6 Great Social Media Tools for Business Development

Just a few decades ago, almost all business-development happened over the phone or during in-person meetings. Today, however, nearly all aspects of human life are increasingly occurring online – and that includes sales. Now, you can grow your business from virtually anywhere. Social-media networks are modern communications channels that can be used to reach targeted audiences for a variety of purposes – customer service, lead generation, brand awareness, and more.

Sounds like life has become easier, right? Well, not exactly. Just as you can sell from any place on the planet that has a fast Internet connection – so can your competitors. As a result, it is crucial to stay one step ahead and be as nimble, quick, and efficient as possible. And that means using the right set of tools to maximize the benefits of using social media.

Here, I wanted to list five of the social-networking tools that I like to use or am considering using for business development for my strategic marketing and PR firm, The Cline Group. I hope they will help you as well!

1. Nimble – This mobile app gathers social connections and a lot more all into one place so people can engage with prospects and leads while “on the go.”
2. Rapportive – If you or your company uses Gmail or Gmail-based e-mail address, then this tool shows the LinkedIn and other social-media profiles of the people with whom you are e-mailing (whether for sales-related purposes or anything else).
3. Social Grow – Once you connect your e-mail address and personal social-media profiles to this app, the tool will then suggest potential contacts on those social networks based on the people with whom you have been communicating. That business lead who you just e-mailed? He might have a Facebook friend who would also be interested in what you are offering.
4. Hootsuite and TweetDeck – These allow you to search for a given word or phrase and see a continuous stream to tweets that include that term. Here’s a basic example. A local pizza restaurant might want to save a stream of tweets that are within a certain radius and contain phrases such as “hungry for pizza.” Then, the pizzeria could tweet a coupon or something similar. Just be original for what may work for your business.
5. Oktopost – This tool is popular among B2B businesses because has functionalities that are specific to B2B businesses that want to market on social networks such as LinkedIn. For example, Oktopost can post directly in LinkedIn Groups – and in many of them at a staggered pace – and also provide content recommendations based on what has been popular in the past.

Have any other suggestions on what tools to use on social media for business development? I encourage you to add them in the comments below!

Josh Cline is President and CEO of The Cline Group, President and CEO of Cline Ventures, and General Partner of INE Ventures. You can see more of his thoughts here. Follow him on Twitter.