30+ Must Have Tools For Any Digital Marketer

Online marketing involves knowing a good amount about a whole lot of things; it’s sort of a jack-of-all-trades type of business. It requires the marketer or business owner to have a whole toolbox full of handy things to help them promote their content, improve website traffic, increase conversions, and more.
To help digital marketers save time and fill their toolbox with everything they need, we’ve rounded up thirty must-have online marketing tools for small and big businesses alike. This list includes links to tools from important aspects of digital marketing, such as SEO, social media marketing, content marketing, and analytics. Some of the tools are complex and involved, some are pretty basic. Some of the tools are free, some are not, and some are a bit of both.
Whichever aspect of digital marketing you need the most assistance with, check out the list and you’re bound to find the tool you’ve been missing.

SEO Tools

 1. Google Suggest

Cost: FREE
Google Suggest is an absolute must-have online marketing tool when it comes to finding keywords or content topic ideas. These suggestions can vary by search history, region, and language, but they all come from how people actually use the search engine. So, rather than offering suggestions worded in a way that is best for robots, they word them in a way that is best for people actually conducting the searches.
For example, type in the phrase “pet food coupons” and Google suggests:
1.   Pet food coupons online
2.   Pet food coupons printable
3.   Pet food coupons 2016
4.   Pet food coupons Canada
Try it with just “pet food coupon” and Google offers:
1.  Pet food coupon
2.  Pet food coupon deals
3.  Pet food coupon code
4.  Pet food coupons printable
These are all genuine searches conducted by other people, ranked by popularity. If there are lots of people doing searches for “pet food coupons” and then go type “pet food coupons printable”, that can help make “pet food coupons printable” appears as an autocomplete suggestion.

2. Anchor Text Over Optimization Tool

Cost: FREE
This online marketing tool functions exactly like it sounds, and is a must-have if you’re worried about Google penalties. The Anchor Text Over Optimization Tool allows the user to search for and identify any over-optimized anchor text links on external sites. This is good, because these types of links tend to look unnatural to Google and can end up getting flagged. The tool also lets the user send in a change request directly to the site webmasters.

3. Domain Hunter Plus

Cost: FREE

The Domain Hunter Plus is a free Chrome plugin that lets the user scan the page for any dead links and available domains. It can crawl hundreds of links on just one page, and provides error status codes to make your diagnostic process easier, and even lets the user export results in .csv format.

4. Ubersuggest

Cost: FREE

Ubersuggest is a super handy tool that lets you quickly find a whole batch of new keywords you wouldn’t normally find when using the common Google Keyword Planner (which is still a great tool!). They also have a free KeywordEverywhere extension for both Chrome and Firefox.

5. KeywordTool.io

Cost: Basic is FREE, but the Pro version has several plans, ranging from $48/month to $88/month.
KeywordTool.io is a free online marketing tool lets you get up to 750+ long-tail keyword suggestions for each search term you enter. They’re based on Google searches and the language you select. This tool is a great way to increase your content marketing, especially if you’re trying to drive more people to your website. By using this tool, you get insight into what they are searching for on Google and what they are looking to buy. You can create product offers or content that directly reflects these trends (using these keywords!), which would draw more people to your website.

6. Website Grader

Cost: FREE
Website Grader is a free online marketing tool that scans and grades your site, and then sends the results to you in an email. It evaluates your site based on key metrics like performance, SEO, security, and mobile optimization. If you’re trying to improve your site, boost your SEO, and increase your website traffic, this is a must-use tool.

7. Website SEO Score Checker

Cost: FREE
Its name may be long, but the Website SEO Score Checker tool from Small SEO Tools is easy to use. Just enter in your domain or a website’s URL, check the box to let them know you’re a real person, and then click on “Check SEO” to get a full report. If you’re trying to figure out what you need to improve in order to grow your online presence, this online marketing tool is a must-have.

8. Keyword Density Analyzer

Cost: FREE
The Keyword Density Analyzer from SEOBook lets you find the most commonly used keywords and phrases on any given page. If you’re trying to include enough keywords to boost your content’s SEO, but don’t want to overdo it, this tool is a must-have. It’s also great for learning from your competitor’s, and getting an idea of what keywords they’re ranking for.

9. SimilarWeb

Cost: Trial is FREE, plans are not.
SimilarWeb lets you compare two websites side-by-side. This is great for gaining insight about competitors, and figuring out how you can step up your SEO game.

10. Browseo

Cost: FREE
Browseo lets you see your website in the same way a search engine would. It’s helpful when you want to see the hierarchy you’ve assigned to certain elements of your site, even if you weren’t aware of it. You can also get insight into your website and that of your competitors.

Social Media Tools

11. Hootsuite

Cost: FREE for limited use, but they have plans that start at $9.99/month.

Hootsuite is one of the most popular and widely used online marketing tools for social media management. It has virtually every function you could possibly need, all presented within an easy-to-use format.

12. TweetDeck

Cost: FREE
If you’re going to focus your social media marketing efforts on Twitter, TweetDeck is a definite must-have tool to store in your proverbial toolbox. It makes it easy to see everything at once, manage multiple accounts at once, follow certain tags, check your notifications, and post new Tweets.

13. Buffer

Cost: Limited use is FREE, but plans start at $10/month and go up to $399/month
Buffer makes it easy to share any article/post/webpage you’re currently reading. You can also schedule your own content to be shared across your connected social media accounts.

14. Paper.li

Cost: Basic plan is FREE
Paper.li lets you share content from your own site, or that of others within your industry, and then publishes it in the format of an online newspaper. This is a great way to get your content seen by a new audience, as well as get it in front of others within your target audience.

15. Bitly

Cost: FREE
Honestly, what would a social media tools section be without Bitly? This link shortening tool is incredible useful for posting updates on Twitter, and saves on character space. It also just makes your update look less cluttered!

Content Marketing Tools

16. Prezi

Cost: Plans start at $4.99/month
Prezi lets you create a slideshow presentation that isn’t yawn-inducing. It’s easy to use, and has plenty of templates to choose from. It makes it easy to share information in a visual way, rather than just relying on written content.

17. Blog Topic Generator

Cost: FREE
This content marketing tool does just what it says it will do – it generates topics when you’re stuck in a blog post rut. The Blog Topic Generator is easy to use, and has some great topic ideas.

18. CoSchedule

Cost: Plans start at $60/month
CoSchedule is a must-have online marketing tool that makes it easy to schedule your content across various social media platforms. It also has a handy Headline Analyzer to help you measure how effective your headline is.

19. SlideShare

Cost: FREE
SlideShare functions a lot like a social network for presentations. It’s a great way to put together content for webinars, lectures, and conferences. You create the presentation, and then share it with your audience.

20. Social Studio FX

Cost: $49 One Time ($99 Optional Template Upgrade Available)

Social Studio FX is a simple yet powerful way to make your graphics for your social media and advertising. Easy to use point and click interface, combined with a ton of images and templates, it’s a powerful and highly recommended. Also a best seller of Snaptactix!

21. PicMonkey

Cost: Basic plan is FREE
PicMonkey is a great tool for creating or editing images and website/blog graphics. It’s easy to use, and they have different themes and special fonts and graphics available for different occasions, holidays, and needs.

22. Quora

Cost: FREE
It may not be the first site that comes to mind when talking about online marketing tools, but Quora can be a gold mine for content marketing. You can answer questions others may have, and then link to relevant pages on your site. You can showcase your industry authority by offering expert advice or solutions, and you can drive traffic to your site with blog posts and links.

23. Google Alerts

Cost: FREE
As simple as it is, Google Alerts is one of the best online marketing tools to have when it comes to your content marketing. It lets you keep up on the latest trends and happenings within your industry, providing you with an immediate look into what’s going on. Your brand will be up-to-date on all of the latest information, as it’s published, and able to create or share relevant content.

24. Evernote

Cost: Basic plan is FREE, other plans are $34.99/yr and $69.99/yr
If you tend to have multiple folders with bits of research or notes scattered about your computer, Evernote is a must-have online marketing tool. This lets you save practically anything you find online into a completely personalized folder arrangement that syncs across all of your devices.

25. Twitter Chats

Cost: FREE
Now, Twitter may be a social media site and tool, but the Twitter chats serve as a great resource for your content marketing. You get into discussions with other industry experts and brands, get a feel for what’s trending right now, and find out what the hot issues are. It also helps you see what your prospects are currently interested in, what they’re struggling with, and what solutions they are looking for. It gives you a focus for your content, and provides an excellent way of demonstrating your brand’s value.

26. Pixel Studio FX

Cost: $67 (one time only!)

Pixel Studio FX is a user-friendly web app makes it easy to create eCovers for your online marketing business. It also includes an Enterprise/Commercial license for free, so you can sell these designs as your own and still keep 100% of the profits.

Analytics Tools

27. Google Analytics

Cost: FREE, but premium plans are available
The biggest name in analytics, Google Analytics has everything you could possibly need to track the effectiveness of your website content, campaigns, and other types of marketing collateral. You can see how many people access your site, where they come from, how long they spend on each page, how many pages into your site they venture, and more. It’s a complex online marketing tool, but designed in a way that makes it extremely user-friendly.

28. ClickTale

Cost: Free demo, priced plans
ClickTale is a handy online marketing tool that provides video recordings of real user sessions. This lets you go through and see what people clicked on, what they didn’t, and what they interacted with the most.

29. SubjectLine

Cost: FREE

If your subject line isn’t compelling enough, your subscribers or other recipients probably won’t bother to open them. So, how do you know whether or not your subject line is enticing? SubjectLine is an easy-to-use online marketing tool that will analyze your subject line and tell you where to improve.

30. Formisimo

Cost: FREE trial (7 days), plans range from $50/mo to $180/mo or POA/mo
Formisimo picks up where other analytics tools leave off. They can tell you which pages were visited, where your visitors came from, and what they did on your site. What they can’t tell you is why your visitors left without converting to customers or subscribers. This online marketing tool can tell you exactly that.

31. Piwik

Cost: FREE, but you must download it and host it on your own server
Piwik offers a lot of the same features other analytics tools do, including visitor maps, keyword search, and session tracking. However, this tool takes things one step further by offering a mobile app and unlimited data storage. The setup is pretty complicated, and the program is a bit involved, but the dashboard can be customized to fit your preferences and needs.

32. ClickPerfect

Cost: FREE for 30 days, $19/month after

ClickPerfect is custom software was built from the ground up, designed as an easy-to-use click tracking click targeting platform. This tool lets you mask/cloak links and track their clicks in real time. Tracking every click on your site can help you maximize your audience reach and revenue, making this tool an absolute must-have.
Choose an online marketing tool from each section to try out.
Oh and don’t forget to like this article and share with your fellow digital marketer.
If you found a new tool from our TOP 30 list to help in your marketing efforts, I’m sure they will too!
Make sure you let us know which tools you use and which ones you plan to get in the comment section BELOW!

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23 Cool Tools for Social Media Marketers

Looking for some new apps and tools to add to your social media marketing toolbox?
Wondering which graphics, analytics, and productivity tools can help streamline your workflow?
In this article, you’ll discover 23 tools and apps shared in the Social Media Marketing podcast’s Discovery of the Week.
23 Cool Tools for Social Media Marketers by Mike Stelzner on Social Media Examiner.

#1: Taco

The Taco app lets you combine tasks and tickets from different places, such as Trello, Evernote, and email, into one master to-do list. It’s a major timesaver.

Organize your to-do lists from multiple places with the Taco app.

Sign up for free at TacoApp.com and connect it to all of your other services. Taco will connect to more than 35 services such as Asana, Basecamp, Evernote, Highrise, Slack, Wunderlist, Gmail, and even an RSS feed.
Taco is a free desktop app and has a Chrome extension. Plus, you can use it on mobile if you bookmark it on your mobile browser.

#2: Grammarly

Grammarly is a great way to spell-check your social media posts. Even when you post something on social that you think is perfect, people sometimes comment with corrections. You either misspelled something or used the wrong spelling of a word. Grammarly fixes that.

Grammarly is like spell-check for social media and other online 

posts.

 

Grammarly is software, as well as a browser extension. Download the native app for free on your Mac or Windows computer. Then drag and drop documents and it will do a spelling and grammar check. There are also browser extensions for Safari, Chrome, and Firefox, which do a live check of whatever you type on the web.
The program analyzes your writing for improper word usage, too. It highlights any errors, just like standard spell-check. Once you see a problem, you can fix it.
Grammarly’s free program has a lot of functionality, but there are paid upgrade options available, which do even more intense checks and suggestions.

#3: Typeform

To create cool forms on the web, try Typeform. You can create a questionnaire on Google forms or SurveyMonkey, and Typeform similar, but it’s much more visually appealing.

Typeform helps you create cool, user-friendly forms on the web.

Go to Typeform.com and get started for free. Typeforms can include information, payments, and registration. It’s optimized for mobile. You can even create a form on a mobile device and see how it looks as you create it.
It’s fun to take their surveys because it’s easy, looks cool, and has an awesome user interface.
Typeform is web-based and works across any platform. The basic plan includes unlimited forms and responses. Upgrade to the pro and the pro plus versions for a monthly charge, which give you a custom thank-you screen and priority support. Plus, you can remove the Typeform branding.

#4: Twitter Analytics From AgoraPulse

While Twitter Analytics gives you information about your tweets and the audience for your Twitter account, Twitter Analytics from AgoraPulse is a free tool that allows you to compare your Twitter account to others.
For example, say you want to compare the number of followers you have, the quality of your interaction, or the amount of Twitter activity with the accounts of your competitors or peers.

Compare your Twitter analytics to other accounts with AgoraPulse.

Go to analytics.agorapulse.com, authorize it to access your Twitter account, and click through the confirmation email. Then add the other Twitter accounts that you want to compare. You can see over the last 30 days how much engagement other accounts are getting, as well as interactions or conversations per tweet. There’s a really great Twitter-specific dashboard for all of that high-level data.
If you’re doing a weekly or monthly report to show how your Twitter account is doing compared to others, or even if you’re in an organization that has multiple Twitter accounts, list them off using this tool and you have quick, easy reporting.

#5: Grytics

It can be a hassle to identify the most engaged people in the Facebook group you run for your business. Grytics is a great tool to analyze your Facebook groups.
Grytics gives you statistics based on your most active members, engagement, and activity scores. Plus, you can see which were the top posts in your group.

Analyze your Facebook group activity with Grytics.

When you open a post from your Facebook page’s insights, it tells you how many people liked it and breaks down reactions and clicks. Grytics gives you that kind of data on each Facebook group post and then carries that over into the group members. Possible applications could be rewarding engaged group members and giving them a public shout-out.
It’s a desktop tool you can get by going to Grytics.com. There’s a free version that provides a bunch of basic data. Then it moves up to premium, pro, and enterprise versions, and each is only a small step up – $12, $25, or $55 per month – based on features.

#6: Patch

Patch, a smart portrait editing app for iOS, automatically edits your images and simulates a blurred background effect that lets the subject of your photo stand out.

The Patch app blurs the background on your mobile photos, 

which improves subject focus.

Open up an image inside the app, turn up the intensity, and in 10 seconds the image is processed from a cell phone selfie into something worthy of framing.
You can use images from the built-in camera on your phone, uploaded images, or imported photos from your camera roll. So if you’re at a conference and take a bunch of awesome selfies, you can process them afterward!
Patch is free in the App Store but offers watermark removal for a $1.99 fee.

#7: Slim Lists for Trello

Slim Lists for Trello is a Chrome extension that’s a cool hack for Trello users.
If you’re not familiar with Trello, it’s a project management tool that’s web-based (and free). The browser extension works in Chrome on both PC and Mac.

Slim Lists for Trello is a cool Chrome extension that allows you to 

fit more on your screen.

Slim Lists for Trello takes your existing Trello boards and reduces the width. Trello has different cards that are ranked and sorted into lists. This will give you all (or at least most) of the information, reduced up to about 50%. Doing this allows you to fit more on your screen.
If you’re not already on Trello, check it out. It’s an amazing tool. If you work collaboratively with many people, Trello is a lifesaver. It also has an app that does real-time communication. You have all of the information and all of the right people with access to it in a nice, neat, organized location.
Go to the Google Chrome store to get Slim Lists for Trello.

#8: Ripl

Ripl, a mobile app that creates images, video, captions, and moving text, is different from other apps in that it lets you easily do a lot of motion graphics.
With Ripl, you can even have text that zooms toward you or on a crawl. Check out the Social Media Examiner Instagram account for examples.


Ripl is free but you can get a pro account version for $9.99 per month, which allows you to remove the watermark. You can also add your own watermark and branding, as well as have access to other pre-populated design templates.
It’s a very cool effect. Ripl is available on iOS and Android.

#9: Senders

Senders is like having caller ID for email. Senders pulls information based on a sender’s email account and lets you know all about him or her.
Senders will give you the person’s name, title, and bio, along with links to his or her Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook accounts. It shares last tweets, their Twitter follower count, and links to the Google search for that person.

Learn about people who email you with Senders.

You can even go into Senders with your own account and edit your information.
Senders works for most email accounts. All you need to do is give Senders permission to see your account and they don’t store, share, or read any of the content of the emails. Senders simply scans and searches the web for people’s contact info.
For now, Senders is free.

#10: OneTab

OneTab is a cool app that helps you manage the overload of tabs on your browser. For instance, you have a bunch of tabs open and you realize your computer is bogging down; however, you don’t want to lose all of those tabs. That’s where OneTab comes in.
Install the Google Chrome or Firefox extension and when you click it, it sends all of your tabs into one tab as a list of clickable links.

OneTab allows you to merge and save all open tabs to look at later.

Let’s say you have six or seven news sites that you check every morning. Instead of leaving them open in your browser all day long and slowing your computer, you can create a OneTab list and they open in one shot.
Or if you’re checking multiple tabs for a project and then get interrupted, you can merge those tabs, put them away, and go back and look at them later. You can focus on what needs to be done in the moment and reload those tabs at any time.

#11: G-Lock Apps

If you send regular emails as part of a newsletter or promotion, you may have seen a reduction in your open rates lately. Maybe your emails get stuck in the Promotions tab or the spam folder.
G-Lock Apps offers a cool solution. Add a simple piece of code to the end of your email and G-Lock sends your email through a filtering system to tell you whether it will go to the Gmail Promotions tab, the spam folder, or the inbox.

G-Lock Apps shows what might send your email to someone’s 

spam folder before you send it.

G-Lock Apps gives you seven or eight dedicated emails you can use to perform all sorts of tests on the platforms you care about most. You can create a segment in your list, send your message to that little segment, and watch the results come in. Then it shows you what’s wrong with your email so you can fix it.

The basic subscription service is $39/month, and it’s worth it to get your emails into your subscribers’ inboxes so they get opened and acted upon. The ROI could be monstrous. There are also premium subscription rates, as well as a $25 pay-per-test option.

#12: Assistant.to

There are a lot of tools available such as Calendly and ScheduleOnce that remove the hassle of scheduling appointments.
Assistant.to is a native Gmail plugin that has access to your Google calendar. Simply press a button inside your Gmail to offer up a few available times, and they get populated into the email you’re writing.

Assistant.to makes it easy to schedule meetings via Gmail.

To set up an appointment through Assistant.to, you need to use the desktop version of Gmail.
First put the other person’s email address in the To section. Then in the email, you’ll see a little “A.” Click that to bring up your calendar and see availability. Select a few different time chunks that you want to offer as options. Then click Add and it pastes them into the body of the email.
All of the times are clickable. After the receiver selects an available time, the system confirms it and adds the appointment to both calendars.
Check out Assistant.to. It’s free.

#13: FUNIPICA

Do you ever find yourself trying to film something either on your laptop, computer, or smartphone and you don’t have a lens wide enough to get everything in the picture? Check out FUNIPICA.
On one end of FUNIPICA (which looks like a big clip) is a monstrously big lens that you clip over the top of the lens on your iPhone, Android, laptop, or computer. You instantly have a super-wide angle with a slight fisheye look to it.

FUNIPICA is a lens clip for your computer or smartphone camera.

This is a great way to take a picture in a selfie mode with lots of people or get a much wider view of wherever you are. So if you’re outside doing a live video show, this will give you the totality of your experience on site.
This product is a 0.36 super-wide lens. Unscrew the top of it and turn it into a 15x macro lens, which allows you to get in really close; much closer than with just the camera built into your device.
You can get the FUNIPICA F515 on Amazon.

#14: Darkness – Beautiful Dark Themes

Night mode is often an easier-on-the-eyes version of the user interface. The white portions of a browser or an app turn to a dark gray or pitch black and the text becomes white.
Now, a Chrome browser plugin called Darkness – Beautiful Dark Themes brings night-mode to your evening web surfing and Facebooking.

The Darkness theme makes your screen easy on the eyes at night 

or in the early morning.

If it gets to be 7:00 or 8:00 PM and you’re still on your computer, switch on Darkness. This is great if you have a hard time sleeping after staring at the bright screen on your computer and it helps reduce eye strain.
Darkness, free for Chrome and Facebook, offers a paid upgrade for additional websites such as YouTube, Twitter, and more. Go to the Chrome Web Store and search for Darkness – Beautiful Dark Themes.

#15: FocusMusic

Similar to Focus@Will, FocusMusic.fm is a cool music tool that helps you focus and get more work done when you’re busy.
In line with the principle that playing regular lyrical music distracts rather than focuses the mind, FocusMusic.fm has electronic dance music, downtempo, classical, and a channel called Rain.

FocusMusic is a simple site that gives you music for focusing.

The beat of the music keeps you in sync and moves you forward through your work at a tempo.
It’s a free, sparse website that does one thing and it does it well. When you open up the URL on any browser (desktop or mobile), you’ll see Play, Forward, and Back buttons, and that’s it. No other distractions to occupy your attention.

#16: Crowdfire

Crowdfire, a web app for iOS and Android, lets you publish to Twitter and Instagram, engage with your followers, clean up your followers, find new followers based on keywords, and schedule based on the best times to publish.

Manage your Twitter and Instagram content and relationships with Crowdfire.

Because Instagram’s API doesn’t allow scheduling, Crowdfire walks you through the process of creating content on your smartphone and allows you to save it in a hopper. The app then pings you at the scheduled time so you can manually publish your post.
Crowdfire is free for one account with limited features but offers several paid account options to fit a variety of business needs.

#17: Speedtest

Speedtest is a simple but powerful tool that lets you test and troubleshoot the download and upload speeds of your Internet connection with the push of a button.

Check your Internet connection with Speedtest.

While super-fast download speed is great, it’s your upload speed that’s critical when communicating with people online in real time. Run Speedtest.net before you run live webinars, use Skype, or broadcast live video to make sure your upload speed is fast enough to let people on the other end hear you.
Ideally, your upload speed should be at least 2 megabits per second, if not more. If it’s not, Speedtest will quickly isolate problems so you can determine whether the problem is with your network, your computer, or so on.
You can access Speedtest from the website and via the app for Android and iOS.

#18: Google Analytics URL Builder Chrome Extension

Google UTM parameters allow you to track the activity around a URL inside Google Analytics. The Google Analytics URL Builder Chrome extension is a free tool for people interested in UTM traffic.
Install the extension and you can quickly create UTM codes after you click a bookmarklet in the upper right-hand corner in your Google Chrome browser.

Select the bookmarklet in your Chrome browser to create UTM 

codes with Google Analytics URL Builder.

Go to the link where you want to add the UTM parameters and click the extension button. The UTM Builder shows up, and after you type in your Source, Medium, Term, Content, and Campaign terms, the trackable URL appears.
You can fill in the form with unique parameters or use a drop-down menu to automatically populate the standard parameters you use most often.

#19: Editorr

Editorr is a great service for text editing. Get 24/7 writing help from real people who will edit your text when you submit it to them. Use them for press releases, blog posts, or even social media posts that are a paragraph or two.

Take your draft text and submit it, either through the web, iOS, or Android app. It goes off to their team and one of their editors claims the job. They edit your words, send them back to you, and point out every change. Fast turnaround time, too.
Your first 100 words are free but you have to buy words as you go. The more words you buy in bulk, the less expensive it becomes.
The starter package is 150 words for $5.

#20: Google Data Studio

Do you ever find yourself perplexed by the reporting on Google Analytics? Google has come up with a brand-new free product that allows you to create visual dashboards easily for yourself, a customer, or your boss. To find it, go to DataStudio.Google.com.

Create and customize visual dashboards with Google Data Studio.

Log into Google Data Studio with your Google account, and you’ll be presented with a blank page where you can create whatever kind of dashboard you want.
In addition to your Google Analytics account, you can connect other sources of data, such as Google Sheets. You can then drag and drop elements such as bar charts, pie charts, tables, geomaps, scorecards, and more onto the blank canvas. You can even include a data range selector and a source filter in each module.
When you’re done creating the report, you can easily share it with other people.
It’s really easy and super-powerful.

#21: Pocket Explore

Pocket, a bookmarking site, recently added Pocket Explore. This new feature curates all of the content saved to its site into a searchable, public news feed, allowing marketers to find popular stories they may have missed.

Pocket Explore, an addition to the Pocket bookmarking site, 

curates content into a news feed.

Pocket knows how long somebody scrolled through an article to read it, how long it was open, and whether they shared it. Pocket Explore uses all of those signals to surface the top-rated stuff.
Marketers can type in “social media,” “Facebook,” “Twitter,” and even “marketing” to find top shared news about these topics. It’s another great resource to find cool stuff.
Pocket Explore is built into the paid and free versions of Pocket and is usable on desktop as well as iOS and Android devices.

#22: Prisma

Prisma, available on iOS and Android, takes your images, whether you take the photos in the app or import them, and applies artistic filters.

Prisma turns your images into art.

Prisma is easy and intuitive to use. There are a variety of artistic filters so you can make your photos come across as brushstrokes, like it’s hand-drawn, Van Gogh or Picasso style, and more. It’s a great way to transform your profile pic into an artistic rendering of yourself.
When you publish your image, there’s a Prisma square in the bottom right-hand corner; however, you can turn that off.
Experiment with your marketing images by adding other artistic elements to them. Also, if you’re doing advertising, this is a cool way to dress up some of your images and make them stand out.

#23: Slither

Want a fun distraction? Pull Slither up in your browser, or download the app on your iPhone or Android. Slither is a game that lets you move around as a snake, along with other players. The goal is to intercept the other snakes, knock them off the board, and eat their dots.

Slither is a fun diversion when you need to take a break.

The game also works in airplane mode and it’s an absolute blast. Check it out. After all, marketers need a break every now and then, too.

Over to You
Social media tools are constantly evolving to help marketers improve their content, save time, and be more productive. Check them out and see which ones work best for you.

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Dominate Social Media With 3 Killer Metrics

DO YOU remember when metrics were all about hard data? You looked at spreadsheets that contained inbound searches, conversions, and other numbers, then used those numbers to determine how well your campaign was performing. That wasn’t a lot of fun, but at the time, it was effective.

Luckily, social media has managed to move metrics beyond hard data. You already know that you need to pay attention to “Likes,” referral traffic, and other common social media metrics. What you may not realize is that there are other important metrics that brands often forget about.

These metrics go beyond “Likes” – they let you see what is really going on with your customer base and stay on top of your social media presence. Now you have the opportunity to gauge how people feel about you – allowing you to see the people behind the numbers.

Suddenly, you see “Joe” and “Sue” instead of “Customer X” and “Customer Y.”

Brand Sentiment

Brand sentiment is one of the best ways to find out what Joe, Sue, and the gang have to say.

First, though, let’s take a closer look at this metric.

Brand sentiment refers to the emotion that people display when they mention your brand. Most people are emotional on social media, so with brand sentiment, you can measure happiness, annoyance, excitement, anger and more to get a better idea of how people view your company.

In fact, studies have shown that messages online could influence emotions offline, allowing you to really tap into a positive emotional state and link that – in a productive way – to your brand.

This emotional aspect goes beyond simply looking at mentions, and gives you insight into how people truly feel when they interact with you, or are exposed to your content on social media.

Measuring Brand Sentiment & Using the Results

As much as you may want to make your least favorite employee measure every social media mention, there is a better way to assess brand sentiment.

Social Mention is one of the best tools out there. Type the name of your brand into the site’s search bar and you will get sentiment statistics across various networks. You will see the number of positive, neutral, and negative mentions and get a sentiment ratio.

Hootsuite Insights is another great option. You can get a report for overall sentiment and then break it down by location, gender, and language. That way, you can determine whether your sentiment is solid across the board or if you have weak spots that you need to address.

You’ll need to gauge your brand sentiment on a daily basis, checking for any positive or negative changes. If you notice a drop in sentiment, you should determine what caused the decline.

A drop may have to do with something in your industry, or it may be brand specific. Either way, you need to address the problem so your brand sentiment doesn’t continue to slide.

This is obviously going to take some trial and error, but if you catch the issue quickly by monitoring your results, you’ll be in much better shape.

Plus, once you get the hang of it and start taking the right action to get things back on track – your public perception will be back on the upswing. Let’s face it – Brand Sentiment is really like a popularity contest, and you always want to come in first!

Customer Response Rates

Brand sentiment is just one piece of the puzzle. Put another piece in by measuring your customer response rates.

According to a social media industry report by Sprout Social, 43 percent of the messages people send to brands on social networks require a response. That is a huge increase from the 15 percent that required a response in Quarter 3 of 2013.

Unfortunately, a lot of brands haven’t made the adjustment to this change. They either don’t check their social media inboxes on a regular basis, or check them but treat the platform the same way they treat email. They will get to it when they get to it. It might be a day, or it might be a week.

If you find yourself getting lazy about responses, it could cost you some customers. While you might want to wait until tomorrow, it’s a good idea to take action today.

If you fail to message people back in the timeframe they want, you can expect to experience a fall out. Sixty percent of people say they dish out some type of negative consequence when they don’t receive a timely response, including telling their friends and family, escalating the concern, or buying less from the company in the future.

So, without adequate follow up, you could be setting yourself up for a negative – and public – response from over HALF of the customers who reach out to you!

Let’s look at how to avoid that, shall we?

Measuring Response Rates & Using the Results

Use an analytics tool like Sprout Social to track response rates and streamline replies. Once you have your rates in hand, work on improving them to really optimize your customer relations.

Need some hard quantifiers to get started? Aim to keep your response rate within an hour or two to really maintain customer happiness.

According to Search Engine Watch, 65 percent of Twitter users expect a response within two hours when they send a message to a brand. The percentage goes up when people send complaints to brands. In fact, 72 percent of people expect the brand to message them back within an hour when they submit a complaint.

You can always get faster, whether you need to hire a team dedicated to responding to messages or provide around-the-clock service.

Share of Voice

So far, you have looked at metrics that focus on your brand. Now, it’s time to switch gears and look at a metric that focuses on your competitors.

You need to see how you stack up against the competition, which is why the share of voice metric is critical.

Share of voice (SOV) refers to the number of mentions your brand receives when compared to the number of mentions that your competition receives. For example, if brands within your industry receive 100 mentions, and you end up with 50 of those mentions, your SOV is 50 percent. That is fantastic and really shows the influence of your brand within your target group AND niche.

On the other hand, if you only have 5 mentions, your share is at 5 percent. That means you need to roll up your sleeves and get to work to improve it.

Share of voice is about more than just dominating the conversation. It can also help you increase your market share. According to the Nielsen Company, if your share of voice is larger than your share of market, your market share will grow. The research company states that if your SOV is 10 points higher than your share of the market, your market share will grow half a percent. The percentage continues to go up as your SOV increases.

Measuring Share of Voice & Using the Results

Analytics programs make measuring your share of voice a snap. You can compare keywords to see which brand is dominating the market. You just need to run a report comparing the keywords to determine how you fare against the competition.

For some quick tips on breaking down your own personal results, be sure you have a Social Mention search ready to go, and then take a look at this quick article on creating a Share of Voice Report by Convince & Convert.

This quick analysis will really help you know where you stand. This is a great – and useful – way of levelling the playing field, simply by being in-the-know.

From there, you can up your game, and increase your SOV accordingly. Simply spend some time looking at what your top competition is doing, and take some notes about where you can improve:

• Does your competition have consistently active viewers due to really engaging posts?
• Is their content upbeat and positive, increasing their brand sentiment?
• Do they reply quickly to customer mentions, which results in a great customer response rate?

See how quickly each of these killer metrics become interwoven, and how they are all so important?

Coming Full Circle

When it comes to analytics, a lot of the most important metrics get ignored. But, being aware of the impact certain stats can have – and how they influence each other – may really help you hone in on the best marketing plan for your social media efforts.

Brand sentiment, response rate and share of voice can each provide a snapshot of how your strategy resonates with your viewers. All together, they become a powerful assessment of your overall performance and reputation on social media.

Get started now: add these analytics to your marketing strategy so you can improve your customer experience and your bottom line.

While you’re at it, take a quick look at these ways to boost your social media efficiency and really up your social media game!

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