Picking the right tools for your business is really important. That’s why I’ve created this blog post to tell you the 10 must-have social media tools for small businesses.
These free tools will help you to save time, engage more with your audience, and grow your business.
Starting a small business is never easy. Not only do you have to think of a name for your company, you also have to find new customers and maintain a relationship with your existing clients.
One way of doing this is using social media tools to market your business. But with hundreds of social media tools out there, which ones do a small business really need?
Small businesses, including start-ups, are under a big pressure to stand out and gain visibility in a highly competitive environment. Here are some great social media tools that can help
Here’s a look at 10 of my favorites.
1. TweetDeck
The best way to experience Twitter on your computer. TweetDeck is your all-in-one dashboard for everything you care about on Twitter.
What does a TweetDeck do?
TweetDeck is a free social media management tool that helps you keep up with multiple Twitter accounts, monitor conversations in real time, schedule tweets accurately, receive notifications about mentions and more.
TweetDeck is an app for people who need to run more than one account at the same time across multiple social networks. Polls, productivity tools, and other powerful features make TweetDeck a great way to efficiently manage your social media.
Is TweetDeck really free?
Totally free. Totally easy to use. Totally compatible and on your Mac, iPhone, iPad and Android devices. If you have more than one Twitter account, you can even manage them easily all from one place.
2. BuzzSumo
Check buzzsumo if you’re having trouble writing your article.
I don’t know about you, but I get pretty excited when I create blog posts. I go off on tangents, come up with new ideas, and completely forget about everything else.
I practically fell out of my chair when the buzzsumo plugin was recommended to me at an SEO session a while back because everything it does for me works!
What is BuzzSumo used for
BuzzSumo is a content discovery and social media analytics platform.
Hoop into buzzsumo if you want to discover what content to write about or what is trending in your niche right now. You’ll have plenty of ideas to get started.
BuzzSumo is a terrific tool for finding hot material in your niche, but the “Best Performing Content” measure is its real secret weapon.
This feature provides useful information about other people’s content strategies and allows you to understand what kind of material do best in your area and why.
The tool has radically transformed my link-building strategy because it helps me to identify where my competitors are focusing their efforts and devise strategies to counteract them.
Is BuzzSumo free to use?
In a nutshell, yes, BuzzSumo is completely free. But only if you’re a newbie or have a modest blog. You’ll need to pay for BuzzSumo Pro if you’re an advanced user or have a huge blog with a lot of traffic.
They also provide a 30-day free trial for the Pro edition to back up their free features.
How much does BuzzSumo pro costs?
There are different plans which run from $97 to $297 per month.
3. Buffer
Buffer is a social media tool that allows you to schedule updates in advance, so your profile is updated frequently.
Buffer is a fantastic tool for automating social media posting. I use it to schedule tweets, Facebook posts, and LinkedIn posts using various options such as scheduling by day and time or by reach.
It’s fantastic that you can submit comments, images, and videos – pretty much everything on social media.
Your social profile will be updated regularly and consistently if you schedule updates in advance. You can be more social using this tool.
Is the Buffer app free?
Yes. Everyone can use the Buffer app for free. You will never be charged for using the app or creating an account.
The Android, iPhone, and iPad apps, as well as the web app, all include free basic functionality, allowing you to share from any device, anywhere.
However, buffer offers an optional premium plan (you can choose not to upgrade), and the price of that plan is just $8 / month.
4. Google Trends
Google Trends allows users to compare search volume over time between regions and languages, as well as see the most popular queries in different nations.
You may use Google Trends to look into a variety of areas, from pop culture to scientific achievements, from current events to local weather.
Simply type a few keywords into the Google search field, and Google will produce a graph showing the frequency of those searches over time.
Google Trends enables social media marketers to pinpoint the most popular topics at any given time. This way, they’ll be able to generate engaging material around it.
Is Google Trends free to use?
Yes, it is totally free to use by anyone.
5. Canva
It’s the one online design tool that makes design easy and accessible for everyone.
Canva is the most user-friendly design tool for creating and sharing any type of design. Make your own flyers, posters, presentations, social media photos, blog entries, and more with it!
From business cards to PowerPoint presentations, your brand’s graphic design can have a big impact on whether you make a great first impression.
Is Canva better than Photoshop?
If you’re a designer, this is a no-brainer, but it can be difficult to answer for someone who is just starting out.
Yes! If you’re just starting out with free photo editing software, Canva is better than Photoshop because it’s simple and easy-to-use.
However, it depends on your needs. There are limitations to Canva when it comes to designing a very difficult and complicated design. Which you can easily do in photoshop.
Is Canva free?
Canva is, indeed, free. You don’t have to pay anything to use the Canva Editor’s basic features. Additional features can be purchased as part of their subscription packages.
6. Unsplash
Unsplash is a creative-commons photo search engine that is both free and open. It can be used for a variety of purposes, including commercial enterprises.
It’s a site where you can find free high-resolution photographs to download under the Creative Commons Zero license.
Unsplash was created to make it easier for anyone, whether a huge organization or an individual contributor, to use high quality photographs in their work.
7. Animoto
Animoto makes it easy to create and share beautiful videos in minutes.
With Animoto’s easy yet powerful video creation tool, you can create professional videos in minutes. Create your own memorable moments with sceneries, effects, and subtitles, or pick from a range of professionally produced pop-culture themes.
Animoto empowers you to bring video to life. Animoto makes it simple to create stunning movies that you can share, whether it’s for a corporate biography, a product presentation, or a family reunion.
8. Feedly
Feedly is your new favorite place to keep track of all of your favorite websites and blogs. Thousands of feeds and millions of postings; it’s like having your own personal magazine, updated daily with only the articles you choose to read.
Feedly is for people who follow lots of channels and blogs and want a better way to organize them all.
9. Notion app
The notion app is a one-stop shop for coming up with new ideas, taking images of them, sharing them with others, and collaborating on them.
The notion App allows you to search photographs for inspiration, save ideas for later use, and organize them in notebooks for yourself. When you sign up for ideas, you will be given a notebook that will be synced across all of your devices.
Is the Notion app free?
Absolutely! Notion is unrestricted in its use. Individual use of the Personal Plan is absolutely free.
How do I use notion as a content calendar?
I’ve been using the notion app for content calendar for over a year and have found it to be a fantastic tool for graphically arranging blog material. I use it to plan all of my own blog entries, and almost all of my articles are written right into it.
Read: How to create a content calendar in notion for social media.
10. Sprout Social
Sprout Social is a social media management software that assists businesses in expanding their online presence.
Sprout Social helps you manage your social media activities across Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and LinkedIn in one location with capabilities like team collaboration, publishing, and scheduling.
Conclusion
Small businesses, including start-ups, are under a big pressure to stand out and gain visibility in a highly competitive environment.
Social media is the new marketing frontier, and it offers a unique opportunity for businesses to engage with customers and prospects in one of the most popular channels around.
But creating a personal relationship with your customers takes time. By using the best social media tools for small businesses, you can analyze your efforts efficiently, schedule posts, as well as manage customer feedback.
What next?
If you’ve made it this far, thank you. I’d like to let you know that I’ve put together some fantastic resources for small businesses looking to get started with digital marketing.
Read: My Highly Recommended Digital Marketing Resources for Small Businesses
If you are brand new to digital marketing and don’t know where to begin?
Read: Begin here! Start putting your small business’s digital marketing strategy into action.
If you’re thinking to yourself, “Is social media good for my business?” And how do you go about launching an effective campaign? Then I’ll be able to assist you in figuring things out. You can reach out to me here, and I’ll listen intently.