When was the last time you scrolled social media without being exposed to brand advertisements or promotions? Honestly, I can’t remember and I’m guessing, neither can you. 

Social media marketing has emerged as the new norm and is the go-to channel for more than 87% of marketers today. (Fun fact: While this switch from conventional marketing is globally visible, the US happens to be the largest social media ad market in the world.) 

But creating and running visually interactive and engaging campaigns is more than just posting! To aid this journey, there are several social media marketing tools available that you can try out.    

In this guide, I will list different types and categories of marketing tools for social media and their importance. Let’s get started.  

What are social media marketing tools?  

Social media marketing tools are software or applications that can help marketers manage their social profiles more effectively. With the help of such tools, you can easily create content, schedule it to be posted later, analyze performance, and a lot more.  

Let’s explore different types of social media marketing tools you must know of!  

Social media scheduling tools  

Relying on impromptu posting isn’t a fool-proof strategy by any chance! (And that’s why you need a social media scheduling tool.)  

Such tools are meant to help you create and save content to be automatically published later at a given time.  

The primary goal of using such a tool is to save manual working hours and provide you with much-needed time flexibility.  

What to do with social media scheduling tools?  

• Post on multiple social media platforms without toggling between various tabs.  
• Create an approval workflow for content to be reviewed before final posting.  
• Maintain a social media content calendar and schedule content in advance.  
• Create content in batches and collaborate with different teams for better efficiency. 

Social media analytics tools  

You’re posting consistently — but is the data in your favor?  

A social media analytics tool is your ultimate savior when it comes to tracking, analyzing, and understanding your social performance.  

Generally, native platforms provide basic analytics features but you’ll require third-party interference when it comes to getting data from multiple sources in a single, central location.  

What to do with social media analytics tools? 

• Analyze the latest social media data for all the key social media metrics in a single dashboard.  
• Deep dive into demographic analysis to know your audience better.  
• Check what the competitors are up to and see which strategies performed best for them.  
• Find top-performing posts to discover what works best and resonates with your audience.  

Vaizle’s range of free social media analysis tools help you do all this and more! Explore more and get started here!  

Social media monitoring tools  

To find the general audience sentiment around your brand, you need to tune into the conversations happening in this vast digital world.   

That’s where social media monitoring tools help you out. With these tools, you can gain the audience’s insights about your brand, competitors, and what consumers generally say about the industry.  

What to do with social media monitoring tools? 

• Analyze what the content of all mentioned posts conveys about your brand in general.  
• Stay updated with the industry’s leading voices and see what’s trending.  
• Spot potential industry partners you can collaborate with online.  
• Find content based on a specific topic, keyword, or location.  

Social media listening tools  

Taking social media monitoring a notch higher, social media listening tools are relevant for planning what to do about what’s being said online.  

With these tools, you can plan a strategic course of action while also understanding the intent behind a specific conversation.  

Simultaneously, you can also zero in on the user’s pain points and devise strategies to solve these issues.  

What to do with social media listening tools?  

• Analyze campaign performance and create reports to know if the goals have been met or not. 
• Keep up with patterns concerning your online reputation and act fast to undo any damage.  
• Spot any industry-relevant conversations and join them to mold the narrative in your favor.  
• Easily identify brand advocates and critics and engage with them appropriately.  

Social media reporting tools  

Once your profile is up and running, you need clear and concise reports to keep track of your performance.  

Social media reporting tools can help you create professional reports that can also be shared with your team members or clients.  

Additionally, reporting tools can be used to automatically import data from different social channels and present them in a graphical manner for better visual understanding.  

What to do with social media reporting tools? 

• Compare the progress of your performance as compared to past data.  
• Track your account’s growth or decline within seconds with line or bar graphs.  
• Create a live link of reports that you can share with your clients or teammates.  
• Add your company label to the front page to generate white-label reports for your clients.  

With the Custom Report Generator tool by Vaizle, you can pull valuable insights from your social profiles and create white-label reports within minutes!  

For better understanding, give our detailed guide on How to Create a Social Media Report for Digital Marketing Agencies a read!  

Social media automation tools  

Tired of spending your prime working hours on boring and repetitive tasks? If so, social media marketing tools for automation can be the key to improved productivity.  

With these tools, you can automate a range of social media tasks – like content curation, customer service, and data transfer.  

What to do with social media automation tools? 

• Identify any recurring tasks and automate them for better productivity.  
• Set automation to welcome any new users and answer any of their specific queries. 
• Automatically import account data to a separate location for further data analysis.  
• Track performance metrics to know the extent of your social media marketing efforts.  

Social media engagement tools  

Forgetting the “social” part of social media is one of the biggest mistakes you can make.  

Social media engagement tools can help you interact with customers across various channels and improve your brand’s visibility online.  

Engagement tools are also helpful for running contests, hosting Q and A sessions, or organizing live chat sessions.  

What to do with social media engagement tools?  

• Get all messages or comments from different social channels in a single location.  
• See the complete social media interaction history with any particular user.  
• Assign engagement tasks to different teammates and keep track of what’s been done so far.  
• Get notifications in case of a sudden increase in brand mentions or comments.  

Instagram Marketing Tools 

Did you know that marketers in the US consider Instagram to be the leading influencer marketing platform? Needless to say, Instagram is a marketing goldmine that can help improve your brand’s digital presence and build a strong user community.  

But if you’re going to use Instagram as your forefront marketing channel, you’ll require the intervention of third-party tools.  

Instagram marketing tools can help you:  

• Create and edit visually attractive content 
• Schedule posts, stories, or reels accordingly
• Analyze page performance and spot any growth opportunities 

Vaizle’s free Instagram Page Analysis tool can help you get a complete overview of your IG page activity, analyze top-performing posts, and understand your audience’s demographics. 

Facebook Marketing Tools  

According to the latest statistics, Facebook is the platform with the highest number of monthly active users, i.e., 3.05 billion. And if we talk of users from the US, the number crosses 188.6 million.  

To make your Facebook marketing experience seamless, you need help with content creation, editing, and analytics tools.  

When it comes to analytics, the free Facebook Page Analysis tool by Vaizle can help you analyze Facebook page content and bring you the latest insights from your account data.  

LinkedIn Marketing Tools  

LinkedIn’s purpose isn’t limited to being a professional networking platform. It is also the go-to hub for advertising and B2B lead generation.  

Marketing on LinkedIn is a sure-shot way to build brand credibility, showcase company culture, and put yourself on the map as an industry leader.  

To aid your marketing efforts, you can try Vaizle’s free LinkedIn Page Analysis tool. Here, you can check a complete overview of the latest metrics, and top-performing posts, and find out more about your audience (job title, industry, seniority, location, and more).   

Conclusion  

Ask a marketer about their preferred benefit of social media marketing and you’re likely to receive a list of different answers each time. The main thing is — all of them are probably right w.r.t. their business requirements and goals.  

To meet these set objectives and perform certain tasks, you need the help of the best social media marketing tools in the market.  

Hopefully, this guide gave you an idea about different types of tools for social media marketing and will help you get started!  

And if you’re looking for a cost-efficient option that comes with zero learning curve, Vaizle is an apt option!  

Vaizle now offers exclusive access to all paid features for $1 only. Sign up for the 7-day trial and explore our range of tools — including social media, ad, and competitive SM analysis. Cancel or change plans anytime!