Get yourself connected…social media tools for small businesses
Marketing activity for small businesses used to mean networking, local (usually print) advertising and good old word-of-mouth referrals. While there’s nothing wrong with any of those tactics, and they all still have their place, thanks to the explosion of digital small businesses can punch above their weight in terms of their marketing clout.
Why is this good news for small businesses? Not only is digital marketing more cost-effective than traditional (it’s a crude comparison, but compare the cost of running a well-crafted social media campaign seen by thousands compared with the cost of an ad in the front of the local rag…) it has other benefits too. It can help your business reach new, extended audiences in different locations, it is easier to measure effectiveness and ROI (a common problem with print advertising) and helps you build and manage relationships online.
There’s more good news which is that there’s no shortage of great social media tools to help you and your teams achieve great results, increasing the volume of marketing activity in a slicker, more efficient way. Most small businesses are aware of and are already using platforms including Twitter and LinkedIn, but there are tools that you may not have considered. We’ve taken a look at some of them…
Hootsuite
What they say:
Grow and engage your audience using Hootsuite’s robust social media listening tools. You’ll always be up-to-date, and truly connected to your customer base.
What we say:
Hootsuite is our go-to tool for managing multiple social media streams all at once. If your business is active on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or Google+ you’ll know that keeping all of the channels up to date isn’t always easy. Hootsuite allows you to post to all social networks seamlessly and schedule posts to appear at a designated time. The reporting function is excellent too, providing detailed analytics on key social metrics such as audience growth (followers, connections) and engagement (re-tweets, likes, shared etc).
Twitter for Business
What they say:
Twitter is where hundreds of millions of people go to discover what’s happening in the world right now. Twitter Ads are designed to help you connect with this audience, and to get results that drive action and add value to your business.
What we say:
It’s not just the retail and B2C giants who have much to gain on Twitter. Advertising on this channel can be a powerful way of connecting with a defined audience of people and sharing your content and message. In our experience, it works most effectively when advertising is as targeted as possible. For example, rather than setting the campaign to reach the desired audience based on broad demographics (gender, age, location), drilling down and defining what hashtags they follow or what keywords they’re using in their tweets, will avoid you wasting budget.
The campaign planner tool works in the same way as LinkedIn adverting and Google AdWords – you can set a maximum budget (daily or an overall spend) and monitor the progress with Twitter analytics. The Twitter website has a wealth of information on how to get started, as well as a dedicated small business blog which we highly recommend. You can also follow @TwitterSmallBiz for helpful tips and tricks.
Sniply
What they say:
Content marketing is the strategy of driving conversions and generating exposure through quality content. Producing quality content can be extremely expensive, so it’s often not a viable option for small businesses. With Sniply, even small business can reap the benefits of content marketing, allowing you to leverage quality content to build up your brand.
What we say:
Snip.ly is a URL shortening tool that works by generating a link that when clicked offers a customised call-to-action snippet at the bottom. In a nutshell, it allows you to promote your own content (for example a blog post or offers on your services or products) while sharing great content from others. We like this summary from @neilpatel:
“When you share someone else’s link, you are driving traffic to their site and generating no traffic in return. That kind of blows. What if I told you that every time you promoted someone else’s site, you can actually drive more traffic back to your site?”
So, Snip.ly allows you to share with your audience a link to something they might find useful and contextual in relation to your services, but ultimately drive people to engage with your business. For example, if you’re an accountant you may wish to share a link to the latest Budget announcement but drive people to your own website to find out how you can help. Snip.ly analytics are useful too; the reporting tool allows you to see how links are performing, by providing insight on clicks, conversion rates, time on site etc.
Social Mention
What they say:
Social Mention is a social media search and analysis platform that aggregates user generated content from across the universe into a single stream of information. It allows you to easily track and measure what people are saying about you, your company, a new product, or any topic across the web’s social media landscape in real-time. Social Mention monitors 100+ social media properties directly including: Twitter, Facebook, FriendFeed, YouTube, Digg, Google etc.
What we say:
Smart social media is not all about publishing content and pushing things out. We believe that one of the key, untapped benefits of social for small businesses is how listening to your audience, competitor/s and wider industry influencers can provide invaluable insight as to how your business, brand or products are being received. Happily, there are tools to automate this so you don’t have to spend hours trawling through sites.
Social Mention has gathered a strong following among social media enthusiasts due to the large number of sites it monitors. Some of the more well-known listening tools can be expensive, however, Social Mention is considered to be one of the best free services on the market. We like it because it analyses data in a fair amount of depth and looks at influence factors across four categories – Sentiment, Strength, Passion and Reach – to help you understand what people are saying about you, and in what context.
BuzzSumo
What they say:
Create Better Content. BuzzSumo gives you insight into what content is working, and the influencers amplifying it.
What we say:
As digital marketers, we encourage our clients to make content marketing a central part of their strategies. As well as being the driving force behind a strong online brand and website, content marketing supports SEO and helps build a trusted reputation and long-term relationship with your audience. However, we also know that content marketing can be time-intensive and that for small businesses it can take up precious time and resource.
BuzzSumo is a nifty tool as it helps you take a more strategic approach to content marketing. It analyses social media sites and content across the web to show you how certain trends and topics are performing – helping inform what you talk about next. It can also help you understand how well your own content is performing, as well as what formats are working better than others (i.e. blog posts, video or infographics).
If you would like to talk to us about your digital marketing plans, or would like to discuss how any of these social media tools could help support your business, please get in touch. We’d love to hear from you.