Social media can be a pain at times. I get it. Anyone who is
on social media tends to agree that it’s a huge time sink, and
that they know their time could probably be better spent in
other ways.
But everyone also knows that social media is an incredibly
powerful marketing tool, and no one wants to leave all that
traffic on the table.
Fortunately, you don’t have to!
Tools that automate social media are heaven sent for anyone who
either doesn’t like using social media or just doesn’t have time
to stay on it all day.
There are a lot of tools for automation these days. They let you
queue dozens, hundreds, even thousands of posts that will drip
feed onto the social networks of your choosing at times or
intervals of your choice, and some have analytics and other
features that help you expand your reach, too.
Let’s take a look at a few of the most common social media
automation tools.
HootSuite
HootSuite is one of the oldest services. They’ve been around for
years, and initially served only a handful of sites. Now they
include Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Instagram, and more. Their
biggest omission is Pinterest, but they refer you to Tailwind
for managing your Pinterest posts. You can even add the
Tailwind app to your HootSuite dashboard for free.
The service costs about ten bucks if you pay annually, or
fifteen if you pay month-to-month.
Tailwind
Tailwind is a specialized services that focuses on Pinterest
and Instagram. If you find you get good traffic from those
services, Tailwind is a very helpful tool. Not only can you
automate your posting with Tailwind, but you can see which
posts are performing best, which boards are most and least
effective, and lots more. This can significantly boost your
results!
The service starts at $9.99 per month, billed annually, or
$15 per month on a month-to-month basis. They have a free
trial.
Buffer
Buffer is one of the biggest services. They have every network
HootSuite has, plus Pinterest. They have a wide range of
services, including really helpful analytics.
They have a free level that lets you post to a few sites
with one account per site, and their paid plans start at just
$10 per month.
Tomorrow we’re going to talk about automating the actual
sales process, so stay tuned!
Until then,
Reed Floren
P.S. Automating the sales process is pretty much the holy
grail of marketing automation, so do NOT miss tomorrow’s
message!