Managing and maintaining consistent messaging across all of your social channels can be overwhelming. Finding shortcuts to successfully execute campaigns will not only save you time, but boost your following and engagement in ways you never thought possible. Below are five of my favorite free tools that I use to get the job done:
- IFTTT (Various)
IFTTT, an acronym for If This, Then That, connects two services together so that an action from one service triggers an action at another. These connections are called “recipes” and their possibilities range far beyond social media but here are my top three:- Share your Instagram posts as Twitter photos– Automatically publish Instagram posts as native Twitter photos.
- Add those who mention you on twitter to a twitter list– Automatically add users who @mentions you to a Twitter list.
- If your Facebook profile picture changes, update Twitter too– Automatically update your Twitter profile photo when Facebook profile is updated.
- Crowdfire (Twitter and Instagram)
Crowdfire makes finding and connecting with your target audience simple so you can focus on doing what you do. Here are some feature highlights:- Track audience growth by seeing recent followers and un-followers.
- The Copy Followers capability lets you find who might be interested in your content through a competitor’s followers.
- Iconosquare (Instagram)
Iconosquare is a thorough Instagram analytics suite that helps you manage your Instagram activity, analyze your performance and engage your community. Here are some feature highlights:- Share snapshots of your activity with followers such as: #actionsquare and #monthiconsquare.
- Suggestions of the best times to post and which filters to use.
- Receive emails that summarize your main metrics.
- Hootsuite (Various)
Hootsuite has become an essential tool for managing social media, tracking conversations and measuring campaign results via the web or mobile devices. It helps to collaboratively execute campaigns across multiple social networks like Facebook and Twitter from one web-based dashboard.
- Grama– (Instagram)
Grama is a free iOS-only app that helps you find hashtags to use on your Instagram posts through a keyword search. I love this app because you can type in one hashtag that summarizes your photo and it will provide a wall of related hashtags that you can then click, copy and paste directly into Instagram.
Whatever your social media needs are, these tools will help you successfully boost engagement across platforms.
Written by Baret Yahn, Account Executive