Connecting with customers and potential customers is now easier than ever with the help of social media. Social media are platforms that allow its users to connect with other user by sharing content such as text, image, and video. This is the main reason why businesses create their own social media account, to interact directly with their customers in real time.
Having a social media account for businesses is one thing. Managing the many different social media platforms is another story. Having one social media account may seem easy but what happens when that account starts to get 20,000 members who all want to connect with the business and products that they love. That can translate to thousands of comments and posts per day. To help businesses manage that account and other social media accounts, a social media management tool can be a big help.
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What is a Social Media Management Tool?
As its name implies, a social media management tool helps a business become more productive by managing all the content and customer engagement in all the social media accounts. Whether the business only deals with one social media platform or have multiple accounts, this tool will help manage all of it.
A social media management tool helps you streamline the marketing campaigns and tasks that the businesses do in social media. This can include lead management, content planning, engagement analytics, and so much more. The tool removes the guesswork that social media marketers do so they can do more for the company.
Why Get a Social Media Management Tool
There was a time when marketing used to be limited to print and video. Companies create ads that would show on TV or on billboards and other printed publication. When the internet started to gain traction, people switched to communicating through other more interactive channels like social media.
These days, people are on at least one social media platform. They look at their social media accounts constantly, as much as 10 times per day. Some have multiple social media accounts for different purposes. Naturally, companies want to be seen on these social media platforms.
Company pages were created, and people started receiving information from various things that interests them. With so many people in the world, it can be downright daunting for a social media marketer to keep up with all the comments, suggestions, clarifications, and other concerns that customers are facing. A social media tool can help with this problem.
A social media tool can make responding to customers and managing everything about social media easier and faster. For big businesses, this is a good idea. The tool is beneficial in enabling customers to quickly respond to user comments and posts as well as to engage existing customers into creating original content for them.
For small businesses, a social media management tool can help increase social media followers, improve customer engagement, and make a new brand seem like a big company. Having this kind of tool can help grow customer views, brand awareness, and increase sales.
Important Features of Social Media Management Tools
Like any other online tool, social media management tools have their own unique features that make them very useful to any kind of business. Some of these features include:
1. Scheduled posting
Scheduled posting allows the business to plan ahead and create social media posts in advance. This means that if an event such as Christmas or Valentine’s Day is coming up, the content can be created in advance to be posted on that exact date.
There is no need for the social media marketers to wait around until the actual day comes. They can just simply upload it in advance and the social media marketing tool will take care of posting the content on all social media platforms.
The scheduling feature also ensures that your company does not miss any event that can be tied-up to any of the services or products they offer. If, for example, a small but important celebration is coming up, the calendar of events can be logged in to the scheduling feature as well.
2. Customer Reach Management and Reporting
Whenever a business posts something on social media, there is a big chance this content may be shared, liked, reposted, and retweeted by the people who sees it. The uploaded content could reach the other side of the world in a matter of minutes.
Naturally, businesses would want to know if their content on social media is something that consumers want to see. This is where the social media management tool comes in. Within the tool, there are reports that can let the business know how many times that content has been shared through various social media channels and by whom. This shows the kind of people who could be interested in such content.
3. Sales and Lead Generation
Businesses often include in their social media posts links back to target pages and landing pages where the customers can buy more products and services. The social media posts that convert the most clicks and sales are some of the things that businesses would be interested in. Social media management tools can pull this information for them with a click of a button. Knowing which marketing campaigns converted to sales and new leads is very important.
4. Run social media ads
Ads placed strategically on social media are some of the best things that could ever happen to any business. These ads are seen by thousands of people every day. People who see these ads are also usually the ones with the buying capacity for the same type of products. A social media management tool should be able to help business run ads and track the ROI on these ads. Social media ads are often not free but the returns to businesses can be great.
5. Multiple account monitoring
One of the many reasons businesses get a social media management tool is because they cannot keep up with how many people are interested in the business. Questions, comments, and other customer related information are coming in from thousands of people and it can become overwhelming. While one human being in charge of this kind of content tracking may be able to do a good job, there are chances for misses and mistakes because of the multiple account monitoring. A social media management tool can work on these running thousands of algorithms at the same time to track comments, shares, mentions, and other ways the company’s content is being used.
The Price for Such A Powerful Social Media Tool
The price for social media management tools can vary from as little as $10 a month to as high as $400 a month. Most of them offer free trial for up to 30 days so be sure to check those out. The difference in price is based mostly on the features and the number of social media content to be managed.
If the business has 1 social media account, the $10 or a free social media tool may suffice. But for bigger number of followers and social media accounts, it may be time to bring out the big bucks. Managing that much content will not be such a walk in the park. It is better to get something that can handle it all.
For businesses who want something in the middle, there are best value pricing that can fit any budget. Some social media management tools are very reasonably priced and can do so much.
Important Tips on Choosing the Right Social Media Management Tool
Finding the right social media management tool can help improve communication between businesses and its customers. They can also free up important time and resources within the business to do other productive things for the business. Therefore, it is crucial to find a good tool to help manage social media content. Here are some tips to help any business find the right tool.
A tool that can manage the growth of any business
As the business grows in popularity in social media so do their followers and engagement. The social media management tool they choose should be able to grow with their business as well. They should provide innovations, new techniques in customer management, and other additional tools within the platform that can help make the job easier.
A tool that has the right features
Keyword management, multiple accounts management, bulk scheduling, these are just some of the features that different types of businesses need in order to manage their social media accounts. Having these around and being able to choose which feature to use is a great thing to have. Find a provider that allows the kind of features that the business needs and not just the ones that are popular.
A provider that offers extensive support
There will come a time that problems arise from the use of the social media management tool. Having a great customer support team to help with this problem is an important feature to have when looking for the right social media management tool. Make sure to find out how often and how much support is needed before buying the tool.
In depth analysis and reporting
The main reason businesses use a social media tool is so they don’t have to manually crunch the numbers or track the engagement themselves. Having the right reporting tools within the social media management tool is very important so make sure to look out for that.
The best social media management tools don’t always have to be fancy or expensive. They just need to fit the business’ needs and social media requirements. Choosing the right one means looking at the business’ needs and matching that with the offers from the social media management tool provider. Try these tips and see make it easier to choose the best tool for you.
