Social media has become something that almost no one can live without. Even great companies can't get by, without their social media accounts.

It's how we reach out, and communicate with each other.

And, as a business, reaching out to your customers - and any potential customers - and communicate with them frequently is really important. It strengthens the buyer-seller relationship you have with each other.

The best (and ideal) platforms that businesses use to reach out to their customers and prospects is social media. After all, that's where the masses are at, in millions, and sometimes, BILLIONS.

But, who said you can only use social media alone for this?

Below, is a list of MUST HAVE social media marketing tools that you can use, in order to spice up your social media game in your business.

1. Biteable

social media management tools - biteable

Did you know that visual content get much more engagements on social media, than other content forms?

Well, you do now.

All the big brands understand this, and they have gone all-in, investing a lot of money in video teams, equipment, etc.

So, why not capitalize on that?

Biteable is a tool that you can use to create engaging, informative, as well as entertaining short form video content easily, and share them on social media, without much fuss.

You can use the database of free video templates, footage, music, and animated scenes they offer, to make your videos look irresistible to the viewers, without spending the top dollar on expensive resources. It's an invaluable resource for your social media marketing efforts.

2. Buffer

buffer

Buffer is doing exceptionally well, as a platform which started as a scheduling tool for Twitter. As a matter of fact, it's one of the top major platforms of its kind.

You can do some pretty great things with this, including…

- Share content on the go, with its Chrome extension, by adding articles and content from the web pages you visit, to your Buffer queue.
- Automatically shorten the links you share. If you have a Bit.ly account, you can connect it with Buffer, and use it as well.
- Upload custom-made photos and videos.
- Use content from the articles you've shared.
- Utilize complex analytics to track your accounts’ performances.
- Reply to posts from within the platform.

Social media management tools like Buffer not only help you fill your social media feeds with relevant and entertaining content, without making you spend half of your time on each platform, but also keep an eye on their metrics, so that you can keep improving your social media game for good.

3. Buzzsumo

SMM tool - buzzsumo

If you don't already know, research plays a major role in marketing. That includes keeping an eye out for your competitors, and be in the loop of what they're up to, and whatnot.

Buzzsumo is one of the social media management tools that help you get to the next level of your content marketing game.

That includes, but not limited to…

- Finding content that's shared most on social media platforms. You can enter your - or someone else's - domain, and see what's been shared.
- Finding influencers related to relevant topics.
- Getting alerts triggered by brand names, links, author names, domains, or other keywords.
- Tracking competitors and perform analyses, based on their content.
- Finding interesting and new content to share or search for content, based on what's performing well.

The list goes on, and it makes a content marketer drool. Literally.

So if you're not checking out this one, well, don't blame anyone or anything else for lack of success in your business.

4. Missinglettr

missinglettr.com

Let's be honest.

Even if we use social media content schedulers to automate publishing, we still have to create the content, and schedule them, and we have to do it manually.

Missinglettr changes that.

It helps you automate the process of creating content for social media, by scraping your blog posts, and creating a year's worth of content. All you have to do is review, and make edits if necessary.

That's one thing crossed off of the weekly to-do list, if you ask me.

Now, you can really focus on just creating long-form content on your blog(s), while Missinglttr takes care of sharing little bites of those blog posts via your social profiles.

5. Hootsuite

Hootsuite

Here's the thing;

Managing multiple social media platforms is tricky, to say the least. On a good day, it's chaotic.

Hootsuite helps you manage that chaos, by bringing all of them into a single dashboard. Yes, that includes platforms like Reddit, Tumblr, and Storify.

You can see your comments and mentions, all in one place. You can also assign tasks, plot social media calendars, schedule updates, collaborate across team members, and a lot of other things.

On top of that, with Hootsuite Podium, you can check out free online social media courses, in order to develop your social media skills, and learn the fundamentals of SMM.

Oh, and if you think you can handle that, Hootsuite can give you an in-depth breakdown of the analytics.

6. Mention

digital marketing platform - mention

Ever wonder what people are talking about you?

With Mention, staying on top of the conversation between you and your customers and prospects, in easy.

Basically, it's one of the social media management tools built specifically for social listening. It monitors any mentions of your brand, your products, or even your competitors, in real time.

So, if someone is talking about you, you'll hear it. And then you can see what they're talking about you, and jump right in to the conversation, if it's needed.

7. IFTTT - If this, then that.

SMM API - ifttt

Don't you ever get tired of doing simple tasks, again, and again?

Well, this tool helps you automate those simple tasks by creating a set of rules, that gets triggered in to doing specific actions, when a predefined thing happens.

For example, you can create a rule, to automatically add the emails of the people who request email support, into an email list of your email marketing platform. That way, you get a new list of slightly-warm leads to work on.

IFTTT helps you eliminate the manual back-and-forth, and streamline your processes in a way that emphasises, as well as enhances your productivity.

8. Zapier

automate - Zapier

This is another tool, similar to IFTTT, but clearly has its differences.

IFTTT is easier to learn, and ideal for lighter automation tasks, while Zapier is a great tool for businesses that want to take their automation to next levels.

The thing about Zapier is that it's compatible with a lot of popular and widely-used services, apps, and tools out there. So you have the ability to automate even some of the bigger tasks that gets repeated.

They even have a huge list of possible automations that you can set up with their platform.

9. AdEspresso

adespresso expert

Have your ever thought of taking the guesswork out of how your ads are performing with their respective audiences?

Well, that's exactly what AdEspresso does.

This is one of several social media management tools that allows you to perform A/B split tests, gives you real-time analysis of Facebook, Instagram, and Google ads, and shows you how your ads are resonating with your audiences in accordance with your campaign name and targeting details.

You can create and manage ads for all three platforms in a single dashboard, and then see what’s working and what’s not, while your campaign is live. You can test different images, headlines, ad copy, and so on, until you find the perfect combination.

Ad creation and optimization is quick and easy, with a customizable dashboard, that allows you to keep an eye out for the most important metrics. You’ll end up with always-on campaigns that will monitor your Facebook Pages, and immediately promote relevant posts, and use smart filters to determine what’s going to be promoted, and for how long.

If you want to take the guesswork out of a complicated system and boost your efforts, you definitely should give AdEspresso a go.

10. Bit.ly

social media link shortener

Most of the URLs we share are lengthy ones. Since a social post have a limit on the number of characters you can put in, a long URL can reduce the space you can write. Especially on Twitter, with its lower amount of maximum characters per Tweet.

That's where Bitly comes in. It's a link shortener, that takes lengthy URLs, and shrinks them into much smaller ones.

Also, it'll tell you who clicked on what, when, and where, and so on.

It's a very simple, yet very useful tool. In fact, it’s been proven so handy, that Google has built it into their Google Campaign URL Builder to shorten links and track campaign performances.

BONUS - Canva

canva

Canva is definitely is a game changer in content creation.

It makes it very easy to create gorgeous infographics, cover images, thumbnails, quotes, and other image content for your social media accounts, with its drag-and-drop image creator, pre-packed with a selection of attractive, and ready to use templates.

Similarly, they have pre-sized designs optimized for every platform. Want to create the perfect pin? Select ‘Create a Pinterest Graphic’ once you’re logged in. That is the perfect size according to Pinterest’s best practices.

This magnificent tool is the only tool you'll ever going to need, to create image content for every one of your needs.

Pro-tip: Test

Social media marketing tools are very useful for promoting your business on social platforms. They can help you create content, automate publishing, generate leads, as well as engage your audience, all in a more effective manner.

You can use the social media marketing tools mentioned in this article, to successfully promote your brand on social media and take your social media game to a whole new level.

SHARE: