Top 10 Considerations for Choosing Social Media Management Tools
In order to choose the right social media marketing tools for your business, you should first determine your goals. Not all software has the same features or metrics, and knowing what you want to achieve will help you navigate the array of technology available.
To help you think about what features or items you should evaluate in your decision-making process, we listed out the top 10 considerations for choosing social media marketing tools.
- Number of channels you can connect to
According to Brandwatch, internet users had an average of 5.54 social media accounts as of March 2016. You need a social media marketing tool that is going to help you reach your target customers on all the right channels. You should also look for one that keeps up-to-date with new and emerging social media channels. This is a fast-changing space, and your tool needs to incorporate new channels quickly to keep up.
- Offers publishing and listening
Successful social media marketing is more than sharing great content on different channels. Listening to your followers gives you an opportunity to learn more about your current and potential customers. This will help you improve your marketing, products, and services. Your tool should allow you to schedule posts in advance, and it should let you view comments and engagement across all channels in real-time.
- Allows you to create reports and track clicks
Social media ROI is one of the most difficult measurements in marketing. To justify the spend and effort, you’ll need to measure as much social activity as possible. Make sure you choose a tool that makes it easy to track clicks from social to see how your posts are driving followers through the sales funnel. The best tools also allow you to create reports effortlessly for your clients or decision makers in your company.
- Allows you to moderate comments from the tool
Responding to comments is the next step in creating loyal brand evangelists. These conversations give your brand a human voice and show followers that you care. If you’re managing multiple accounts, this can also be time-consuming. Make sure your tool allows you to respond to all your channels from the same dashboard. This will also help ensure you don’t miss any opportunities to build relationships.
- The number of profiles that you can connect to the system
There are times when you’ll want to have multiple profiles for your business. This could be several employee profiles and a main one for your company. Employee profiles can help humanize your brand and increase your SEO. Different profiles also allow you to interact with followers in different ways. Look for a tool that doesn’t limit the number you can manage from the platform.
- If the platform shows POSTED BY on the Facebook stream
Similar to reasons you may want to have different social profiles for your business, it’s good to allow different individuals to stream live video to your Facebook page. This could be in the form of external contributions or from different members of your team. Make sure your tool will show who is streaming and that it doesn’t give a generic identity.
- What kind of media is allowed
Digital marketing is becoming increasingly visual, and not just because it’s more effective for grabbing attention. The brain actually processes and remembers images, especially video with sound, at much higher rates than text alone. You must have a social media tool that allows you to upload different types of media. Also, be sure to check if the company updates their platforms and media as new trends emerge. Staying on trend is very important.
- If you can view scheduled posts in a calendar/list
The main feature of a social media tool that saves marketers time is scheduling posts in advance. Make sure your software comes with a calendar that allows you see campaigns easily spread out over the month. Monitoring and editing with a visual calendar simplify the process and will help your team organize content and ensure that timing is optimized for each channel.
- If you can track social media conversion back to a post
Measuring your social ROI is difficult, but incredibly important for your marketing strategy. You need to know which campaigns and posts are adding to the company bottom line. In order to increase your effectiveness, you need to know which posts are specifically driving conversions. Make sure you choose a tool that makes tracking conversions simple and easy.
- If the tool makes your life simpler and saves you time
The main things to look for in social media software is that it simplifies your life and saves you time. Each of the points above touches on this, but many companies will have different needs. Before getting demos or reviewing tools, define your strategy and what you would like to improve. Do your research and find the tool that will address your biggest pain points.
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