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GUEST AUTHOR: Ankara Krishnamurthy
Today, an active social media presence is indispensable in order to stay above the competition. Unfortunately, most people don’t have time to painstakingly go through piles and piles of content to discover something relevant for their audience. Fortunately, however, there are apps that can do this for you. By cutting down the time you invest in social media management, these apps let you concentrate on your business rather than on what to tweet next.
1) DrumUp:
DrumUp is a FREE content discovery and scheduling app that’s gaining traction among social media managers. The app uses NLP and data mining algorithms to find stories of interest for your audience and queues them for sharing through Facebook and Twitter. You can edit the content before it is posted. Not only is it totally easy to use, but it also lets you manage multiple social accounts.
2) Postling:
Postling acts as a centralized dashboard and lets you post content on multiple social media accounts. Targeted at small businesses, Postling lets you track your presence on Facebook, Twitter, WordPress, Tumblr – you name it. The app sends you an email every day detailing any social media activity, such as a new Facebook or Twitter comment. These are easy to skim through and let you decide what to respond to. The app also informs you about which of your posts are most effective. Pricing starts at $10 per month.
3) Feedly:
Feedly lets you subscribe to a variety of sites based on your interests. Depending on what collection you choose, posts from the sites selected will appear on your newsfeed. You can then share the posts you think are relevant to your business through Facebook and Twitter. It is simple, easy-to-use and has a minimalist interface. The basic package is FREE, and you can upgrade to Pro for a measly $3.75 per month
4) SumAll:
SumAll is an analytics app that assesses your various social media accounts and provides data and insights on them. The FREE version allows you to add unlimited accounts and sends you a daily and weekly update with all the stats and info. It gives you clear access to all the data in a single dashboard. The App supports a wide range of platforms including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and Pinterest.
5) Everypost:
Juggling various social media accounts is not only exhausting but eats into time that you can otherwise use more effectively. Everypost offers a solution to this problem by posting your updates across various social media platforms. It comes with a neat tool called a ‘Twitter text shortener’ which basically shortens your tweets and makes them suitable for Twitter. The Personal plan is FREE, and the Pro is $9.99 per month.
6) Tweetdeck:
Deciding which Twitter-centric app to choose, considering the never-ending options, can be a daunting task. But if you are looking for something streamlined and organized, this is the app for you. Tweetdeck organizes friends, trending topics, searches and other activity into columns so that they are easy to manage. Like Everypost, Tweetdeck comes with a ‘TweetShrink’ and makes overly long updates Twitter-friendly. Tweetdeck is FREE!
7) HootSuite:
HootSuite integrates up to three social media platforms, offers basic analytics and reports, lets your schedule posts and manage two RSS feeds on its FREE version. You can post updates to various platforms, track them and reply to comments all from one place. It is comprehensive and systematic in its organization and gives you the ability to monitor the visibility of your business. It also lets you delegate tasks to your social team, ensuring that you don’t overlook a potential customer. Hootsuite’s paid plans start at $9.99 per month.
8) SocialOomph:
The app lets you manage and schedule your Tweets right to the minute. It closely monitors Twitter’s tweet stream and emails you a digest of any replies you may have received, mentions and retweets. You can manage up to five Twitter accounts for FREE. It also has a ‘Tweet purge’ option that deletes all your previous tweets and lets you start with a clean slate.
The struggle for small businesses to stay relevant is slowly, but steadily becoming a non-issue. With apps that discover relevant content and help you schedule it, sometimes right to the minute, social media is longer something that only big companies can use to its maximum potential.
ABOUT Antara Krishnamurthy:
Antara is currently pursuing a degree in media and communication. She is passionate about digital social media marketing and writing blog posts. Connect with her on Facebook : www.facebook.com/antara.krishnamurthy
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For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Marketing and Social Media.
Lisa Chapman helps company leaders define, plan and achieve their goals, both online and offline. After 25+ years as an entrepreneur, she is now a business and marketing consultant, business planning consultant and social media consultant. Online, she works with clients to establish and enhance their online brand, attract their target market, engage them in meaningful social media conversations, and convert online traffic into revenues. Email: Lisa (at) LisaChapman (dot) com. Her book, The WebPowered Entrepreneur – A Step-by-Step Guide is available at:
