When we set out to write a post on the top social media marketing tools available in 2018, we thought that it would be almost impossible to test out every one of the best tools on the market.
With that in mind, we decided instead to ask some of the best social media marketers in the world, which tools they use, and the answers that we got were very surprising.
In fact, the “tool” that got the most votes isn’t necessarily known as a social media marketing tool at all. It’s almost a Swiss army knife, because its got so many uses and combines data from all of the different platforms and traffic sources. Yes the tool that just over half of our experts chose as their number one tool for social media marketing, is Google Analytics.
Another surprise was in the number of people who chose Facebook Live as one of their go-to marketing tools. Facebook is advocating for video more often, and one of the last places on the platform where businesses can still benefit from organic reach is through Facebook live.
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Of the “actual” social media marketing tools on the list, the highest rated was Buzzsumo. Which isn’t much of a surprise when you consider that the tool has so many uses, and can really give you a pulse of what’s going on in your niche, by seeing what kind of posts are being shared and who is sharing them. As well as that, you can identify influencers to build relationships with in the hope of amplifying your content and/or your business.
Some of our experts have used Facebook live to grow their social following by massive numbers. Going live during meetings, interviews and any other time that it’s worth. Our friend Billy Gene even goes live to answer marketing questions, when he’s getting his weekly haircut in the BGIM office!
The tools available today to help you market your business on social media are extremely powerful. There are tools that save massive amounts of time by allowing you to schedule posts. There are tools that can curate relevant content for you to review and share with your audience. There are tools that can help you identify influencers to share your own content with. In the fast paced environment that is the modern workday, each tool that our experts mentioned is useful, and each tool mentioned is extremely powerful in its own right.
So with all that said, let’s get into into it and learn which tools the smartest marketers in the room (and probably the world) are using every day to grow their businesses.
The consensus that can be taken from the answers we received, is that to dominate social media marketing it’s not about the tools that you use. It’s about mindset. All of the tools listed are just that, tools. They will not create a marketing strategy for you. They will not automatically grow your following by clicking one button. They will not create fake engagement with real people. The tools that our experts recommended can help you in many ways. They can help you save time, lots of it.
They can help you create stunning visual content that increases engagement. They can help you find relevant people who might be interested in your content. They can help you get more (or less) organic reach. In fact, one of the experts that was kind enough to contribute, said that he doesn’t use tools at all because in his opinion using them can affect organic reach.
“I genuinely prefer just using the platforms directly over and above working through a given tool. Yes it’s that bit more labour sum but I feel the tools negatively impact the organic reach of the posts. I know this is contested everywhere but all my experience compliments my stance.” Jamie White
At the end of the day, whether you agree or disagree with Jamie’s stance, the thing that pretty much all of experts preached is that the tools can only take you so far, to really have success in social media marketing, you first need to have the right mindset and one of our other experts really stressed this:
“Tools are important but the tools won’t save you. Too many people are looking for the magical tool that will skyrocket their social accounts. It doesn’t exist. Success on social is 98% mindset and 2% tools. You need to actually want to dominate. Then you need to be willing to put in the work to do it. Then you need to realize that you’re going to suck at the start and that’s ok. Expect to get zero results at the beginning. Know that the quantity leads to the quality but until you have quality, nobody is going to follow you. Lebron James would dominate you in basketball in a bathrobe and flip flops no matter what gear or shoes you’re wearing. Do the right tools make him even better? Absolutely. But wearing Lebron’s shoe doesn’t make you Lebron. The tools won’t save you. Get your mindset right and just decide that you’re going to dominate social media this year. Once you truly decide, you’ll figure out the how.”Evan Carmicheal
And that same message came across in so many of the other responses we got, from some of the smartest people in the social media marketing community. If you focus on creating strategies that engage with your audience, then you will already be more than halfway there. And with the tools that our experts have recommended, you’ll be able to get there a lot quicker. At the end of the day, the key to succeeding on social media seems to be the same as the key to succeeding through any other platform. Good old fashioned marketing strategy!
