It’s a fantastic place to be, but social platforms can suck in your time pretty quickly unless you get the right tools to manage them and improve your efficiency. Here are some of our favourite tools.
1. Scheduling Assistant
According to Instagram, around 50% of all users follow one business and around 75% are happy to visit a website after they see an ad post. While that’s great news, it’s important to note that your Instagram presence is truly effective when you get the right messages to your customers at the right time.
Here’s when a scheduling assistant comes in. Top options here are Buffer, Later, SchedulGram, Sprout Social, Hootsuite and If This Then That (IFTTT). We love Hootsuite for not just its queuing tools but also monitoring competition and helping grow your engagement.
With Instagram now allows auto-posting from third party tools, using a scheduling assistant has become even simpler.
2. Hashtags Monitoring & Analytics Tool
Missing out on a trending topic or brand mention is not a good look on social. Hashtag analytics tools help you monitor and track hashtags associated with your brands. They are critical for creating and curating user generated content. Top tools include RiteTag, Keyhole, Hashtagify, Pixlee and TweetReach. Hashtagify is a great way to know where and when your chosen hashtags are being used, as well as being prompted to use common variations.
Hashtags for Likes app is a great tool if you’re simply researching hashtags to use.
3. Video & Image Editing Tools
It’s a visual platform, so without stunning visuals or moving pictures, you’d not get far on Instagram. VSCO is a top-notch tool to take and edit photos and videos. We also love Canva. Editing tools are a personal choice – have a play around before signing up with one that you’re most comfortable with. The Boomerang app is also a fun tool to create videos for Instagram.
4. Tools for Organic Growth
While your content is the best way to increase your followers and organic reach, there are platforms to aid this. Among the most popular is CrowdFire. It allows you to follow the followers of competitors in your niche, which helps to unlock the traffic you want to reach.
Combin is another popular tool with powerful search abilities, targeting audience by hashtag, location and competitors.
MobileMonkey is another chatbot platform that is also great for (productivity/social media/SMS messaging/automation/chatbot) and integrates with Instagram.
5. Linktree
Linktree is a free tool for optimising your Instagram traffic. In Instagram you have one link in bio to house all the content you’re driving followers to. Manage how that link works with this free Instagram tool.
6. Woobox
Create social-media based contents in minutes using Woobox. It’s a great way to increase followers, generate leads and drive online sales.
7. Repost
Repost is an essential tool for sharing user-generated content. By doing so, you will show your guests that you appreciate them and their opinion. It is easy to use; all you need to do is click and share the content you like while acknowledging the person who created it.
8. Analytics Tools
Data is essential to every modern marketer’s efforts. For Instagram you can measure metrics such as post engagement, top follower, top mention, reach percentage etc. Instagram Insights, a native tool to the platform is free and must be used. Other analytics tools for advanced reporting you could try out include Hootsuite, Sprout Social, Simply Measured, Iconosquare and Social Insight. Outside the platform, we love using Hootsuite.
These are just some of the many tools that will help you build a strong brand presence. Using several in combination can be a potent and powerful way to kick your Instagram marketing into high gear. Which tools are working well for you that didn’t make it on the list?