1. Scheduling tools
Content planning is very important. A regular stream of interesting content makes your feed look natural and consistent, as opposed to a more random approach, squeezing in a flurry rush of posts from the train or when you suddenly have five minutes after the lunchtime rush..
Using a tool to schedule posts can help with this. Yes, you still have to put them into the system, but it helps you stagger it so there are more gaps in between.
These are really good tools to use if you know you’re going to be unable to access social media or if you’re out of the office for a while.
It means you can schedule posts ahead of time so that you can relax, knowing that there’s a post already going up. We call this ‘building block’ content.
It’s not the reactive stuff, focusing on customer engagement. It’s the rich mix of content about your business or sector that people will generally find interesting.
Some of the scheduling tools we like include:
If we want something simple, that is solely designed for scheduling social media content, we tend to go for Buffer.
This is good for us because it means there aren’t any unnecessary features that we’re putting to waste. The ability to re-buffer past successful content is great, so you know the engagement rate will be good.
2. Social media dashboards
A social media dashboard helps you manage your accounts.
You’ll be able to run lots of different platforms through it - not just Twitter, but Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram and more.
So, you won’t be using the Twitter app to publish, you’ll be using something else. Depending on what you use you’ll be able to post tweets, read replies, monitor competitors, schedule content and run reports.
The biggest advantage here is saving time:
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Everything is in one place so you don’t get side-tracked
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Often, they include scheduling tools
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The ability to track competitors and keywords
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Track your activity, so you can analyse it to see what works
Some of the most common ones you’ll come across are:
Our favourite is Hootsuite, for its ease of adding extra columns, and the way you can add so many different platforms into the dashboard. Great if you’re not just stopping at LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter, you want Pinterest, YouTube, Instagram and others as well.