With all duties a business owner has on an average working day, do you find time to stay on top of your social media tasks as well? If the answer is no, then you need to start doing something about it right away.
Social media management is not an easy job at all. You need to create and publish content, analyze data, draw out reports, not to mention responding to comments and messages. At first glance, it may not seem much, but when these tasks keep piling up, it can be easy to fall behind schedule and make a mess out of everything.
Luckily, there are a bunch of amazing social media management tools that aim to help both marketers and those less skilled in digital marketing streamline their workflows, safe time and ensure the content they publish reaches the right audience. This article titled Solving the 8 Most Common Issues With Social Media Marketing Plans does a stellar job explain how automation can help you stay ahead of schedule when it comes to social media management, so it’s worth giving it a try.
The fact that there are so many options to choose from when it comes to social media management tools can be both a blessing and a curse, as it is very hard to decide on the one that is right for you. That’s why you need to do your due diligence and research thoroughly before making your choice.
To help you out, below, we will be showcasing some of the best tools out there so that you can pick the one that best suits your business.
Hootsuite
Hootsuite is probably the most popular social media marketing tool, as it is used by over 15 million people from all over the world and no less than 800 of the Fortune 1000 companies.
This is an all-in-one platform that is used for curating and scheduling content, running ads, measuring ROI, and plenty of other marketing activities. It allows you to simultaneously manage multiple accounts, connect over 25 social networks and schedule posts for all of them.
One of the areas where Hootsuite excels is analytics, as you have more than 200 metrics to measure your performance and understand the results. Once your reports are generated, you can export in a number of formats and use them within your organization.
Sprout Social
This tool is pretty similar to Hootsuite, as it combines a variety of social media tools in one single place to help you keep track of everything more comfortable. You can schedule posts, keep an eye on the metrics, draw out reports, and build better customer relationships. Actually, Sprout Social’s reports are so good that many marketers have downloaded them and sent them directly to their clients, as there were no needs for any edits.
What Sprout Social brings new to the table is the integration of CRM features directly into the tool. This is something very few social media management tools do, but having a complete profile of your customers and the ability to communicate with them, all in one place, helps you save time and strengthen your relationships with the audience.
Zoho Social
Zoho Social can only be used for managing Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google My Business, but to be honest, these are all the tools you need for an effective social media marketing campaign. You can allow it to queue updates automatically and post to all your accounts simultaneously.
This tool’s main features are much similar to other tools on our lists, but what sets Zoho Social apart is its impressive team features. If you have to collaborate with someone on social media management, then this is the go-to tool for you. The standard plan lets you include two team members, and you can add more users for a mere $10/month per user. This way, each person has their own account, and you won’t have to worry about sharing important passwords.
Iconosquare
Iconosquare is one of the most comprehensive Instagram management tools and is aimed almost entirely at business accounts and Facebook pages. The tool helps you monitor content, publish scheduled posts, and analyze visual content. The modern dashboard hints this tool was designed with the social media generation in mind, and navigating through features is as streamlined as possible, to provide a clean look and stellar user experience.
The tool allows you to schedule content in advance for Instagram and Facebook, and after you’ve filled up your queue, you can even preview your account to see if the new post matches your overall aesthetic. This is especially useful for those who want to keep a cohesive style on all their social media accounts.
Edgar
What Edgar does differently from other social media management tools is that instead of adding up all the content you plan on sharing in a single queue, it splits it up into different categories and adds a publishing time for each category. This helps you target specific niches separately and get the most out of every update you post. When the case asks for it, Edgar can also automatically repost an update, to ensure it reaches an even wider range of audience.
The tool supports three of the main social media platforms: Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, so it is suited for those who want to make the most out of these popular networks.
Sendible
If you want to engage with your audience, oversee your brand, and track metrics in one single dashboard, then Sendible is exactly what you need. The tool is equipped with a priority inbox, where all your social media messages, no matter the platform, are kept in one place so that you can easily monitor and respond to them.
You can schedule content either individually or in bulk, and all your posts are kept in an interactive calendar so that you can keep track of everything and observe which type of content performs best. There is also a content recommendation engine that analyzes your existing posts and suggests the type of content that is most probable to keep users engaged. Sendible also has a variety of pre-designed reporting templates, so that you can draw out comprehensive reports to share with team members, managers, and clients.
