Small business owners may find it challenging navigating through the fast-paced world of social media. Their resources are valuable and they don’t want to waste any of it.
Here’s a list of free social media tools that will save them both time and money.
Headline Analyzers
#1. Headline Analyzer: This free tools allows you to analyze how effective your ad will be at reaching customers in an emotional way. The analyzer will determine which of the following emotions will be impacted the most: intellectual, empathetic or spiritual.
#2. Optimizely: This company provides A/B testing for headlines across the web on any device. Users can even test whether different variations of images and headlines generate the best results. There’s a free and pro plan available.
#3. Coschedule: This tool analyzes blog post headlines and gives a quality score than determines the headlines ability to result in social shares. The tool will also provide a quality score that ranks your headline’s ability to increase traffic and add value to your SEO.
Content Tools
#4. Portent: Enter a subject and Portent will generate ideas for social content. Use the idea generator to write blog posts, create memes or develop videos.
#5. Hubspot Blog Topic Generator: Fill in three fields with topics you’d like to write about and this blog topic generator will provide a week’s worth of blog titles within seconds.
#6. National Day Calendar: Never miss another National Day celebration. Visit the website to check the calendar for upcoming National Day celebrations or sign up for newsletter to receive National Day notices via email.
#7. PostCreator: Upload an image, insert a message, then add your logo. PostCreator will generate a branded image you can use on your social networks. There’s a free basic plan available.
Editorial Calendars
#8. Optimize Book: This editorial calendar includes day to post, topic, targeted audience, keywords and tags, social topics and which social networks to use.
#9. Brett Snyder: This simple editorial calendar includes subject, working title, focus keywords, key elements, sources, complementary assets, and promotional strategy.
#10. EditFlow WordPress plugin: This tool makes it easy for teams to collaborate within WordPress. Edit Flow gives you custom statuses, a calendar, editorial comments in addition to several other useful features.
Image Editors
#11. Canva: Use pre-sized templates to create professional looking social media images. This tool has simple drag and drop features. Choose from hundreds of free stock images and cool fonts.
#12. PicMonkey: Edit pictures and designs. Add text to images. Resize an image that’s too large. This tool is fairly easy to use. PicMonkey offers enough free features to make it worth checking out.
#13. Recite: A very simple tool used to create quote images in a matter of minutes. Type a quote then choose from the various quote images that are generated.
#14. imgflip Meme Generator: Choose from thousands of prepopulated images. Type your caption. Resize the text if you need to and click generate. It’s that simple.
Video Editors
#15. Avidemux: This free video editor is designed for simple tasks like cutting, filtering and encoding. Avidemux offers an automation feature.
#16. Windows Movie Maker: A free video editor included as part of the Windows Essential package. This software is included with every version of Windows. It’s very easy to learn to use and it has many great features that get the job done.
#17. Lightworks: This video editing tool has so many editing features that it’s been used to help produce Hollywood movies. Lightworks Free offers full editing power and export to their preferred upload partner Vimeo at 1080p resolution. The free version has a seven-day renewable license that all users can activate immediately after installation
#18. WeVideo: This video editor provides 5G of cloud storage. Users can publish their video directly to YouTube. WeVideo connects to different social networks so the user can grab video clips. Mobile video editing is also available.
Ad Generators
#19. Ad Parlor: Generate ad mockups so you can see what your ads will look like before you create your campaigns on Facebook or Twitter. Users don’t have to login to use the tool and Ad Parlor allows users to verify specs for all of the ad spaces available on Facebook and Twitter.
#20. Banner Ads Creator: This simple tool makes creating ads for YouTube, Facebook and Twitter fast and easy. Users click through each step, choosing the options they want to include. Ads can be created in a matter of minutes.
Tracking and Analyzing
#21. Hubspot Marketing Grader: Receive a full report on how your marketing efforts are going. Just add your website address to the form and a report is generated in seconds. This tools gives you a score for social media blogging, SEO, lead generation, mobile.
#22. Quick Sprout: This social media tool analyzes your Google Analytics data. The tool analyzes your data and provides a report that will help you improve your content.
#23. AdEspresso’s Campaign Rater: This tool helps optimize your Facebook ads. Get a better understanding of your key metrics. Compare your ad’s performance with your industry.
#24. Uprank: This advanced research tool analyzes your social media, in addition to your website’s architecture, SEO, user experience, and mobile responsiveness. Uprank generates a digital marketing strategy that includes a list of comprehensive tasks.
Social Media Management
#25. Latergram: Use this tool to manage your Instagram marketing. Schedule and manage your Instagram posts. Upload posts from your desktop, tablet, iPad or Android.
#26. SocialRank: This handy tools lets users identify, organize, and manage your followers on Twitter and Instagram by sorting and filtering. Find out which of your followers are the most engaged.
#27. Spruce: Make Twitter ready images in seconds. Type your message. Find the perfect photo. Get a beautiful custom image, perfectly sized for Twitter. Choose from millions of free images.
#28. Riffle: This tool help you find and connect with Twitter social influencers quickly and easily. Use the tool to get Twitter engagement, interest and activity analytics in real time. This type of data allows you to engage with influencers while they’re active on Twitter.
#29. Hootsuite: This is one of the top social media management tools available. Hootsuite lets you manage all of your social networks from one platform. Use Hootsuite to schedule updates, engage your audience, and grow your brand. There’s also an analytics feature available.
Stock Images and Videos
#30. Mazwai: This website has free creative commons high definition video clips and footages. Choose the video you want. Click the download button and save the video. The only requirement is that you must credit the video producer.
#31.Unsplash: Choose from thousands of free high-resolution photos. There’s no restriction on how you can use the photos. There are 10 new photos added every day.
#32. Picography: The selection of free hi-resolution photos isn’t very large, but the images are great and the quality is amazing. There’s no restriction on how you can use the photos.
#33. New Old Stock: This is a great collection of vintage photos from various public archives. The photos are free of any known copyright restrictions.
Did I miss any free social media tools you think small business owners might find useful? Please add them to the comments.
This article first appeared on Social Media Today.
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