7 Social media statistics that might surprise you

A few years ago, many people were asking the question, is social media a fad?

Today, more and more businesses are relying on social media to complement their overall marketing plan.

This is because social media is seen as a low cost alternative to traditional marketing.

As a result, this makes it a very attractive option for businesses that don’t have a huge marketing budget to work with.

In this article, I’m going to cover seven social media statistics that you can apply to your business to help generate higher engagement, more sales, and help you reach the right audience.

7 Social media statistics

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25 Social media tools to help grow your brand

Do you find it challenging to know which social media tools to add to your social media toolbox?

There are literally thousands of tools to choose from.

How do you decide which social media tools you need to help with your social media efforts?

Today I’m going to cover 25 social media tools you need to be using to help you grow your brand.

Aren’t all social media tools the same?

When using social media to grow your business, you can’t just focus on knowing how to use the networks.

That’s important; however, if that is all you focus on, you will spend a lot of time just learning the mechanics and not really know if you are making an impact when you post content.

This is where it is important to have a few social media tools available to help you quickly figure out this information.

To help you out, this list of 25 social media tools is broken down into the following categories.

1.  Social listening tools

Social media tools to help your business learn about conversations happening about your brand, your competitors, and keywords.

2. Social conversation tools

Tools to help you locate and respond to customer inquiries and comments.

3. Social marketing tools

Tools to help you create campaigns and contests for your business.

4. Social analytics tools

Tools to help your business measure and analyze the performance of your social media marketing efforts.

5. Social influencer tools

Tools to help identify social media influencers.

Now that you know how the social media tools are broken down, let’s take a look at 25 of the best social media tools.

25 Social Media tools

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10 business tools to be thankful for in 2013

2013 has been an extremely successful year filled with lots of ups and downs and I am very thankful for everything that has happened.

Not only has it taught me a lot about my own strengths and weaknesses (and how to use them to grow my business), but I’ve also had an unexpected life-threatening health issue with family members that has challenged me in ways that I couldn’t have expected and has taught me how important life truly is and how we should cherish everything in it.

Despite these obstacles, I am extremely thankful because they have challenged me and helped to propel me further than I could have ever expected.

Here are some of the highlights from this past year:

While these are just some of the milestones that I am thankful for, a lot of this wouldn’t be possible without many important business tools that I use on a daily basis.

Here are 10 of my favorite business tools to be thankful for in 2013.

10 business tools to be thankful for in 2013

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How to Schedule Tweets on Twitter Without Using HootSuite

In case you haven’t heard the news, you can now schedule tweets on Twitter – but there’s a catch.

You have to do it through the Twitter Ads interface.

No, this doesn’t mean you’ll need to start paying Twitter to use their tool. Anyone can schedule tweets on Twitter using the ads tool.

Note: scheduling tweets through Twitter only works on a desktop. You cannot schedule tweets from a mobile device (yet).

Another thing that I find interesting. The timing of this announcement aligns perfectly with the upcoming Twitter IPO and suggests that Twitter plans to make money by giving all users the ability to create Twitter Ads.

What’s also interesting is that this could mean the end of HootSuite – more on that later though.

To schedule tweets on Twitter, follow the instructions below.

How to schedule tweets on Twitter

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10 Must have Social Media Marketing Tools

10 must-have social media marketing tools

Social media is a huge field and everyone using social media should take into consideration the amount of time required to get desired results. With effective social media marketing tools, the time you need to get the results will reduce significantly. Here are ten of our favorite social media marketing tools you can use.

What can social media marketing tools do for my business?

Having the right social media marketing tools in your arsenal won’t just save you time, but it can help your business make good on your social media strategy. Think about it. If you want to build a house, would you use a garden hose to build the framework? Of course not! If you wanted to build it right, you would use different tools to help get the job done such as a hammer and nails.

When looking at your social media strategy, the same holds true. You need to be using the right social media marketing tools. To help you out, we’re compiled some of our favorite social media marketing tools to help you get the job done – right!

10 must have social media marketing tools

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5 FREE Twitter Analytics Tools

Everywhere you look these days, it seems someone is coming out with a Twitter Analytics Tool.  While I’m all for using Twitter Analytics Tools to help measure the success of your social media campaigns on Twitter, there is a lot of redundancy in the market.  As a result, a number of people (and businesses) are overpaying for social media tools they either don’t need or can get for free.

I’ve compiled a list of 5 Free Twitter Analytics Tools that I often recommend to clients or people who want to measure their success on Twitter. One thing to note, there is no all-in-one solution that can tell you how well you’re doing.  Instead, I prefer a bevy of different Twitter Analytics Tools – to help measure followers, Twitter reach, who to unfollow, and more.  Together, these Twitter Analytics Tools can help provide better insight into your Twitter account and the areas you need to address in order to continue growing your Twitter network.

In no particular order, here they are – 5 Free Twitter Analytics Tools that you can use to get better insights on Twitter.

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