18 Effective Social-Media Tools That Will Save You Time Get a head start on next year's marketing efforts with this batch of apps for all five of the major networks.
By Anna James Edited by Dan Bova
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Most small businesses juggle several social media accounts at once, and with great difficulty.
Thankfully, web developers have come to the rescue with a myriad of applications to maximize the social-media experience across all platforms. Here are 18 of the most effective and time-saving applications currently on the market across the five most popular social media sites for business.
1. SocialBro: "The number-one marketing platform for Twitter," SocialBro maps community engagement on a simple graph. This is a tool made for businesses with the goal of monetizing their followings. A 15-day free trail is offered.
Related: Marketing Expert: The Best Tools for Understanding Your Social-Media Accounts
2. Tweetdeck: Now owned by Twitter, Tweetdeck aims to maximize reach. With its customizable dashboard, users can schedule future tweets and monitor activity across several accounts -- all at a glance.
3. Social Rank: Your Social Rank groups your best followers, most engaged and most valuable. From this information, businesses can take extra care of valuable customers. Social Rank generates a free report on the day of sign up.
4. Tweriod measures the effectiveness of posts according to level of engagement, detailing hours and days when engagement peaks. Every business needs to use Tweriod when planning their content-marketing strategy.
5. NeedTagger: One of the most underrated social-media tools for businesses, Need Tagger pinpoints Twitter users that are hunting for a product of service. The tool runs keyword searches and delivers real-time results.
6. LikeAlyzer: As the name suggests, LikeAlyzer analyzes Facebook pages, generating reports highlighting areas for improvement. This tool is an invaluable resource for businesses new to social media. The page-rank section allows business to see how they stack up against similar brands and by industry standards.
7. Wolfram Alpha Facebook Report: This tool is handy for those who drive their business page though their personal profile. The free Wolfram report is incredibly detailed including a relationship status graph.
8. Agorapulse: This tool focuses on customer-relationship management (CRM) by building profiles of fans based on their interactions on the page. Pricing starts at $29 per month for one page with less than 6,000 likes.
9. BuildFire is a devilishly streamlined way for a business to create an application in minutes, or the BuildFire team will customize one. BuildFire integrates beautifully with all major platforms, facilitating user engagement.
10. PageModo overhauls the aesthetic of Facebook pages by providing custom cover photos, additional tabs and unique landing pages. PageModo offers a basic free package and upgrades start at $6.25 per month.
Related: Most Essential Social Media Tools
11. Curalate: Useful on Instagram and Pinterest, Curalate monitors conversations about brands, products and services, providing vital information to businesses. Curalate identifies potential brand advocates and influential followers.
12. Iconosquare (formerly Statigram) is a user-friendly platform that monitors statistics for followers' level of engagement, including lost and gained followers, in weekly and monthly periods.
13. Collecto is particularly useful to small businesses that are concerned with building up their followings. The location-based app categorizes followers into the brands they are talking about and hashtags they use.
14. Tripit: An older application, Tripit centralizes business-trip information including hotel and flight details and dinner reservations. Tripit enables users to share their itineraries on LinkedIn to make the most out of their journeys.
15. Word Press is arguably the simplest way to add a blog to a LinkedIn account, which will attract more connections through content. Word Press is responsible for 23 percent of webpages on the net.
16. PicMonkey: The image-sharing site Pinterest boasts 70 million users worldwide and it's growing exponentially. PicMonkey is a free online image editor that removes the need for businesses to invest in Photoshop.
17. ShareAsImage: Formerly Pin A Quote, ShareAsImage generates eye-catching memes and quotes for $8 per month. This kind of visual content is extremely powerful and has the potential to go viral across Pinterest.
18. PinAlerts sends an email notification to an account holder when a user pins something directly from their site (Pinterest only emails in the event of a repin). This tool is imperative to build an online business community.
Know of any other useful social-media tools? Share them in the comments section below.
Related: Keep Up on Social Media With These 5 Tools for Savvy Businesses
