Although social media is now a mainstay of digital marketing, a lot of businesses still think that it’s just about Facebook and Twitter. But there is so much more to it.
In fact there are a huge number of social media tools that can help your business in many different ways.
Let’s delve into some of them:
Social media analytics and social listening tools
Social media analytics tools are valuable for the quantitative analysis of social media metrics. They enable companies to gather data from their social media channels; i.e. number of fans and engagement rates.
Analytics tools determine your brand reach and fan demographics. If you’re unsure of the extent of your brand’s online presence or whether your social media fans match your target audience, analytics tools can help. Examples of analytics tools include Google Analytics and Socialbakers.
Social listening tools meanwhile extract and filter online conversations from social media platforms. Listening tools can help businesses to identify key influencers and discover what your customers are saying about your brand.
Examples of listening tools include Radian 6, Synthesio and Brandwatch.
Social media engagement and content creation tools
Social media engagement tools enable users to take action, respond, engage and communicate with their audience directly, in real-time.
Typical functionality includes content authoring, scheduling, publishing and workflow management.
Engagement tools are ideal for community management as they offer the functionality of posting to a number of different social media channels from one platform. Examples of engagement tools include Spredfast and Sprout Social.
Content creation platforms such as Hootsuite and Scribblelive facilitate the creation and distribution of socially enabled content. They can help you publish content and create a unified brand presence across a range of social media channels.
Enterprise social platforms and enterprise activity stream platforms
Enterprise social platforms are internal platforms that offer portal like functionality in addition to social tools such as blogs, and are used to foster employee collaboration and knowledge sharing.
Examples of enterprise social platforms include Jive Social Business and IBM Connections.
Enterprise activity stream platforms are also used for employee collaboration and knowledge sharing but have a core microblogging functionality and focus on the activity stream. Examples include Tibbr and Yammer.
Both platforms feature functionality typical of social media platforms, for example, creation of groups, blogs, news feed and easy uploading and sharing of content.
Hotcow is a non-traditional creative agency that specialises in experiential marketing that goes viral. Our campaigns generate buzz through crowd participation, PR and content sharing. Contact us on 0207 50 30442 or email us on info@hotcow.co.uk.
