How can a small business owner think about Social Media and digital marketing when their plate is already full with just keeping their business a float? Not to mention trying to make room for family time and a resemblance to a social life?
Luckily their are tools out there to help streamline your company's digital footprint so that you can make every step count. I will give my 3 recommendations in Social Media, Project, and Email Management, so that you can save time and resources while getting everything done.
SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGMENT
Hootsuite
Hootsuite allows you to manage all of your social media platforms from one place and schedule future posts so that you can work around the schedule you want. The dashboard also allows you to see the analytics of what posts are getting looked at and shared so that you can know what is working and what isn't. It can also show you what people are saying about your company so that you can be quicker to put out fires if need be.
You can also share your workload amongst teams, departments, or regions. Assign tasks, receive real-time notifications, and have internal conversations right from the dashboard. Hootsuite is an incredible time-saver and a must have for any small business.
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Basecamp
Basecamp helps you bring people together with different roles, responsibilities, and objectives toward a common goal: Finishing a project together. Basecamp helps small businesses delegate tasks and track progress of goals and deadlines set. There is a calendar integration and a notification system to keep everyone on the same page. Another great thing about Basecamp is it's ability to give clients their own login so that they can make comments and suggestions to the progression of their project. A great tool to centrally focus your team.
EMAIL MANAGEMENT
MailChimp
MailChimp is still my top choice for email management. The ease of use and vast template options for any kind of email need is far better than anything out there. The subscriber profiles for each person on your email list will tell you which emails they opened and what they clicked on. Each campaign you send also gives great detail on where in the world each email was opened and what was clicked on.
Now, MailChimp has a responsive design so that no matter what device you are on, you can send out email campaigns from any device. This is truly a dream for any small business owner on the go. And MailChimp already integrates with hundreds of apps and services, like Salesforce, Eventbrite, Google, Twitter, Facebook, Shopify, and SurveyMonkey. Sync your data, import content from other sources, and see how your newsletters affect your business.
With the addition of these tools, you can worry less about how you are going to keep up with Social Media and Digital Marketing and focus more on your customers and their needs.
If you need any advice or help getting your small business jump-started on some of these or other online tools, please contact me and I would love to help.
David Doughty
Multi-Media Storyteller
@daviddoughty83
www.daviddoughty.com