With so many software options available, it can be difficult to decide which social media management tool is right for you. The best way to choose the right tool for you is to start by clarifying your priorities and goals when it comes to social media. How many social media outlets are there that you can realistically create content for on a consistent basis? How many hours a week do you want to spend on social media? How much of your budget do you want to devote to social media? Answering these questions Once you know the answer, you can easily search for software features that match your priorities.
essential features
Social media management tools can help you attract new followers and increase engagement with your current followers. To do this, you need to post often and know when is the best time to post. There are several features that can help you do this.
- Platform integration: It can be exhausting to keep up with social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and Pinterest. When looking for social media management software, make sure you can manage all your social media platforms from one dashboard.
- Content calendar: A visual content calendar helps you plan all your social media posts and social media campaigns in a specific time period. This will help you save time, organize your social media marketing plan, track the performance of your social media content, and be consistent with your posts. This will help you plan out a week, a month, or even a year's worth of social media content at once.
- Scheduling tools: Scheduling tools are one of the most important features of a good social media management software. Once you've planned out what to post during a certain time period, it's helpful to schedule those posts all at once. Automatically scheduling posts in advance frees up your time to focus on creating engaging content.
- Post optimization tools: Scheduling great content won't change anything unless you post it when your ideal audience is online to watch it. Social media audiences vary, so set a posting time that works best for your specific social media audience. Finding a social media management tool that lets you share content at the right time to your unique audience will ensure your content reaches as many people as possible.
- Analysis and reporting tools: Analytics are important in determining which social media strategies are working and which are not.
- Keyword monitoring: Not everyone has access to social media all the time, which is where keyword monitoring tools come into play. Keyword monitoring allows you to find all conversations where your brand is mentioned, so you can join the conversation if you want.
Managed account type and amount
These days, most social media management software companies integrate with top social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and LinkedIn. SocialPilot was one of the first companies to integrate with the popular video sharing platform TikTok. However, slowly but surely, the same thing is happening with most other software platforms.
Not all social media management software platforms integrate with the multiplatform messaging app WhatsApp. While some platforms like Buffer and SproutSocial allow users to schedule text, images, audio, video, and PDFs to automatically push to customers on WhatsApp, others like Zoho Social don't. .
Company size/team size
The size of your company will help determine the features you need in your social media management software. For example, if you are a solopreneur in charge of managing his Instagram or his TikTok account, you are much more likely to be a social media manager who manages all of his 8 separate social media platforms for 10 different brands. You will have different software needs.
Solo entrepreneurs or marketing managers who don't have the time to be responsible for their company's social media channels will look for a software platform with some automation features. Automation tools save time by scheduling posts in advance, automatically sharing new blog posts to your preferred social media platforms, and customizing posts for each social media platform. Just like a set-it-and-forget social media scheduler, affordability is also important for small businesses. Some social media management software, such as Buffer, has powerful free plans that are more than adequate for solopreneurs and small businesses to manage their social media accounts.
Social media managers who run large accounts, or those who manage accounts for multiple companies or brands, tend to work together in teams. If this is the case, it's important to find social media management software that allows team members to collaborate without stepping on anyone's toes or doubling their efforts. Team collaboration features to look for when comparing social media management software include:
- Assign roles to different team members
- Assign tasks to different team members
- Account permissions that give team members different levels of permissions on the account
- Conflict detection tools to avoid situations where multiple team members send duplicate or conflicting responses when replying to the same message
Reports and analysis
If you're going to spend time and energy creating social media content, it's important to know if that social media content is working for you. Most social media management software includes reporting and analysis tools. These tools will help you decipher the return on investment of your social media strategy. Whether it's profitable to keep posting on Twitter, which social media posts get the most engagement, how many followers you get on Facebook each month, and which networks drive the most brand awareness for a particular product launch. You can answer questions such as whether it has increased.
Hootsuite's reporting capabilities are some of the best on the market. The platform gives users a 360-degree view of all their social networks from her one dashboard, allowing them to benchmark performance and monitor improvements over time. Hootsuite users can create customizable reports and receive up-to-date information on the best times to post to optimize for best results and how social media channels and campaigns drive leads, conversions, and sales. You can also get easy-to-read graphs about.
Sprout Social is another platform with power analysis and reporting tools. The software allows users to set specific demographic and geographic measurements to measure how their audience engages with their content. Sprout can monitor keywords across all social media, alert you when your name is mentioned, and analyze audience growth, demographics, engagement, and impressions across all social media platforms. Sprout Social also allows users to compare their social media performance to that of their competitors.
Free and paid software
Several top social media management software platforms have forever free plans, including those outlined here. Generally, these plans have limited features. We may limit the number of social media accounts you can post to, limit the number of users allowed on your plan, and limit your access to analytics. For example, Buffer's forever free plan allows users to schedule content on up to three social media channels. Zoho Social's free plan is more robust, allowing users to post to seven social media channels, as well as access to Zoho Social's browser extension, zShare, and the ability to add one team member to the Zoho Social portal. can.
These limitations may not be an issue when you first start using them, but they can limit your ability to expand unless you upgrade to a paid plan. When signing up for a free plan, it's important to look into the software's paid plans. Does it include the features you think you'll need as your business grows? How affordable are the basic and most expensive plans? When to upgrade to paid social media management software as you plan your business for the next five years Do you think you should? And what software features do you think will be most important to your business? Software that has a free plan for now, but also has paid plans to help your company meet its future goals. Please look for it.
Featured partners
Pricing starting from
Standard price is $249 per month. Professional costs $399 per month.Advanced $499/month
free options
30-day free trial (all plans)
Supported platforms
Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Youtube, TikTok, Pinterest, Reddit, Tumblr, Yelp!, Glassdoor, TripAdvisor, Google My Business, etc.
