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Alex Noudelman: 5 Free Social Media Management Tools
By Alex Noudelman
Social media platforms like Yookos are enabling small businesses (SBs) to take advantage of the digital revolution in profitable ways. However, despite the fact that digital marketing produces tangible results, most SBs are reluctant to adopt it because it takes a lot of time.
Remember, most of them are run by owners who do everything, from business development to finance.
So how can SBs stay on top of the game? Enter the social media dashboards. These are tools that sync all the brand’s different social accounts into one place, simplifying social media management.
The advantages of using dashboards
The benefits of using social media management tools are immense as they go beyond merely saving time. Examples include:
- Increased productivity
- Ability to monitor what the competitors are doing and who they are connecting with.
- Scheduling of posts
- Analytics reveal how customers engage with the brand online.
5 Free Social Media Management Tools
1. Cyfe
This is an analytics tool that tracks and monitor a user’s online behaviour, including social networking activities. A Forever Free account grants the user access to the following bouquet of features:
- Advertising
- Blogging
- SEO
- Monitoring
- Sales and Finance
2. Hootsuite
This is an all-time favourite with most social media managers. They can sync all the social networks they have presence on as well as personalise the dashboard by creating custom “streams” that shows their social networking activities. This can be tweets, retweets, mentions, status updates etc.
3. Ice Rocket
A nifty social listening tool that enables users to monitor the frequency of a keywords mentions on social media platforms. A specific phrase or keyword mention produces a detailed report indicating the search and mention volume across all platforms.
4. Mention
This is also another popular tool with social media professionals. Mention monitors conversations over 100 social media platforms. Its competitive advantage is that it breaks down its measure of influence into 4 categories: Reach. Passion, Strength and sentiment.
5. HowSociable
This is one of the best of breed of social media management tools. Like the name suggests, it will show the depth of a user’s influence on the social web. The performance of a competitor’s marketing campaigns can also be tracked and monitored.
(c) Alex Noudelman
Conclusion
Social media management without the attendant dashboard tools is very cumbersome and time consuming. This effectively takes away the obstacles that most social media community managers confront on a day to day basis when they execute their tasks. However, acquiring and using them in a strategic manner leads to incredible results.
