Week 16 Part A: Social Media Management Tools

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Social Media Management Tools

Social media management tools help you to streamline the operation of your social accounts by consolidating your social media tasks into a single interface. Some of the most common features that they offer include a dashboard for scheduling posts, managing comments and messages, and analytics. Some of the interfaces allow for teams manage the media as well. With the need to keep your content fresh and current, social media management tools can simplify your life.

I am not currently using any social media management tools, unless you count the Facebook/Instagram Business Suite or Canva. Because of their limitations on which platforms they can post to, I will review several others. Three of the platforms that offer the most functionality are Hootsuite, Sprout Social, and Buffer.

HOOTSUITE

Hootsuite is the first Social Media Management tool that I became familiar with. It was launched in 2008. The system's user interface takes the form of a dashboard, and supports Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and YouTube. It has a free 30-day trial. After that it has the following pricing options: Professional: $49/month, Team: $129/month, Business: $599 per month, and Enterprise with an unlisted price. The differences in the plans have to do with how many users you have and how many ads you are running. They all have unlimited posts. 

I signed up for a free trial but have yet to try it out. I believe this platform offers the most value for the price for my needs.

SPROUT SOCIAL

Sprout Social gets very good reviews across several websites. One review site says the following: advocates rave about its gorgeous design, advanced discovery and contact management options, and great customer support. Sprout Social, like Hootsuite, also offers a free 30-day trial. Thereafter it has the following pricing structure: Standard: $99/month, Professional: $149/month, Advanced: $249/month. These prices are per user so if you have a team, the cost can get pricey very fast.
This software currently supports all the major social media platforms—Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Pinterest. It can also monitor other networks like Reddit and Trip Advisor.

BUFFER 

Buffer's price structure is different from the other two. It offers a 14-day free trial on all of its plans. They also have a free version (albeit limited in scope with only 1 user and 3 channels, and 10 posts per month allowed.) The pricing tier gives more users, more posts, and more channels and the price goes up. The Pro is $15/month, Premium $65/month, and Business: $99/month. It is a simple platform, and quite a bit less expensive than the previous two. Functionality is limited on the lower versions and may not have enough features for some users. All of the versions support Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter. The paid versions also support Pinterest.

Current forecast project that the global social media management market will reach $52. 1 billion by 2027. That's some huge numbers. It illustrates how integral management tools are becoming in the social media marketing arena.

I commented on the following blogs: John Barnett, Emilie Banks, Ana Gomez, and Anthony McCarthy.

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