There is a big difference between using social media and using social media effectively. The key to making the most of this is to listen and interact with your audience. Doing so means monitoring all of your accounts (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.), analyzing the data, and making any necessary changes along the way.
Rather than manually manage and monitor all your social media accounts, you should rely on one or more of the five free tools listed below:
1. Hootsuite. When it comes to the top free social media management tools, there is none better than this one. Not only will it save you time when posting, but it allows you to monitor your activity through analytics reports.
2. TweetReach. Do you often wonder how many people your tweets are reaching? With this tool, you can monitor the impact of each and every tweet, helping you create a strategy that produces the best results.
3. Social Mention. If you want to know what others have to say about your brand, Social Mention is the tool for you. With this, you will have no problem listening to what others are saying. Best yet, it measures your influence within four key categories: passion, sentiment, strength, and reach.
4. Twazzup. If real time monitoring and analytics for Twitter is what you want, Twazzup is a tool to use on a regular basis. All you have to do is enter your Twitter handle and it will not be long before you are receiving real-time updates.
5. HowSociable. To go along with measuring your own social media performance, you may want to track what your competition is doing. HowSociable makes this simple, as a free account allows you to track 12 sites.
If social media monitoring and management is important to your company, the use of one or more of these tools will have you on the right path in no time at all. For those who are unsure of whether this is the right decision, consider the following:
- You can save a lot of time by using these tools, as opposed to manually managing and monitoring each account
- Your competition is likely using these tools (do you want to be left behind?)
- Get started in no time, as each tool is designed with the user in mind
Now are you beginning to see why you should focus your time and effort on these five social media monitoring and management tools?
