As a busy social media manager and community manager I need to manage my time and deliver value to my clients regularly. To do that I had to find tools to help manage my time and my content. Here are some of the tools that have helped me to raise my game.

The main pain points for small business owners when looking at how to use social media in their marketing are the following:

  1. Time
  2. Fear - Not knowing how to do it correctly and thinking they might be doing it incorrectly
  3. Lack of knowledge
  4. Return on investment - How do I measure what is working?
  5. How do I keep my audience engaged?

I've got solutions for all of the above! Here is a list of what works for me and what works for my clients:

Time: I use Feedalpha - Full disclosure, I am their Brand ambassador but I have been using it for a few months now and it's just so handy for scheduling content and also for finding trending content that I can share and add value to my network with. They have a FREE 14 day trial too and it's affordable once you try it and want to continue using it. At less than €20 per month it's within reach of the small business owners who definitely need to be using it.

Fear: Learn how to use these platforms correctly. There are plenty of ways to learn how to use platforms properly. Ask You Tube for everything from 'How to set up a Facebook page' to 'How to create a Twitter account' (That would be mine)

Lack of Knowledge: Join Womensinspirenetwork.com as we do weekly webinars from 'How to use instagram, to 'How to get sales over the line' and everything in between. We also have fab guests such as Brian Fanzo featured below.

Measuring your impact: Try Brand24

I've been using Brand 24 to compare a client's impact with a competitor. You can also track a hashtag's impact using Brand24. It's fantastic for social listening and for sending reports to clients about their impact, to see what is working and what isn't working. We have been tracking the impact of the #Win18Dublin hashtag for my upcoming event in the Aviva.

Also use Google Analytics when tracking where your traffic to your site is coming from.

How do you keep your audience engaged? Webinars are a great way to add more value to your audience. Try Crowdcast

I use Twitter polls to ask questions and I also use Bonjoro.com

Bonjoro lets you send videos to your email list to personalize the experience. I have sent videos with a towel around my head to welcome new members and remind them to get their ticket for our event and the conversion rate is excellent. It makes your customer feel very special that the CEO has taken the time to say hello.

These tools are my favorites but you might have some too? Please comment and let me know what secret weapons you use.