Will 2022 be the year that you level up your social media strategy?

Marketing trends come and go, but social media serving as a major determining factor of success definitely isn’t going anywhere any time soon. There are 4.55 billion active social media users around the globe, representing 57.6% of all people on the planet. And of that number, 44.8% are using social media to search for and engage with brands. That’s a pretty captive audience — and one that any business should be seeking to connect with as part of their larger marketing strategy.

Social media marketing is far from a one-size-fits-all endeavor. However, there are certain tools that any business can be using to boost their social presence and improve their performance outcomes, and we’re sharing six of our favorites.

The Connection Between Social Media and Site Visits

If you’re working with a limited marketing budget, it makes sense that you’d want to put your dollars toward the areas most likely to make an impact on overall sales. And if that’s the case, we get why it might seem a bit backward to focus your resources so heavily on platforms where users aren’t actively shopping for your products and services.

So why is it worth it? Aside from the rise of social eCommerce (poised to be one of the top social media trends of 2022), it’s important to consider the strong link between your social pages and your sales pages. Social media actively drives traffic to your website, and that traffic can be extremely high quality. Recent stats show that when it comes to people who make their way to your site from social media, 71% are more likely to make a purchase once they arrive.

Think of social media as an enhancement tool for all the work you’re doing on your website. Not only is it a place to build buzz around your brand and share your content with an engaged audience, but you can also use it to source qualified leads and direct them in a more profitable direction.

Once potential customers end up on your page, use pop-ups and embedded forms to turn those visitors into email subscribers. This way, you boost your chances of building better relationships with your leads — even those who don’t convert right away.

6 Social Media Tools to Help You Make the Most of Your Social Presence

Acing your social media game isn’t easy, but there are plenty of tools that can help. Here are six that we recommend.

1. BuzzSumo: For Tracking and Measuring Success

BuzzSumo lets you see at a glance how your content is performing. You can also use it to compare your outcomes against those of your competitors, as well as stay on top of trending topics that are worth chiming in on.

Price: Free to $299 per month.

2. Falcon: For Scheduling Posts

Use Falcon to schedule and monitor posts across multiple platforms, with an easy-to-use interface that brings all of your social pages onto a single dashboard. We like how user-friendly it is, as well as the helpful built-in social listening tools.

Price: $108+ per month, if billed annually.

3. RiteKit: For Optimizing Your Social Media Strategy

RiteKit is a strategy tool composed of four separate but equally advantageous features: RiteForge (for creating posts,) Rite.ly (for crafting and tracking CTAs), RiteBoost (for enhancing posts), and RiteTag (for instant hashtag generation). Together, they can help you improve on various fronts all at once, with tips and suggestions that are targeted to your industry.

Price: $54 per month, if billed annually.

4. Mention: For Tracking Mentions

It’s all right there in the name. Mention is a premier social listening tool that can keep an ear on the ground for your brand across more than a billion content sources in 42 languages. If that sounds a bit overwhelming, know that you can narrow down the sources the platform listens to so that you only hear what you need to hear.

Price: Free to $199+ per month.

5. Shortstack: For Running Social Contests

Social contests are a great way to get brand recognition and exposure and to garner some user engagement and interaction. Use Shortstack to run contests on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and more. They have a huge variety of templates to choose from to make it easy to get your contests up and running, and they’ll even do all the hard work for you of verifying and organizing entries.

Price: $99 to $499 per month.

6. HypeAuditor: For Finding Influencers to Hype Your Brand

When it comes to finding influencers, few tools do it better than HypeAuditor. The AI-powered platform takes the guesswork out of connecting with influencers with a network of more than 23 million potential promoters for your products or services. And because it does the vetting for you, you won’t have to worry about wasting money on the wrong fit.

Price: Free to $399+ per month.

If money is tight, consider investing in one tool that’s closely aligned with your social objectives, then seek out free tools to fill in the gaps. There are social media tools out there for every brand objective and budget, including tons of options for making social into an integral part of your marketing and sales strategy.