What tools can boost your marketing game?
Social media in itself is a big, wide world. While there are many amazing things you can use social media for, particularly in your school's marketing, you can risk spending too much time on it.
We have listed six of our favourite tools - which we use daily - to help combat issues of time, to make your marketing and social media use more efficient and productive, and to give you a boost in the content you create.
Social Candy
Social Candy is quick and easy way for you to get your #SocialScore - basically a number representation of your influence and reach on Twitter. Simply type in your Twitter username and hit Candify! to receive your score out of 100.
61 out of 100? #SocialSuperstars 🙌
The great thing about using Social Candy is there is no limit to the number of requests you can make. Keep up-to-date with your #SocialScore every day, week, month or however you want to monitor.
You can also keep track of other Twitter accounts: perhaps your sub-accounts (i.e. sports, music, library, Year 5 or your Head's Twitter feed), or even competitors, similar schools further afield, celebrities and popular accounts.
Use Social Candy to monitor your own accounts, while also looking at other people's #SocialScore: it should help you better devise your marketing strategy! What works for you and what doesn't (this will be reflected in the rise and fall of your #SocialScore)? Does a competitor have a higher score? Consider what it is about their Twitter account that makes this the case.
Ooh, a piece of candy
Buffer
Buffer is a tool that allows you to manage multiple social media accounts from one platform. It is incredibly useful to use as part of a marketing strategy - easily scheduling content to go out across your different channels throughout the day / week.
Buffer is free (with some limitations), with an optional subscription if you want to add more accounts or schedule larger amounts of content. If you have a few channels (Buffer connects to: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Pinterest and Instagram) then the free version is all you will need, but if you have multiple accounts then the paid subscription may be a great investment.
The biggest benefit for your school is that you can quickly schedule content. Buffer allows you to set preferred times throughout the day, or you can even allow Buffer to work out the best times to schedule. 👍
We consider Buffer to be a top tool for scheduling - it is easy to use, easy to link social channels to, and has a range of features that can help drive brand consistency! These include link-shortening (such as Bitly - see below) and a handy browser-based app called Pablo, allowing to effortlessly create and schedule visual content.
Read our in-depth Buffer guide here.
Bitly
Bitly is a link-shortening service that allows you to shorten, track and analyse links across social media, email, print, and other online/offline channels.
The service allows to have your own branded, custom links. For example, we use schoolbyt.es and BBC use bbc.in as their custom Bitly links.
Having a link-shortening service, like Bitly, is an effective way to deliver a more defined brand around the content you are putting out there.
Need help setting up your school’s custom Bitly? Email our social team.
Pocket allows you to save articles, videos, photos, and much more, for later.
If you see something interesting and what to read it later, just save it on Pocket. This also allows you to build up an archive of great content that you can start sharing a later date.
The only down side? It can be quite addictive saving interesting articles and you can end up giving yourself a little too much late-night reading!
Evernote
One for list lovers OR people who know organisation is a problem area: Evernote is a tool designed for note taking and archiving your life.
Notes can be pieces of text, photos, webpages, files and more. The major benefit of using Evernote for social marketing is, you can create and store your content in Evernote (which has some very handy extension apps for browsers such as Chrome and Firefox).
TOP TIP:
Create multiple notebooks (collections of notes) called:
- To do
- Doing
- Published
This will help you really organise your content.
Have a great idea? Create a note with the idea and put it into ‘To do’. You can then come back to it at a later date (you're welcome 😆).
Google Analytics
Google Analytics doesn't really need that much of an introduction. Well, hopefully not?! 😮
Not only does it help you understand which social channels drive most traffic, engagement and conversions, but it can also help you create great content.
Take a look at your most popular pages and look at the behaviour on them - bounce rate, avg. time of page, conversions. Does a particular type of content resonate better with people than another? Yes? Create more of that! 😃
The level of detail within Google Analytics is incredible - but the wealth of knowledge that can be extracted from it is worth any investment in time!
Found any of these tools useful or perhaps have a few suggestions yourself? Share them in the comments below, and let your peers and social community enjoy the many wonders of these tools 👍.
Want to know how to use these tools effectively? Ask our social team, or arrange a training date with Interactive Schools.