Are you in search of the best social media management tool for your business? No worries! I’m here to help you. The fact is that managing all your activities on social media as a business puts a lot on your plate. Technology is fast advancing and there are tools that can help you manage them.
I will explore 5 of them in this post, so you can make an informed decision as to which meets your requirements.
What is social media management?
Social media management is the process of managing your social media presence on platforms like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Reddit, etc.
It involves creating content, publishing, analyzing, engaging, and interacting with your audience to achieve a goal.
Why is social media management important?
As a business that plans to leverage social media to grow, there are benefits you stand to gain with social media management tools.
Some of them are as follows:
- Attract a target audience
- Generate leads and convert them into sales
- Automate your content
- Analyze performance
Let’s look at the 5 best social media management tools for businesses
1. Hootsuite
Source: Hootsuite
Hootsuite is a leading social media management tool that came on board a decade ago. That was when many businesses wanted a tool to manage, and automate, their activities on social media platforms.
Key Features
- Publish
You can create, schedule, and publish content that works for your audience on different social media platforms from a single dashboard.
- Engage
Reply to comments, and monitor the performance of posts on each platform. You can filter bulk messages, and decide which requires urgent action.
- Advertise
Hootsuite allows you to promote your post from your dashboard. For example, you can boost your Facebook or Instagram posts to reach more target audiences.
- Analyze
Get insights into the performance of your post and how to optimize them.
Pricing plans
Hootsuite has 4 different paid plans:
- Professional plan: $49/month
- Team plan: $129/month
- Business plan: $739/month
- Enterprise plan: Custom Pricing
2. SendPulse Chatbot builder for Social Media
Source: SendPulse
SendPulse is a marketing automation platform that offers a variety of channels like chatbots for Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp, Telegram, email, and SMS. This allows social media marketers to use a mode of communication preferred by their customers.
Key Features
- Help your customers
SendPulse provides an application for your smartphone that you can use to send quick replies to your Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Telegram chatbot subscribers.
- Engage your customers
SendPulse’s Instagram chatbot can react to your subscribers’ stories that mention your brand.
- Accept payments from your social media customers
Integrate a payment system into your chatbot and let your customers make secure payments on social media.
Pricing plans
- The free plan (limited functionality)
- Standard plan: Starts at $7/month
- Pro plan: Starts at $8/month
- Enterprise plan: Starts at $11/month
3. Canva
Source: Canva
Canva in recent times has upgraded its services aimed at helping small businesses design, schedule, and post content on social media. It’s easy to use and within minutes, you can create the content you want to post on social media.
Key Features
- Content Planner
This allows you to design your content from scratch using images, videos, and texts, whereas you can find the right images through Jumpstory.
JumpStory is a platform where you can get free images with no copyright issues, and also edit them before using them to create social media content.
You can start your free trial here.
- Scheduler
You can schedule the content you designed and have them posted automatically on your Instagram business account.
- Collaboration
You can invite your team to work with you on social media content creation.
Pricing Plan
Canva has 3 pricing plans:
- Free Plan: $0/month
- Canva Pro: $12.99/month per a user
- Canva for Teams: Starts at $14.99/month
4. Sprout Social
Source: Sprout Social
You need Sprout Social if you are looking for a social media management tool that helps you develop a marketing strategy using insights from your social media activities.
It offers features that you need to do business with the right audience on social media.
Key Features
- Engagement
Connect to customers via any of the social media platforms and respond to their messages in due time.
- Publishing
Sprout Social has an intuitive publishing and scheduling tool. This makes it easy for you to create content with AI writing tools and share it with your audience on social media.
- Analytics
This feature provides insight into KPIs that matter, which you need to make social media marketing decisions.
- Listening
This tool monitors when your brand is mentioned in any social media conversation. That could help you understand the type of content your audience wants to consume.
Pricing Plans
Sprout Social has 3 pricing plans:
- Standard plan: $99/month
- Professional plan: $169/month
- Advanced plan: $279/month
5. Agorapulse
Source: Agorapulse
This is one of the best social media management tools that have been in the market for a while.
Its competitor analysis feature, and Facebook content app, make it a choice for brands that want to outdo their competitors. It’s a close alternative to Hootsuite and has over 31 social media managers who use it daily.
Key Features
- Intuitive Publishing
This feature helps you plan, create, schedule, and publish your content from a single dashboard.
- Social Listening
You can use this tool to monitor brand mentions, trends in your niche, and what your competitors are up to.
- Insight Analytics
Get accurate insights into your social media marketing campaigns. Analyze your competitors, identify content gaps, and close them.
- Unified Social Inbox
This is for you to manage all your social media messages, reviews, and comments from a single dashboard.
Pricing Plans
Agorapulse has 4 different plans:
- Free plan
- Pro plan: $99/month
- Premium plan: $249/month
- Enterprise plan: Custom Pricing
Final thought
Identifying the best social media management tool is the first step to growing your business on social media. I have reviewed and ranked 5 of them in this post.
It is up to you to compare each of them against what you want in a social media management tool. Take a look at their features and see how they can help you achieve your business goals. Start with a free trial to have a first-hand experience before you subscribe to a paid plan.
