Top 7 Online Marketing Tools for Small Business

I have been using a few new online marketing tools lately that have really made a big difference in my business, so I thought this would be a good time to share them with you, along with a few other oldies but goodies!

Here are my current favorite online marketing tools, in no particular order:

1. Quozio – OMG! Where has this app been all my business life? Have you ever pinned an image containing a motivational quote to a Pinterest board, or shared one on Facebook? If you’d like to create images like this yourself, Quozio is the tool for you. They provide a bookmarklet, so anytime you see a great quote online, you click the Quozio link on your toolbar, type in the quote and who said it, and then you have your choice of about two dozen backgrounds with different font styles. You can then pin the image to Pinterest, tweet it out on Twitter, or post it on Facebook. You can also email it or save it to your desktop. Easy-peasie!

Here is an example:

2. socialoomph – (formerly known as Tweetlater) I use this tool to monitor keywords on Twitter, as well as mentions of my own name, and Twitter handle. I get an email digest every 12 hours with the results. Pretty cool! You can also set up automatic direct messages to respond when someone follows you on Twitter. And you can schedule updates as well. This service is free. If you’d like more robust tools, including being able to schedule posts to Facebook and LinkedIn, you’ll have to pay for the privilege. They do offer a 14 day free trial. Full disclosure – I am an affiliate for socialoomph, so if you decide to try and then buy, I will get a modest sum in return.

3. – This online social media scheduling tool is a god-send for time-pressed small business owners like myself! You can manage up to 5 different social profiles for free. But the Pro version only runs $8.99 a month, and with that you can manage up to 100 different social profiles. This comes in handy if you belong to a few LinkedIn groups, and you also want to post to Facebook, Twitter or Google+. You get some enhanced analytics reports so you can keep track of how your social media posts are being received. (I’m an affiliate for Hootsuite too, because I really like their service!)

4. Facebook Scheduler – If you want to schedule a post, link or image to your Facebook page, you can do it directly on your page. Simply type in the information you want to post, add any link or image (if needed), and click on the tiny triangle that appears to the left of the “Post” button that appears in the lower right-hand corner of the status update window. You then set the date and time, and you can review the post in your Activity Log. In the past, if you made a mistake, you’d have to delete the post and start over. But Facebook got smart and now gives you an option to edit the scheduled post from your Activity Log. (see below)

FYI – if you want to schedule to your Facebook personal profile, you can’t do it in Facebook. But you can with Hootsuite! 🙂

5. ManageFlitter.com – Are you having trouble keeping up with your Twitter feed because you’re following too many people? Here’s a tool to help you get your account back in shape. You can see at a glance which Twitter users are not following you back, which have no profile image, are non-English or inactive. You can choose to unfollow any of these accounts. It also shows you which Twitter users may be spam accounts, and which users are talkactive/inactive or have low/high influence.

6. vCita – I recently started using this online scheduling tool, and am loving it as a lead capturing device. When someone visits my website, a popup box appears in the lower right hand corner, enabling people to contact me for information about my services, and to schedule an appointment with me. They also have a Facebook page app, so your fans can contact you and/or schedule an appointment directly from your Facebook page. You can also send invoices with vCita. I’m using the free version now, but I may consider upgrading to the paid versions for more features, including the ability to add branding to the contact form.

7. – As much as I love vCita, I have to say, I love LeadPages even more! This is a powerful lead generation software platform. It allows you to create landing pages within five minutes to build email list, webinar signups, and more. LeadPages provides templates for a wide variety of landing pages, and you can even sort them by conversion rate to enhance your chances for success!

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What are your favorite online marketing tools? Please share them in the comments below!