After we explained the importance of social media for your business and why you need a Twitter account for your company, we are sure you immediately took note and began to develop your brand’s online presence. But choosing which tools to use can be just as confusing in the beginning, which is why we put together out list of favorite tools for social media management.

Now that you have established your online brand it’s time to consider the best ways to manage your social media presence﹣because what is the point of having all of these tools if you aren’t utilizing them to their full potential? Fortunately, there are new monitoring and management tools popping up every day, many of them free! Read on below to find out the best management tools and methods for your business.

Listen up!

When using social media it is easy to fall into the trap of focusing only on what you are posting and saying. However, social media is a two-way street, and according to the Huffington Post’s marketing team it is important to, “treat social media more like a telephone and less like a megaphone.”

If you are using your accounts to improve customer service, gain valuable feedback and draw in customers, it is important to make your accounts a conversation-and not a one-sided one!

Listen better, by setting up Google Alerts, which will send notifications directly to your inbox when your brand is buzzed about online. You may also want to consider signing up for a social media tracking and management tool like Tweetdeck or Mention, which allow companies to search mentions of their brand across social platforms and listen to and engage with those buzzing about their businesses.

Consolidate!

If you are like most of us you probably have good intentions about regularly posting fresh content on your Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and other social accounts. But when it comes to reality, this is much easier said than done.

When it comes down to it, posting unique content to all of your pages is time-consuming and tedious. Enter here: Hootsuite, Buffer, Hubspot and other newly emerging social media management tools. These handy tools will allow you to seamlessly post your content to all of your social media accounts (LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter to name a few) at one time, with just the click of a mouse!

Schedule!

Another common issue with social media management is remembering to actually post and share. What’s the point of developing amazing content to post if you are just going to procrastinate and forget to share it? This is another way that tools like Buffer, Hootsuite and Hubspot can take the grunt work out of social media. These, and other popular management and scheduling platforms, allow users to schedule posts in advance.

Favorite tools for social media management

Our favorite tools for social media management

With all of these great options, you may be wondering how to decide which program to choose for your social media management. Below, we detail the benefits, so that you can select the option that best fits your business needs.

If you are you are looking for a tool to help you listen to and engage with your users, consider:

  • Google Alerts
  • TweetDeck
  • Mention

These monitoring, detailed above will help you stay on top of your what clients are saying about your brand on social media, and will allow you to promptly reply to any bad press or issues that may arise.

If you want an all-encompassing program that will allow you to analyze, schedule and organize a variety of accounts, you may want to consider one of the below multitasking tools. Here we compare the benefits and unique traits of each platform:

  • Hootsuite

    Probably the most well-known tool for social media management, Hootsuite can connect with over 35 social networks. With Hootsuite you can schedule posts in advance, but also analyze the performance of your content, helping you better customize your content to your target audience.

  • Buffer

    Ideal for sharing content, Buffer has browser extensions (available with Safari, Chrome and other popular servers) so that you can instantaneously share content of interest with your followers. Buffer also allows you to publish content and schedule posts for the future.

  • Hubspot

    This marketing tool is great for managing your publishing schedule across a variety of platforms. Within Hubspot, users can draft and schedule posts for publication. Even better, this tool will advise you as to the best times of day to post in order to reach your target audience. Hubspot also has many valuable monitoring tools, that similarly to Hootsuite can help you tailor your content to the customers that you want to reach.

Now that you know about all of these tools and methods for social media management, what are you waiting for?

Figure out the right approach for your business today so you can utilize these incredible marketing tools to their full potential. The hard work is now over. Let these tools take over and kick up your heels and relax!