Owning a small business can be the most exciting thing a person can do. The challenges of appealing to customers, successfully developing markets and maintaining a competitive edge over the competition can easily consume every waking moment. In the long run, however, the stress can easily become too much. This is due to the constant need to liaise with customers while simultaneously managing the administrative tasks for your business. Who has the time to take care of everything?
Luckily, we live in an age where technology has advanced to the point where we can automate most communication tasks while allowing your business to reach new customers without incurring additional costs. Here are seven social media tools that are taking the small business world by storm in 2018.
Hootsuite
Imagine you are sitting in your car. There are displays on the dashboard that show the status of almost every system in your car. Oil pressure? Petrol? Mileage? Check, check and check again. Hootsuite takes this philosophy and applies it to social media.
On a single screen, you can see all your social media profiles and delegate certain accounts to different people or departments (if your business is big enough for such a thing) Aside from delegation, this service also allows you to see which profiles are getting the most views, so you can see at a glance which profiles are worth investing in further. This saves you time and money as you no longer have to run annoying feedback programmes asking customers to take the time to let you know how they found your business.
VerticalResponse
The digital equivalent of the old-fashioned postal campaign is known, perhaps unimaginatively, as an email campaign. There are numerous companies that promise to create the best email campaign for their customers, but few have a track record like VerticalResponse. As a company dedicated to small business success, they will walk you through every step of the process. Appearance is critical to the success of these messages.
VerticalResponse takes this responsibility seriously and designs some of the most beautiful and informative email adverts around. VerticalResponse even works with you on social media by formatting these ads to work with popular social media sites like Facebook. Finally, VerticalResponse also creates sign-up pages that attract new prospects who want to learn more about your business.
CrowdBooster
CrowdBooster is a social media analytics tool that informs business owners about what works and what doesn't to improve your social media presence. It also collects data on what time most viewers are accessing your posts and lets you know when you should publish your next marketing campaign to make the biggest impact.
Industry giants like the Los Angeles Times and Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream use this company. If it does wonders for them, you can imagine what it can do for your small business. This company is not designed to help you reach new consumers or formulate an advert. It's to tell you when you should do something, not what you should do.
SproutSocial
SproutSocial is designed to make it easier for you to manage your social media presence by summarising all your messages in one seamless interface. The aim of this service is to reduce the time spent collecting user feedback. This allows you to maximise the time you spend on improving your company's products and reputation. SproutSocial breaks down messages by demographics so you can see at a glance which group is responding particularly strongly.
For example, if you decide to launch a new gender-specific product, it's a good idea to know who is more enthusiastic about your business. Information is power, and if you understand who is saying what, you can stay ahead of trends and profit accordingly. The difference with Hootsuite is that this service is designed for companies with only a few employees. One person can manage everything with this service.
Postling
So far we have only dealt with traditional social media, email and sharing sites. However, there is another branch of the digital tree that needs to be carefully nurtured if a business is to survive in this digital age. As with the tools mentioned above, Postling monitors social media sites for new news and demographic trends. What sets this company apart from others is the extension of this monitoring to product review sites like Yelp.
Knowing what customers are saying about your business on these review platforms is essential to maintaining a positive business image in the local market. More and more people are going online first to see which businesses are worth their time and money. Don't let a bad review ruin your business. Get notified immediately and take action before the review goes viral.
Argyle Social
Argyle Social is one of the larger and more successful companies in the social media tools industry. It is designed to automate the publishing of material created by you or your marketing team. The company prides itself on being at the forefront of data collection and finding new and powerful ways to provide their clients with the information they need to reach consumers without worrying about wasting time and valuable company resources. It's one of the more expensive options on this list, starting at around $300 per month, but the experience and dedication of this company is guaranteed to make the investment worthwhile at the end of the fiscal year.
Post Planner
Post Planner is a Facebook management tool that allows you to automate the sharing of content on your Facebook page. Like other tools, Post Planner takes care of everything in the queue and posts automatically at pre-configured times. In addition to the normal page management features, such as scheduling and insights, it also has a secret weapon.
What sets Post Planner apart from other management and posting tools is its content discovery engine. This feature finds the most popular and most shared content in your industry for you, and you can then add this content to your queue to post later. By finding the best content to share, you'll increase engagement, shares and social mentions with your audience and save time in the process.
Social media doesn't have to be a chore for the small business owner. If you utilise the tools available, it is possible to harness the internet and open up a new customer base for your business. Take the time to check out our reputation and imagine the possibilities. Reach out to these teams and learn what can be done to improve your company's image online and see what new profits and opportunities are available for those willing to take the plunge.
You don't even have to be fully digitalised to benefit from it. Many companies are using social media instead of traditional websites for cost and convenience reasons. Seize the day! What are your favourite social media tools that you use? Share them with us in the comments below.
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