Ten Tools to 'UP' Your Social Media

We’ve established social media is important to include in your marketing mix as a relationship building tool for your brand. However, effective social media takes enormous effort and time, and in the current fast-paced, ever-changing digital world, it’s nearly impossible to accomplish an effective social presence entirely organically. Fear not, we’ve compiled a list of 10 of our favorite tools to make social media a little easier.

1. Mentionmapp- This app is great for monitoring chatter about your brand on Twitter. Your connections are presented through an interactive map and allow you to see the people you have the most conversations with AND the way other Twitter users connect to you. (Free)

2. Hootsuite- Hootsuite is a social media management system that allows you to plan, schedule and monitor posts for multiple social platforms simultaneously. While the basic version is free, they also offer a paid business plan. Some special features include audience identification and custom reports. (Free and $$)

3. Brandwatch – A great social listening tool, this service monitors and reports what’s being said on the web about brands, people and products. Real time alerts allow you to stay ahead of potential crises and metrics help benchmark your efforts against your competition and define target demographics. ($$)

4. BlitzMetrics – As the name implies, BlitzMetrics provides data to compare yourself to competition, learn which demographics are the most engaged with your brand and track content that gets the most engagement so you can replicate to expand your reach. Plus, it integrates data from Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and Tumblr. ($$)

5. Buffer – This app allows you to manage multiple social media accounts while setting unique content schedules for each. Analytics are engineered to help drive traffic and increase engagement while saving you time. (Free and $)

6. Klout – Being seen as an industry leader begins with providing content your audience finds useful. Find influencers in your audience and track your brand’s impact by sharing great content. Klout will help you create unique, impactful content to engage followers, fans and friends. (Free)

7. MediaVantage – Focused on tracking PR efforts, this combines traditional media coverage and social media mentions into a single database. This helps monitor your reputation, align messaging and analyze success. ($$)

8. Pin Reach – Solely focused on Pinterest, this has both scheduling and reporting capabilities to streamline your pinning process. Some user-friendly features include an overall score for your influence and tables and charts that make analysis easy. Track your most popular pins and boards and then aim for similar pins to maximize your reach. ($$)

9. Sprout Social – Take analytics to the next level with this multi-platform measurement tool. Monitors consumers’ engagement with brands, plus features contact management, competitive insight and lead generation capabilities. ($$)

10. Vocus – This tool helps align all your brand reputation efforts and identify opportunities through cloud-based software. Some of the platforms included: social, search, email and PR. Delivers real-time leads, prospects, social media conversations and inbound media inquiries. ($$)

These are by no means all of the social media tools out there—dozens more exist to help streamline your social media efforts under the marketing umbrella. For a list of other tools, visit http://bit.ly/1rkU9m3. Do you use a social tool not included here? Tell us what it is below!