7 Social Media Management Tools to Grow Your Online Presence

7 Social Media Management Tools to Grow Your Online Presence

Let's get down to brass tacks – what are social media management tools? They are apps and software that help businesses and individuals streamline and optimise their social media presence across multiple platforms.

Instead of logging into each account individually to post, schedule, monitor, and analyse your social content, these handy tools put everything in one convenient dashboard. Talk about a huge time-saver!

But it gets better. Most social media management platforms go way beyond just scheduling posts. The best ones offer powerful features like:

1. Content curation and idea generation to overcome writer's block
2. Analytics tracking to monitor your performance metrics
3. Team collaboration and workflow tools to avoid social media chaos
4. Automated post publishing across your networks on an optimal schedule
5. Engagement tracking to see who's interacting with your content
6. Competitor monitoring to keep tabs on the Joneses
7. Lead generation and customer service functionality

They're like having an entire social media marketing team rolled into one slick software package, perfect for small businesses and solopreneurs who need to do more with less. But even big brands use them to centralise and professionalise their social efforts.

Why Are They So Important?

Look, mastering social media marketing is challenging in 2024. Your audience expects constant value-packed multimedia content tailored to each network. Not only that, but they want to interact with timely, on-brand messaging in real time.

Trying to juggle it all manually is a recipe for burnout, inconsistency, and mediocre results. At worst, you risk embarrassing social media flubs that go viral for all the wrong reasons. Eek!

But with an excellent social media management tool powering your online presence, you can organise your entire content strategy and execution from a single hub. Less juggling, less scrambling, less pulling out your hair when you forget to post for days on Instagram (don't lie, we've all been there).

How Do They Benefit Your Business?

The advantages are pretty straightforward if you think about it:

• Consistency – Maintain a professional, reliable brand voice across channels.
• Efficiency – Automate tedious tasks and workflows to save precious time.
• Growth – Leverage powerful analytics tools to optimise and expand your reach.
• Teamwork – Centralise all social activity for seamless collaboration.
• What's not to love? Using these tools correctly is a total game-changer for your social media ROI.

The Key Features To Look For

Not all social media management tools are created equal. There's a vast range of capabilities and pricing. So, knowing what core features to prioritise is essential based on your specific needs and budget.

Content Creation and Curation

First, you'll want the functionality to help spark content ideas and quickly find share-worthy articles, images, videos, etc. After all, the success of your social strategy depends entirely on having a constant flow of quality content. But constantly churning out fresh social posts from scratch is beyond challenging – it's damn near impossible!

Look for tools with AI-powered integrated content suggestion engines, trending topics, and RSS feeds. They'll surface timely, relevant ideas and allow easy content curation from around the web. Major timesaver!

Scheduling and Publishing

The heart of any social media manager lies in its post-scheduling capabilities. You'll need a visual content calendar to plan your posts and schedule optimal send times. The same goes for republishing evergreen content and automatically recycling top-performing posts.

Pro tip: Look for a tool that can automatically stagger posts across your accounts so they're not broadcasting the same content simultaneously. You want each update to feel like a natural, real-time conversation – not annoying spam blasts.

Monitoring and Analytics

What good is all your carefully crafted social media content if you're not measuring its performance? That's where robust monitoring and reporting comes in.

At a minimum, you'll want a tool that compiles all your post analytics in one unified dashboard – engagement metrics, click rates, follower growth, impressions, conversions, etc. The best platforms tap advanced AI to automatically highlight key takeaways and areas for optimisation.

You should also be able to monitor your brand's social mentions, comments, and DMs from the same interface. That way, you can celebrate the wins (like viral user-generated content!) and quickly respond to anything negative before it escalates.

Collaboration and Client Approvals

If you work with a remote team or manage social media for multiple clients, look for tools with built-in collaboration workflows. Things like:

• Shared content calendars with scheduled time slots
• Application roles and permissions for different team members
• Internal commenting threads for each post
• Approval request functionality with audit trails

This keeps everyone on the same page and prevents embarrassing social media snafus from slipping through the cracks.

Content Libraries and Asset Management

As your social channels expand, wrangling all your on-brand visuals, videos, and approved content pieces gets unwieldy, especially if you constantly email assets between designers, copywriters, community managers, and clients.

That's why cloud-based content libraries and integrations with services like Google Drive are clutch. They centralise all your digital assets and make them easily accessible to everyone who needs them – a huge efficiency win.

Competitive Analysis and Industry Tracking

Knowledge is power on social media. Innovative brands stay one step ahead of competitors by monitoring what they're up to online, sharing, and promoting. The best tools offer robust competitive tracking features for this very purpose.

Similarly, audience segmentation and social listening allow you to track the latest crazes, trending hashtags, and viral topics most relevant to your industry. That way, you can craft timely content that capitalises on hot opportunities before they fizzle out.

Top Social Media Management Tools

Whew, that's a lot to consider! To make your research easier, here's a quick rundown of some of the most popular and well-rounded social media management tools:

Hootsuite

This is the big kahuna that practically invented the category. Hootsuite checks most boxes in terms of features and cross-network support. Its intuitive dashboard is super user-friendly, letting you simultaneously monitor and bulk schedule posts across all your channels.

It offers robust content curation, post-approval workflows, and basic CRM capabilities. However, its analytics and team collaboration features are where Hootsuite shines. All for a very reasonable price point aimed at small businesses.

Buffer

Clean, simple, and zero learning curve – that's what makes Buffer so popular. Its no-frills scheduling interface and content analytics are ideal for solopreneurs, freelancers, and small teams. Don't expect all the bells and whistles of a more robust social suite.

Where Buffer excels is its browser extensions and mobile apps that let you quickly share content across your channels from anywhere on the web. There are also affordable add-ons for extra features like more social analytics and post-approval workflows.

Sprout Social

Sprout is what you'd call the ‘premium' social media management platform. Its toolset covers everything from engagement monitoring and competitive analysis to advanced team performance reporting. All are presented in an elegant, intuitive interface.

It's particularly well-suited for social media agencies and larger teams that need robust collaboration tools, social CRM, asset libraries, and monitoring across every social network. As you'd expect, Sprout is on the pricier side. But they offer unparalleled hands-on onboarding and support.

SocialPilot

This all-in-one platform packs a ton of powerful capabilities into a surprisingly affordable package. It's a great happy medium between basic schedulers like Buffer and enterprise-level tools like Sprout Social.

In addition to solid scheduling and analytics features, SocialPilot offers content curation, client management, and even built-in graphic design and video creation tools. It has more of a learning curve than some other options. But its value for small teams and agencies is tough to beat.

Agorapulse

Designed specifically with social media managers and agencies in mind, Agorapulse helps streamline every aspect of servicing clients. At its core is a shared calendar and unified inbox that keeps your team organised and responsive.

In particular, users rave about its quality assurance features like content approval workflows and audit trails. You also get vital monitoring and engagement tools across Facebook, Instagram, X, LinkedIn and YouTube. Downside? It's one of the pricier options out there.

Loomly

What sets Loomly apart is its emphasis on brand consistency, audience-building, and meaningful engagements (not just empty vanity metrics). It has a “conversation calendar” view that's super helpful for mapping out timely, relevant content for each social channel.

There are also built-in post personalisation, flexible scheduling options, and intelligent hashtag suggestions to boost reach. While less full-featured than some competitors, Loomly focuses on the core functions social media managers need most.

eClincher

If you want a cost-effective tool with all the essentials plus some unique advanced capabilities, give eClincher a look. On the basics, you have auto-publishing, social analytics, content curation, and unified inboxes. But it also includes nifty extras like:

• Built-in multimedia studio for editing photos, GIFs, and videos
• Search engine and YouTube integration for channel discovery
• Auto-comment tools to save time engaging on social
• Instagram hashtag and location auto-targeting

For the price, there's an impressive breadth of functionality packed into eClincher's reasonably priced plans.

Tips for Choosing The Right Tool

With all the different social media management tools available, picking the best fit for your needs can be challenging. Here are some tips to narrow down your search:

1. Prioritise the 2-3 core features that are absolute must-haves (scheduling, monitoring, approvals, etc.)
2. Double-check that the tool supports all the social networks you're active on
3. Look for training resources and how well they integrate with your existing software stack.
4. Don't get upsold on features you'll never use; focus on what solves your most significant pain points first.
5. Pay attention to user feedback on the software's ease of use, interface, bugs, and support quality.
6. If pricing is an issue, look for limited free plans to test it out before committing.

Your social media management tool purchase comes down to balancing your needs and budget. Going for the most full-featured (and expensive) solution is tempting. But you're better off paying for only what you'll genuinely use versus overspending on bells and whistles.

Best Practices For Using Social Management Tools

Simply investing in a social tool isn't enough to guarantee social media marketing success. You also need to follow some tried-and-true best practices for using the software effectively:

1. Use the content creation/curation features to plan a steady stream of timely, relevant posts (not just one-off bursts of activity).
2. Change your post types and formats to encourage engagement (photos, questions, stories, videos, etc.).
3. Schedule posts for promotion when your audience is most active online (use the tool's optimal send time features!).
4. Create separate, tailor-made content streams for each social network you manage.
5. Monitor for brand mentions, timely opportunities, and audience feedback across channels.
6. Utilise the reporting features to analyse performance metrics and refine your strategy.
7. Leverage workflows and collaboration features to maintain a consistent brand voice and approval processes.

Done right, your social media management tool gives you a mission control centre for taking your online presence to new heights.

Getting Buy-In From Your Team

Of course, investing in new software is always a process that involves getting buy-in from your team and overcoming potential resistance to change.

Here are some tips to smooth that process when adopting social media management tools:

• Communicate the ROI potential of the tool (efficiencies, growth, teamwork, etc.) upfront.
• Involve key stakeholders and power users in the evaluation and selection process.
• Create processes for training, workflow changes, permissions, etc before rollout.
• Start small by only implementing the core features you need first before rolling out more capabilities.
• Celebrate quick wins to build momentum and emphasise how the tool makes people's jobs easier, not harder.

Change management is crucial for successful technology adoption. But if you make the rollout process collaborative and focused on tangible benefits, you're far more likely to get enthusiastic adoption across your organisation.

How To Choose The Right Management Tool For Your Business

Consider Your Overall Social Strategy

Start by taking a step back and looking at your overall social media marketing goals. Are you focused purely on brand awareness and engagement? Or do you need tools for customer acquisition, ecommerce, and lead nurturing, too?

Some social media management platforms emphasise things like shoppable posts and conversion tracking more than others. Likewise, publishing capabilities may be more robust than monitoring certain product features (or vice versa). Define your key objectives first.

Take Stock Of Your Resources

How many social channels do you actively manage? What kind of content creation bandwidth does your team have? What are your social ad spending and promotion budgets?

More robust tools (and their higher price points) may be justifiable if you're running an enterprise-level social operation with multiple managers and clients. But smaller teams can likely get by with leaner, more affordable options.

Define Your Team's Workflow Needs

How much oversight, collaboration, and approvals do your social media workflow require? Do you need granular permission settings for different team roles? What compliance controls are necessary for your industry?

These considerations are crucial since many tools handle these areas very differently. For instance, some focus more on client approval workflows, while others emphasise internal team collaboration.

Prioritise Your Feature Requirements

Make a checklist of must-have features upfront based on your use cases. For instance:

• Sophisticated content scheduling and calendar management
• High-level social listening and monitoring capabilities
• Automated reporting dashboards and performance analytics
• Integrated design tools for multimedia content creation
• Social CRM and sales enablement functionality

The goal is to get the toolset you need to power your strategy without overpaying for extraneous bloat. Sometimes, it's better to adopt point solutions for niche needs rather than an all-in-one platform.

Future-Proof Your Choice

As your social media efforts grow, so will your technology needs. Don't get locked into a tool that will soon become outdated or maxed out.

Look closely at the vendor's product roadmap, scalability options, and integration ecosystem. The right choice now should also accommodate larger teams, increased workloads, expanded channel coverage, and more advanced use cases for years to come.

Keep Implementation and Training In Mind

Even the best social media management tool is only helpful if your team can effectively adopt and utilise it. During the evaluation process, judge each solution on:

• Ease of use and learning curve for non-technical users
• Quality of customer support, training resources, and knowledge bases
• Integration with your existing tech stack and services (design, CRM, analytics, project management apps, etc.)
• Processes for migrating historical social data, assets, and accounts

A straightforward implementation strategy and training plan make all the difference when launching new software.

The Science and Art of Social Media Management

Effective social media marketing requires a potent combination of technology and creativity.

On the tech side, social media management tools help companies finally gain control over their disjointed online activities through unified publishing, analytics, monitoring, and collaboration.

However, no amount of software automation can ever replace the art and strategic decision-making that informs excellent social media marketing. That's the beauty of these tools – they handle the tedious legwork while freeing you up to focus on the high-level creativity and audience engagement that moves the needle.

So, use social media management tools for the critical behind-the-scenes workflows that make your day-to-day efforts more impactful. Then, concentrate your human energy on crafting a holistic social strategy that resonates with the right people at the correct times across the proper channels.

The modern social media management landscape may feel complicated. But with the right tools in your arsenal, reaching your goals becomes much more efficient (and enjoyable).

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