Does social media sound like a scary prospect for you? You may not understand how to get started, or have already started and are seeing no growth. So many companies still get it wrong, hurting their customer relationships and destroying any potential for future business. You don’t have to be like those companies.
We can help you get social media marketing right and enjoy a new channel to acquire customers as well as an effective means to generate more value from existing ones. If you want to get better with social media marketing, the first place to start is with a social media management platform. This blog will explore the top 4 social media management platforms that you can use to find success on social media.
Let’s get social!
Digital marketing strategies are built on solid factual information, and social media management forms an important part of this. It is the practice that supports your digital and social marketing strategies and explains how your brand will participate. As such, we discuss the top 3 social media management platforms to make this a reality for you.
Simply put, social media management is the management of a complete social media strategy. It’s a little more strategic than social media content posting, as it involves a lot more than posting tweets and replying to comments.
Top 4 social media management platforms
Sprout Social - Best overall social media management platform
The Good
Sprout Social has an excellent dashboard that allows you to manage all your social networks in one place. Moreover, it enables you to utilise social media optimisation tools, has analytics and reports that help you manage your user engagement and return on investment, and has scheduling tools to help make posting content easier.
© 2022 Sprout Social, Inc.
Sprout also offers various scheduling tools and analytics that outpace many other platforms. They also have a mobile app for both Apple and Android, and their paid promotion tools assist in boosting Meta posts. The major benefit comes with the 30 day trial, which allows you to decide whether or not to invest. Currently, the platform supports all major social media platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+, LinkedIn, and Pinterest.
The Bad
However, Sprout Social’s standard plan is quite pricey at $89 per month. There is also a limit on how many social profiles you can manage.
The Verdict
Sprout Social is the best media management platform for general use. The usability, platform features, and analytics across all major social media platforms, also Sprout Social comes with the longest free trial in the business. For all-in-one management, Sprout Social is an excellent choice.
Hootsuite - Best for tracking and analytics
The Good
When it comes to tracking tools and analytics, Hootsuite is the way to go. This software allows you to analyse trends and engagements in real time, and this extends to both regular social media posting and social media ads.
© 2022 Hootsuite Inc.
Professional plans for Hootsuite start at just under $49, making it more than affordable. There is a free plan available as well. With a 30-day trial available, you can see if it suits you - and you are also able to connect to more than 20 social networks.
The Bad
Some cons of Hootsuite include certain analytics reports coming at an additional cost. Plans often end up being costly if you have many social profiles or have a lot of ad spend, and the free plans have limited tools - meaning for the full experience, you would need to go for a paid plan.
The Verdict
Hootsuite offers some of the most comprehensive analytics and social media tracking tools available. This includes customisable and team productivity reporting. While paying for the extra analytics can be costly, having access can be crucial to the efficient running of the businesses that rely on social media for marketing - making it completely worth the investment.
Buffer - most cost effective platform
The Good
Plans for Buffer start at just $5 a month, with a free 14 day trial available to test. There is also a free plan available. As the best budget option, Buffer is ideal for small businesses looking to have a social media management plan without breaking the bank. For that extra $5, the Team Pack allows you to have unlimited access to social channels and users. Either way, you can try it out with the 14 day trial, and you can directly schedule posts to the platforms.
©2022 Buffer
Other core benefits include a link shortener tool and optimisation tools for hashtags, tags, and mentions across all platforms. Free users can connect up to 3 social accounts, including Facebook Pages and groups. All plans come with a browser extension, access to a mobile app, two-factor authentication, and social media and email support.
The Bad
Unfortunately, though, Buffer does not integrate with as many social platforms as its competitors. It only supports Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Pinterest, making it very limited in its application.
The Verdict
Buffer is one of the longest running social media tools and is aimed primarily at scheduling posts. However, it has gone through quite a few updates, shifts, and iterations in the past few years. It is the best budget option for social media management platforms.
HubSpot- Most comprehensive platform
The Good
HubSpot is a legendary name in digital marketing, and their social media offerings are no exception. Their social media management software lets you scale your marketing efforts, and publish, monitor, and report on your success all in one place. Due to their comprehensive, holistic approach to connecting your entire marketing pipeline, you are able to attribute business value to each social media post and advertising campaign.
© 2022 HubSpot, Inc.
It also allows you to publish content to social networks from the same place you build campaigns; set up keyword monitoring so you never miss a mention; and link all your interactions back to your CRM so you have contextual conversations and can report on social media ROI. This makes it easy to build, publish and evaluate your social media efforts from one location and with one tool.
The Bad
The downside to HubSpot’s social media management platform is that it’s available for premium editions of their Marketing Hub. However, this is only a negative if you’re specifically looking for social media management only, as the Marketing Hub is an effective tool in itself.
The Verdict
HubSpot has earned its place as one of the best marketing platforms available. With it’s all-in-one approach to marketing, it enables you to gain an understanding of how each element of your marketing efforts contributes to your success - social media included. If you’re looking for the most effective, comprehensive and holistic social media marketing platform, look no further than HubSpot.
There’s more to ‘like’
Social media is just one platform to reach new customers, but it can be a complicated and involved process for any digital marketer. With so many channels to take care of, many marketers feel overwhelmed when dealing with social media for their own business.
We understand how important a social media sales and marketing campaign is today and how limited budgets or resources can hinder this. As a small company ourselves, we’ve gone through this process but found a way to succeed. That’s why we've spent the last 12 years planning and implementing award-winning integrated campaigns for B2B clients worldwide.
Contact us for a quick 30 minute meeting and we will present you with an integrated marketing campaign plan with the right messages, channels, audience and content to use, to make success an assurance.