Sunday 14 June 2015

6 Facebook Management Tools to Manage Your Daily Activities

6 Facebook Management Tools To Manage Your Daily ActivitiesUsing Facebook to run and promote your business is no easy task.

It’s not just about posting great content and doing so regularly, there are lots of other tasks to keep on top of: there’s lead generation, running promotions, social listening, scheduling appointments, selling, advertising… and so on, all of which are a critical part of business success.
The way my fans and followers react to my social media posts is really important to me.
But, at the same time, I need to manage my workflow so that I can produce this great content efficiently.
If your daily activities become a hassle, you will end up not completing them. Cue a total loss in productivity.
To make this easier for you, I have compiled the following list of the most important business activities that are required to run your business on Facebook.
I’ve also listed the best, easiest-to-use tools to help you complete that task.
Configuring each of them is as simple as 1-2-3, none will take more than five minutes of your time, and they will make your life way much easier.

1. Scheduling content with Post Planner

Publishing content regularly on your business page is paramount to engage with your audience.
A Page that does not publish content frequently enough will struggle to maintain interest among its followers. This means it will fail in its Facebook marketing activities.
Facebook allows you to schedule your posts so they get published at the best times for you, so you don’t have the hassle of remembering that another post is due.
However, the process is very rigid and time-consuming and is pretty much the same as publishing one post at a time.
This is where Post Planner becomes a valuable tool, because all content gets scheduled in a publishing queue that you have previously configured. Win!
But wait, there’s more!
Post Planner allows you to create rules for scheduling certain types of posts only at certain times.
For example, you might decide to post only links in the evenings because this is when most of your audience is home and has more time to spend reading articles. And you might want to only post images in the mornings.
Post Planner includes the ability to create multiple schedules where you can have a different plan for weekdays and weekends.
Post Planner scheduling
Different schedules can be easily created based on time and post type.
WAIT…there’s STILL more!
If you are running out of ideas, Post Planner includes a content curation feature that provides hundreds of post ideas that are trending at the moment on the Internet.
You just need to select a topic and the platform will show all types of posts about that topic so all you need to do is add one to your publishing queue and you are ready to go.
Post Planner has recently changed its interface and is now even more intuitive and easy to use.
The only thinking you’ll need to do is when creating your publishing schedule. Once this is done, publishing on Facebook will take only a few clicks.
Post Planner content curation
Finding and publishing engaging content takes only a click of a button.
Hey presto! Much quicker than manually posting and searching for content!

2. Community management and social listening with Agorapulse

Creating content is only one part of the process of having an engaged community of followers on Facebook.
A key to success is moving away from one-dimensional interaction on social media, and stepping up to engaging in conversations with followers.
Although you could do this manually when Facebook notifies you of activity on your Page, this would become difficult as your followers grow.
For this reason, Agorapulse can become your best friend: not only will it notify you with every new activity, but you can classify different actions and respond to them in bulk.
agorapulse inbox-zero
Reaching inbox zero has never been so easy
If this isn’t enough, Agorapulse lets you moderate your followers’ comments and identifies your most engaged followers, based on their actions.
Agorapulse classifies your followers into three categories:
  • Engaged: Users who have published a post to your page, sent you a direct message or commented on your posts.
  • Ambassadors: Users who have mentioned you or shared your posts
  • Likers: Users who have liked more than five of your posts.
agorapulse - engaged users
Agorapulse identifies easily your most engaged users.
You can also create your own categories to better identify the users who matter most to you.
In fact, you can add additional tags, or flag each user, so you can be notified when they interact with your page.
Some additional benefits of Agorapulse are:
  • Advanced analytics and automated report export into a downloadable PowerPoint.
  • Enables you to monitor competitors’ pages.
  • Content publishing and scheduling, with an easy-to-read calendar layout.
  • Creation of Facebook Apps.
  • Management of Twitter and Instagram accounts, with the same principles used on Facebook.

3. Social selling with Selz

If your Facebook Page offers good content, why not leverage your followers’ engagement by turning them into customers?
If you sell your products or services online, Facebook is a fantastic platform to drive online conversions.
The easiest way is to publish a link on Facebook that sends traffic to a product page on your website, but this method takes the customer away from your Facebook Page onto a separate website.
Instead, you can sell your products directly on Facebook by creating a store using Selz App.
Selling directly on Facebook can have numerous benefits including:
  • Better conversion rates than when users are taken to a new website.
  • It includes the social factor where friends of customers can be exposed to the sell.
  • Having the emotional value of social networks, where users are normally in a relaxed state of mind.
  • Integration with other Facebook features, like promotions, ads etc.
Selz is certainly the easiest app for this purpose because it configures your eCommerce to Facebook in no longer than a few seconds per product, and then the rest of the process (payment, mailing…) is fully automated by the platform.
Selz app - new store setup
Settings interface for adding new products to your store.
Further to this ease of use and fast configuration, additional benefits of Selz include:
  • Store customization, including branding with colors, logo, backgrounds etc.
  • Sharing options where users can share your products as well as your store with their friends on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+.
  • Comprehensive store analytics with channel attribution.
  • Multi-platform use, as Selz can also be used with Twitter and Pinterest.

4. Organize appointments with vCita

If your business is offering services to clients, regardless of whether they are online or offline, you will need to organize appointments.
You can do this the old way by providing your phone number, picking up calls and manually putting appointments into your calendar; or you can save time, be more flexible and automate the process by using vCita.
It is no wonder vCita is the most popular app to schedule appointments online; not only does it integrate easily with your website but it can be also integrated on your Facebook Page.
In other words, you could sell your services directly on Facebook without requiring users to leave the site.
The app allows you to configure your calendar with your working hours and time zone and then sync with your own software (Outlook, iCal, Google Cal), so whenever a new appointment is made, it will be added directly to all your devices.
vcita calendar sync
Synchronizing vCita with your calendar platform is really an easy task.
Each of the services offered by your business can be configured, allowing you to set a duration for the service and include preparation time and intervals.
Creating these defined ‘packages’ makes the whole scheduling process much easier by letting clients pick their desired service and showing them the times available.
vcita service management
You can easily create multiple services with different durations.
vCita also manages online payments, so bookings are completed only after the funds are deposited into your account. Payments can be tracked using Google Analytics.
The app also lets you create emails that can be sent as booking confirmations, as well as reminders to follow up with clients. This level of automation lets you focus on running your business, whilst leaving the admin to vCita.

5. Run promotions with Tabsite

Running regular promotions is a great way to build up your fanbase, maintain engagement and generate leads.
However, it is also one of the most time-consuming parts of Facebook marketing.
You have to create promotion rules, select prizes, organize legal permits if required, review entries and reply to messages. You also need to create the competition page or app, which can end up being a complex task for those without much technical expertise.
Using a tool that makes this process simple can be a real advantage and encourage the use of competitions as an engagement technique in the future, so using Tabsite becomes a winning option.
Why?
Well, to start with, you don’t need to be a technical person to use it.
The platform will guide you on an easy step-by-step process that starts with selecting the type of app and ends up publishing that app to your Page.
Each of the steps includes lots of suggestions and information bubbles that explain what each option means.
tabsite setup
Just follow the step-by-step process to create an amazing app.
You don’t need to be a graphic designer either, as the platform comes with several layouts that have proven to be effective for the selected app.
On top of that, whenever you want to include some graphic content, Tabsite integrates very easily with Canva.
Additional features include:
  • Form Gate: Requires users to complete a form prior to accessing the content on the app, ideal for lead generation.
  • Language: Great if you need to run your promotion in a non-English market, as the platform allows its labels to be translated.
  • Comprehensive Analytics: Includes reports on social activity (likes, shares, visits etc).
  • Mobile Apps: Tabsite apps are optimized for any device (many similar platforms are not).
  • Landing Page: Allowing you to include your promotion in a website outside of Facebook.
  • Integration: The platform integrates easily with MailChimp, AWeber, Sendy and GoToWebinar.
Familiarizing yourself with Tabsite won’t take much time. The process of creating promotions is so simple that, if you have your assets ready (graphs, text etc.), creating an app won’t take more than five minutes.

6. Running advertising campaigns with AdEspresso

If you want to quickly boost your business results on Facebook you need a Facebook Ad tool like AdEspresso!
Facebook ads can be created directly in the platform by using the Ads Manager tool, or using Power Editor (a plugin for Google Chrome with additional functionalities).
The problem is, Ads Manager is quite limited in its functionalities while Power Editor can be complex to use and not very user-friendly.
This is where AdEspresso becomes a valuable asset.  It is the easiest platform available in the market to run advertising campaigns on Facebook, and it includes additional functionalities not available on Power Editor.
adespresso setup
AdEspresso guides you through all the steps required to launch an advertising campaign.
The additional functionalities include:
  • CPA bidding: With this option, you will pay only when a user converts to your campaign goal.
  • Automation Rules: This tool allows you to create some rules that are applied automatically when certain conditions are met. For example, ‘if CTR is lower than X, then pause ad number Y.’
  • Improved A/B testing: AdEspresso creates multiple versions of the same ad by combining different elements of the ad.
  • Enhanced reporting: Provides easy-to-read information for the best and worst ads, best day and time, etc.
  • Report breakdown by interest: This feature allows you to break down which interests are more effective for your audience.
  • Combined targeting: Multiple interest targeting on Power Editor only allows you using the ‘OR’ variable (e.g. target users who like interest A OR interest B) where AdEspresso includes the ‘AND’ condition, allowing a more accurate targeting (eg. target users who like interests A AND B simultaneously).
AdEspresso is easy to use and user-friendly.
It doesn’t matter how experienced you are with Facebook ads, AdEspresso will guide you, step by step, through the process of creating an advertising campaign, providing suggestions along the path aimed at making your campaign more effective.
adespresso reporting
Reporting doesn’t get any better than this.
AdEspresso has the potential to help you create a big advertising campaign with hundreds of ads and targeting combinations in under five minutes, leaving you time to do the real work!

CONCLUSION

There are many third party tools and platforms that can help with your Facebook marketing activities.
However, choosing apps that make work easy and simple could be the difference between spending too much time on Facebook and focusing on your main business activities.
On top of that, you can add other factors like good customer service and acceptable pricing options and you’ll see how these apps are the best solution for any business that wants to have an engaging presence on Facebook.
Have you used any of these Facebook management or promotion tools? Which other tools do you think are really easy to use?  Which other business activities do you like to run on Facebook?
Let me know in the comments section below.
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