Whether you have years of experience running business profiles on social media or recently started your first one, technology is your friend. From online apps to in-hand gadgets, we’ve compiled a shortlist of social media technology tools to make things easy. With these tools, you’ll improve your video creation, content development, and graphic design efforts overnight.
Yes, these five social media technology tools can be implemented today at little or no cost to you or your department.
5 Social Media Technology Tools to Try Right Now
So your social media program has been approved (or maybe it hasn’t – let’s start there). Now, it’s time to start posting quality content. (If you’ve been posting for a while, don’t worry. Implement these tips now and don’t look back.) From your videos to the graphics accompanying your posts, these five tools will drastically improve your social media content.
1. Use a ring light for video
If you’re making videos, you need proper lighting. It’s a non-negotiable. Ring lights make this incredibly simple by providing light all around your face to eliminate shadows. Many of them connect to your phone for hands-free, perfect lighting throughout your video. And the icing on the cake? They’re reasonably priced — as low as $15 on Amazon.
P.s. If you’re not currently posting videos, you should start.
2. Improve your audio quality with a mic
In addition to enhancing your video through consistent lighting, you want it to sound good too. Try using a microphone for consistent, high-quality audio in every video you record. Again, they’re not going to break the bank ($39.95 on Amazon) but can have a significant impact on your videos.
3. Set up Google Alerts
As the generally accepted king of the internet, Google has a lot to offer your social media. Namely, its alert function that sends a daily email with content specified to your desired keywords. We won’t go into much detail here since we cover the benefits of and how to set up Google Alerts in another post, but suffice it to say Google Alerts is pretty awesome.
4. Elevate social media graphics with Canva
When you’re scrolling through your own social media, what is it that catches your eye? Posts with lots of text or good-looking graphics? You can try to make a case for the text-heavy posts, but statistics show posts that include images produce 650 percent higher engagement than text-only posts.
And we’ve got good news: Including high-quality, attractive graphics with your social media posts doesn’t have to be difficult. Canva, an online graphic design app, makes it incredibly easy to make social media graphics, blog header images, presentations, and more. Plus, it’s FREE.
5. Streamline scheduling with Hootsuite
If you’ve talked about social media with anyone familiar with the online marketing world, you’ve probably heard of Hootsuite. It’s an online scheduling platform that lets you schedule posts to multiple platforms in one place. Hootsuite’s free plan allows you to connect up to three social profiles and schedule up to 30 messages. You’ll only be able to log in under one username, but that’s a small price to pay for such amazing (free) benefits.
You have tons of options when it comes to how you utilize social media for your agency, but all of them need to be approachable and professional. These five social media technology tools help you achieve this goal whether you’re a pro at marketing your agency or are just getting started.
Of course, there’s more to social media than pretty graphics (analytics, advertising, and best-practices for starters). If you or anyone at your agency could use a social media primer, consider attending one of our training seminars!