Social media management applications are software tools that allow organizations to manage social media-related activities across the enterprise. Although several of these tools attempt to handle the full range of social-related activity, many have particular strengths in one or more areas and companies often use more than one product to manage social media efforts.
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Social media management software (SMMS) is a suite of tools designed for managing and analyzing online social interactions. SMMS products typically provide a single dashboard that displays engagement metrics for multiple social media accounts. This is helpful for companies that need to manage their brand presence on different platforms. It is also helpful for agencies that manage social profiles for multiple clients.
Tools that specialize in social media customer service will provide a shared inbox where employees or service reps can view all customer interactions and inquiries across social channels. This provides businesses with a unified view of customer engagement with their brand online.
There are both social media point solutions, such as social media monitoring, publishing, customer care, marketing, or analytics and larger SMMS suites available in the market. Companies have the choice of using more than one point solution to manage their social media activities or investing in a more comprehensive social media management platform.
Though products have different strengths, most social media management suites include at least basic features around:
Companies leverage social media channels in different ways. Businesses may be using social platforms for reputation management, customer service, customer advocacy programs, collecting product feedback, and market research. Here are five key social media use cases, with the relevant feature sets.
Social media platforms contain a vast amount of information about individuals’ behavior and online activity. Conversations happen among your customers and potential customers “in the wild” on these platforms. Many companies use a social media monitoring tool for social listening. This means tracking brand mentions and competitor activity.
Social listening helps businesses discover more about their target market. It can also help them understand customer expectations and employee sentiment, and provide ideas for product development.
Features related to social media listening include:
You can find tools with a focus on social media monitoring here.
Many companies use social media to communicate with customers and leads. Along with text-based posts, many businesses publish content relevant to their target audience on social platforms. Different social channels are also prime real estate for advertising or retargeting campaigns. All of these activities provide companies with a social way to connect with current and future customers.
Features related to social media publishing include:
You can find tools with strong social media publishing features here.
More and more customers, both B2C and B2B, expect to resolve issues via social media. In response, many companies run social customer care programs using these tools.
Features related to engaging with customer issues on social media include:
You can find tools with strong social media customer service features here.
Some companies integrate social media into their overall marketing strategy. Those that do will need an additional set of marketing capabilities. Simply scheduling content won’t be enough. A key set of capabilities that are essential to running an integrated social media marketing strategy including the planning, execution, management, and analysis of cross-channel campaigns.
Features related to social media marketing include:
You can find tools with strong social media marketing features here.
Companies with comprehensive social media programs will want to measure and optimize the performance of their social activities.
Features related to social media analytics include:
You can find tools with strong social media analytics here.
An important part of picking the best SMMS tool for your business is understanding how well a particular product supports your use case. To help you assess what type of social media management tool to invest in, consider these five key factors:
The social media management platforms that encompass multiple use cases are some of the best-suited tools for larger enterprises. Advanced analytics and reporting and APIs for integration with third-party software are especially crucial features for enterprises.
Enterprise-level platforms also offer more:
Smaller organizations typically don’t require the same level of security and team management. It may also be less important for small businesses to have one central SMMS tool for everything. Larger, enterprise-grade suites may also be financially out of reach for many SMBs.
For small businesses that are working with a tight marketing budget, starting out with a few free tools might be the best first step. This allows you to assess how well a specific tool meets your business needs before investing in additional or advanced capabilities.
Social media management tools are priced based on a variety of factors. These include:
Prices vary widely based on these factors. There are point solutions with basic features available for free, but most free options won’t cut it if you want to coordinate your social strategy across multiple social media sites and profiles.
Small businesses can count on paying around $100/mo. for an SMMS tool. This tier usually includes at least 10 profiles and a handful of users. Large enterprises may spend a few thousand dollars per month for a more comprehensive platform. For more information about pricing for larger SMMS suites, contact the vendor directly.