Introduction

Users on social media platforms are growing by the day. As a result, it's crucial that you, as a business owner, know how to utilise social media. But everything from content creation and publishing to analytics and reporting can take a lot of time. When you consider all the tasks social media marketers must perform daily, it can be pretty overwhelming.

Fortunately, there are many excellent social media management tools at your disposal. These tools can speed up your processes, save time, and even guarantee that the right people see your content at the best time.

What is Social Media Marketing?

Social Media in Colorful Alphabets (source: Unsplash)

Social Media Marketing uses social media platforms to connect with your audience to build your brand, increase sales, and drive website traffic. This entails creating engaging content for your social media profiles, listening to and engaging with your followers, analysing your results, and running social media ads. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube, Tiktok and Snapchat are the most popular social media platforms.

Businesses nowadays use social media in a variety of ways. For instance, a company concerned about what people say about its brand on social media would monitor conversations and respond to relevant mentions (social media listening and engagement).

A company that wants to know how well it's doing on social media would use an analytics tool to look at its reach, engagement, and sales (social media analytics). Likewise, If a company wants to reach a specific group of people on a large scale, it will run highly targeted social media ads (social media advertising).

These are frequently referred to as social media management as a whole. If you need tips to help propel your brand's social media in the right direction. Check out our article on social media marketing tips for businesses.

Top five social media marketing tools

The reality is that we live in an impulse-driven society. People connect with brands and make buying decisions faster than they blink. This is true in the world of social media, so getting the right tools to effectively deliver your content on time and in time for that impulsive decision is crucial.

Your specific business requirements, budget, and preferences will determine which type of social media management tool is best for you. With that said, let's look at the top five tools we recommend for businesses of all sizes.

1. Buffer

Buffer is a well-known platform for scheduling any type of post across any platform. It started as a Twitter scheduling tool. It now supports all of the major social media platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and LinkedIn.

Buffer's core value is content scheduling and posting rather than adding too many features. Buffer provides two main products:

Buffer Publish: This allows you to create posts, add them to Buffer, and then schedule them.

Buffer Analyze: A professional analysis tool for measuring social media performance and creating reports for Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.

The great thing about Buffer is that you can plan and publish content for all of your social channels from a single dashboard.

Price: Free plan for life. Paid plans begin at $6 per channel per month and include a 14-day free trial.

2. Hootsuite

Hootsuite, the most popular social media management tool, is used by over 18 million people and over 800 Fortune 1000 companies. There's a reason for their success: it's an all-in-one platform that allows you to curate and schedule content, track social ROI, run social media ads, and much more.

People love Hootsuite for several reasons, including its ability to monitor multiple accounts and keywords, connect with over 35 social networks, and bulk-schedule social media posts. But it's a bit pricey, and the free plan doesn’t come with as much flexibility and features as you would get with the Buffers free plan. We recommend them for big enterprises or businesses that can take on the cost as they are a nifty tool to have.

Price: Limited Free plan. Paid plans start at $49 monthly, with a 30-day free trial.

3. Sprout Social

Sprout Social has targeted large organisations and teams with their scalable platform, well-known for monitoring, scheduling posts, analytics, and team management with approval workflows. Employee advocacy enthusiasts will appreciate this social media management tool.

This simple yet powerful platform is user-friendly and provides all of the basic features you'd expect and any customised features requested. Individual statistics for each post are one of such features.

In addition to a social inbox tool for communicating and engaging with your audience, there is a social monitoring and keyword search feature. Sprout provides post approvals and permission settings administration to digital agencies and medium-sized businesses. Unfortunately, it lacks the Auto Post with Queues feature and an influencer search feature.

Price: Ranges from $99 per user per month to $279 per user per month, with additional charges based on custom features.

4. AgoraPulse

AgoraPulse is a powerful tool for managing all social media messages, as well as scheduling and publishing content. It is well-known and widely employed by agencies, businesses, and marketers.

Aside from publishing, AgoraPulse generates stunning and detailed reports in a single user-friendly dashboard. This feature greatly simplifies monitoring and managing their social networks. It also has several distinct features, such as competitor analysis and Facebook contest apps, at a very reasonable price.

Price: Free. Paid plans begin at $99 per month and go up from there.

5. Sendible

Sendible is a social media management tool aimed at digital agencies seeking an all-in-one solution that includes a CRM.

Sendible has a Smart Queue feature that allows social media managers to repurpose content. Monitor keywords, competitors, and brand mentions using their Social Inbox and social listening tools. While there is no influencer search, Sendible does have a CRM system that allows users to interact and communicate with influencers in real-time.

Price: ranges from $29 to $399 per month.

Summary

We recommend that you choose a tool that will save you and your team valuable time automating social media marketing processes, improve your collaboration workflow, and provide actionable insights at the right price point. Hers’s a recap of all the tools mentioned

1. Buffer

2. Hootsuite

3. Sprout Social

4. AgoraPulse

5. Sendible

Closing

Make a list to prioritise your business's needs and see which option checks the most of your requirements, whether it's a fully integrated end-to-end solution to boost your engagement and brand awareness, a lead-generation machine, or a content monthly planner for social media content and blogging.

Let’s help you take your brand's social media presence to another level. Need help managing your brand’s social media presence? - Reach out to us at hello@starboxtech.com