A presence on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or even Snapchat for your event is no longer just nice to have — it’s essential. Whether you’re looking to increase the number of tickets you sell or nail down key sponsors, social media is integral to your success. But if you’re not strategic, developing a strong social media strategy can be a drain on your resources.

With so many social media tools at your disposal, it’s hard to know what to choose and how to measure ROI. Here are 4 ways the right social media tools can help you save time and make your social media management less manual and more effective.

1. Plan and schedule more efficiently

To get your post in front of as many eyes as possible, you want to post when most of your audience is online. Create a strategy that not only indicates the right time of day for your posts but also identifies what you’ll be posting and how you’ll measure impact.

You can’t be online twenty-four hours a day, so use tools that can help you plan, organise, and schedule your posts. Here’s one that gives your whole team a clear view of what’s coming up:

• Trello – Trello’s visual planning tool helps teams work collaboratively to build campaigns faster and easier. Moving beyond spreadsheets, the platform streamlines projects and is a low-cost, high-value solution for teams who need to get up and running quickly.

2. Create and curate diverse content

In a study of 25 million tweets about events, Eventbrite found that 40% of posts take place before the event happens. This anticipation creates a lot of excitement and can drive ticket and registration sales.

To keep up that momentum before, during, and after an event, deliver content that inspires readers to visit your event page, buy tickets, and rally their friends. While you should spend time creating your own content, you don’t have to do all the work yourself. If you find a blog post, a video, or photo that’s relevant to your event and your audience, share it.

Need some help curating content? Try out this tool:

• Scoop.it – This content curation service helps you find interesting content. Bookmark a blog post or a video that relates to your topic. Then use Scoop.it’s predictive insights and keyword analysis to generate more suggestions of relevant content that you can easily curate and publish.

3. Build trust through content

When your audience enjoys your content so much they share or like it on social media, you’ve created trust. And when you create trust, people keep coming back for more.

Many organisers have turned to social influencers to create trust through peer-to-peer endorsements. These influencers will generally be people who are extremely active on social media, have sway over their audience, and who share content relevant to your event.

Whether you’re sharing information through an influencer or through your own channels, the details matter. From the typeface you use on your blog to the colours of your graphics — the visual standards and copy that represent your event brand shouldn’t be taken lightly. Use tools to ensure your content looks credible, engaging, and trustworthy.

Not sure how to elevate the visuals on your social media? Check out this tool:

• Canva – Boost your posts as a pro marketer with appealing designs for your social media. Easily make infographics that you can post on your Twitter or LinkedIn feed, or create quote graphics from attendees or headliners at your event.

4. Retarget for more exposure

If you’re spending too much money trying to draw new people to your event page, it’s time to invest in retargeting. Instead of marketing to people who may or may not be interested, you can remind people who’ve already shown interest to buy tickets or register when they’re ready. With retargeting, you can turn more event page visits into ticket sales — up to 6x average ROI.

For example, if somebody engages with an initial post, say a short video introduction about your event, with retargeting, you can then create targets based only people that clicked on that first video.

Videos can be time consuming and expensive. Create engaging retargeting videos with this simple tool:

• Quik – Made by GoPro, Quik is an easy way to make videos right from your phone. Select your photos, choose a template, and easily update your video to Facebook, YouTube, or Twitter.

Today, event marketers have to be on more social networks than ever — and post increasingly higher quality content — to even have a chance at showing up in followers’ feeds. With the right tools, you can increase the quality and quantity of your output.

For more ideas about how the right social media tools can help deliver real results to your event’s bottom line, check out The Best Social Media Tools for Event Marketers.