Five Free Social Media Tools for Every PR Professional
Five Free Social Media Tools :
Brand visibility and brand loyalty are an integral part of any organization’s business strategy, in which digital marketing takes up a huge space. As a PR professional, it is very important to know how to harness the potential of digital marketing, and especially that of social media marketing. Providing relevant content continuously and interacting with the target audience on a regular basis helps an organization build customer intimacy that n consequence creates repeat customers that value brand loyalty. Apart from building brand visibility, social media marketing also plays a key role in maintaining a relevant and consistent brand image. It helps the business connect to their audience better in the long term and establish a niche for itself.
To reap the most amount of benefit of social media, a business should be accessible on all major social media platforms. The more widespread your social media presence is, the better the scope of business. But managing multiple social media platforms can not only be exhausting but confusing as well, if one does not have the proper tools to navigate through the constantly changing algorithms and trends. Every PR professional needs to have their hands on analytical data to further design social media strategies for a business, which is impossible without the assistance of proper tools. Some social media management tools can be really expensive, but the options are not really limited to the premium ones.
There are plenty of free tools out there which come equipped with useful features for social media handling and it is necessary for the PR professionals to fetch out the one that serves their needs the best. Even though there is no one-size-fits-all tool for social media management, the following five tools are best suited for covering the basics of marketing:
- Hootsuite:
Hootsuite offers both a premium version and a
free plan. The latter includes quite a few notable features which include-
a) It allows you to handle up to three different social media profiles at one place
b) It lets you schedule thirty posts in advance
c) It helps in generating leads through social contests.
Hootsuite free version also lets you access basic analytics for follower tracking and some growth and content related statistics along with two RSS feed integrations.
- Buffer:Buffer is a social media tool very similar to Hootsuite. It comes equipped with features that allow you to schedule your posts, track your audience behaviour to understand the best timing to post. It also has a seamless Chrome extension that works without interrupting the main interface. Buffer is very easily accessible as it comes in IOS and Android app form as well.
- TweetDeck:Twitter is a very unique social media platform where promoting your brand can be a tricky gamble. Hence a tool that can guide your way through the platform is highly necessary. TweetDeck allows users to access custom timelines, manage lists and searches and also add team accounts. TweetDeck is a very useful app to manage multiple accounts and stay involved in live conversations that affect business engagement.
- Followerwonk:FollowerWonk is another useful twitter tool that stands apart from the scheduling tools. Instead what it provides is deep analytical data- whether it is digging into twitter bios, locations, or comparing your own standing with that of your competitors. The free version of this tool allows users to see authority rankings, know when their followers are active and access other analytics to monitor audience behaviour.
- Google analytics: Regardless of which social media tool you use, it is important to monitor your ROI. Google analytics allows its users to access information like how much traffic your website is generating, which social media channel is bringing in more traffic, which platform do your followers spend the most time on, how much time is being spent on your website by the audience that got redirected from your social media page, etc.
Social media tools are not really an add-on in your digital marketing strategy. In fact it is the very driving force. Having a suitable social media tool at their disposal allows PR professionals to track the progress of the brand’s social media presence, manage content that is to be put out and handle multiple platforms from one place.