Every social media manager knows the feeling of casually checking their brand page at 9pm at night only to find a negative or abusive comment and having to respond asap. It’s not a good one.
There are however some (what I’m calling) ‘social secrets’ that will keep you up to date and ahead of the game without having to become a master multi-tasker. And the best part? They’re free!
1. Hootsuite (www.hootsuite.com) – an awesome free online tool to manage multiple social media accounts. Use it to pre-schedule updates for a specific date and time, monitor keywords and analyse statistics. Also available as a mobile app, this is an excellent way to stay on top of your social updates on the fly. The paid version comes with additional features.
2. Tweetdeck (www.tweetdeck.com) – similar to Hootsuite. Use this to pre-schedule tweets and other posts. Great to use both Hootsuite and Tweetdeck for different social accounts (this will save you having to upgrade to the paid version). Also a great tool to stay on top of multiple follows and posts so that you don’t miss anything important.
3. Twellow (http://www.twellow.com/) – a personal Twitter little black book at your fingers tips! Type in any topic and get a list of the highest ranking twitter handles in that industry. A great tool for new brand pages wanting to grow their twitter following. Also great for PRs to find journalists or to find the most popular tweeters in a certain industry.
4. Pages+ app (find this in the app store) – having this app will separate your personal Facebook and your brand Facebook pages. This app notifies you when you get a new message, wall post or friend on any of your brand pages. A great way to avoid out of business-hour disasters!
5. Dropbox (www.dropbox.com) – gone are the days when ‘yousendit’ reigned as the online large file sharing tool. Create your own Dropbox account and you can work on shared large files, documents and images without having to access an internal company server or drive. Also a great way for clients to save and send you files without having to clog yours, or their email!
Some other sites which will help you along the way:
- https://crowdbooster.com – monitor all your social media accounts with weekly email updates.
- http://bottlenose.com/ – find trending hashtags to increase your twitter following, Pinterest likes and back-links to popular online stories.
- www.brandyourself.com – manage your online reputation and Google listings without the help of an SEO company!
Happy social media managing!
