Top 10 Best FREE Social Media Marketing Tools for 2015

Are you looking for free tools to improve, organise, and analyse your social media marketing? I've compiled a list of 10 of the best resources out there as we begin 2015. Some of the tools listed below have a paid option in addition to their free offering, but be reassured that you can benefit from all of them without having to spend a penny.

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NEW Facebook Page Cover Photo Call to Action Button - Examples and Best Practices

In December 2014, Facebook began the roll out of call-to-action buttons for Facebook Pages. Initially available for Page managers in the US, it is set to be introduced to Pages in the rest of the world later on this year.

In this post, I'm going to explain everything you need to know about Facebook Page cover photo call-to-actions: what their purpose is, how to set one up, and some best practices to help make your button as successful as possible.

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How to Use Snapchat Geofilters for Business | 5 Examples to Attract and Engage With Customers

Snapchat recently opened up the use of its geofilters function to everybody - businesses included. If you're thinking about giving them a try, here's some ideas for how you might want to go about it.

Note: At the time of writing, it's still early days as far as Snapchat geofilters go for business. All geofilters must be approved by Snapchat before going live, so I'd recommend planning well in advance so that any geofilters tied to a time-constrained promotion go off without a hitch. Need to know how to create a Snapchat geofilter? Check out my guide: How to Create A Snapchat Geofilter Tutorial + Photoshop & Illustrator Templates (.psd and .ai).

1. To celebrate your heritage

DK's Donuts is a family-run Donut shop in LA with a history that stretches back over 30 years. It uses its Snapchat geofilter to celebrate its staying power and prestige.

2. As a check-in method

Plenty of businesses encourage customers to check-in on apps like Facebook and Instagram whle at their locations, resulting in the spreading of awareness for the brand. As an alternative, you can ask users to unlock and snap using your custom Snapchat geofilter as a way to check-in.

3. To celebrate a season or occasion

Boston College has used a geofilter to encourage fans to spread Christmas cheer, but you could use them for any ocassion - celebrating a company milestone, launching a new product or promotion, welcoming a new member of staff, etc. Just pair the snap with an image that people will want to re-snap and away you go.

4. As a contest entry

Snapchat geofilters present the perfect opportunity to anchor a social media contest and drive customers to visit your business. As a means of entry, ask fans to visit your store or another location of your choice, activate and snap at you using the geofilter.

5. To unlock a special offer


Similar to the previous strategy, you could encourage customers to snap using your geofilter as a means to unlock a special offer - e.g., 10% off their purchase on the day they visit.

Over to you

Are you going to experiment with Snapchat geofilters for your business? Do you have any other ideas about how they can be used for marketing on social media? Let me know in the comments below!


Andrew Macarthy is a social media consultant and the author of the #1 Amazon Web Marketing Bestseller, 500 Social Media Marketing Tips.

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How to Create A Snapchat Geofilter Tutorial + Photoshop & Illustrator Templates (.psd and .ai)

Do you want to learn how to make a Snapchat geofilter? I'll show you how, with links to download the geofilter image template for Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, too. Snapchat allows anybody to create a geofilter and upload it for the community to discover; a privelege that was once only granted to members of the Snapchat team.

Note: The following tutorial shows steps for individual Snapchat users. The image-creation process is the same for businesses, but you will need to submit the completed image via an alternative method when you're done - click here for that form. Businesses can use geofilters an alternative form of check-ins - and other means - so it'll be cool to see how things pan out.

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5 Nifty Facebook Page Tips to Work Smarter and Boost Engagement

Are you looking for some quick and easy ways to manage your Facebook Page more efficiently and help to increase engagement at the same time? I can't promise that the following 5 tips are immediately going to cause your performance to rocket off the charts, but it's the small changes that result in the bigger, better end result, right? :) Let's get to it...

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