The 10 Best Social Media Management Tools

All sizes of businesses require a robust social media presence across several platforms. But, small business owners are frequently hesitant to spend money on social media management tools and opt to post manually instead.

Result? They ultimately waste a lot of time distributing inaccurate posts without any statistics to measure ROI. It sounds like the worst nightmare ever!

With more people utilising social media daily, the corporate social media environment has quickly changed. 

In actuality, 57.6% of people worldwide use social media, with daily usage averaging 2 hours and 27 minutes (October 2021).

Businesses are actively changing their attention to their social media strategy to increase the visibility of their goods and services. 

Businesses must focus on what they need to improve their social media ROI and track their marketing activities. 

They are searching for solutions that can be used across all social media networks for listening, analysing, and engaging. 

Businesses must rely on social media management tools that can improve their financial situation.

How do you Manage all the Tasks Necessary for your Social Media Marketing?

It can be a little intimidating to think about all the daily tasks social media marketers must complete, from content creation and publication to analytics and reporting.

Fortunately, you have access to a number of excellent social media management tools. The right audience will see your content at the appropriate time thanks to these tools, which can also speed up your workflow and save you time.

What are Social Media Management Tools?

The process of administering (managing) your complete social media strategy is known as social media management. 

This includes organising, creating, promoting, planning, and analysing your social media content across all your company’s social media platforms. 

It also entails determining the degree of success of your social media strategy so that you can enhance it.

Why use Social Media Management Tools? 

Social media strategy can be aided by social media management tools, which often offer the following features: publishing, scheduling, teamwork, listening, and/or reporting. 

Additionally, they frequently provide access to all of your social media profiles through a single dashboard, can streamline cross-platform interactions with followers, and can assess your success. 

They might also be integrated with other tools used by your team, like your CRM or marketing software.

You must recognise social media because many clients, prospects, rivals, and possible business partners use it. It would help if you established a rapport with them. This can be achieved by regularly posting informative and exciting content, monitoring online discussions about your company, and answering customer comments.

You must increase awareness if you are starting a new service or brand. 

You can schedule articles in advance and track down online mentions of your business using social media management tools. 

You can be offline to publish on your social media sites.

Social media management tools offers numerous valuable statistics on the online behaviours of your customers and prospects. 

For instance, you can research seasonal trends and purchasing patterns to develop relevant offers. They also offer a platform for inexpensive customer assistance.

Your brand will continue to be remembered by individuals making purchases with consistent interaction, targeted advertising, and retargeting. 

Therefore, you need the best social media management tools, whether you are a freelancer, business owner, member of a social media team, or a digital marketing firm.

While social media provides many beautiful advantages for your organisation, some things could be improved. 

Social media marketing includes content creation, publication, customer interaction, data analysis, reporting, ROI measurement, etc. There are numerous social media platforms as well.

This article will highlight the 10 social media management tools for scheduling posts, curating content, tracking comments, tracking the buyer’s journey, and analysing performance.

Ready? Let’s start!

Top 10 Social Media Management Tools

1. Sprout Social 

Sprout Social has positioned large teams and businesses to benefit from their scalable platform, which is well-known for monitoring, scheduling posts, analytics, and team management with approval workflows. 

This social media management solution will also appeal to those interested in employee advocacy.

This user-friendly, straightforward platform delivers all the fundamentals you’d anticipate, and any requested specialised features. 

The individual statistics for each post are one such feature.

In addition to serving medium-sized organisations, Sprout offers post approvals and managing authorisation settings.

Along with social monitoring and keyword search capability, a social inbox tool is excellent for interacting with and connecting with your audience. 

Sadly, neither an influencer search feature nor Auto Post with queues is available.

Pricing: 

Standard plan: $99/month.

Professional: $169/month

Advanced: $ 279/month

2. Hootsuite 

Hootsuite has been around since 2008 and was the pioneer in social media marketing. 

The social networking platform Hootsuite is the most frequently discussed on blogs, and you can find it on most listicles.

They have a distinguished reputation and are widely known for content curation, planning, scheduling, monitoring, and RSS integration. 

Many teams, big and small, begin with Hootsuite before expanding to other services that could better suit their needs.

We can, however, sincerely admire Hootsuite’s immense scale, marketing acumen, and instructional Hootsuite Academy, which teaches social media marketing and lets you pay for certificates to give you the edge you need.

With Hootsuite’s social media management tool, you can upload multiple posts at once and support client management in addition to bulk scheduling.

They don’t have an influencer search, social inbox, or auto-post option.

It is renowned for being an integrated tool with a fantastic social listening feature. Also available is a 30-day trial.

Pricing: 

Free Trial

Professional: $19/month

Team: $99/month

Business: $499/month

Enterprise: on Quote

3. Zoho Social 

Small to midsize businesses (SMBs), agencies, and social media managers can benefit from using Zoho Social to manage their social media and branding.

It enables easy Zoho Desk and Zoho CRM connectivity.

A specific social listening tool that offers excellent analytics and reports is also part of it.

It limits the alternatives available after clearance. Support also needs to be improved for less well-known social networking sites.

It is an excellent option because of its flexible publishing and scheduling options, powerful analytics, and social media listening capabilities. 

Publishing, monitoring, and analytics tools offer a three-pronged approach to managing social media.

Pricing:

Standard: ₹600/month billed annually

Professional: ₹1,725/month billed annually

Premium: ₹2,595/month billed annually

4. Later

The visual content calendar and scheduling features of Later’s social media management software are its strongest suits.

Later was initially developed as a tool for posting on social media, with Instagram serving as the primary social network.

 It first provided content planning to enhance the Instagram feed’s design, but it has since transformed into a visual calendar that includes most social media platforms. 

Their product mainly focuses on visual planning. 

Although it lacks a social inbox or RSS integration, it does include an analytics function to help you organise your content more effectively.

You might be shocked to learn that Later does let you add your Facebook pages to increase the number of posts you can plan if you’ve seen their Facebook ads. 

For Facebook and Twitter, the platform is nevertheless constrained.

Since Later is mainly focused on Instagram and Pinterest, you might look for another social media platform if your goals include Facebook marketing or publishing social media posts to numerous social networks.

Pricing: 

Starter: $15/month

Growth: $40/Month

Advanced: $80/Month

5. Buffer 

Buffer is a versatile and user-friendly social media tool that offers capabilities for teams, engagement, analytics, and publishing social media updates in a single queue.

To promote meaningful interaction and results on social media platforms, brands, companies, agencies, and individuals trust Buffer, a user-friendly, efficient social media management tool.

Although you aren’t able to recycle hundreds of posts after uploading them, it does integrate with an RSS feed so you can publish blog posts. 

Users of Buffer have access to a Social Inbox thanks to a connection with the Reply product.

Buffer is a very user-friendly application that streamlines the content preparation process even though it lacks an influencer search capability and has a restricted client management support system. 

Additionally, it enables the creation of a user workflow and user rights.

Pricing: 

Free

Essential: $5/Month/channel

Team: $10/Month/channel

Agency: $100/Month/10 channels

6. Social Pilot 

Digital agencies or medium-sized organisations that manage numerous clients or accounts should use the fully integrated social media management application SocialPilot.

SocialPilot is an excellent option to consider if your team is primarily interested in developing processes with permission settings, collaborative capabilities, and unique reporting for clients. 

Although SocialPilot offers the essentials, it has a full social inbox function that enables users to interact with their audience and automate posts.

While they lack an influencer search option, they offer social monitoring and listening, a crucial hero feature now required by most organisations as our attention shifts to remote situations.

Pricing: 

Agency: $127.50/month Billed annually (Save 15%)

Studio: $63.75/month Billed annually (Save 15%)

Professional: $29.75/month Billed annually (Save 15%)

Enterprise: On Quote

7. Loomly 

Loomly is a platform for managing social media that helps with content production and branding.

Loomly has yet to be a fully integrated alternative to other social suites. They need more capabilities that larger businesses value, including listening and monitoring, because their primary concentration is on content generation.

To help social media managers with their curation strategy, Loomly offers a visual calendar and a function that suggests content. Despite not having a social inbox, they provide social monitoring and client management features.

Despite lacking an influencer search option, Loomly is still a good option for some solopreneurs and small businesses.

Pricing: 

Base: $26 /Month

Standard: $59 /Month

Advanced: $129 /Month

Premium: $269 /Month 

Enterprise: On Quote

8. Sendible 

Sendible is a social media management platform best suited for digital agencies searching for an all-inclusive solution with a CRM.

Similar to e-Auto clincher’s Post, Sendible’s Smart Queue function enables social media managers to reuse material. 

Use their Social Inbox and social listening capabilities to keep an eye on keywords, rival brands, and brand mentions. 

Sendible has a CRM system that enables users to engage with influencers and converse in real-time, despite lacking an influencer search feature.

Pricing: 

Creator: $29 /month billed monthly

Traction: $89/month billed monthly

Scale: $199 /month billed monthly

Expansion: $399 /month billed monthly

9. eClincher 

One of the best social media management tools for businesses to quickly boost their social media ROI is eClincher.

To make sure you never miss a social interaction, you can use eClincher to combine all of your social media channels into a single feed.

Interfaces for well-known platforms like Dropbox and Google Drive, straightforward link shortening, customised reports and insights, and a single inbox for managing social feeds

UI is less user-friendly.

Pricing: 

Basic: $59/month

Premier: $119/month

Agency: $219/month

Enterprise: On Quote

10. Agorapulse

Agorapulse has all the essential capabilities of scheduling, a visual calendar, social inbox, analytics, and team communication, just as the fully integrated social media management tools mentioned above.

Agorapulse, like eClincher, offers a competitor analysis and enables promoted Facebook posts to reach your audience effectively. 

You can only stalk your favourite business people if they have an influencer tool. 

However, Agorapulse has a cult following of specific users who believe this social media management tool suits their requirements. Do not write them off!

Pricing: 

Free

Pro: US$79/Month

Premium: US$199/month

Enterprise: On Quote

Advantages of Social Media Management Tools

Using social media management tools has several significant advantages, including:

• You can plan and carry out your social media initiatives more effectively using social media management tools.
• Tools for managing social media are incredibly time-effective.
• Using social media management tools, your company can address problems before word gets out and rapidly respond to customer complaints.
• During the busiest posting times, your content can be uploaded simultaneously across many channels using a social media management tool.
• By utilising social media management tools, you can better understand your audience.
• When using social media management tools, reviewing all your network-specific comments and mentions from one area is simpler.

How do you Locate your Company’s Most Effective Social Media Management Tool?

Using social media management tools and software, you may manage many social media accounts in one location. There are numerous tools with various features and functionalities, such as:

Creation and curation of ideas and content, as with Canva.

Auto-posting and scheduling: Automated content distribution and publication on various channels, such as Hopper HQ.

Engage in conversations with your consumers by socially listening to what they say about your brands, goods, and services. 

Keep up with trends to produce pertinent material, using BuzzSumo as an example.

Analysing and contrasting content tracking measures and KPIs, such as Hopper HQ, to see if you are making progress toward your objectives

Some of these skills are combined with some tools. 

You need a tool to help you accomplish your social media business goals.

Follow the steps below to avoid getting overwhelmed by the plethora of social media platforms when conducting research:

1. Specify your social media objectives.

Outline your social media objectives first. If you are still determining what you will use a tool for, what’s the sense of looking for one? 

Defining the precise social media objectives lets you know what to consider when selecting an appropriate social media management tools. 

Before establishing your social media goals, define your business objectives, think about how social media may help you reach these objectives, and clarify the metrics you want to track.

Use social media to communicate with customers, run an awareness campaign, and establish your expertise as a thought leader.

If your long-term company objective is to raise brand awareness, you can set a social media goal to increase your Instagram following by 15% over three months.

2. Select the features you must have.

The qualities your social media management tools must have can be determined using your list of social media objectives.

These are the essential elements you need to successfully implement your social media strategy.

Other valuable features are nice-to-have features that you might need in the future.

Remember to request that team members write the features they require. 

By doing so, you’ll prevent forgetting specific essential details. List all of the things you plan to do. 

What are your daily, weekly, and biweekly routines? 

What frequency do you intend to publish? 

What can regular tasks help you accomplish your objectives?

3. Research your alternatives to locate the best ones.

It’s time to hunt for the most powerful social networking tools now that you have a list of the qualities you must have. 

Selecting the top social media management tools from your research will enable you to choose the one that best meets your requirements. 

What is ideal for you will vary depending on your objectives and activities. 

Clarifying your objectives and must-have features is therefore crucial.

– Visit YouTube and Google

You can use search engines to find the “best social media marketing tools,” “top social media management tools,” “social media management tools,” and “top social media management tools.” Look at reviews and comparisons. Watch out for user reviews of these tools. Please consider both their strengths and weaknesses.

– Pose queries in online discussion boards and communities

To learn more about what others are saying about all the different technologies, visit Reddit and Quora. Ask inquiries in online forums where content marketers and social media managers discuss pertinent issues.

4. Make a list of the social media management tools you want to use.

Select the required tools with features when you examine the characteristics of those on your list. Then pick one or more of them from 2-4. Keep your workflow in mind when selecting the top social media marketing tools.

It would help if you did not shortlist any social media management tools that do not have all of the features on the must-have list. Please don’t ignore it. A missing part could hamper the future workflow of your team.

5. Review and try out the tools you shortlisted.

Evaluate the tools that made a list. 

To make sure they work, test them. You can join up for a free trial and indicate your preferences and hesitations regarding the instrument.

Ask the team members who will also use the product to test it.

Each job that team members want to complete on the social media platform should be tested beforehand.

Consider the input from every team member because different team members require various features from the social media tool.

You can conduct the testing yourself if you run a small firm or freelancer. 

Make sure to test each of the crucial procedures you listed earlier.

Things to take into Account while Assessing a Social Media Management Tools

1. User encounter

It is essential to consider the team’s social media tool usage history. What kind of gadgets can the tool operate? Is it mobile-friendly? Does it require much training? Does completing a task need the user to go through numerous unnecessary steps?

Check user testimonials, consult other social media managers in the organisations you’ve joined, or try out a product to see whether it meets your needs.

2. Features available

Are your marketing needs met by the capabilities of the social media management tools? For instance, it provides a calendar planner, first-comment scheduling, and other features.

3. Support for clients

You will require assistance while using a new social networking tool. Do they provide client training? How soon do they react to client complaints? Are they easily accessible through channels for customer support?

4. Tools for team collaboration

Since social media management involves various tasks, including publishing, designing, engaging with followers, answering customer questions, analysing data, and more, different team members may manage social media accounts. 

To be reliable and efficient, your tool needs to facilitate efficient teamwork.

5. Reporting and analytics

Recall the objectives you set. 

You can monitor the measurements, and KPIs used to gauge your success with the analytics feature.

Can you track clicks, comments, shares, and likes? Can you obtain statistics reports to help you decide on your social media strategy?

6. Social networking sites that are supported

Make sure the tool you choose offers most of the functions you require. 

For instance, it is preferable to use one social media management tools that support the platforms used by your ideal customers rather than four, as an example.

Additionally, it is more effective for your staff to work together on a single platform. 

7. Costing

What kind of budget are you working with for this social media management tools?

Numerous variables, like the platforms supported, the number of social accounts, the number of users, etc., affect how much social media tools cost.

Check the free features and see if the paid features are on your list of must-haves if you’ve found the ideal tool for your business.

Annual payments are less expensive than monthly ones.

Consider whether you would rather pay for all features or just a few, including those that your team might need to utilise. 

The key is to contrast the price with the anticipated return on investment. 

Does it merit it?

8. Scale

You should include more team members and social profiles in your tool as your organisation expands and your marketing requirements change.

The social media marketing tools either have a flat rate or charges users individually. How much will these modifications cost you? 

This factor is crucial because it enables you to plan for and anticipate future expenses.

Bottom Line

Artificial intelligence is in charge of driving technological advancement in our impulsive society. 

This is also true in the area of social media management services.

Which social media management tools best suits your goals, preferences, and budget will depend on your business.

We advise you to select a partner who will save you and your team the necessary time by automating social media marketing processes, collaborative workflows, and actionable insights. 

The market is served by a variety of price points, and social media management tools provide a wide range of functionality.

Review the table above once more to determine which platform is best for your company and supports all the social media channels you require.

Please prioritise the goals of your business, then analyse the available options to see which one, whether it’s a fully integrated end-to-end solution to raise engagement and brand awareness, a lead-generation tool, or a monthly content planner, satisfies the majority of those objectives.

And if you are still confused and not sure which social media management tools you should go for or how to establish and grow online get in touch with Ripples Webworks