One of the most time-consuming tasks for a social media marketer is maintaining his/her company’s presence. This can be managed effectively using social media management and publishing tools. As a social media marketer, the top three tools I recommend for brands to use for social publishing are as follows:
#3: SpredFast is a social media management system targeted toward large, “enterprise” brands likes Weight Watchers, Whole Foods Markets and the Warner Brothers network. With SpreadFast, users are able to:
- Segment activity into social initiatives by team, business objective, or geography
- Manage all social media accounts in one location
- Publish an plan content distribution across multiple social networks
- Monitor real-time social activity
- Discover social profile data, including Klout scores
- Engage directly with comments, likes, retweets
- Coordinate with team members by assigning activity, highlighting interesting items
- Archive all conversation histories and activity to never lose social data
- Measure the impact of programs across all social channels
- Integrate with Google Analytics, bit.ly and Omniture
SpredFast currently only integrates with 4 of the top social networks for publishing purposes (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube), but does have listening capabilities for Google+ and Pinterest.
Pricing information for SpredFast is not readily available.
#2: Sprout Social is another great option for social media management, including publishing, listening, and analytics. Sprout Social offers:
- A unified “Smart Inbox” that collects messages from all networks to streamline engagement
- Social CRM tools including shared customer records that allow users to save contact records and keep editable contact notes
- Advanced scheduling & publishing tools that allow the user to shorten links, attach photos, target the audience on Facebook and customize posts
- A Team Content Calendar with a comprehensive view of scheduled messages across, allowing the entire team to review posts, make changes to the existing schedule and add content where needed
- Sophisticated analytics & unlimited custom reports for both high-level and low-level data
- Customer support features like tasks and Helpdesk integration
- Team collaboration tools including live activity updates
- Mobile apps for easy access to the tools from any device
SproutSocial’s downfall lies in the fact that it can only integrate with Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. However, its list of extensive features for its modest price is appealing to smaller brands with fewer networks to manage.
Sprout Social is competitively priced with three plans ranging from $39 per user per month to $99 per user per month.
#1: HootSuite is one of the most popular management tools, specifically for twitter. It allows you to manage multiple accounts across multiple social platforms, and is my go-to choice of tools for social media management. HootSuite allows users to:
- Listen and engage from one, comprehensive dashboard
- Create custom reports utilizing Facebook Insights, Google Analytics, Ow.ly Click Stats, Twitter Profile Stats and Google+ Page Analytics
- Manage large-scale teams as well as the granular level of control suited to smaller teams that is designed to match any unique organizational setup
- Coordinate with team members by assigning activity
- Draft, schedule and publish messages, with additional bulk upload and geo-targeting for Facebook posts features
- Use mobile apps for easy access to the tools from any device
- Use the tool minimally for free
HootSuite is the least customizable but most extensive tool. It integrates with Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn profile and company pages, YouTube, Instagram, Google+ Pages, Foursquare, Yammer, Evernote, Reddit, Vimeo, MySpace, WordPress and others. HootSuite also integrates with other apps including: Salesforce, HubSpot, Statigram, MailChimp, Constant Contact, and others.
HootSuite is the cheapest of the three tools, offering a limited, free version, a Pro version for $9.99 per month and an enterprise version for larger organizations.
What is your go-to tool for social media management?
Lauren Kiser 
Hootsuite does seem like a very extensive and versatile tool for social media management. Based upon the number of features it has such as the ability to
Create custom reports utilizing Facebook Insights, Google Analytics, Ow.ly Click Stats, Twitter Profile Stats and Google+ Page Analytics, there are a number of applications business professionals can use in an effort to reach out to their constituents and or market themselves. They can also manage large-scale teams as well as the granular level of control suited to smaller teams that is designed to match any unique organizational setup/ this is for the small business entrepunuer who wants to stay connected and use the advantage of social media to reach their demographic where they are. It’s a fairly easy tool to use and helps to manage those accounts and integrate any information on a large scale. Very useful tool I have looked into how this can assist me with a number of projects.
I just signed up for HootSuite last week to use at work managing our different social media accounts. I chose HootSuite over Sprout Social because it’s more widespread and fit more of my needs in terms of applications. The only problem I’m having is how to link my business page and not necessarily my personal account. Any thoughts on how to get around this?
I currently use HootSuite and have for years, I think as a starting point (and a budget-friendly option) social media management tool it works great. I agree there are limitations. I am interested in learn more about Sprout Social, as I like the idea of being able to target with each post. When trying to be as effective as possible in each short burst of information, it is essential to get it in front of the right people. I also like that they offer unlimited reports, not matter what plan you have. That is a big downfall for HootSuite, I feel. My company pays for the lowest, paying option and we are definitely limited with the number of reports we get. Thanks again for sharing.
Great learning post. We currently utilze Hootsuite as a team in our organization and contemplating a more robust participation. I am very interested in any thoughts concerning the benefits of using Hootsuite outside of team participation. Anyone have experience with Hootsuite packages they are willing to share.
Thanks,