Social media is a great place to waste time, and many of us do. However, there are also some great tools and apps that can help to actually save time and help users to be more productive and successful.
The good news is that these 6 tools are actually fun to use, and most importantly, they motivate you and your employees to keep moving forward and increasing your value.
A motivated and productive person is someone we all admire. Here are 6 social media productivity tools to help you manage your social media marketing activities.
#1. Buffer
Scheduling tools are great ways to do more than you normally ever could. This is because they allow you to post on many different sites, at all times of the day, even if you’re not connected to the internet. They do just what it sounds like, apps like Buffer will post at a specified time in the future.
There are many scheduling tools available today, but they are not all created equal. Buffer is one of the easiest to use because it is simply a scheduling tool with a few features that are very helpful:
Integration with browsers- extensions for Chrome, Firefox, and Safari, which allows you to access Buffer from your social media profiles
Scheduling- Buffer allows you to add content that you find interesting throughout the day, and it then post it at certain times to keep your posts spaced out and online during prime social media hours.
Variety of Sources- Buffer can take post from Facebook and Twitter easily, but it can also take posts from apps such as Pulse News, Tweetdeck and many more popular apps
Simplicity- Other apps require you to pick a date and time to schedule when your post will be posted, Buffer already has time slots to make posts, and so it is much simpler and saves time
Buffer is a simple, and did I mention FREE way of gathering a larger and more engaged audience online. Buffer allows you to do more work than you normally would because it is always online and knows when the peak posting hours are. Buffer is a very helpful tool to simply take whatever interesting story you find online, send it to the Buffer list, and not have to worry about it.
It is a great way to save time while adding to your social media presence and keeping you motivated by watching how much attention your posts can actually receive. Once I started feeling the success of having more popular posts, it got me thinking a lot more about how to craft the perfect post and made me start to become more creative.
It is interesting how success can start building on itself that way.
#2. Glyder
Glyder has come a long way and fills a need that seems daunting to many people without very much business knowledge. This tool and app allow small businesses, such as startups, to bump up their marketing game. When starting out online, you hear about social media marketing, the importance of a good design, and many problems and costs associated with them.
You know that it takes more than an entertaining message to succeed but may not have the resources to devote to this, this is why Glyder exists.
Glyder helps with all of these things through its many features, such as:
Visual Messaging- create messages for Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest but also SalesForce contacts, Mailchimps contacts and other connections
Templates- keep your messages entertaining with pre-set templates that can be customized for your audience
Weekly Updates- connect regularly with customers by using new templates, customizable content, and photos that are updated every week.
Automatic Formatting- Glyder formats all of your messages for you so they look great everywhere
The founders Allan Wells and Eddy Ayling worked at Zynga and Globant respectively and saw the need for small business owners to have better marketing and design, but these business owners couldn’t afford to hire services. They created Glyder to solve this problem and consistently add more to the app’s capabilities.
Soon there will be a dashboard so that users can access the metrics from social networking sites and better craft their message to their customers.
Glyder can really solve a lot of time and especially money without having to worry about bad results. I think this is the main benefit of Glyder, because with a small business there are so many headaches and reasons to worry. This option can free up a lot of time in your day for tasks that only you can do, and keeps you motivated by knowing that you are doing what is right for your business and not skimping on areas that others do.
The confidence and motivation that Glyder can bring to a business is something that adds value in ways that are often hard to calculate, but easy to recognize.
#3. LikeHack
We all have many sources of social media news coming at us from all directions. There are Facebook feeds, Twitter feeds, RSS feeds and so many others. It is easy to get overwhelmed and let important information slip through the cracks and waste hours sifting through all of the junk until you find what you need.
This app allows you to consolidate all of your news on one app, from a really diverse selection of sources.
LikeHack has a lot of features that sets it apart from similar services:
One central location- it gathers your news into one place
Importance ratings- it organizes your news into levels of importance and interest
Intelligent ratings-the app learns as you read news to find what is most interesting to you
Access to history- it saves all stories you have liked and shared with full text searching
Offline capability – it allows you to sync your device with your news for offline access
The app is also quick to figure out because of a nice user interface which is something we’ve come to expect from the new generation of user friendly apps. It allows you to quickly get started gathering and organizing your news, and it does this in an interface that is nice to look at.
The layout and design of an app is something that is often underestimated, but is very important because no one wants to use and look at an ugly app…like many other things in life.
The nice thing about apps like this is you don’t realize how much time you are actually saving. It is interesting to be conscious of how much time you actually waste looking for important pieces of information each day, and then you will realize why apps like LikeHack are worth it. It is akin to a Netflix binge watching your favorite new show, and seeing how much time you actually saved by not having constant commercial breaks.
You are going to read your news anyways, so you might as well make it easier and stay motivated that you read more articles and got more news than anyone else in the office. This leads to a feeling of accomplishment and also a feeling of confidence because you will know what your coworkers are talking about and also have something important to add to the conversation and your work.
#4. SocialBro
We all know that if we post something on Twitter at 3am, no one is going to read it, unless we have international friends or ones with “interesting” habits. The time of the day that you post content drastically changes how many people you will connect with through a post. Services that allow you to schedule when your posts are made help a lot, and they often have analytical tools attached to them.
However, SocialBro is an extra powerful tool, and really, who would call this an app when we can say “tool”…they kind of asked for it. This tool works on Twitter to make sure your posts are not ignored and forgotten because of bad timing or formatting. SocialBro can change how you look at tweeting and it does this quite simply because of its ability to quickly and clearly show you the data you need to see to make a good decision.
SocialBro not only tells you when the busiest times are on your specific profiles but also includes:
Peerindex scores- helping you to understand the individual and not just the message
Real Time Data- it tells you who is active, with what app they are tweeting from, and in what language
Integration- use it on Adobe Air and Google Chrome for free
Filtering- it allows you to monitor a certain search term or page
SocialBro saves so much time and helps you extend your social media reach with all of these features. The ability to monitor certain search terms and hash tags lets you know what subjects are most popular now so you know what subject to post on. The analytics show you which app people are tweeting from, which lets you know things such as if they are watching their timelines, or probably just looking at photos on Instagram.
The language function allows you to know what language is most active at the moment so you know how to get your tweet read by your audience. I was really surprised at how easy it was to get so much interaction from posts that would ordinarily be forgotten, just because I formatted it in the right way and at the right time.
This can give you an edge up on your bros and give you time to find the best content you can post.
#5. Grovo
Sometimes, things need to be done right. Services are great at saving time but to stay on the cutting edge and in front of the competition, your business needs to understand how to use many of the top sites that can be used to grow businesses. Educating yourself in a classic setting is sometimes not an option, so Grovo was born. Grovo is an interesting tool that came out in 2010 but really came into its own this year and helps to educate businesses through short but important lessons.
Grovo is different because it features:
100 top sites- provides quick training bites that lead to a great understanding on over 100 of the top sites such as google and youtube
Flexible timing- which allows you to study at your pace
1 minute video lessons- quick daily access and use
Mini quiz- lets you show what you actually learned
Discovery- shows new ways to be productive and creative on sites you are already familiar with
Grovo is not just an isolated learning experience. It is constantly growing and including more lessons. Also, it allows for sharing so that your business or community can share things they have learned and help each other to solve problems. This is a great addition I think, because it helps incorporate some of the benefits of classroom training and keeps all members engaged and on the same page.
Grovo also helps team leaders because of the ability to keep your team on the same track. Team leaders and bosses can track the progress of their employees or team members and discuss the new lessons with each other. This saves a lot of time because it is easy to take a quick lesson or two in the morning and it will keep building on other lessons until the whole group is educated on a certain site or multiple ones.
This app made the list because it solves the problem of educating businesses and teams without losing too much time or money, and eventually leading to more confident and motivated employees that feel like they are growing, which is something often underestimated in business.
#6. DropBox Business
We all have heard of DropBox (I hope), it’s the document sharing tool that allows people to connect and share files with each other seamlessly and without any integration problems.
This is a great and simple tool for people, but DropBox has now started a new version for businesses that offers a lot more options and flexibility.
DropBox business features:
Unlimited history- so you can track the changes and version differences since the birth of the file
One thousand gigabytes of storage- which will increase for free as your business grows
LAN and Delta sync – very reliable systems take the risk out of relying on a cloud platform
Security- secure your businesses information with encryption and two step verification
Seamless upgrade- Easy to switch from basic DropBox accounts
Activity Reports- allow you to track what happens to your documents and how they’re being used
DropBox is really trying to become the tool to beat, especially with all of the competition out there. They ensure your teams will get up and running fast and provide live support for all users. The emphasis is on saving time, and with the live support, one-click sharing, and reliable systems, it really is a tool worth looking into.
Security is a big thing for DropBox too, not only is it highly encrypted and uses the industry recommended two step verification process, it also lets the content of the owner have control. No one can share your information outside of your group without asking you for permission first.
DropBox is often overlooked because people think it is just a file sharing service, but with the advent of the business option, it deserves another look. Yes, file sharing is a big part of this tool but so is the management ability built in. You can see everything that is happening to your files, you can filter them and generate activity reports so there are no nasty surprises at the end of the week. DropBox allows you to share and manage files much easier and securely with your employees which gives you the confidence to create better communication.
The motivation to share more with employees and coworkers can really transform how a business conducts itself. Increased sharing makes people feel more important, and have a better understanding on where the business is heading. This motivates them to try harder and imagine new ways of doing things because they now feel more included, understand the business better, and know they will get recognition.
Motivation spurs productivity
These apps are all for different purposes in our lives as business owners or employees. However, they all have one thing in common and that is that they increase your productivity and motivation. These tools help you to grow yourself and your business. The ability to grow is a great motivator for people and keeps them interested in their work and feeling valuable. This is something that is constantly overlooked. These apps are very important because not only do they do the obvious of saving time and keeping you on the cutting edge of the tech world, they also help everyone to stay motivated and that is when real work can be accomplished.
Guest Author: Elliot Morrow
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