to the “Retweet via Buffer” feature. In literally seconds I can search through my Twitter lists on Echofon and populate my Buffer with quality content. I live by my motto: “work smarter not harder.” These three tools help me achieve that.
Mandy Edwards
TWEET NOWThere are a lot of social media management tools out there than you can use. For me to pick 3, it’s very easy – these 3 are my go-to programs I use every day. First and foremost, Sprout Social. Sprout is the program I use for account and content management for myself and my clients. I could write a whole article on why I love them. The options and the customer service are second to none.
A second program is ManageFlitter. To keep a Twitter account current and clean in regards to followers and who you are following, this is the program that gives you the best options to manage your Twitter community.
A third program would be Facebook’s Business Manager program. This allows you to view all of the pages and advertising accounts to manage in one, nice place. The best feature is that this is separate from Facebook itself so you do not have to worry about getting distracted.
Marcus Sheridan
TWEET NOWFor all of my social media sharing, communication, and listening I use HubSpot. My reason for this is simple: It’s tied in to all my analytics. And at the end of the year, I want to always be able to say: “I know using Twitter generated X traffic, X leads, and X sales this year.” The same can be said for Facebook, LinkedIn, or any other platform.
Granted, Social Media isn’t all about numbers, but it sure helps justify time and effort when you can definitively measure revenue generated from one platform. This is also a big deal because once you truly start measuring, you can then see which platforms are generating your business the greatest returns. This will in-turn all your to focus your main attention to that which is generating your greatest ROI versus spreading yourself too thing.
When it comes to social media, you’re much better off NOT being a jack of all trades and instead becoming a master of one (platform). This is exactly why using HubSpot is so critical for me and my business.
Mark Schaefer
TWEET NOWI use a variety of tools depending on what I’m working on but I definitely use Hootsuite every day. It is affordable, versatile and well-designed. I have been doing some influence marketing work lately and am experimenting with Traackr. They had added some nice features recently that are CRM-like. The last tool might surprise you — it’s simply Microsoft Excel. That might seem old-school but you can create so many custom approaches to management with this platform that it is indispensable.
Mark Traphagen
TWEET NOWHard to pick a top 3, so I’ll give you the three I spend the most time in:
Martin Shervington
TWEET NOWNod3x.com for influencer find and reach analysis across all platforms.
Very smart, and super user friendly dashboards.
Circloscope.com for taking posts/events/communities from Google+ filtering them, then adding them to circles.
Commoogle.com (not launched publicly yet, and is our tool) which overlays our database onto Social, via Chrome. This enables us to ‘know who we are sitting next to’ and communicate with them accordingly.
Matthew Marley
TWEET NOWBeing an early adopter I like to test all the latest new tools when they come out.
For my top 3 tools just now I would have to say:
Buzzsumo – This is great for finding relevant content and also finding influencers within your niche.
Hootsuite – This allows me to manage multiple social profiles for clients, schedule posts and create custom lists which allow me to monitor influencers, keep up with all the latest news and also assign tasks to other team members which is really useful when working with larger organisations. I also use Hootsuite to monitor other networks such as Tumblr and Instagram using apps which you can find in the app directory.
Buffer – My final tool has to be Buffer, I use this daily for scheduling and finding new content. I also love the deep integration Buffer has with other apps such Pocket and IFTTT I have various recipies set up in IFTTT that allow me to automate many of the manual process of curating and sharing content across multiple social accounts.
Meghan Stoneburner
TWEET NOWMock is a very small agency so buying expensive social media management tools is out of the question. However, I do use Sprout Social, Moz and of course, Google Analytics. Sprout Social is handy for many reasons. Publishing content, reporting, and monitoring are all features that I love about the software. I also find the social aspects of Moz useful especially when used in conjunction with Google Analytics. Excel is also a handy tool that is essential for social media management. Creating a thorough spreadsheet of all social posts, especially paid social, is the best way to analyze the results and see what is working best and what isn’t working at all.
Melany Berger
TWEET NOWIf I could only use 3 tools for social media management they would have to be Buffer, Crowdfire and Canva.
Buffer keeps track of what I need to schedule on my social media channels when sometimes I can’t. I also love the Buffer Daily app because it suggests content for my feeds. This app helps keep my feeds full of interesting content. It also helps when I have nothing to say, which isn’t often.
Crowdfire (formerly Just Unfollow) allows me to see who is following and un-following me on twitter and IG. It lets me clean up the people that aren’t interested in following me. If they aren’t interested, neither am I. It is all about building meaningful relationships and interacting on social media.
Canva give me the creative power to create snarky-isms in graphic form. I am known for my snarky one-liners. “Snarky is witty but younger and better looking” looks so much better with a fun, colorful font over a bright backdrop. Don’t you think? Also, I can create graphics for blog posts and save a lot of money that I used to spend on graphic designers. People love fun images. I change my images as often as I change my underwear. WIN. WIN.
Melissa Galt
TWEET NOWThis is market dependent, my market is established service based entrepreneurs who want to transition their practice to a boutique brand with exclusive clientele for more revenue from each sale and every client. It’s about working with fewer better clients to make more money in less time. This goes against most social media of more, more, more. I keep it simple, my best tool is BufferApp. On Twitter I do use Tweetadder and couldn’t do it at all without Tweetdeck. I’ve used a lot of others including socialoomph and hootsuite but don’t love them. I know there are a ton of tools out there, for me, I’ve found less tools means more engagement!
I use LinkedIn to make connections with my ideal prospects and stay in touch with my ideal clients. It allows great visibility and credibility with their expert author blogging platform, and group interaction. LinkedIn only gives me a 180 degree view, their professional side.
I use Facebook to get the “rest of their story,” their lifestyle priorities, entertainment tastes, hobbies, and fun interests. This allows insights into points of connection and how to engage beyond the work side of life.
I use Twitter currently for connecting to influencers and ideal prospects, but am making a shift to G+ particularly exploring hangouts and leveraging YouTube. There is tremendous power in video blogging, trainings, and events where you can experience the personality of the presenter.
Nutshell:
LinkedIn
Facebook
Youtube
Michael Musto
TWEET NOWI am happy to be a part of the roundup! And I think that this is a great question because I am quite sure we all have used many different tools over the years for management. I currently have a client that focuses entirely on marketing for doctors’ offices. They handle over 100 locations, some individual clients have multiple locations. They are currently developing a dashboard, in-house, to funnel all of their marketing efforts through and function as a portal for their clients. Besides handling their social media for these locations, I am working with them on which social media management tools they should integrate into their dashboard.
I spent the 1st 20+ years of my professional life in electronic distribution and manufacturing for a global corporation so I am all about having data at your fingertips and easy to manage. So naturally I was excited to get this email.
I would say if I had to pick just 3 it would be Hootsuite, Tailwind for Pinterest and SocialBro. I do like to use Dlvr.it as well as it always shows the images in the posts, whereas Hootsuite, for example, does not for Twitter.
Michalis Tiritas
TWEET NOWBuffer
My favourite tool for scheduling posts is Buffer. What I like most about Buffer though is everything that goes with it. They not only have a great, simple to use dashboard but the right support. Although some features are better on other platforms, they always respond personally to comments and are friendly, transparent and go a step beyond in social customer service. I also really enjoy their blogs which are interesting, exciting and engaging.
ManageFlitter
ManageFlitter is a favourite Twitter management tool. I love being able to sort followers and lists using a range of criteria and it’s one of very few platforms I have found which allows me to unfollow my unfollowers in chronological order, ie oldest ones first. They also have a Powerpost option which allows you to optimise your posts by publishing them at the best time to be seen and replied to.
Rignite
The potential I see for Rignite is as a solution for team working especially when working on campaigns. As well as the usual analytics, they have the ability to monitor multiple social media platforms and schedule posts. A social media manager is able to allocate tasks to individual team members and speak to them all via instant message.
Mike Allton
TWEET NOWIf I were limited to only three tools to use for social media, they would be Canva, Hootsuite and the Google+ app for iOS.
Google+ is my primary network, and the most important of all of my digital profiles. I do not automate any of my activity there, and need to be ever-present to answer questions and respond to comments, so access via my iPhone is critical.
For all of my other social profiles, I’m content to schedule activity throughout each day and then respond to comments or questions in blocks. While Hootsuite isn’t the only tool that I use for this activity today, it would be the one essential tool that could handle everything I needed to do.
And finally, to have a rich and varied presence on social media today, that necessitates having great imagery. For me, that’s only possible thanks to Canva. I can create blog images and quote graphics and whatever other images I need from one day to the next, easily and affordably.
Mike Brice
TWEET NOWFree or paid, as that’s a big difference.
Free:
Hootsuite (free version). I don’t use any other free tools.
Paid:
Radian 6, Hootsuite (paid version), Share As Image
Mohd Imran
TWEET NOWIf you could use only 3 tools for social media management, which 3 tools would you use?
#1 @Buffer | Schedule | Automate | Optimize Tweets/Posts | Delivered with in-build Optimal Timing Tool | Track (Connect with Bit.ly for Links & Custom URLs) | Measure (Analytics) | AWESOMENESS
#2 @Hootsuite | Monitor, Engage, Enlighten & Empower Your Social Presence
#3 @Commun_it | Ninja Dashboard for Twitter | Manage Your Audience | Focused on Engagement, Tracking, Analytics | Follow/Unfollow | Identify Influencers, Leads & Your Invaluable Network
It’s all about making the most of them. One should keep this in mind: How well it fits with your “Needs”? How can you “Utilize” it’s true power?
Take-Away: Explore the depth of features within & blend it all with “Your Own” creativity. To each their own!
Natascha Ljubic
TWEET NOWMy 3 Social Media Management Tools that I would not want to miss are:
For spreading and scheduling news across various social media channels
For social listening
For automating tasks
Beside those 3 tools I love to use
For graphics
Natascha Thomson
TWEET NOWLet me answer this question for small business owners like me, as the tools for enterprises are a completely different ball game in terms of investment.
Personally, I use the three following “tools” almost every day, and can’t imagine doing my work without them.
Bufferapp.com – The freemium version lets you schedule 10 free tweets at a time to send out at days and times of your choice.
Bitly.com – You might know Bitly as a link shortener (which is great, and I love to customize my URLs) but what I use it for most is measuring the clicks on my URLs all over social media. There is a surprisingly large set of stats available.
Twitonomy.com – IMHO, one of the better free tools to manage your Twitter following in an efficient and easy to understand way.
Buffer and Bitly both let you integrate their services via browser extensions, as well as connect with Twitter, Facebook etc.
For example, I can Buffer directly from my Twitter profile to fill my Buffer schedule. Any tweet I send is automatically tracked via Bitly.
Last, Buffer also let’s you fill your Buffer directly from websites. Say you read an interesting article on SocialMediaToday, just use your browser extension to put it on the tweet schedule.
Natasha Caldwell
TWEET NOWI love Buffer for its simplicity, clear analytics, and great content suggestions. Raven tools is my go-to for producing clean social media reports that can be delivered in PDF or live link format to a client! I use mention for social media monitoring–it’s a great tool to see all the conversations surrounding a brand or topic!
Neil Patel
TWEET NOWI use Buffer to schedule my social media posts. And I use Simply Measured to optimize how I market on the social web. Both of those tools are great and easy to use.
Nicole Buergers
TWEET NOWFor Social Media Management, I’m not a fan of scheduled tweets or sentiment measurement. What I care about: monitoring, easy posting (to one channel at a time, each with a different message) and any resultant traffic to site. If I had to pick three tools, I would say the most important are Google Analytics, Tweetdeck and the Facebook Pages Manager App.
Pauline Cabrera
TWEET NOWThat’s a tough question Chris, I use so many tools but if I could use only 3 tools for social media management, I’d choose Tailwind, Hootsuite and IFTTT.
1. Tailwind for Pinterest – I’m a heavy Pinterest user so I definitely need a tool for scheduling my pins, and Tailwind is the best tool for that. It has so many features. I love how I can bulk schedule pins, track my profile performance and my competitor’s and how I can monitor my pins (see my top pins, top repinners, latest pins, etc.)
2. Hootsuite for Twitter and Facebook – I’ve been a loyal customer of Hootsuite since day one. I love them because they’re 1) inexpensive 2) so many features. I like how I can easily schedule my posts, monitor my social media networks, their content suggestions feature and most of all, I love how I can auto share my favorite websites’ latest posts to my social media channels! Amazing, right?
3. IFTTT for Auto Posting – Who doesn’t love IFTTT? It’s free and super useful. I run a business where my clients are required to report their activities. Since I want my team to see the reports as well, I use IFTTT’s “Email to Facebook Group” recipe – where all my clients’ emails are automatically posted on my Facebook group. From then, my team and I can easily see the reports without opening each email – which saves us a lot of time! We just simply go to the Facebook group and see all the reports all at once. Also, I use it to auto share my favorite websites’ posts to Twitter.
Peg Fitzpatrick
TWEET NOWMy three power tools for social media management are:
Buffer • Easy to use, great customer service, and I love the drag and drop features.
Evernote • I save ideas, create lists, and use it for my mobile social media posting especially on Instagram. I save groups of hashtags to use on posts. I love that it syncs to all my devices.
Mentions app for Facebook • super charges my engagement for my Facebook pages with the ability to respond on the go.
My bonus social media tool that is moving up in importance for me is Trello. It’s amazing to work on projects with other people and keeps me uber organized with apps on my iPhone, iPad, and a desktop version.
Peter Lynch
TWEET NOW
Peter Trapasso
TWEET NOWIf I had to pick three, Buffer, Hootsuite Pro and Tailwind would be on my list.
I love Buffer. This was the first SMM tool I ever used. I was using a beta version before becoming a paid customer. It is so simple and convenient.
Hootsuite Pro is better for teams with multiple clients. When it comes to collaborating with teams, either internally with your staff or externally with clients, Hootsuite really shines.
When it comes to Pinterest, now solidly a top 20 website, neither Buffer nor Hootsuite offer much in the way of management. I am testing both Viralwoot and Tailwind in parallel right now. Tailwind has the edge for now.
Phil Pallen
TWEET NOWYou only need three. Buffer, Crowdfire, Google Drive. Buffer schedules it all and I love their approach – keeping your account “topped up” – and I suggest keeping it topped up with evergreen content. Post time sensitive stuff day-to-day, and engage a few times a day. Use Crowdfire to grow your audience. That app and chapter 6 of my book (philp.al/buyshutuptweet) are a dangerous combo. And then Google Drive is where I plan out all of my posts with my team. That’s all you need.
Rachel Weaver
TWEET NOWI wish I could say I used three tools for social media management but the two I use work just fine for me. I used to use Hootsuite but have since fallen in love with Buffer. I LOVE the interface and the chrome extension allows me to quickly share things while I’m deep in industry research. Other than that I use IFTTT. It’s like if you could use any tiny piece of code to help you navigate the internet. It helps me with research, posting on social media, and day to day stuff, like when life gets too hectic to even check the weather.
Rebecca Coleman
TWEET NOWHootsuite is my number 1 social media management tool. I use the Hootsuite Syndicator to subscribe to RSS feeds, and then I go through every day, and use the autoschedule feature to populate my twitter. It also allows me to manage multiple accounts all in once place.
Swayy is a great resource for finding content to feed your Facebook and Twitter.’
Post Planner for sourcing and scheduling Facebook posts to my pages.
Rick Cooper
TWEET NOWSocial media is critical for both my own business and for clients. Having access to the right tools gives me increased efficiency, faster response times and increased profitability.
My 3 favorite tools for social media management are:
1. Hootsuite is the simplest tool I have found for managing and scheduling social media posts. I like the Publisher interface that lets you drag and drop social media posts anywhere on the calendar. You can also bulk upload queued social media posts.
2. Bundlepost is an amazing tool for Social Media Managers. It allows you to create a huge repository of social media content to easily select from and create bulk upload files for Hootsuite and other social media platforms. The team at Bundlepost has compiled a list of over 1,500,000 RSS Feeds and makes it easy to select blog posts to share on social media sites. You can manage content, schedules and exports for multiple clients from one account dashboard.
3. ManageFlitter is a useful tool for growing your community on Twitter. You can easily identify which accounts are active or those that are no longer in use. Plus, you can identify people you follow that are not following you. I have been able to grow my own Twitter network to over 24,000 followers by cleaning up the list of people I am following and finding new people to follow on a regular basis.
I use a variety of other tools to create content for social media and manage social media accounts. I’m always looking for other tools I can use to get results.
Rob Petersen
TWEET NOW3 indispensable Social Media Management tools are: Topsy, BuzzSumo and Social Searcher (that’s social-searcher.com). I use them for different reasons and the insight and reporting they make possible.
TOPSY: Is great for real time reporting that start any social media analysis. It let me know what people are saying about an industry or brand and the keywords used most often. Topsy was recently acquired by Apple so, apparently, someone else saw their value, too.
BUZZSUMO: Identifies who are influencers for a particular keyword or topic. Once you see what people are saying, BuzzSumo identifies who is worth following and links that might be relevant.
SOCIAL SEARCHER: Has great analytics and dashboards. For a particular topic or keyword, it shows: 1) What social network are most active, 2) What days and times are most active 3) What people post (e.g. status, links, video) and 4) what the Sentiment Analysis is by social network. It a great way to summarize and show social media activity with great data visualization.
Ross Copping
TWEET NOWWell my challenge is getting what I use down to three.
I would be lost without my CRM Nimble. Why I include my CRM is that once I find someone or a business online I want to connect with all I need to to is paint over their name anywhere I might find them across the social ecosystem. Then Nimble intelligently does the rest. It gathers up all it can find from their presences online, asks me to confirm I have the right person/business and loads all then detail. Their website, social platforms and other presences and keeps them up to date. I can see their online activity; I can engage with them, make notes just generally build my all the intelligence I need. They can be cliens, potential clients, clients of competitors or competitors.
I use Hootsuite for managing all my general online presences; engaging with my network, monitoring, analaytics etc. Covers just about everything I need. I do use a couple of third party products that have an interface with Buffer so in come cases I would uses that as well, but not often.
I find it difficult to define a finite third platform, it would be a mix of Appearoo – I use to manage my all my social presences and grow my network. SocialBro and Commun.it for managing my Twitter network and Circloscope managing my Google Plus network.
Ryan Crockett
TWEET NOWI actually don’t even need 3 choices for social media management:
Shareist is really the only tool I currently need for social sharing and content marketing in general. This amazing software is something I’ve been searching for since I started in this industry, combining the best aspects of Evernote, Buffer, Klout and many others in one user-friendly interface. Through their chrome extension, I’m able to save quality content from the web on the fly, organize it, and schedule it for future posting. This platform allows me to create and share my own posts, perform research, and track social interaction on a myriad of different social sites. The team behind shareist is friendly, knowledgeable, and responsive, answering questions quickly from a convenient chat window or their active Facebook group. For so long, I’ve had to use multiple programs for social media management, but now there is only one… and it’s made all the difference.
Sandra Tedford
TWEET NOWI use Hootsuite as it simplifies the process of planning and scheduling content in advance which is a huge time saver. The dashboard gives you a snapshot of all your social feeds on one screen. This allows you to strategically deliver social content based on your content strategy. Moreover, the Hootlet tool within Hootsuite gives you the ability to find interesting articles around the web and share on your social media channels.
Although similar to Hootsuite, Buffer helps to cut your time posting to social media channels in half. Reach your target audience by using the post scheduler to schedule posts during peak hours.
I always say the proof is in the numbers. Therefore I use Google Analytics to track all of my web statistics. This powerful tool not only helps you determine organic vs. paid traffic it provides real time data to monitor web traffic which is invaluable. Google Analytics gives you the ability to gain insights into the types of content that are resonating with readers.
Sarah Pendley
TWEET NOWWith every new social media platform that takes center stage is a social media management tool waiting in the wings. Here are 3 social media management tools I find extremely helpful, one newly discovered and a few oldies but goodies. We understand the importance of consistent posting to grow an audience and engage with followers.
ScheduGram is my recent discovery in effectively scheduling for Instagram posts. SchedulGram features web uploading, scheduling, and supports multiple accounts.
Another social media management tool I utilize for content is Viraltag. Viraltag holds the ability to schedule Pins on Pinterest. Scheduling out Pins is a safe way to post to the platform without going down the rabbit hole of succulent DIYs and 4-ingrediant kale chip recipes.
Lastly, Hootsuite is classic yet remains the emperor of social media management tools. Hootsuite gives the user the freedom to schedule out posts on multiple platforms and download customizable reports. As a famous infomercial for Ronco Rotisserie once emphasized, on Hootsuite you can literally set it and forget it.
Sheena White
TWEET NOWHootsuite is definitely one of my favorite tools for social media management. It lets me monitor and engage with my Twitter community quickly and easily. Post Planner is my Facebook tool of choice (and now it works on Twitter too, which is very convenient). I use it to get ideas for content that I can create and then also use it to do all of my scheduling. Social Quant is the other tool I couldn’t give up. It’s allowed me to automate my growth on Twitter, which has saved me a ton of time while still allowing me to create a massive, targeted community on Twitter.
Sheldon Payne
TWEET NOW“A Carpenter Is Only As Good As His Tools” and the same holds true for social media professionals. While there are many tools that make social management successful for my clients, Hootsuite, Tweetdeck and Google Analytics are my 3 must haves.
Hootsuite almost encompasses everything you need with it’s scheduling across multiple social profiles, team collaboration, analytics reports, and more recently it’s content suggestions for content curating.
Tweetdeck is my go to tool for social listening and real time interaction. It’s great for live events and twitter chats.
Measurement is vital to the success of social media management and for that I rely on Google Analytics. I use it provide data on what content is working on my clients webpages and from which social media properties. This data allows me to determine what future content to develop and which social channels to distribute the content.
Staci Salazar
TWEET NOWHere is a quick run-down on my top 3:
1. Hootsuite – The ability to manage several accounts within one tool allows me to save time and streamline tasks easily.
2. Pocket – Organization is key to staying focused on working smarter. Pocket is a content curation tool that helps save, tag, and easily sort articles for referencing later.
3. ManageFlitter – Being able to manage the ever-flowing Twitter time line is essential. One way I do that is by properly maintaining and growing my Twitter account with “Power Mode.”
Stephanie Wiriahardja
TWEET NOWMy top 3 are – Hootsuite, Iconosquare, and IFTTT
Hootsuite: If you are looking for a way to get a pulse on your social networks, look no further. With all the apps available via Hootsuite, it is the ultimate tool for social media management!
Iconosquare: There is no easier way to see which of my Instagram posts are performing the best and people I should recognize for being a great supporter.
IFTTT: This tool is magical! It makes it super easy to automate from one social network to another. My favourite recipe? Saving every photo on Instagram that mention a certain hashtag!
Tiffany Ford
TWEET NOWThanks for including me… When I was searching for a social media management tool I came across sprout social and used their trial I was truly impressed. I use buffer as well. For tracking projects I use google drive spreadsheet logging the tasks I do for agents.
I’m an engager on all social media platforms for real estate agents so I’m a personal tool not a robot doing an automated task. For instance, truly wishing people happy birthday, happy anniversary, looking at photos of posts then commenting congrats throughout the day. Until I hit it big time, My system is my own involvement as a virtual assistant. Taking the load off Realtors so they can do what they do best sell real estate.
Tiffany Jennings
TWEET NOWPercolate: Great way to curate fresh content every day without having to manually set up lists, searches, etc. It also has scheduling, publishing and monitoring capabilities.
Simply Measured: For a little deeper look at analytics, measuring campaign, reach, engagement this is not only helpful it’s got a great UI.
Buffer: Cheap, suggests content, schedule/publishes and shows light analytics.
Runner up: Sprout Social: Great, reasonably priced platform that lets you schedule and see light analytics.
Tim McGee
TWEET NOWIf I could only use three social tools I would probably use Buffer, Canva, and the Twitter App (boring I know).
Buffer: To me Buffer is a vital part of my social presence because it helps me schedule out my posts simply and get a quick view of the results of each post I share.
Canva: I love including images in my social updates. They are a great way to engage my audience in a different way and Canva is my favorite tool for creating images and editing photos.
Twitter App: I struggle to find a social listening and engagement tool that meets my needs for a price that fits my client base. This has lead my to use Twitters official iphone app to monitor engagement and engage with friends online.
Tom Lyons
TWEET NOW1. Buffer – This tool allows me to post to most of my social media accounts and schedule them consistently. I can easily push out sharable content from my phone, tablet or computer when I need to.
2. Post Planner – This tool is fantastic at finding and posting viral content. You don’t even really need to think to hard about it. It shows some of the best sharable content in your niche and allows you to post it to multiple Facebook accounts, for agencies it’s amazing, for a single small business it’s still a necessity.
3. IFTTT – (If this then that) – I use this tool for all the things I can’t find another way to automate. You can do just about anything with this tool, need to update your twitter feed based on filter in your gmail account? Done! Need to update your tumblr account based on the photo’s you take on your phone? Done! Want to update your blog based on your instagram feed? Done! Indispensable.
Tony Wood
TWEET NOWRather than going with the usual suspects which I’m sure many others will talk about, here are 3 of my indispensable social media tools that some people might not be so familiar with:
– Twitonomy – Easy on the eye, easy on the pocket. One of the best client reporting tools out there for Twitter.
– I’m a Gentleman – utterly bizarre name; utterly brilliant Chrome add-on. I use it countless times a day to save time when sharing images on social media. Does the job in seconds and probably saves me hours over the course of every week.
– Social Oomph – I’ve been using Social Oomph for more than 5 years as my go-to tool for curating ‘evergreen’ content. 100% reliable, 100% indispensable.
Valeria Landivar
TWEET NOWIf I could only use 3 tools for social media management, my choices would be:
Hootsuite: To manage, schedule and organize all of my social media presence and curate content at the same time. It also allows me to listen to my community and learn about them with analytics.
Google Analytics: To understand the impact of my social actions, know what is working and adjust my strategy accordingly. It’s very important to know who my visitors are and which actions they take when visiting my blog.
Canva: To personalize the images I share on Social Media in a very easy way. I love this tool because it makes it so simple to get optimized graphics for each platform.
Valerie Eaton
TWEET NOWI use Buffer Chrome app to share interesting articles that I come across to my social media accounts.
I use Hootsuite to track conversations, mentions, lists and keywords – and also do some bulk post scheduling.
I use SocialOomph to manage social media accounts and research followers.
Wendy Forbes
TWEET NOWIf I could only use three tools for social media management, at the top of my list would be Hootsuite’s Enterprise edition. I feel like I’m cheating by picking that because it integrates so many important components and apps all into one dashboard, but I couldn’t run my social business without it. Although it’s not necessarily a management tool, Canva is my choice for creating visual content. And third would have to be Scoop.it. Not only can I find great content there, but using the pro version, I can share across all my social networks.
Yasmine Trulley
TWEET NOWIt´s a pleasure to share with you my favorite tools:
Bitly: For me the best tool for shortening my links, control my brands and capture data. It´s very easy to use and you can shorten, share and track your Bitlinks in seconds.
Socialbro: The best tool for Twitter. You can find out when your best time to tweet is and get accurate information about your community. The Pro Plans give you a large list of Features which are very interesting.
Hootsuite: Because of the ability to manage all your social networks and schedule messages for future publishing.
AMAZING!
HUGE thanks to everyone who contributed to this massive post! Please share if you think it was useful!
If you could only use 3 social media tools for your social media management which 3 would you choose?
Interested in downloading the complete list of social media tools? Click the image below to download.
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