In the ever-evolving digital marketing landscape, a robust social media management tool is non-negotiable for businesses aiming to grow.
But how do you decide which social media management tool is right for your business? And what should you look for when choosing social media management tools?
Social media marketing is much more than just creating content.
In fact, its success depends on effective social media management and all the processes behind what your audience sees.
And it all starts with the right social media management tool.
This time, we won't be discussing the nuances and specifics of what each industry should look for. Instead, let's initiate your quest in the right direction by starting with the fundamentals.
What to look for when choosing social media management tools?
- How can you post more efficiently on social media?
- Do you need specific views or calendars?
- Who do you plan on collaborating with?
- How will you engage with your audience?
- What is your content creation and curation process?
- How do you track and report on your key trends and metrics?
- Who can you call when something goes wrong?
- Is reliability important to your business?
- What are your business goals?
- Are you receiving the best value?
1. How can you post more efficiently on social media?
Consistency in posting is crucial for sustaining an active and engaging online presence. It helps you stay connected with your audience, build brand awareness, and maintain relevance in the online space.
To achieve this consistency without needing constant manual effort, switching tabs, and juggling multiple sheets, it's advisable to leverage a social media management platform that offers post scheduling capabilities across multiple platforms.
By using a social media management tool that can help with scheduling, you can plan and organise your social media posts in advance, ensuring a steady publication flow over time.
The benefits of having a social media scheduling tool that supports posting to multiple platforms at once
- Plan ahead to save time
- Tailor content to each social media channel from one compose box
- Maintain a regular posting cadence on all of your social media channels
- Ensure social media coverage during the holiday seasons
- Save time by eliminating switching tabs and logging in and out of social media platforms
- Minimise the room for mistakes
- Ensure consistent messaging across multiple platforms
2. Do you need specific views or calendars for your social media management?
Understanding what calendar views you need is a critical first step in organising an effective social media strategy.
- How many brands are you managing?
- Does each brand need its own view?
- Will you be collaborating with team members or clients?
- What views will they have?
These are all questions that you will want to have an answer to when comparing social media management solutions.
Opting for a tool that encompasses essential features such as content calendars, post categorisation, and customisable workflows is mission-critical for ensuring that your team stays organised while executing your campaigns.
The benefits of having a social media tool that supports enhanced content management
- Easier content management per brand
- A better team management
- Seamless approval and posting workflows
- Improved collaboration with clients
- A clear overview of activity for multiple social media accounts
- A tool like Sendible includes analytics that help you find the optimal posting time
3. Who do you plan on collaborating with?
Crafting a unified social media marketing strategy requires successful team collaboration with your social media management team and clients.
Choosing social media management software that promotes smooth communication, streamlines task assignments, and facilitates real-time collaboration is imperative.
This ensures that all team members and clients can actively contribute to the strategy and stay updated on the latest developments.
By leveraging a social media tool that promotes seamless collaboration, you create an environment where ideas can flow freely, tasks are efficiently managed, and everyone is on the same page, ultimately leading to the success of your social media initiatives.
The benefits of having a social media tool that supports team collaboration
- Effective content curation
- Improved community management
- Seamless workflow from ideating to posting
- Efficient task management
- Minimising room for mistakes and misunderstandings
4. How will you engage with your audience?
Setting expectations for when, who, and how you plan on engaging with your followers is crucial for building a strong and engaged online community.
By setting clear expectations for your engagement, you provide transparency and create a sense of predictability for your audience.
This clarity helps build a stronger connection with your followers, as they know what to anticipate regarding your presence and when to expect your participation.
Whether you react to your followers' comments or offer in-depth answers to their questions, following an established routine contributes to a positive online environment and enhances the overall experience for both you and your community.
Furthermore, the tool should enable you to assign conversations to relevant team members and filter messages in your tool's inbox for a clearer overview of incoming communication.
The benefits of having a social media tool that supports community management
- Responding to messages and comments in a timely manner
- Assigning conversations to relevant team members
- Filtering positive and negative messages
- Prioritising important messages
- Having a real-time grasp of the activity across social feeds
5. What is your content creation and curation process?
“Content is king,” and a good social media management tool should help you create compelling content for all of your social channels.
A proficient tool plays a pivotal role in this process, facilitating content creation that, in turn, affects your social media presence.
When seeking an effective social media tool, it is essential to prioritise software that not only provides robust content creation and editing tools but also seamlessly integrates with third-party applications like Canva or Google Drive.
Moreover, a comprehensive social media management tool should go beyond mere content scheduling and posting.
It should empower users with features that simplify the content creation workflow, such as intuitive editing tools, templates, and collaboration functionalities.
By embracing a tool that excels in content creation support, social media managers can elevate campaigns, captivate the audience, and stay ahead in the ever-evolving landscape of digital communication.
The benefits of having a social media tool that supports content creation and curation
- Simplified content creation workflow for social media accounts
- Easy access to third-party tools such as Canva, Pexels, Flick, and Giphy that integrate with the social media marketing tool
- Centralised content library to which team members and clients can contribute
- Better content management through integrations with Google Drive and Dropbox
- Tweaking visual content without the need to leave the software or wait on designer
6. How do you track and report on your key trends and metrics?
In today's dynamic business environment, the significance of data-driven decision-making cannot be overstated.
This requires selecting social media management software that goes beyond surface-level information, providing comprehensive analytics on your social media efforts and ultimately how you are performing on different social channels.
The ability to delve into intricate details, track emerging trends, measure key performance metrics, and, most importantly, make informed decisions based on real-time insights should be a core component of any social media strategy.
With the rapid evolution of digital platforms and consumer behaviour, businesses must harness the power of advanced analytics tools to stay ahead of the competition.
By doing so, businesses can optimise their content, engagement strategies, and overall online presence, fostering a proactive approach that is essential for success in today's highly competitive digital landscape.
The benefits of having a social media tool that supports comprehensive analytics and reporting
- A unified overview of the engagement across all multiple social media platforms
- Easy access to in-depth analytics
- Ensuring you're on track with your KPIs
- Access to real-time data to better inform your next steps
- Production of quick, branded, and automated reports
7. Who can you call when something goes wrong?
In an increasingly digital world, having access to human support can be a game-changer for your social media strategy.
That is why it’s important to look for solutions that offer subject matter expertise and customer success initiatives to ensure that your business’ health and growth are always a top priority.
The benefits of having a social media tool with responsive customer success experts
- Getting guidance on how to capitalise on social media software's features
- Overcoming issues with a social account
- Having an expert advise you on how to solve common or burning issues with social media platforms
- Educating yourself on best practices for managing social media posts, team, and community
8. Is reliability important to your business?
Ensuring reliability is absolutely imperative when choosing a tool for your needs.
It is crucial to opt for a tool with a well-established and proven track record of stability and security.
Review user reviews, meticulously examine uptime statistics, and scrutinise the platform's comprehensive history of updates and improvements.
This thorough investigation guarantees a consistently reliable and secure user experience over the long term.
You can go through reviews on websites like GetApp, G2, and Capterra.
The benefits of having a reliable social media tool
- Protected data
- Enhanced security and stability
- Minimising the risk of losing precious records
- Access to a transparent development roadmap to better inform your strategic decisions
9. What are your business goals?
Are you currently seeking ways to expand and enhance your online presence by reaching a wider audience?
Perhaps you search for effective solutions to efficiently manage and stay on top of the comments and engagements across your various social media platforms.
Whether your objective is audience growth, optimising your interaction management, or onboarding new clients, clearly understanding your business goals is crucial for making informed decisions that align with your overarching social media management strategy.
This rings especially true when choosing your social media management tool. It’s imperative that you know your goals so that you can be sure the tool you select is the right one for the job!
The benefits of having a social media tool that scales with you
- Seamless management of hundreds of users
- Easy onboarding of new clients
- Supported plan upgrades that follow your growth
- Enhanced features that complement your growing business needs
10. Are you receiving the best value?
As important as your social media strategy is, it’s equally important to find a tool that provides the best value.
Whether that value is derived from the ROI you can achieve by using the solution to manage your social media clients, or if the value is found in the time you save, it’s important to ensure that whatever social media management tool you choose doesn’t break your budget.
Generally, the best advice is to find a solution that can meet your current needs but can also scale up and down with you as your business needs change.
The benefits of having a budget-friendy social media tool
- Scale up or down based on your growth
- Purchase a tool that complements your marketing budget and needs
- Begin with a basic package and upgrade to more comprehensive options as your business expands
Taking the first step to improving your social media presence
Getting started with anything new is always the hardest part, but knowing what you need for success makes the decision-making process much smoother.
If you're still unsure about the right tool after going through these questions, our Sendible experts are here to chat with you and help figure things out.
Picking the perfect tool might seem a bit overwhelming, but with Sendible, it's a breeze.
We've got plans that can flex with your business needs, and our one-on-one approach ensures you get the personalised help you need when hunting for your next social media management tool!
Schedule your one-on-one consultation, or send an email with any questions.
