1. Pictures, Photos & Videos
The MTV generation has morphed into the YouTube and Instagram Video generation where a 60 second video can give you internet fame overnight. Grabbing an audience’s attention is vital. Your Facebook posts must have quality images. You can use your own images or find stock images using some of these popular stock image sites:
- istockphoto has millions of royalty-free photos, videos, music clips, etc. that use can use either by purchasing credits or subscribing to the site.
- Shutterstock can also be used by purchasing credits or subscribing. Shutterstock offers a free browse account to search images and create and share lightboxes. A lightbox is used to store images that you might want to download or share later.
- Free stock sites: There are some free stock photography sites that allow you to use their photos at no cost. The most popular is MorgueFile. Be sure to read all of the licensing requirements. Some require you to alter the image in some way, some require that you credit the photographer or source.
There are also many photo editing tools that you can use to edit your photos. Canva, PicMonkey, and Ribbet are three of the more popular sites.
2. Facebook Contests & Promotions
One of the best ways to get Likes and Followers is to give something away. While Facebook recently removed the requirement that a promotion must be run by an app, using a promotion app is still the best way to run and manage a contest.
- Shortstack will help you build whatever promotion or contest you can imagine. Whether it be a contest that gives a prize away, having followers upload pictures or videos to be voted on, or a promotion on a particular product, this site will build it for you. They have three pricing plans for different budgets and campaign needs.
- Heyo is a lower priced option with fewer frills and a free trial period. It also provides email marketing integrations and a user friendly interface.
3. Scheduling Tools
Managing your social media marketing accounts can sometimes turn in to a full-time job. Setting aside some time each week to schedule your Facebook posts can be an efficient way to tackle that task.
- Hootsuite is by far the best known and most popular. Accessible by website or mobile app, Hootsuite offers a full range of social media management and marketing from one dashboard. They offer a free option or an upgraded account for a small monthly fee.
- Sprout Social and Social Flow are two more great payment options. Social Flow offers an algorithm method that optimizes your posts based on the best time, most relevant content and your target audience. Sprout Social also offers analytics reporting and CRM.
- Every post is an app with fewer bells and whistles but has a free option and allows you to post content across multiple social platforms.
4. Facebook Marketing Tools
Given the increasing popularity of marketing on Facebook, they have created their own tools for users. Some of the best, most helpful tools include:
- Graph Search: Graph search acts like a search engine for Facebook users’ interests. It allows you to gather data on four different criteria: interests, people, places and pictures. For business owners, it is a great way to find out who your audience is.
- Boost Posts: A great service that allows you to increase your reach and gain new followers is boosting a post. This service increases the odds of your post being seen. You control the budget based on how many people you want to see a particular post.
- Facebook Pages Manager: This tool helps you keep track of what your followers are doing and stay mobile. According to Facebook, Pages Manager allows you to “manage up to 50 Pages from your smartphone or tablet. You can check Page activity, share with your audience and see insights.”
5. Reporting Tools & Analytics
So all of these fancy tools will mean nothing if you don’t know how they are affecting your business and reach. Reporting tools are a great way to find out if your facebook marketing is working and what areas you need to improve.
- Social Report allows you to measure your effectiveness in your social media accounts the same way Google Analytics tracks your website. There are monthly subscriptions ranging from Starter to Pro.
- Google Analytics has advanced features that will track traffic that has been driven to your website through your Facebook page and whether that visit was converted to a sale.
- Keyhole simplifies your social media analytics and online marketing. It can aggregate metrics, monitor and analyze your online campaigns, as well as understand how your audience feels about your brand and your competitors through brand monitoring. You can access a free 7-day trial at no extra charge.
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