SOCIAL & DIGITAL STRATEGY TOOLS
WHAT YOU WILL FIND
Here's my list of social and digital related tools including paid social specs, social listening tools,
influencer tools and educational certifications. This is one of those "kitchen sink" type pages where I've dumped a little bit of everything for people working in the weird and evolving social strategy realm.
★ = indicates my personal fav tools :)
SOCIAL MANAGEMENT & LISTENING
SOCIAL LISTENING:
YES
SOCIAL MANGEMENT:
YES
PROS:
Sprout is the most popular social media tool on the market with an easy to use interface
CONS:
Sprout can be limited on features if you are super budget conscious and is limited in the number of social channels
SOCIAL LISTENING:
YES
SOCIAL MANAGEMENT:
YES
PROS:
Has the most advanced features including things like CRM and eComm data, and is customizable to an extreme.
CONS:
VERY expensive and super hard to use. Has its own coding language and has a very high learning curve.
SOCIAL LISTENING:
YES
SOCIAL MANAGEMENT:
YES
PROS:
Has a free plan great for students. Most comprehensive analytics.
CONS:
The free version is super limited and paid tends to have limited to how much can be automated compared to other tools.
SOCIAL LISTENING:
YES
SOCIAL MANAGEMENT:
NO?
PROS:
Is a newer program and has a wider variety of data (ex: TikTok, Pinterest, etc.) available. It also has one of the nicer looking dashboards making it easy to read.
CONS:
It's hard to customize the dashboards and has a bit of a learning curve because it's fairly new. It can sometimes be hard to navigate.
SOCIAL LISTENING:
YES
SOCIAL MANAGEMENT:
NO
PROS:
One of the most trusted and popular platforms for listening with an easy to use interface. It's more advanced than something like a Sprout or Hootsuite.
CONS:
It doesn't have as many of the platforms on it as other tools and is quite a bit more costly than a standard software like Sprout.
SOCIAL LISTENING:
YES
SOCIAL MANAGEMENT:
NO
PROS:
Has real time social monitoring and relatively good insights tools. It has a free version for people on a tighter budget.
CONS:
It isn't as customizable as Brandwatch and can seem a little more outdated in its data visualization.
SOCIAL LISTENING:
YES
SOCIAL MANAGEMENT:
YES
PROS:
Has an extensive list of media and PR tools outside of social management and listening.
CONS
Tends to be better for smaller/medium businesses over enterprise and UX isn't as good as other apps.
SOCIAL LISTENING:
YES
SOCIAL MANAGEMENT:
NO
PROS:
Has a good sentiment processing and analytics tool.. It's also been buying up other companies to extend its suite of tools.
CONS:
It's not very user friendly and can be very costly to get all the features you might want/need.
SOCIAL LISTENING:
YES
SOCIAL MANAGEMENT:
YES
PROS:
Has a free version great for personal use or students
CONS:
It's better for small businesses and won't have as many customization or capabilities necessary for bigger orgs.
SOCIAL LISTENING:
YES
SOCIAL MANAGEMENT:
YES
PROS:
Has a free version great for personal use or students
CONS:
Has limited features and file upload limits which can be bad for someone handling a lot of video content.
SOCIAL LISTENING:
YES
SOCIAL MANAGEMENT:
YES
PROS:
Has lead generation which isn't as common in other social tools.
CONS:
Doesn't have a free version and isn't the most user friendly.
SOCIAL LISTENING:
YES
SOCIAL MANAGEMENT:
YES
PROS:
It's a simple and easy to use platform. Also it has Canva integration for easy content creation.
CONS:
More limited in features (such as not being able to upload IG stories) and is not very customizable.
SOCIAL LISTENING:
YES
SOCIAL MANAGEMENT:
YES
PROS:
Has a variety of more advanced tools and tools outside of typical social management/listening such as salesforce, SEO, web and email.
CONS:
Pricing can get really high and because there are so many features it take a lot of time to learn how to use them to their fullest extent.
SOCIAL LISTENING:
YES
SOCIAL MANAGEMENT:
NO
PROS:
Has more of a focus on content types and influencers, not just typical social listening.
CONS:
Pricey for the features offered.
SOCIAL LISTENING:
YES
SOCIAL MANAGEMENT:
NO
PROS:
More of a focus on content types and influencers. It supports a lot of other languages outside of just English.
CONS:
Can struggle to easily and accurate work some of the platforms (like LinkedIn) and is hard to look backwards for data.
★
★
LINK IN BIO TOOLS
Basic: Free
Pro: $6/month
Enterprise: By quote
Basic: Free
Monthly: $1/month
One time: $10
Unique: $25
Rocket: $15/month
Pro: $29/month
Agency: $99/month
Basic: Free
Starter: $15/month
Growth: $25/month
Advanced: $40/month
Starts at $15 per month
Free to use. Meant for creating a custom instagram links website
Basic: Free
Silver: $5/month
Gold: $12/month
Basic: Free
Pro: $7/month
INFLUENCER TOOLS
All-in-one platform to manage your influencer campaigns from start to finish.
Is more of a social listening tool with the added benefit of an influencer search.
The most popular All-in-one platform with advanced tools to search for influencers.
Influencer search tool with larger range of both domestic and international influencers.
Tagger is an influencer marketing platform and social listening tool combined.
Is more of a CRM tool but helps you identify potential influencers to promote products.
Influencer search tool, now a part of the larger Meltwater suite of tools.
It's an influencer marketing software that larger brands use to run influencer marketing campaigns.
OTHER COOL THINGS
This datasheet contains a pricing guide for average cost of paid influencer posts and is organized by vertical, audience size, and content type.
★
This Instagram account was started to combat the pay gap between black influencers and white influencers. The account shared influencers' pay, race, industry, follower count and more to bring more transparency to the industry.
If you don't know what Canva is, then you might be a newborn baby. It's an incredibly popular and easy to use design tool that is perfect for making quick and scrappy social media posts as well as other marketing materials.
Visage is a tool that helps companies design social media graphics that are perfectly optimized for each platform.
Animoto is a tool for making marketing videos on social media. It's easy to use and comes with storyboard templates and a drag-and-drop design.
Bitly is a free URL shortener so that long links to your pages can fit across your social media channels.
Remove BG is a quick way for you to remove the background on any image and is very helpful for people who need to do some quick design work without wanting to use any professional design software.
Keyword Tool is a free alternative to google keyword planner and other paid research tools. It's especially useful for SEO projects and website and YouTube tags. The tool uses Google Autocomplete to generate hundreds of relevant long-tail keywords for any topic.
DIGITAL CERTIFICATIONS
General Assembly - Run Social Media Ads Like a Pro
General Assembly - Digital Marketing Bootcamp (Remote)
General Assembly - Facebook Ads for the Win (Remote)
General Assembly - Content Strategy Masterclass
General Assembly - Search Engine Optimization (Remote)
General Assembly - Email Marketing Essentials
General Assembly - Digital Marketing Bootcamp (Remote)
General Assembly - Facebook Ads for the Win (Remote)
General Assembly - Digital Marketing Bootcamp
General Assembly - Social Media Strategy Mapping
General Assembly - InDesign Bootcamp
Hubspot Content Marketing Certification
Hubspot Inbound Marketing Certification
Hubspot Social Media Certification
Google Ads Certifications
Google Marketing Platform Certifications
Google Analytics Academy
Google YouTube resources
Google Ad Manager resource
Cost: $150
Cost: $200
Cost: $40
Cost: $250
Cost: $99
Cost: $60
Cost: $99
Cost: $35
Cost: $250
Cost: $99
Cost: $195
Cost: $60
Cost: $200
Cost: $1495
Cost: $800
Cost: $995
Free
Free
Free
Free
Free
Free
Free
Free
Free