As a digital marketer – our daily tasks can range from scheduling Facebook posts to editing blog posts, to coordinating a photo shoot for a client and brainstorming for the next quarter’s campaign. With so many moving pieces, a digital marketer can only be as good as the tools he or she uses. Here are a few that we at CM rely on to keep things running smoothly and efficiently.
Social Scheduling Tools
Sprout Social
Our social media manager’s bread and butter! This tool allows our social team to not only schedule out posts across social platforms (except Instagram), but you can track your messages, trending hashtags and even pull comprehensive reports. It’s great if you have clients with multiple platforms (or if your brand has multiple platforms) to keep track of them in one spot!
Of course, our team has fine-tuned our process and we use Sprout Social to schedule out some posts, but then we also post directly to the timelines and feeds – because that gives us some real-time interaction opportunities. However, for weekend posts or posts that we won’t be in the office to take care of –this tool is golden.
As for reporting – with so many different platforms and metrics, it’s nice to have a software tool that keeps track of it all. And best yet, it compares it to the month before. Of course, it’s best to review everything and double check the statistics, just to make sure there are no glitches and everything appears to be accurate.
Buffer
While we may not necessarily use Buffer for our social media management tools, Buffer is a great resource for all things social media! The content that they share and the Twitter chats that they host are a great tool for any social media team to tap into. They’re usually ahead of the social game with the latest news, insights and tips – so be sure to follow along and listen up to what they have to say.
As for the actual tool, it’s another great tool for social media managers – it allows you to plan ahead and schedule out posts. But, I really think the true value that they offer to our team is the loads of information and tips that they pour out on a daily basis.
Crowdfire
So as I mentioned above, Sprout Social does not allow you to schedule posts to Instagram. Well, no tool really allows that to happen. But, our team has stumbled across this nifty app that allows you to write out the post, tag whatever profile you want, add hashtags and your image and then will send you a push notification to publish to your Instagram profile at the desired time. So, even if it’s the weekend – yes, you may have to take 30 seconds out of your day to hit “Copy to Instagram” and “Share” – but most of the work is already done!
Social Contests
Offerpop
I know that we’re focusing a lot on social here, but this is pretty crucial! Social contests used to be a nightmare to run. You had to work with an outside developer to create them and host them on Facebook and there was so much red tape around it – that it wasn’t always worth the trouble! However, enter Offerpop. This tool is not only great to run contests on Facebook – but all social platforms. Feel like aggregating images from an Instagram contest, no problem! Want to have a Twitter contest – done deal! From creating photo galleries, to simple entry-forms, there are so many options to run and host a contest through Offerpop, it’s great for brands that are looking to drive engagement.
Shortstack
Similar to Offerpop, Shortstack makes it easy to run Facebook contests. While it may not be as robust as Offerpop – if you’re looking for a simple social contest, then this should be your go-to. Great to build up your newsletter subscribers, you can host a simple entry form contest and personalize it to your brand. It takes a little time to get used to the dashboard and how it all works, but it’s a pretty straight-forward and user-friendly interface.
SEO Tools
Moz.com
So Moz.com is a website, but the reason I am including it is because of the plethora of tools that are associate with Moz. From Open Site Explore, to Keyword Explorer to the MozBar and even some social tools (hello, Followerwonk) – there are so many useful tools that our team uses across clients. Open Site Explorer allows you to research backlinks, find opportunities for link building and review your current link profile!
Keywordtool.io
Need help coming up with some new keyword ideas for your brand or client? This tool is a great, because it not only generates a ton of ideas, but it also shows long-tail keywords. It pulls in keywords that are aggregated from Gogle, Bing, and YouTube’s autocomplete feature.
Obviously there are a ton of different tools out there that can make you more efficient at your everyday job. These are just a few of our favorites, share yours in the comments below!