10 Social Media Tools Every Brand Needs

Social media is an important part of creating brand awareness. But with so many platforms to use, many business owners end up feeling overwhelmed.

Luckily, there are dozens of tools available to make social media easier to create, update, and manage. Check out these ten tools you need to ensure your company thrives.

1. OptinMonster

Lead generation is essential to bring in new customers and keep them interested. OptinMonster uses a drag-and-drop template to help you build landing pages, popup boxes, and other lead-capturing content.

Use it to create a better mailing list, help users recover their carts, and much more. It even has a ChatBot element to help you stay available on Facebook Messenger.

2. BuzzSumo

Social media is all about hopping on the latest trend and finding the next influencer. BuzzSumo helps you do just that.

The tool allows you to find what's trending, analyze it to determine how it may fit into your own branding, and use it.

It also allows you to see how your own impact on social media is going, so you can tweak your content strategies as needed. It works with Facebook and Twitter, as well as Reddit and Pinterest.

3. Socialbakers

Socialbakers helps you make the best decisions for your business based on data provided by the people who follow your social media pages.

This tool lets you compare your performance to your competitors as well as budget more effectively when you're creating monetized ad campaigns. Users report boosted customer growth and retention.

4. Buffer Publish

Buffer Publish is a social media marketing platform that offers both free and paid plans for scheduling posts, managing multiple social media accounts, and analyzing their performance.

Simply add content to your queue and designate publishing times, then use the analytics area to determine what's working for you and what could use some restructuring.

The tool is available as a web application, Chrome Extension, or in the Android and iOS app stores.

5. LastPass

Although not specific to social media, LastPass is a must-have for any business owner. Multiple social media accounts, financial accounts, and other business-related logins require strong, encrypted passwords.

Because they can be hard to remember, LastPass is useful for creating and saving strong passwords. It even includes one master password that you can remember to enter all your smaller accounts.

6. Canva

From Facebook to Instagram, most social media revolves around gorgeous, eye-catching images. If you aren't a whiz at Photoshop, try the next best thing.

Canva is a free or paid tool that helps you create imagery that gets you noticed. There are templates and illustrations for you to work with, or you can upload your own content. The drag-and-drop interface makes it extra-easy to use, too.

7. Agora Pulse

Agora Pulse can help you take your social media strategy to the next level. The management tool does the basics of scheduling and analyzing.

It has several other features that allow you to take things to a new level. Use it to manage your promotions, create quizzes, and even run contests.

8. Unsplash

To create beautiful imagery, you need professional pictures. If you aren't a photographer and can't afford to hire one, use Unsplash instead.

The free website has thousands of photos for you to use, and each one creates a professional look for your business. Browse by collection or search based on keywords.

9. Twitter Analytics

Twitter is an important social media platform for any business owner, and Twitter Analytics allows you to measure your account's performance.

Use it to see if your tweets are being liked and retweeted and determine which types of tweets get the most interaction.

A separate but similar tool, Facebook Analytics, is available for those who use Facebook as well.

10. Todoist

Of course, you can't handle running a business without an excellent tool for creating to-do lists. Todoist provides just that.

The tool goes beyond the basic list, though. Use it to integrate with a wide range of other tools to plan and manage your social media calendar, including when to post to each type of account.

Whether you want to become one of the top influencers on Instagram, prefer to interact via memes on Facebook, or like to get to know your customers through thoughtful Twitter conversations, one thing remains true: in this day and age, you simply can't run a successful business without social media.

These ten tools will help you make the most of your strategies.