How to | Choose your social media management tool!


How are you currently taking care of all your social media tasks? Whether it be for your own blog, a business or a clients - social media can be an overwhelming task, from creating and publishing content to analytics and reporting.


Thankfully, there are so many different management tools available to help with day to day social media management. These tools can help save time, streamline your workflow and even make sure your content reaches the right audiences at the right time. With so many options, I thought it would be great to showcase some of the top ones out there that I've used and my thoughts:

1. HOOTSUITE

Whether you are a user handling multiple accounts, or an agency handling hundreds, Hootsuite makes it easy, giving you the option to connect with over 35 popular social networks including Twitter, Facebook, Google+, YouTube, Instagram and LinkenIn. This platform offers you the tools to manage all your social profiles from a single dashboard and automatically find and schedule effective social content.

In terms of engagement, hootsuite uses multiple streams rather than one inbox to manage. You can set up streams for each social network to monitor its content and engagement and you can use the tabs on the platform to organise your streams into groups - effectively creating your own dashboard with the content you want to see.

2. SPROUT SOCIAL

Sprout Social is an all-in-one platform that keeps marketers from swapping between different softwares. Sprout is one of the few social media management tools that provides customer relationship management (CRM) features, having a complete profile of your customers/audience which helps you serve them better and build stronger relationships with them. 

It's easy-to-use interface and powerful features set it apart from the rest when it comes to scheduling tools and is one of my favourite to use for scheduling socials for clients. It's important to remember that scheduling social content isn't just about the publishing, Sprout's features on analytics and trend reports show you simply how to grow your following and which posts work well for your audience. From analysing hashtags to showing your best performing posts, Sprout is a great tool for brands/agencies looking to fine-tune their social media presence. 

3. TWEETDECK 

If Twitter is key in your social media strategy then Tweetdeck is the one for you. It has offered a more convenient Twitter experience by letting you view multiple accounts in one interface since 2011. Tweetdeck makes engagement over Twitter simple - being described by Twitter as "the most powerful Twitter tool for real-time tracking, organising and engagement." It makes it much easier to engage with your audience by using a series of customisable columns rather than one single Twitter timeline. Adding columns that show all your mentions, messages, lists, trends, favourites, search results, or hashtag - creating your own personalised Twitter timeline.

TweetDeck allows you to tweet messages immediately or schedule them, if managing multiple Twitter accounts you also have the option to schedule tweets for different times for each of them. You can also make changed to a scheduled tweet before it's published which is a huge plus. TweetDeck is one of the most used social media management tools and one huge plus is that it's free and anyone can use it!

4. BUFFER

Buffer is fairly similar to Hootsuite in terms of it being a management space for quite some time, and they are a very respectable platform that allows you to manage multiple social profiles with ease. Some of my favourite features with this tool it it's ability to easily schedule content while browsing the web with their chrome extensions - handy when doing research. It also suggests the perfect moments to schedule content based on your follower activity - ideal for wanting to reach a maximum audience.  One of Buffers major plus points is just how simple and straightforward it is to use, while also giving you flexibility. The fact it provides analytics in real-time makes instantly judging the impact of your social content a breeze. 

Which social media management tool are you using? Are there any others I should try out? Do you have a favourite? Let me know!

Beth x

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