(Forbes - Advisor) - Today, a social media marketing campaign is a crucial component of any content marketing strategy. Posting to several accounts multiple times a day, however, can be time-consuming.
Smart social media marketing managers use social media management software to schedule content and automate posting. Social media management tools can allow users to publish, monitor and manage all their social media networks from one dashboard.
Save time and improve the effectiveness of your social campaigns with the best social media management software in our comprehensive guide. Forbes Advisor has reviewed more than a dozen companies and ranked them by value, features and customer ratings to bring you the best options on the market.
Top social media management software 2023
- Zoho Social: Best for individual creators
- Buffer: Best on a budget
- Hootsuite: Best for many platforms
- SocialPilot: Best for TikTok
- Sprout Social: Best for analytics
What is social media management software?
Social media management software enables users to connect multiple social media accounts and post social media content in advance to those accounts from a single interface. For example, it allows a restaurant marketing manager to schedule posts to the restaurant’s Twitter, Facebook, TikTok and Instagram accounts a week, a month or even a year in advance. Social media management software also typically includes features such as analytics tools, brand awareness campaign tools and communication tools to help marketing departments use social media marketing campaigns to their fullest potential.
How to choose the best social media management tools
It can be overwhelming determining which social media management tool is right for you because of the large number of software options available. The best way to choose the right tool for you is to start with clarifying your priorities and goals when it comes to social media. How many social media outlets can you realistically create content for on a consistent basis? How many hours per week do you want to devote to social media? How much of your budget do you want to devote to social media? Once you answer these questions it will be easier to search through the software features that will coincide with your priorities.
Essential features
Your social media management tools should help you capture the eye of new followers and drive engagement with your current followers. To do this, you need to post often and know when to post at the best time. There are a few features that will help you do this.
- Platform integration. Keeping up with your Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest and other social media sites is too much. When looking for a social media management software, make sure it enables you to manage all your social media platforms from one single dashboard.
- Content calendar. A visual content calendar helps you plan all your social media posts and social media campaigns and for a specific period of time. This helps save time, organise your social media marketing plan, track how your social media content is performing and helps create consistency in posting. This will help you plan a week’s, month’s or even a year’s worth of social media content all at once.
- Scheduling tools. Scheduling tools are one of the most important features of a good social media management software. Once you have mapped out what you will post in a certain time period, it is helpful to schedule those posts all at once. Automatically scheduling posts ahead of time frees up your time to concentrate on creating engaging content.
- Post optimisation tool. Scheduling great content won’t move the needle unless you are posting it when your ideal audience is online to see it. Because social media audiences vary, so do optimal posting times for your specific social media audience. Finding a social media management tool that is able to share your content at a time that fits best for your unique audience will ensure your content gets in front of as many people as possible.
- Analytics and reporting tools. Analytics is critical in determining what social media strategies are working and what social media strategies are not working.
- Keyword monitoring. No one can be on social media all the time, which is where keyword monitoring tools come into play. Keyword monitoring allows you to find all the conversations where your brand is mentioned so you can join the dialogue if you choose.
Managed account types and amounts
These days, most social media management software companies integrate with the top social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and LinkedIn. SocialPilot was one of the first to integrate with the popular video-sharing platform TikTok, however, slowly but surely, most of the other software platforms have as well.
Not all social media management software platforms integrate with the multiplatform messaging app WhatsApp. While some platforms such as Buffer and SproutSocial allow users to schedule and push text, images, audio, video and PDF automatically to their customers on WhatsApp, other platforms such as Zoho Social do not.
Company size / team size
Company size will help determine what features you need in your social media management software. For example, if you are a solopreneur in charge of managing your own Instagram and TikTok accounts, you will have much different software needs than a social media manager managing all eight separate social media platforms for 10 different brands.
Solopreneurs or time-strapped marketing managers in charge of their company’s social media channels will look for a software platform that has several automation features. Automation tools help save time by scheduling posts in advance, automatically sharing new blog posts to your preferred social media platforms and customising posts per social media platform. Along with the set-it-and-forget-it social media scheduler, an affordable price is also important for small businesses. Some social media management software such as Buffer have a robust free plan that might be more than suitable for solopreneurs or small businesses to manage their social media accounts.
Social media managers who run large accounts or those who manage accounts for several companies or brands tend to work with teams. If this is the case for you, it is important to find a social media management software that will allow team members to work together without stepping on anyone’s toes or doubling efforts. Some team collaborating features to look for when comparing social media management software are:
- Assign roles to different team members
- Assign tasks to different team members
- Account permissions to give team members different levels of authority over the account
- Collision detection tools to avoid a situation where multiple team members send duplicate or conflicting responses when replying to the same message
Reporting and analytics
If you are going to put time and energy into creating social media content, it is important to know if that social media content is working for you. Most social media management software include reporting and analytic tools. These tools can help you decipher your social media strategy’s return on investment. It can answer questions such as whether it is advantageous to continue to post on Twitter, what social media post garnered the most engagement, how many followers you gain every month on Facebook and which network drove the most brand awareness for a particular product launch.
Hootsuite’s reporting capabilities are some of the best on the market. The platform gives users a 360-degree view of all social networks from one dashboard where you can set performance benchmarks and monitor improvements over time. Hootsuite users can also create customisable reports, get updates on the best times to post to optimise the best results and easy-to-read graphs on how your social media channels and campaigns drive leads, conversions and sales.
Sprout Social is another platform with power analytics and reporting tools. The software enables users to set certain demographic and geographic measurements to measure how their audience is engaging with their content. Sprout can monitor keywords across all social media alerting users when their name is mentioned, analyse audience growth, demographics, engagement and impressions across all social media platforms. Sprout Social even allows users to compare their social media performance to their competitor’s social media performance.
Free vs. paid software
Several top social media management software platforms, including the ones we outlined here, have a forever-free plan. Generally, these plans have limited features and functions. They may limit the number of social media accounts you can post to, limit the number of users allowed on your plan or restrict 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 Zoho Social’s browser extension, zShare, and the ability to add one team member to their Zoho Social Portal.
While these limitations may not be an issue when you are first getting started, they can limit your ability to scale unless you upgrade to a paid plan. When signing up for a free plan, it is important to research the software’s paid plans. Do they contain the features you think you will need as you grow your business? How affordable is its basic plan versus its most expensive plan? When making a business plan for the next five years, when do you think you will need to upgrade to a paid social media management software and what software features do you think will be most important for your business? Try to find software that has a free plan for the time being, but also has paid plans that will help you meet your company’s future goals.
What does social media management software cost?
The cost of social media management software varies depending on several factors including number of users, number of social media channels, analytic features, automation features and more. Buffer is one of the more affordable software platforms. Buffer’s paid plans start at £4.78 ($6)* per month per channel and include planning and publishing tools, analytics tools, engagement tools and a landing page builder. Its most expensive plan, the Agency plan, is £95.64 ($120)* per month for 10 channels and includes unlimited team members and clients along with draft collaboration tools.
Sprout Social’s paid plans start at £198.45 ($249)* per month for five social media channels and include an all-in-one social inbox to monitor comments across the social media channels, a social content calendar and profiles, keywords and locations monitoring. For £318 ($399)* a month, its Professional plan includes unlimited social media channels, competitive reports for Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, scheduling for optimal send times, response rate and time analysis reports and more.
How much you spend on your social media management software depends on how much revenue you generate from social media. If your business only posts a few times a week to a few social media channels, it might not be a smart idea to buy the most expensive plan with all the automation and analytical bells and whistles. However, if you are an e-commerce store that posts multiple times a day to multiple channels, purchasing an all-inclusive plan that will help you post at the ideal time, respond to multiple customers throughout the day and track your social media ROI is probably worth the extra money.
Methodology
Posting great content is just part of a cohesive social media marketing plan. Marketers must also be able to interpret the results of marketing campaigns. More advanced software plans should include features that analyse results of individual posts, suggest Twitter hashtags, track relevant social conversations and gain real-time insights from social media to make business decisions.
To choose the best social media management software for this article’s ranking, Forbes Advisor compared each company based on important factors that include ease of use, cost and fees, customer support and features and functionality. We ranked each company on these factors based on a rating system, with the highest score being five out of five stars.
Here’s what we looked at to compile the rankings in each category.
- Ease of use. First and foremost, we looked for social media management software that are easy to use and navigate.
- Cost and fees. Social media management software with free versions were given preference in our ranking, although free trials also influenced our views. Plans with high ongoing costs were included if the features and functions provided a good value in return.
- Customer support. We looked at companies and compared them based on their customer support options, including whether clients have access to live customer support.
- Features and functionality. Finally, we compared social media management software companies based on their functions and features, giving preference to programs with the best features and tools for their ideal client base.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What are the best social media management tools?
Hootsuite, Sprout Social and Buffer are three of the top social media management tools on the market today. Hootsuite is ideal for all companies that use all social media channels while Sprout Social has great analytics features. Buffer is a great option for companies looking for an affordable social media management software.
What is the purpose of social media management software tools?
Social media management software allows users to post content in advance to various social media accounts from a single user interface. Additional features such as analytics tools, brand awareness campaign tools and communication tools are also available depending on the software company and plan.
Why are social media management tools important?
Social media management tools allow marketing managers, small business owners and content creators to save time by scheduling social media posts in advance to multiple accounts, view top-level metrics and generate viable leads from social media.
What types of social media tools are there?
Social media is always evolving as are the social media tools companies can use to streamline their social media workflow. New social media tools include content curation tools, social media scheduling apps, content creation tools and social media analytics tools.
How do I manage multiple social media accounts?
Managing multiple social media accounts does not have to be overwhelming. Social media management software such as Hootsuite and Sprout Social make managing multiple accounts easy with content creation calendars, features that help automate postings and chatbots to respond to messages.
How do I manage a business social media account?
To manage a business social media account properly, you must understand the company’s brand, its target audience and its business goals for the social media account. Then create a monthly and yearly content calendar to help achieve those business goals, post engaging content and analyse the social media metrics to determine if your content is helping you meet your business goals.
What is community management in social media?
Community management is using social media to build an active online community to foster brand loyalists. Managing an online community requires constant monitoring of social media channels, engagement with customers, prospects and influencers and measuring feedback.
Jennifer Simonson | Contributor
Rob Watts | Editor
June 9, 2023
Jennifer Simonson started her journalism career at a Denver-area weekly newspaper in 2001. Since then she has covered everything under the sun from politics to businesses to the wine industry to international travel. Outdoor adventure, water parks and all things Texas are by far her favorite beats. Her work has appeared in Travel + Leisure, Texas Monthly, Smithsonian Magazine, Fodor's, Lonely Planet, Slate and more. You can follow her adventures through her IG account @storiestoldwell.
