Do you want to get more return out of our Facebook marketing efforts, but are challenged by time, staff power or budget?
Perhaps you’re struggling to identify which changes you need to make to improve your visibility and traction. Or maybe you know exactly what you want to implement, but don’t have the resources or staff to pull it off. Thankfully, there’s a whole host of Facebook marketing tools out there to help!
I love marketing tools, and Facebook is no exception. Facebook tools make it easier for you to set up your Facebook Page and measure your results. I’ve tried dozens of tools over the years. Today, I am going to share my top 18 favorite Facebook marketing tools designed to help you reach your marketing goals at every step of the way.
All of the 18 tools on this list will make your Facebook marketing easier and more effective. A successful Facebook marketing strategy includes everything from testing ads to analyzing engagement. Fortunately, there are awesome tools that will make your task of marketing on Facebook easier.
Here are my top favorite 18 Facebook marketing tools.
Buffer is a great tool for scheduling posts, analyzing performance and managing all of your social media accounts in one place. As a social media manager, you likely spend a good part of your day scheduling content for your school’s social media profiles. Buffer is a powerful app that can take your social media and engagement to the next level. It’s a simple way to schedule posts and track performance of your content on Facebook as well as other social media channels. Buffer offers a free plan; paid plans start at $15 per month.
If you are looking for a more advanced social media management system, I encourage you to consider Sprout Social. I really like their advanced analytics, reports and smart inbox feature which can save a lot of time! Sprout Social helps you deliver and measure valuable content, nurture relationships, mine social data and activate social listening. Pricing starts at $99 per month; all plans include a 30-day free trial.
Post Planner lets you plan and schedule your social media posts, but that’s not all. The idea behind Post Planner is genius; unlike other scheduling tools, it allows you to easily find and post photos that have been proven to go viral…increasing your likes, shares, and views! Plans start at $3 per month.
CoSchedule is another great social media management tool. I love it because you can easily manage your team and keep track of everything. CoSchedule helps me plan ahead and saves me time. They offer a built-in editorial calendar that is customizable. Plans start at $0 – $20 per month depending on how many users you want to add; a 14-day free trial period is offered.
Ever wonder how other marketers create amazing, professional looking contests, polls and landing pages on Facebook? They might be using Shortstack.
Shortstack lets you set up beautiful Facebook marketing campaigns simply using their drag-and-drop feature. Their templates are attractive and easy-to-use. I really like their analytics and the ability to interact with leads via email. Your leads are collected in a searchable, exportable database – and there are no storage limits. Plans start at $29 per month.
Facebook Page Insights is built into your Facebook Page. Even though it’s not a third-party app, it’s still a valuable tool for school marketers.
Insights gives you important data that you can use to improve your Facebook marketing strategy. For example, it can tell you:
- Demographics of your audience, including gender and location
- When and where a person was when they liked your page
- Your most popular posts
- How people found your page
- How many times each page tab has been viewed
Facebook Insights is free, simple and straight from the source, which makes it list worthy.
I’ve sung the praises of Canva before, but a list about Facebook tools needs to include this awesome app. As you know, visual content on Facebook is a must and this amazing tool lets you easily create stunning graphics you can share on Facebook.
Canva offers a database of over 1,000,000 images and professional-looking templates. Simply log in to Canva and select “Facebook Post” from the templates, ensuring your Facebook post image will be the correct dimensions. Now you can choose from thousands of layouts, fonts, colors, elements – the choices are dazzling! Canva is free; some pictures, layouts or elements cost $1.
What more visual marketing tools? Check out these articles:
10 Visual Marketing Tools to Help your Social Media Stand Out
5 Best Types of Social Media Visuals for Schools
AdEspresso is an advertising tool that makes ad creation and optimization easier and faster. Since it was founded in 2011, it has grown to become a Facebook advertising partner. Using the platform, users can create Facebook, Instagram and Google ads right through the interface. AdEspresso also offers an online university with webinars, experiments and video courses recorded by industry experts. Plans start at $49 per month.
Have you ever run a Facebook ad that didn’t perform as well as you hoped? With Facebook Ads Compass, you can generate a report that tells you what’s working – and what’s not. You can compare your results to industry benchmarks and see exactly how much you’re spending. It will tell you which ads are performing well and which ones aren’t and give you insights so you can optimize your ad targeting by audience, age, location, and device. Facebook Ads Compass is a free tool from the makers of AdEspresso.
ManyChat is an easy-to-use tool for Facebook Messenger bot marketing. Messenger marketing is quickly becoming the way people connect online. You can use ManyChat to leverage this emerging platform to grow and interact with your audience by delivering personalized, 1-on-1 experiences to your followers or inquiries. ManyChat offers a free version of the tool.
Headlines are vitally important when publishing to Facebook. About 80 percent of people who see a headline will read it, but only 20 percent will go on to read the rest of your content. Even if you content is truly unique and innovative, a weak headline will ruin its chances of being super successful.
The folks at CoSchedule conducted research and determined what it takes to write great headlines that ill instantly capture the attention of your reader. When it comes to social media, your headline has to be powerful and tell the story of your content, all within a limited space and in a distracting news feed.
This tool will show you exactly how to improve your headlines. Simply copy and paste your headline into the tool and it will give you feedback on the title length, sentiment, keywords and more. Headline Analyzer is free (and included in CoSchedule’s social media management tool.)
Want to easily create amazing, professional-looking video content? Animoto is a low-cost tool that will help you turn your photos and video clips into a professional video in minutes. It’s fast and simple to use.
Choose from pre-built story boards, then customize your video for your school. Enhance your video with music, transitions, changing colors, etc. Then simply post to your page and watch your engagement increase! Plans start at $5 per month (billed annually). Animoto offers a 14-day free trial.
Have you ever wished someone would review your Facebook Page and tell you exactly what you’re doing right – and what you’re doing wrong?
Likealyzer will grade your Facebook marketing efforts so you know exactly what you continue to do as well as how you can improve. The app uses over 70 different data points to analyze your page. Likealyzer is free.
Facebook Page Barometer is a super-cool tool designed by the makers of Agorapulse. Connect your Facebook Page to the tool, and receive insights on:
- How many fans you’re reaching
- Your engagement rates
- How much negative feedback you’re receiving
- How your page is performing compared to similar pages
Simply connect your Facebook Page to the tool and receive these insights and many more. Facebook Page Barometer is free.
Have you ever posted a link on Facebook only to have it display an old image – or no image at all? This can happen when Facebook has cached an old version of your URL. The solution? Run your URL through this handy tool to clear the cache and your link will display the way you want it to.
Once you’ve submitted your link to the debug app, scroll down to where it says “Link Preview”. This is how your link will display.
If you’re not happy with what you see, you can easily make the changes to your post or landing page and click “Scrape Again”. Facebook will now include the changes you made when you publish your URL. Facebook URL Debugger is free.
Have you ever uploaded a video to Facebook and then discovered that you’re not allowed to use a song due to copyright issues? This can be extremely frustrating.
Luckily, Facebook has a solution. There is a Sound Collection with over 2,200 songs and 1,731 sound effects, drums, horror screams, birds tweeting, waves and much more!
You can search for a song by keyword, music genre, mood, duration, and vocal type. You are free to use these songs if you publish your video on Facebook or Instagram. Facebook Song Collection is free.
Pagemodo is a social media suite for customizing and managing Facebook Pages without the need for graphic design or coding skills.
The Pagemodo tool offers:
- Templates for cover photos
- Contests, sweepstakes, giveaways and coupons for promotions
- Custom tabs (including a shop where you can sell merchandise from a Facebook tab)
- Post designer
- Post scheduling
- Suggests relevant content you can share on your page
- Twitter headers
- Design studio for Facebook ads
The free version of Pagemodo lets you manage one page and has limited features. Paid plans start at $6.25 per month.
Does your school have a Facebook group? If not, you’re missing out – and so is your target audience. Facebook groups are an important way to build community with your audience.
Grytics is a tool that offers in-depth insights into everything related to a Facebook Group. For example, Grytics will help you analyze:
- Top posts
- Comment statistics
- Comparative metrics
- Sort and rank groups, posts and search results
- Key metrics and performance indicators
Have more than one group? Grytics lets you manage all your groups in one place. Plans start at $15 per month. Pricing starts at $15 per month. Grytics offers a free 14-day trial.
Facebook tools will make it easier for you to set up, manage and grow your presence on Facebook. The tools on this list cover many different aspects of your Facebook marketing, so you have time-saving help at every step of the way. All of these tools were designed to gain better results from your Facebook presence and make your Facebook marketing experience more pleasant.
What Facebook tools do you use? What did we leave off this list that you think should be here? Please share with the rest of the school marketing community
