By Sharon A.M. MacLean who invites your comments following this blog on social media tools.  You can also find more modern marketing strategies for business here.

My spidey senses are tingling. Business owners everywhere are waking up to the idea they need to bring in social media strategies to grow their organizations. The calls increasingly are asking for assistance.

Of course, big brands have been embroiled in tactics for some time. At least, those forward-thinking types. 

Decision makers are ready now because they’re learning their peers – as well as competitors – are using social tools to learn everything possible about their activities (13%) reports MBA Central. Social leaders also are finding insights from third-party influencers (40%) and tracking crisis situations (44%) through monitoring tools.

There are seemingly limitless free and paid social management tools available for an organization. Some are in Beta test, others in Alpha; it’s wise to know the difference. The challenge comes with trying to sort which tools are best for your business – and applying strategies for using them.

Some of my favourite tools here for you!

The tools list linked above are among my favourites,so far. Please know there are many others…and still more preferred by your go-to marketing person or geek-next-door.They may be fine, too.

Believe me, I’ve spent a lot of time testing platforms that went nowhere.It’s bewildering to know which way to turn for best results but there’s one thing you need to know for certain: Some level of automation is necessary.

Thank goodness for my collaborators who’ve shared their best experiences over the years. We’ve all learned and compared notes on what social media management tools can do for your business in these areas:

• Save valuable time; 
• Organize and manage platforms;
• Advance the sales and marketing funnels; 
• Find high quality, high resolution royalty-free images for free;
• How to repurpose, generate, and acquire content necessary to feed the dragon of (dis) content!

As Ian Cleary, a master of social media tools, says, “Many people will give up on social and content marketing because they never understood it in the first place. The people who stick with it, and really get these forms of marketing, will thrive and tools will help them get there.”

If you’re looking for advice on building your social media and content marketing strategy, or if you need help with execution and management of your social marketing, please reach out and let’s get started.

Lifelong communications strategist Sharon MacLean owned and published a traditional print magazine for over 21 years for business people. She is certified in Integrated Online Strategies from the University of San Francisco and the Instant Customer Mastery Certified Professional Program