Social Media Management software: purchase guide
What is social media management software?
Definition
Social media management software such as Agorapulse are ideal solutions to optimize your company's notoriety. It is a platform designed to facilitate the management of Facebook /Twitter/ Google+/ LinkedIn/ Instagram accounts... and many other social media. Adopting this solution saves time while ensuring the development of your social strategy by automating some of the tasks of a community manager.
How does it work?
These programs include automated services to better manage a company's profiles by allowing it to animate its community or organize contests. The tool also includes modules programmed to collect information about the company and its competitors while managing its followers and friends. To take advantage of the tool, you must subscribe to a subscription. All data collected by the application will be backed up on the cloud, allowing the user to access it at any time.
What are the main features of social media management software?
A social media management software must allow a social media manager and a community manager to offer the best digital marketing strategies to improve a brand's reputation across social networks. Here are the main features that social media management software should offer:
Flow monitoring
In companies, monitoring remains an essential task to have all the relevant information on social media in order to prevent and increase the productivity of their market. With this type of tool, the user will be able to quickly collect data on his competitors, his brand as well as his category topics by programming a search on all online content including predefined keywords and hashtags.
Here are the main features to manage your communication on social networks:
- Manage multiple accounts, centralise all your Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Linkedin, etc.
- Programming posts
- Integration of your site's RSS feeds to automatically publish articles
- Analyze the performance of your web-marketing actions with statistics
- Image management
- Programming schedule
- Plan social media content
- Publish publications on social networks
- Respond to requests for information
- Automate and schedule publications on social networks
- Store content and archive posts
Data processing
Once the data has been collected, it is important that the tool provides an easy-to-analyze dashboard to ensure that the decisions to be made are optimized. This table must be well organized by clearly separating each piece of information: message, comment, blog, forum... The same applies to published images. The content collected must be classified according to its relevance.
The preparation of statistical reports
A statistical report is usually based on the information collected. The tool generates graphs based on these data in order to provide the marketing campaign manager with ideas for reflection. These proposals are based on the company's e-reputation, the performance of a publication, positive and negative comments on the company and its competitors... These well-studied reports will allow them to improve their brand image.
Who uses social media management software?
Automating your competitive intelligence is an interesting solution for all companies wishing to optimize their performance by monitoring public opinion on current products, on little-known or well-known brands, or simply on their reputation. These online social network management programs are therefore aimed at all companies looking for a tool that can help them manage their image on social networks.
What are the benefits of using social media management software?
Advantages
- Using this type of tool provides an overview of the company's popularity
- These applications are presented as the best solutions to closely monitor online conversations about your company and have all the information that can influence your reputation.
- An online social network management tool improves communication by allowing the user to respond in real-time to messages and reactions from his customers.
- It saves time in the execution of projects.
- Generate more traffic to your site
- Increase your fan community
- Save time in your social network management
Disadvantages
- The tools offered in the free version are for the most part defined over a limited trial period. Once the date has expired, a subscription becomes necessary.
How to choose the best social media management software?
- Functionality: it is essential that the software allows publication on social networks where the company is present. Not all of them give access to the same social media. We must, therefore, be careful about who is managed and who is not.
- Interaction: the purpose of social networks and creating interaction, here between a brand and its subscribers. It is, therefore, necessary that the community manager is notified quickly and easily of new comments, in order to be able to respond to them.
- Adequate cost: there are many tools available at an affordable price that include more or less the same features as those available at a high price.
The best tools for managing free and open-source social networks
- Hootsuite
- Tweetdeck
- Feedly
- SocialRank
- Crowdfire
The most popular social media management tools
For self-entrepreneurs, freelancers and self-employed people
- Nukesuite
- Sensitive
- Buffer
For start-ups
- AgoraPulse
- Netvibes
- Mention
For VSEs
- Tip up
- Social Sprout
- Brand24
For SMEs
- Linkfluence
- Paper.li
- Rival.IQ
Providing community management requires powerful software, like a social network management tool. These applications make it possible to develop the popularity of a brand by providing its web animations, the aim is to increase its audience and attract as many potential customers as possible.