7 Free Social Media Tools to Make You More Efficient

If you manage social media in your business, you’ll know just how much hard work and effort goes into developing a social media strategy. Coupled with reporting, responding to customers, and creating, scheduling and tracking content, it can be quite a challenge.

However, there are a huge range of tools you can use to help you become more efficient and effective in your job. So, whether you’re a full-time Social Media Manager, or have other responsibilities within the business, these tools can help free up your time for other important tasks. Here’s a list of seven popular tools to get you started.

1. Feedly

If you want to know what’s going on in your industry, try Feedly. It’s a simple RSS tool that brings together all the latest posts from sites around the web. You can even pull through your Google Alerts, so you have everything all in one place. As well as using it to stay up-to-date, you can also integrate it with Buffer (see below), so you can quickly and easily develop your content calendar at the same time!

2. Google Sheets

If you’re in charge of producing content, Google Sheets is a great place to create a weekly or monthly posting plan. You can easily keep track of your posts, access it from anywhere in the world, share it with colleagues to check and approve, plus, there’s no need to worry about version control.

3. Bit.ly

Bit.ly is arguably the most popular URL shortener tool. It’s ideal for networks such as Twitter, where you’re limited to 140 characters. However, you can also use it for other accounts too, where a short and concise URL can look much cleaner and more professional.

Not only does it shorten links, the tool tracks clicks, so you can see how well your content is performing and how much traffic you’re getting back to your website. The great news is, many tools like Buffer and HootSuite have bit.ly already integrated, so any links you add on thes platforms will automatically be shortened into bit.ly links.

4. Buffer

Buffer is a simple to use tool that can make you much more efficient at managing your social media content. You can post to one, or multiple social accounts and it will even help you know the most effective times to post your content. The detailed analytics will then help you to see what’s working best. There’s even a handy browser extension, so you can share any page on the web at the click of a button.

5. Canva

We all know that an image is worth a thousand words, but sometimes your image library just doesn’t cut it. If this is the case, give Canva a try, where you can design a visual to complement your written post. You don’t need to be the most creative person to design something spectacular, as the tool offers lots of excellent free features, design inspiration — and it’s very easy to use.

6. HootSuite

HootSuite is one of the best-known social media management tools out there. Not only does it allow you to schedule and manage posts for multiple social media profiles, you can also use this tool to monitor brand mentions and conversations. Try typing in keywords and see what people are saying about you, your products and even competitors.

7. IFTTT

“If That Then That” (IFTTT) is a useful tool that can help streamline your social media activities. You can get the tool to automatically carry out a range of actions, from sending you a notification every time someone mentions your business in a tweet, to keeping track of what times your competitors are posting. You can even configure it to add people to custom Twitter lists if they mention specific keywords on Twitter. Check out this IFTTT guide to get started and for more ideas on how this tool can help you and your business.

Do you use any other tools to help you with social media in your business? We’d love to know which ones have helped you the most. Leave us a comment below, or tweet us @smxplorer