The Social Media Tools You Should and Shouldn't Be Using

Apr 22, 2021

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PODCAST

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EP 09 - The Social Media Tools You Should and Shouldn't Be Using

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Social media therapy is back from a brief hiatus! In this episode, we’re going to be talking to you about all the important social media tools that you should and shouldn’t be using. One thing a lot of social media managers tend to let fall by the wayside and business owners and entrepreneurs are tools. Tools for social media help reduce our stress and Increase our understanding of how well we are performing on social media.

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By Sarah Potter

April 21, 2021

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Social media tools are by far the one thing you should look into as you plan your business. Having the right set of tools is vital to the success of your business on social media. A lot of the tools that we’re going to discuss in this week's episode are tools that I have used over the last 10 years.

I definitely have some biases with the tools I use, but that’s simply based on the fact that I have become more of an expert in relation to how to use a certain tool as opposed to just trying to figure it out. The tools that you hear me recommend on the podcast and below or tools I really believe in. I never recommend anything that isn’t a tool I have tested or have some personal vendetta against. Each tool, whether I think you should use it or not, is something that I think you’ll find a lot of value in.

Below you’ll find a list of all my favorite tools I think you should use in your business. Most of these tools have free trials! So take advantage of those trials and test, test, test!

Social Media Tools You Should Use

1. Sprout Social - This is the ultimate social media tool. You can do a lot of social media tracking, social media listening, build custom reports, track all of your posts, schedule all of your posts and use it as a content calendar. You can schedule videos, multi posts to Instagram, and review the live messaging that comes through on your posts through the engagement tool on sprout social. They even have a way boost tweets and posts via Sprout Social. This tool is $99 a month and is absolutely worth every single penny.

2. Later app - I absolutely love this app for Instagram! The visual planner alone is incredible. I also really appreciate the analytic tools for Instagram. Being able to easily tell what my percentage of engagement is on an Instagram post is powerful.

3. Bitly - track all your links, understand the demographics, the number of clicks and the information surrounding who is interested in your link is an important part of building intuition around what kind of content attracts what kind of audience.

4. Pretty links - This is literally a vanity tool. All you need to do is pull a link that you want to use under your main domain and clean it up so it looks really nice. This is a great tool when you’re doing a branded campaign.

5. Canva - A beautiful graphic design tool that’s made for literally anybody. You don’t have to be a graphic designer to use this tool. You can be someone who’s never had experience with design before and use canvas to enhance the beauty and aesthetic around your business. Canva allows you to not only create good looking social media posts but you can also create brand presentations, analytic reports and build out other important documents for your business and clients.

6. Tailwind - I won’t call myself an expert in this tool, but I will say that I know how to use it well enough to use it. I really love that you can build distinct groups and tribes through tailwind. Tribes are super important on tailwind because they allow you to share content between other Pinterest creators. This is great for increasing your reach and potential click through rate on Pinterest.

7. SocialOomph - SocialOomph is a social media management tool. You can use it for content management, conversion tracking, keyword filtering, bulk import and post scheduling. It connects with a very decent selection of channels that include Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Discord, Mastodon, Reddit, StockTwits, and blogs on a variety of platforms. It’s reasonably priced for what it is, and if Sprout Social is out of your price range, give this one a try.

8. Brand24 - From branded mentions and intensive analytics reporting, Brand24 is another social media analytics platform and management tool that is really great for influencers who partner with brands.

9. Buffer - Buffer was the very first social media management tool I ever used. What I really enjoyed about it was the ability to have an entire social feed pull from various RSS feeds I curated content from. It worked similarly to feedly, but the key difference is Buffer really helped me narrow down the news, information, and content I often look for. Buffer even generates posts ready for me to share and add to my buffer feed. You can use Buffer for any social media platform and is an excellent tool for the budget conscience entrepreneur.

10. Headliner - I love using this app for anyone that has a podcast. Being able to tie a great visual to the audio by transcribing the spoken word is really important. This powerful tool does it for you in just a few minutes. The only downside is that you need to go through and ensure that you are checking for all potential grammar mistakes-which are minimal.

11. TweetDeck - I love a good Twitter chat. There's nothing like communicating with the people directly in your industry’s community. Twitter is the most effective way to do that. However, following a Twitter chat on Twitter can get complicated. That’s where TweetDeck comes in; you can create an enormous number of different groups sorted by hashtag, location, profile, and more. You can also use TweetDeck to schedule out all of your tweets and manage all of your engagement on Twitter.

12. Photo split - There are many people who love creating collages of their images for their brands on Instagram. Photo split pretty much takes any 3 x 3 image and splits it up into nine different images, making the perfectly cut collage for you to post on Instagram. It also takes out all the math and measurements that you would need to do within any design tool.

13. Video splitter - like to record your Instagram stories in one huge long video? Not a problem, video splitter will split all of your videos up into 15 second clips, making it easier for you to post Instagram stories while keeping the same voice and tone and focus in your stories.

14. Prequel - If you want to get a little more aesthetic with your Instagram feed, prequel is a really fun app to try out. The varying filters and different things that you can do in prequel versus any other photo editing app for free, it’s definitely worth trying out.

15. Lightroom - If your someone who is obsessed with having every image in your Instagram feed with a similar filter, Lightroom is going to be the app for you. Not only can you create your own filters within Lightroom but you can purchase filters from Etsy and other online creators and upload those filters into Lightroom on your phone, allowing you to create a cohesively styled Instagram feed. You do need an Adobe subscription to use this app.

16. MissingLettr - if you’re looking to further streamline your content and take a lot of work out of creating content from your blog, MissingLttr is definitely a great tool to check out. I really appreciate being able to upload the link to a blog post into MissingLettr and have the app create branded images and quotes for you. If you’re a brand on the move and you don’t have a lot of time to create something with intention, MissingLttr is your next best choice.

17. Zapier - this is a great tool for connecting the dots between your social media platforms, email marketing, and any other consumer facing app or product. If you are someone who sells a lot of products creating zaps that go between your social media platforms and your email is made easier by Zapier.

18. Mailchimp - Mailchimp is by far one of the most diverse and easy-to-use tools online. While male chimp is actually an email marketing tool, you can connect your Facebook ads and your social media accounts easily to mail chimp creating a super blast with every email that you send. After all, social media is just a handshake and you don’t own your audience on social media whereas with email you have that audience for life.

19. People Map - If you’re an influencer or a brand who is looking to work with influencers people map is a great tool they can help you understand the landscape of influencing and how to create a profile that brands love and want to work with.

20. Unsplash - When you have a life and social media making sure that you have a plethora of images to use throughout your website, if social media channels, email marketing, and someone is a little scary. Especially when you look at how much it costs to have a simple photo subscription through any website online. What I really love about Unsplash is the ability for creators to use the varying images on the platform. Not to mention each photo on this website is by far the most aesthetically pleasing version of a photo you could find. Being able to use their photos and give each photographer credit also helps build trust between you and your community. More on that later, though.

21. Pexels - This tool is like the one above. Free stock photos that you can use under a creative Commons license. The style is a little different in terms of photography, but still worth testing out.

22. Calendly - if your business is constantly booking meetings with others, this calendar tool is there to take out the hard work of scheduling and make setting appointments with potential clients and guests seamless. The free option works just fine, but there’s also a paid option that allows you to book paid calls with potential clients and consults. Well worth $12 per month.

Now, some people really love these tools and I will say nothing negative against them. These tools were just not for me. If you find success in using these tools, that’s great. But if you don’t that’s fine too. Below, I’ll give my reasons I’m not into them.

Social Media Tools You Shouldn’t Use

1. Hootsuite - Don’t get me wrong! Just because it’s on the list of social media tools I don’t think you should use doesn’t mean it’s not a wonderful tool. HootSuite serves many people really well, it's just not the tool for me. It’s your basic social media management tool for content. You can schedule stuff, look at analytics, and that’s kind of it. The platform itself has grown and changed over the years and there are a lot of improvements that have been made, but Sprout Social will always have my heart.

2. Planoly - I’ll be totally honest with this one. I used this tool for five years. I used it every single day. I recommended it to clients for a very long time. And I also worked really hard to make sure that I set up everyone’s Planoly account up perfectly. But in the end when I tested out and experienced Later, I changed my mind. Especially based on the price point and the number of social media profiles that you can connect. I see Planoly as a very bougie social media tool. But again, there are a lot of great aspects of Planoly. It’s a great visual builder and content manager-but just for Instagram.

3. Canned posts from randoms you see on an ad - As a content creator myself, this one really gets me. So many people used canned content in messaging from other influencers and business owners, and I literally just can’t stand it. There is something to be said about the original words that come from your mind. Do not discount yourself. However, I believe in analyzing and looking at the content of other creators. Especially those who are within your industry. Understanding their voice and how they communicate with her audience only better informs how you intend to connect and communicate with your audience.

4. Meet Edgar - They’re honestly just so many social media tools out there that are cheaper, more efficient, and free. You don’t need meat Edgar to repost content all the time. Plus, people don’t want to see the same old content constantly. They are much more interested in your new original content and how you intend to revitalize and keep your old content relevant.

5. Klout - I remember when I first started using cloud. I was brand new to the social media industry and still had a very green mindset with understanding the importance of engagement on social media. Klout was there to rank your popularity online based on your vanity numbers and the people who it connected you to. We’re not living in a Black Mirror society, nor do we live in China where this matters. Your Klout does not matter. My Klout does not matter. What matters is the genuine connection I have to my audience, just like you.

If you have a favorite social media tool that’s not listed here or a social media tool you don’t think anyone should use, I’d really love to hear it. Hit us up on Instagram at the social media therapy podcast Instagram page or on my Instagram page @SarahAllisonPotter.

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FIND MORE ON SOCIAL

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Sarah Potter & Alli Paolone

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Meet Sarah and Alli, two social media marketing consultants and digital experts who've been foraging their way since the early 2010's. This dynamic duo sasses the social media industry and sets some unspoken rules straight in this podcast on marketing, life, and all the therapy social media marketer workers need.

"We’re not here to tell you how to do your job, we’re here to validate the shit out of what you’re doing and reinforce the unspoken ground rules of social media workers everywhere," says Sarah–known for her bold and brash approach to social content.

This podcast is for more than just social media workers too. Social Media therapy is here for everyone worn out and burned by the ever-changing algorithms and forced sense of care about social platforms, and the social media rat race.

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Feeling Heard?

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Show us some love and tell us what you're diggin' on the show.

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Have a Question?

Send us an email with your social media questions and we'll answer them at the end of each show.

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