Social media tools every business owner needs to boost engagement and drive sales

Social media is more than just sharing cat memes and photos from your holidays, it’s a powerful tool for business growth. Like it or loathe it, a strong online presence is a necessity to build connection and engagement with your customers.

5.31 billion people are on social media – finding effective ways to connect with your audience and create a strong point of view is essential. But, as we all know, social media is a time suck, and Upsource is always looking for ways to use our time and tools more effectively. There are a huge array of social med tools out there, but how do you know which ones will truly make a difference? Here are our top social media tools that every business should know.

Our criteria for choosing the right social media tools

Choosing the right tool for you and your business needs is key to creating content efficiently and making the most of your online presence. 

Our criteria:

Functionality
What are your specific needs? Scheduling, analysing performance, creating content? What platforms are you using? Make sure the tool you choose matches up with your priorities

User friendliness
Yes, learning how to use a new tool is a process, but it shouldn’t be hard. Tools should be intuitive even for the less tech-savvy. A tool with a steep learning curve will deter you from using consistently and to its full potential

Customer service
Reliable customer service can be a lifesaver if you have technical issues, or need help with certain features. Look out for tools that offer comprehensive ‘how to’ tutorials, user guides and responsive human support teams

Integration
Make sure the tools you choose can seamlessly integrate with the other tools and platforms that you use. Streamline your workflow

Cost
Most tools offer a limited free version, but you’ll access more features with a subscription. Where do you get the most value?

Tool 1: Hootsuite – Streamlining social media management

Hootsuite is a great social media management tool that allows you to manage all your accounts from a single dashboard. It’s perfect for businesses that want to streamline their social media efforts and save time. With Hootsuite, you can schedule posts in advance across multiple platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and more. This scheduling feature suggests the optimal times for posting to maximise your reach and engagement.

With Hootsuite’s robust analytics, you can track your performance, monitor engagement metrics, gain audience behaviour insights and create custom reports. This data will help you refine your social media strategy and make sure your content is resonating with your audience.

Another standout feature of Hootsuite is its social listening capabilities. You can monitor conversations about your brand, industry, or competitors in real-time (with a paid subscription).

Tool 2: Buffer – Scheduling posts for maximum reach

Buffer is another excellent tool for scheduling, known for its simplicity and effectiveness. Buffer allows you to schedule social media posts across various platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Pinterest. The tool’s intuitive interface makes it really easy to create and schedule posts, and make sure that your content is consistently shared at the best times for maximum reach and engagement.

Buffer provides detailed analytics that show how your content is performing in terms of likes, comments, shares, and overall engagement.  It also offers a browser extension which makes it easy to share content from anywhere on the internet. Whether you come across an interesting article, an on-brand image or meme, or a relevant video, you can quickly add it to your Buffer queue and share it with your audience. 

Tool 3: Canva – designing great visuals

Social media is a visual medium. Your visuals stop the scroll and convey your message quickly. Canva is a powerful design tool that means even those without a graphic design background can create arresting and engaging visuals. With Canva, you can create everything from graphics, videos and banners to presentations and infographics giving you great value across the business.

Canva’s greatest strength is its user-friendly interface. The drag-and-drop design makes it easy to customise templates, add text, and adjust elements to create professional-quality visuals. It has a vast library of templates, images, icons, and fonts, and you can customise your account with your own branding so your fonts, colours and logo are all at the tip of your finger tips. 

Tool 4: Sprout Social – analysing engagement metrics

Sprout Social is more than scheduling and publishing posts. It has advanced analytics for in depth performance insights, with a highly customisable analytics dashboard, allowing you to focus on the metrics that matter most to your business and create detailed stakeholder reports.

In addition to analytics, Sprout Social has powerful social listening capabilities. You can monitor conversations about your brand, industry, and competitors in real-time, so you know what people are saying about your business. That data can help you identify opportunities for engagement, create the content your audience really wants and respond to customer inquiries. 

Tool 5: BuzzSumo – Discovering trending content

BuzzSumo is a powerful content research tool that will help you find trending topics and popular content in your industry. Identify what types of content are resonating with your audience to inform your content strategy; search for keywords or topics for  a list of the most shared content related to your search and use performance analytics to monitor your own content. The platform’s content alerts feature means you can stay updated on the latest content related to your industry, so you never miss an opportunity to engage with relevant trending topics. 

BuzzSumo also has influencer identification features, so you can find key influencers in your industry who can help amplify your message. 

Tool 6: Later – Optimising Instagram

Instagram has become one of the most popular social media platforms for businesses, whether B2B or B2C. Later is a social media management tool specifically designed for Instagram, which will help you maximise your account’s potential With Later, you can schedule posts, plan your Instagram feed, and analyse your performance, all from a single platform.

Later has a visual content calendar, which allows you to plan and schedule your Instagram posts in advance and preview your feed’s look and feel. This feature is particularly useful for businesses that want to maintain a consistent posting schedule and ensure that their feed is visually cohesive. Later’s drag-and-drop interface makes it easy to arrange your posts and see how they will look on your feed before they go live.

Later also offers powerful analytics features that provide insights into your Instagram performance. While Later’s Linkin.bio feature allows you to create a clickable link in your Instagram and TikTok bios that directs followers to specific products or pages on your website, driving traffic and sales.

Tool 7: Shield – Supercharging LinkedIn analytics

Shield is a game-changing tool that gives you deep insights into your personal LinkedIn content performance. Unlike company pages, individual LinkedIn profiles have limited native analytics, Shield fills that gap by tracking metrics like post reach, engagement rates, follower growth, content types, and more.

With Shield, you can visualise performance trends over time, identify what types of posts resonate most with your audience, and even set goals to improve consistency and engagement. It’s especially useful for founders, consultants, and personal brand-led businesses who use LinkedIn as a lead-generation or thought leadership platform.

Integrating tools for social media success

A strong brand presence on social media is essential for business in our digital world.Each of the tools we’ve discussed offer unique features that can help you streamline your social media management, create engaging content, analyse your performance and give you the greatest ROI on social media. 

Of course, no single tool can do it all. The key to social media success is using a combination of tools that complement each other and address your specific platforms and needs. By choosing the tools that align with your goals and workflow, you can make sure that your social media efforts are efficient, effective, and ultimately successful. With the right tools in your arsenal, you can elevate your social media strategy, connect with your audience, and transform your social media presence into a powerful driver of business growth.

If you need some support with your social media, Upsource can help! Whether it’s refining your social media strategy, choosing the right tools for your workflow or creating content, we have a team of expert Virtual Assistants ready to help. Get in touch with Caroline and we’ll match you to the right VA for your needs.