6 Tools for Your Social Media Toolbox

Whenever social media tools are mentioned, everyone gets excited and talks about Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest.

A few others may be mentioned.

But, not often do people talk about the tools that work with these primary social media channels and tie them altogether.

There are many tools that fall into this category. Too many to mention here. A complete list, if even possible, would probably look like the Yellow Pages (Dating myself with that reference!) for a small city.

In this article, I’m going to describe briefly six tools that I use and recommend to my clients.

Don’t forget, I always look for the free and near free options first.

Let’s get started!

Here’s my list:

1. Hootsuite is a social media account manager which permits you to have all your social media channels in one place accessible via an Excel-like GUI. Hootsuite is also useful for sorting hashtags and scheduling posts in your various social media channels. It comes with a very useful free version and an affordable premium one when your needs grow to require them. Hootsuite comes in both desktop and mobile versions.
2. Feedly is a news aggregator (Sometimes called a reader.) which allows you to source content automatically from the blogs and websites that you follow. Feedly is useful for the curation of content to be either read later or posted on your social media channels. It interfaces with Hootsuite directly to permit scheduling. It comes with a very useful free version and an affordable premium one if you wish to have the Hootsuite interface feature. Feedly comes in both desktop and mobile versions.
3. IFTTT (Short for If This Than That) allows for the automation of tasks such as posting identical content across various social media channels and other software. Best of all, IFTTT is free which makes it great value for the price! IFTTT comes in both desktop and mobile versions.
4. Evernote stores your data online. Evernote is useful for storing the content that you source with Feedly for either review or reposting. (Some may prefer to use Microsoft’s OneNote instead. The functionality is now similar. When selected Evernote, OneNote didn’t have at the time all the features that I required.) It comes with a very useful free version and an affordable premium one for when your data storage needs expand to require it. Evernote comes in both desktop and mobile versions.
5. Crowdfire is a mobile app which makes maintenance of your Twitter accounts a breeze. It’s also useful for growing your followers on Twitter. It comes with a very useful free version and an affordable premium one when your volumes require it.
6. dlvr.it permits automatic reposting of content across multiple social media channels which is useful when you begin to post more frequently on multiple channels. It comes with a very useful free version and an affordable premium one as your needs grow. dlvt.it comes in both desktop and mobile versions.

These six (6) tools help you manage your social media activity as you implement your social media program. (You are implementing one now, aren’t you?)

All these tools offer useful free versions, if not completely free, or affordable premium plans. They don’t use the hook of a free trial period which boots you off if you don’t sign up.

I recommend that you check out all these tools, it’s well worth your time!

I’ll be reviewing other tools for your social media toolbox in the future. So, be sure to check back in with me!

That’s it for now!

Please check-out my 8 step approach for developing a social media program to get some more ideas on how to use social media.

Also, never forget to reach out to either ask questions or to ask for help from someone like myself!

In the meantime, thank you for following and reading my blog!

I look forward to any and all comments that you may have. I will reply to any comments made to this blog post as promptly as I can.

And, remember!

I do this for a living and if I can be of any assistance to either you or your organization, please feel free to call on me. Our initial discussion will be of no charge to you.