Over the last few years social media has become an integral piece of marketing. Along with the increase in its importance, social media presence is becoming an increasingly complex task to manage. As the popularity of social media continues to grow, so too do the number of networks to update and variables to analyze. Managing all of the different social networks can seem daunting, but fortunately, there are tools to help you manage your business's assorted social media accounts. Below is a list of some of the key features to keep your eyes out for when choosing a social media management tool.
1) Scheduling
Social media management can be very time consuming and sometimes overwhelming. Creating schedules and managing priorities are both important aspects to limiting the stress of social media management. Social media management tools, such as HootSuite, are great at helping create schedules, as they offer the ability to schedule multiple postings in advance.
Creating an editorial calendar is also a great way to plan ahead. A quarterly or monthly editorial calendar with planned blog topics and social media posts will ensure that your time is focused strategically on meeting your goals.
2) Collaboration
When it comes to developing and executing an effective social media campaign many people may be involved in the process. It is important to have a social media management tool that helps the team coordinate their efforts with colleagues and clients. The ability to add multiple users, manage account access levels, and assign tasks to keep the whole team organized helps to support an engaging social presence.
3) Keywords
Keywords are a crucial variable to social media marketing success. Embracing keywords not only helps position you're website more competitively, it also provides insight into what is trending among your target market. Keywords, and the insight they provide, can help you develop a detailed marketing strategy. It is important to do research and analysis before choosing your final keywords, and make sure that they remain relevant to your content.
Remember though; don't focus too heavily on Keywords. The content still needs to resemble a conversation. Keep track of who is talking to you and about you, and make sure you communicate with your followers the way you would communicate with your customers.
4) Geosocial Networking
Do you have customers in different regions of the world? Geosocial networking is a great tool that allows social media managers to compose and send messages to specific audiences in specific regions and languages. Geosocial networking also helps businesses market to, and understand their audience and customers by providing reports on social media interactions, customer sentiment, and demographic patterns.
5) Reporting and Analytics
In addition to managing the content of your social media strategy, you must measure its success. A social media management tool with powerful analytic features is important to help you learn more about what's working, what's not, and ways to improve your social media efforts. Your tool should have the ability to generate customizable reports and analyze important metrics such as click-through rates on shortened links and clicks by region. It's also important to have access to Facebook Insights and Google Analytics.
If you are looking for a social media management tool to help you maintain a competitive advantage, HootSuite has all the necessary key features and many more.