When it pertains to social networks, you get what you provide …
2 hours a day can achieve some good fan development, 4 hours a day could massively raise your brand awareness, and 8 hours a day? Well, your social channels would be growing.
Let’s face it, who has the time to put 70% or more of their day into social media management? Not a lot of us.
Now, we’re probably not the very first individuals to suggest you attempt a social networks tool. We’re probably not even one of the first 10. If there’s one thing you should take away from this blog, it’s the significance of finding the right social networks tool.
So, without more ado, here are the crucial questions you need to be asking when looking for the best social media tool …
1. Does it make your life simpler (now, and in the future)?
At the end of the day, if it’s not going to make your life simpler, then there’s simply no point. When selecting a social networks tool you must be trying to find something trusted, easy to comprehend, and basic to start using from the moment you sign up. While it’s easy to follow the crowd and register to the most popular social networks tool to turn up on your Google search, you need to be realistic about whether you actually require a lot of expensive functions that you’ll most likely never fully comprehend or utilize.
For each brand-new tool you find, you need to ask yourself; are you really going to use this tool to its complete potential? Are you happy to spend hours of time in training sessions with an account supervisor discovering how to use the tool? If the response is no, then your search is not over.
It’s truly important to define early on, which includes you really need from a social media tool. Maybe you’re a firm aiming to enhance customer approvals, or seeking a more visual user interface to assist with content ideation. Choose what you need, and concentrate on finding a tool that ticks all of your boxes.
2. Does it assist you with the whole content production procedure from start to complete?
This question may actually be difficult to answer till you start. While you may enjoy utilizing the very first social networks tool you attempt, you may not recognize what you were losing out on until you try your hand at a totally different tool with different top priorities and performances. As a result, it is essential to test out a variety of different tools prior to picking the ideal one for you. They might not advertise it, if you ask for a free trial, you’ll more than likely get one.
When choosing your tool, think of the material creation process step-by-step and make sure your new social media tool fits the costs in every department. Does it help make the procedure of material production less overwhelming? Does it help you plan your material before you pertain to compose it? Does it permit you to alter your plans quickly? Does it assist you deal with others? Does it let you look at development? Does it keep you organized? Etc. and so on
. It’s pretty common for social networks tools to be too focused on completion objective; scheduling and releasing your content. As a result, lots of people are turning to the likes of spreadsheets for the sake of planning, alongside using a social media tool to schedule the content when they might be using a tool that fills both shoes. And moreover, companies handling numerous customers make certain to battle using spreadsheets to show material and manage approvals.
ContentCal, however, is one example of a tool that helps marketers with the whole procedure of content creation. With functions such as Category Tags, Calendar Notes, Draft Posts, a Pinboard area, Campaign Folders, and more, planning and preparing your social content becomes a lot easier and far less intimidating. You’ll likewise save time without the requirement to move your material from one location to another.
3. Does it make you desire to produce material?
Passion is very important. If you’re utilizing a complex or intimidating social networks tool, it’ll be practically impossible to prevent procrastination. If you’re utilizing a tool that makes you delighted to do your task? You’ll be whizzing through your to-do list like there’s no tomorrow, and you’ll most likely produce better quality material too.
Usually speaking, if a tool is more visual, has fewer steps to it, and permits you to operate in a method that matches you best, you’ll be far more enthusiastic about preparing and developing your social media content.
While there are a couple of offered scheduling tools that seek to make content production more visual, approachable, and un-intimidating, it’s ContentCal’s flexibility that provides it the edge on the competitors with features that enable you to operate in the manner in which you prefer. You can move your posts around with a basic drag and drop or leave notes or assets in a range of places, in addition to get a bird’s eye view on your development in regular monthly view or weekly view.
4. Is it teaching you how to improve?
If you’re thinking of your long-lasting goals, you need to be using a social media tool that comes with analytics. You require to frequently check in with your content performance to examine which posts are getting the very best engagement and helping your channels grow. If you do not want to squander your energy and time on inefficient content, then you require to keep an awareness of your lead to order to improve for the future.
When it comes to analytics, there’s a variety of tools on the market with varying degrees of information and complexity. While social networks Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn have the ability to supply analytical info within the platform, a social media tool that can pull all of the crucial details together in one centralized place will conserve hours of time and make it simpler to compare results across numerous accounts.
When looking for a social networks tool with built-in analytics, ask yourself which statistics are most valuable to you. Are you looking to keep an eye on follower development, engagement levels, and so on. Where are your priorities? Define what you desire to track and find a tool that will give you this details in a clear and absorbable format.
With ContentCal Analytics, you have the ability to choose out your leading carrying out content at the drop of a hat, spot any trends in regards to your most effective content, and identify which material types and styles are receiving the greatest engagement. This details is essential to determining which material is resonating most with your audience, and moreover, will suggest where a modification in your existing social networks strategy might cause greater success.
There’s likewise the choice to view high-level information in a visual chart format as well as the option to export this information; perfect for sharing with coworkers and clients.
5. Does it enable you to collaborate?
You ‘d marvel just how much time you conserve when you’re utilizing a tool that’s developed for groups. Your typical social media tools are often built for larger businesses and brands however if you’re searching for something to help you manage approvals, decrease danger (eliminating humiliating typos), handle multiple accounts, and interact with your group (or clients) on upcoming content, then you need to consider these requirements.
Take ContentCal. Birthed from a social networks marketing agency in 2014, ContentCal was developed specifically with groups in mind. One of ContentCal’s biggest USP’s is its streamlining of the approval process which permits only specific staff member to set content live (ideal for internal marketing teams who require sign-off from more senior members of personnel, also agencies requiring customer approval). There’s even the capability to keep multiple calendars/clients separated within one centralized account making it easy to dip in and out of different content calendars.
Consider it, just how much time do you squander checking out (and trying to understand) long and complicated email chains about the upcoming social content? With a social media tool, you can centralize these interactions, and keep whatever in context. ContentCal for one, allows comments and feedback to be left on individual posts. You can even tag other users of the calendar in the remarks.
For the finest team effort, you also need shared visibility over the content strategy. Coworkers or clients need to see a live-updating plan in order to finest work together. All of us understand that the best material is made together so you need to likewise utilize a social networks tool that lets you freely share thoughts and ideas.
Found your ideal social media tool? The next action is mastering your content marketing method.
