You know it yourself; Christmas is sneaking up fast and time is slipping through your hands like water. And while it’s the busiest time of the year in the salon, it doesn’t mean your social media marketing should suffer. In fact, it doesn’t have to suffer at all. There are many social media automation tools out there to help you schedule posts and give you more time to concentrate on what really matters: your clients walking in your doors by the dozen. That being said, Phorest Salon Software can help too! In this article, you’ll find 5 of our top recommendations for social media automation platforms, as well as 5 automated features within our product.
5 Social Media Automation Tools: Our Top Recommendations
Disclaimer: Phorest Salon Software is in no way affiliated to any of the following 5 social media automation tools. They are simply our suggestions, based on our social media marketing experience. For any specific questions regarding these companies, please contact them directly.
MeetEdgar
MeetEdgar is like having an assistant solely dedicated to social media. Definitely my personal favourite. In a nutshell, MeetEdgar helps you create a categorised content library (unlimited amount of social updates) and reuses your best content automatically on the schedule you give it. They said it best: “Web traffic usually follows a predictable pattern: it spikes when new content is released and quickly tapers off. Edgar turns traditional traffic on its head by bringing in new visitors each time he posts!” Edgar works with Twitter, Facebook (profiles, pages and groups) and LinkedIn (profiles and company pages) and allows for a total of 25 accounts to be connected.
($49/month)
Later
Later is probably one the most intuitive and user-friendly social media automation tool optimised for Instagram (it can still connect to your Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest accounts). To put it briefly, Later helps you bulk upload and plan your visual content (photos and videos), schedule them on a weekly and/or monthly basis, visually preview the posts as they’ll appear. All you’re left to do after is open the notification when the post is due to be published and send it off to the world! The platform also makes it easy to search for content by hashtags, users or likes and well as get more insights on what’s working and what’s not with the analytics they provide.
(Free when using 1 social profile, starts at $9/month after.)
Hootsuite
If you want one tool to manage everything including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Instagram, WordPress and other platforms, then Hootsuite might be for you. However, it might take a bit more time to get familiar with. All in all, you can do loads with Hootsuite, including directly posting to your social media accounts, scheduling your updates, send private messages out to targeted audiences, get analytics, and more.
(Free when using 3 social profiles, starts at $19/month after. However, beware of hidden fees for additional features.)
Buffer
Similiar to MeetEdgar (without the repurposing bit), Buffer is a simple and easy way to schedule posts, track your results and manage all your accounts from one dashboard. It’s just as easy as they advertise:Â “Choose the dates and times you want to publish to each account. Create social media posts when you have time, and Buffer will automatically share them according to your schedule.”
(Free when using up to 2 social profiles and 10 schedules posts per profile. Starts at $10/per month after.)
Crowdfire
Crowdfire is an interesting one. Using a chatbot, the interface asks you questions about your marketing goals and then tells you exactly what to do and when to do it. Essentially, it’s a marketing sidekick willing to help you with Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and LinkedIn. It gets to know you, monitors the accounts you’ve connected and gives you a few quick personalised tasks to do every day. Simple as 1, 2, 3!
(Free when using up to 2 social profiles. Starts at $10/per month after.)
Extra: Feedly, A Gem For Content Curation
We couldn’t overlook Feedly, one the most user-friendly content curation platforms out there! Essentially, Feedly allows you to monitor magazine and publications, blogs, YouTube channels, discover and read new content, organise the whole lot, and even share articles onto your social media accounts.
(Free when using up to 100 sources, 3 feeds and 3 boards. Starts at $5.41/per month after.)
Using Phorest Salon Software…
We don’t mess around when we say we do the hard work for you! After all, software is a tool, and we go much further than that. In fact, we’re the only salon software provider with a dedicated team to help you implement SMS and email marketing campaigns, a successful loyalty program and set you up for online bookings and apps. But for the purpose of this article, let’s stick to what our products can actually do for you.
Why not check out all our features and book a demo with one of our business consultants.
Client ReConnect
How many clients have you not seen in a while? Would you be able to tell? Client ReConnect analyses your clients’ booking patterns to identify your regular clients. It takes into account when clients have deviations to their typical slots and notifies you when it looks like they have missed their regular appointment. After you send them the initial email or SMS (a click of a button thanks to pre-uploaded templates), ReConnect will automatically send them a follow-up email 2 weeks later.
Online Reputation
Phorest Salon Software’s Online Reputation feature is another great tool to add to your arsenal. In a nutshell, it monitors and helps you control what’s being said about you on Google, Facebook and Yelp. From one clean and clear dashboard, you can them respond to positive & negative comments and increase your amount of 5-Star reviews through automated settings.
Additionally, we have a dedicated team to create or claim your Google business entrie(s), double check all your listing information and get you ready to build up your online reputation on all channels.
Snapchat
Not only does our Snapchat integration makes it easy to share before and after photos onto the platform straight from our software, but it can also help you grow a following – effortlessly. Phorest Salon Software allows you to send a tailored SMS to your clients announcing that you are now on Snapchat and inviting them to follow you. We’ve even made the perfect template for it.
Before And After Photos
Through the Phorest Go App, you can take or upload photos directly through the app, assign a profile picture to client cards, scroll through previous client appointments and see the pictures from those bookings, choose and arrange your photos to create collages within the app and of course, share your before and after collages to Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat.
Salon Selfie
The salon selfie is probably one of our oldest social media automation features. Essentially, it’s a prompt you can set up to automatically appear to clients after their appointment. The prompt encourages them to leave a review and share a selfie showing off their new look.
Read more about this feature here, and here.
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Don’t forget: it’s impossible to automate 100% of your social media. Think about Instagram, for instance. It’s a channel known for needing actual human interaction with other profiles to generate growth and engagement. However, while social media automation tools don’t do it all for you, they sure do help loads! And with the additional help from Phorest Salon Software, you’re ready to face the busiest period of the year: Christmas.
Got feedback? Leave us a comment or tweet us @ThePhorestWord!
Thanks for reading!
#LetsGrow
Featured imaged shot on location of Nu Essence, in Dublin. © 2017 Phorest Salon Software.
