Best tools every Social Media Manager should use

Social Media Managers need a set of versatile tools to create, schedule, monitor, and analyze content across various platforms. The right tools can help streamline workflows, improve efficiency, and drive better engagement. Whether you’re managing content, interacting with your audience, or tracking performance, having the right toolkit is essential for success. Here’s a list of the top tools every Social Media Manager should use to stay on top of their game.

Content Creation and Design Tools

Creating visually appealing and engaging content is a core responsibility for Social Media Managers. These tools help you design stunning visuals, infographics, and videos for posts across various platforms.

• Canva: A user-friendly graphic design tool that allows you to create professional-looking images, social media posts, and infographics without the need for advanced design skills.
• Adobe Spark: Offers easy-to-use templates for creating social media posts, videos, and web pages. It’s ideal for creating branded content quickly.
• Crello: Similar to Canva, Crello allows you to design animated graphics and videos for social media, with a wide range of templates.
• InShot: A popular video editing app that’s great for creating short-form videos and editing content for social platforms like Instagram and TikTok.

These tools allow Social Media Managers to create high-quality content quickly, without needing professional design expertise.

Social Media Scheduling Tools

Scheduling tools help Social Media Managers plan posts in advance, ensuring a consistent and organized posting schedule. These tools also enable you to manage multiple accounts across platforms from one place.

• Hootsuite: A comprehensive social media management platform that allows you to schedule posts, track mentions, and analyze social media performance across multiple platforms.
• Buffer: A simple tool that lets you schedule posts, track engagement, and manage multiple social media accounts. Buffer’s intuitive interface makes it easy to use.
• Sprout Social: A social media management tool with powerful analytics, scheduling features, and customer engagement tools, ideal for large teams.
• Later: Best known for Instagram scheduling, Later helps manage posts for multiple platforms, making it easy to visually plan content and track performance.

Scheduling tools help ensure consistent and timely posting while saving time, allowing you to focus on strategy and engagement.

Analytics and Performance Tracking Tools

Measuring the success of your social media campaigns is essential for improving performance and justifying the ROI of your efforts. These tools provide valuable insights into audience engagement, reach, and conversions.

• Google Analytics: While not specific to social media, Google Analytics provides essential data on traffic driven by social platforms and user behavior on your website.
• Sprout Social Analytics: In addition to scheduling, Sprout Social offers in-depth analytics and reports to track engagement, follower growth, and campaign performance across platforms.
• Hootsuite Analytics: Provides comprehensive reports that help measure the success of your social media campaigns, track conversions, and compare metrics over time.
• Socialbakers: An AI-powered social media analytics platform that gives insights into audience behavior, content performance, and competitor analysis.

Analytics tools provide the data needed to optimize your strategy, measure results, and ensure you’re meeting your goals.

Community Management and Engagement Tools

Engaging with your audience is a key part of a Social Media Manager’s role. These tools help you monitor interactions, respond to comments, and manage messages across platforms.

• Agorapulse: A social media management tool that allows you to monitor conversations, reply to comments, and track social interactions in one place.
• Zoho Social: A tool that helps manage and track social media engagement, offering features like social listening, real-time monitoring, and community management.
• TweetDeck: A platform specifically for Twitter that allows you to manage multiple accounts, track conversations, and schedule tweets.
• HubSpot: A CRM platform with built-in social media management features, including scheduling, engagement tracking, and reporting for seamless integration between social media and your sales pipeline.

Community management tools help you stay connected with your audience, manage interactions efficiently, and build brand loyalty.

Social Listening Tools

Social listening tools help track online conversations about your brand, competitors, or industry. By monitoring sentiment and trending topics, you can stay on top of emerging trends and respond to customer feedback in real time.

• Brandwatch: A powerful social listening tool that helps track brand mentions, competitor activity, and industry trends to inform your social media strategy.
• Hootsuite Insights: Hootsuite’s social listening feature allows you to track brand mentions, keywords, and trends, offering valuable insights into audience sentiment.
• BuzzSumo: Best known for content discovery, BuzzSumo also offers social listening capabilities to track mentions, engagement, and trends across the web.
• Talkwalker: A tool for monitoring social media and online conversations, providing insights into public sentiment and brand health.

Social listening tools help you monitor brand perception, track customer feedback, and discover emerging trends to adjust your strategy accordingly.

Influencer Marketing Tools

Influencer marketing has become a major part of social media strategy. These tools help you find the right influencers, track campaigns, and manage collaborations.

• Influencity: A platform that helps you identify and manage influencers, track campaign performance, and analyze ROI.
• BuzzSumo Influencers: Use BuzzSumo to find top influencers in your niche and track the performance of your influencer marketing campaigns.
• Upfluence: A complete influencer marketing solution that helps you discover, manage, and analyze influencer campaigns.

Influencer marketing tools make it easier to partner with the right influencers and track the success of your campaigns.