Software for social media platforms are primarily used to manage the services for a business or for personal use. They help you manage the multiple social media accounts across different platforms. Updating multiple accounts, managing your feeds and feeds from others are all made easier with social media tools.
Integrate this software with your social media marketing management team through their Facebook and Instagram accounts. This software can run without a contract, which allows you to decide the right time to buy it. This software will help your business grow by using all its resources.
Social media platforms continue to be some of the top go-to destinations for social media marketers. In order to grow your business on social media, you need to know how to leverage platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. It’s also essential for any companies looking for the best social media management tool 2021.
Get all your social media management tools in one place. Post to multiple social networks at once, schedule unlimited posts for the future, collaborate with team members, and analyze performance with easy-to-understand reports….
What is social media marketing software?
Social media marketing software automates the creation, tracking, and management of online campaigns through social sites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and more. This software helps with publishing coupons and promotions, as well as collecting customer response metrics.
Social media marketing platforms offer integrated email that could be linked to multiple accounts in any of the social networks thus creating a single, go-to place for several simultaneous campaigns. Social media marketing software is closely related to social monitoring software and many solutions offer both capabilities in one package.
Sprout Social
We chose Sprout Social as our best overall due to the platform’s usability, publishing features, and analytics across all major social media platforms. This provider also offers one of the longest free trials in the business.Pros
- Excellent user dashboard lets you manage your social networks in one place
- Utilize Social Media Optimization tools
- Analytics and reports help you manage your user engagement and return on investment (ROI)
- Scheduling tools make creating posts a breeze
- Free 30-day trial
Cons
- Expensive standard plan
- Limits to how many social profiles you can manage
We chose Sprout Social as the best option for businesses based on the array of scheduling tools and analytics they offer, their mobile app for iOS and Android, and their paid promotion tools to help you expertly boost Meta posts. One major benefit you get with Sprout Social is a 30-day free trial with any of their plans. If you’re unsure of the value of this software, this free trial gives you a full month to try it out.
This software currently supports all the major social media platforms, including Meta, Twitter, Instagram, Google+, LinkedIn, and Pinterest, making it an excellent choice for all-in-one management. There are three paid plans to choose from:
- Standard: $89 per month
- Professional: $149 per month
- Advanced: $249 per month.
Sprout Social says their Professional plan is most popular since it lets you manage up to 10 social media accounts in one place. It also comes with an all-in-one social box, social content calendar, response rate and time analysis reports, analysis tools for Twitter hashtags, and plenty more valuable tools. With any of their plans, you also get a mobile app to manage your social media accounts on the go.
The Standard plan includes many of the features of the Professional plan, yet you can only manage up to five social profiles if you choose this option.
Facebook Insights.
Once you are set as an administrator for a Facebook Page, you have access to several pages of data regarding your audience, likes, reach, and more! If you’ve never taken a closer look at this information, the time to start is now. Facebook has recently changed the way your audience sees your posts—making your organic reach almost non-existent. This is part of their strategy to get more users to pay to expand the reach of their posts. While it doesn’t cost much to use this option, it is important to note that you can still reach your audience effectively without paying—this is where social media analytics comes in. Use Facebook Insights to check the status of your posts on a regular basis, especially when you’ve introduced new content—such as video—to see how your audience reacts. Facebook Insights even tell you the time of day your audience is online! You can use this information to plan what kind of content you should post and when to post it in order to reach the highest number of people.
Social media marketing is a must in today’s world, but like any other marketing effort, you need to be able to measure your success. Whether you use one or multiple social media accounts, take advantage of the free social media analytics tools that can help you monitor your effectiveness online.
Hootsuite
Hootsuite earns high rankings for its tracking tools and analytics. This software lets you analyze trends and engagement in real-time. Their analytics tools extend to both regular posting and social media ads.Pros
- Professional plans start at just $49 per month
- Free plan available
- Connects with 20+ social networks
- 30-day trial available
Cons
- Some analytics reports are at an additional cost
- Plans can be costly if you have a lot of social profiles or spend a considerable sum on ads each month
- Free plans have limited tools
Hootsuite made our ranking as best for analytics because they offer some of the most comprehensive analytics and social media tracking tools on the market today, including customizable reports and team productivity reporting.
While paying more for detailed analytics and reporting can cause the cost of Hootsuite to swell, having access to this information can be crucial for businesses that rely on social media for the bulk of their marketing efforts.
Hootsuite has four paid options:
- Professional: $49 per month
- Team: $129 per month
- Business: $599 per month
- Enterprise: Varies (it’s for larger or more complex institutions)
The starter Professional plan can be a good option for small businesses because it allows you to manage 10 social profiles in one place. You also get unlimited scheduling, although you’re limited to one user. The Team plan is available for up to three users, and you can manage up to 20 social profiles in one place.
Note that all plans from Hootsuite come with unlimited scheduled messages, unlimited auto-scheduling, a publishing calendar, a social inbox, and plenty of other tools. You can also try two of Hootsuite’s four plans free for 30 days, which is a major benefit if you prefer to try before you buy.
Zoho
Zoho stands out as an all-in-one tool consumers can use to run the social aspects of their business in one place while managing their email, projects, accounting, and webinars.Pros
- Zoho offers a CRM product that lets you manage your email, projects, accounting, and more under one umbrella
- You can integrate their social media management platform, which works with all major social media networks
- Social media planning for individuals starts at $10 per month
- A free edition with limited features is available with an option to upgrade
Cons
- Plans for agencies start at $230 per month, which is on the expensive side
- Plans for individuals and businesses only include one to three team members, with more users requiring an additional monthly spend
Zoho made our ranking as the best all-in-one tool based on the CRM product they offer in addition to social media management software. You can utilize Zoho to store and manage your email, create and oversee products, and take care of accounting all in one place. Zoho also offers comprehensive social media management software you can buy separately or integrate for full all-in-one management.
When it comes to their social media management software, Zoho offers three plans for businesses:
- Standard: $10 per month
- Professional: $30 per month
- Premium: $40 per month
Each plan lets you publish and schedule posts across multiple platforms, access summary reports and analytics, and access a Bitly integration & URL shortener. The Standard and Professional plans are limited to one brand and one team member, but both plans let you add additional team members or social channels for an additional cost.
A free plan with limited functionality is also available. With the free plan, you get access for one team member and brand and the ability to publish multiple posts in one place. Zoho also offers social media software for agencies that manage at least 10 different brands under their business umbrella.
Buffer
The platform for successful social media management
Prices: Forever free plan, $5, $10, add $10 per month per social channel connected (with a 14-day free trial).
Description: Buffer is an intuitive, streamlined social media management platform trusted by small businesses and individuals to help drive meaningful engagement and results on social media.
We have a suite of products for publishing, engagement, analytics, simple landing pages, and team collaboration. Our products are carefully considered and highly refined in order to help social media marketers and teams work more efficiently and effectively.
Unique value: What we’ve heard from our customers is that they love how clean and intuitive our tools are, how friendly and timely our customer support is, and how helpful our content is.
SocialPilot (Web, iOS, Android, Chrome, Firefox, Edge)
With many apps in this category, if you want to delegate social media management to someone else in your organization, you’ll have to pay a serious premium for the privilege. (You could give them the login credentials to save money, but that comes with a whole host of security concerns.) With SocialPilot, though, the Small Team plan starts at $50/month and includes two other team members and 25 social media accounts. With Buffer or Hootsuite, you’d be paying hundreds of dollars more per year.
While SocialPilot’s user interface is a bit dated, it’s entirely functional. The sidebar has tabs for managing your posts and accounts, accessing your inboxes or analytics, lining up content from RSS feeds, and configuring your team and client setup. All the features you’d expect of a good social media management app are there—though it’s the Team options that are most compelling.
Different team members can be assigned roles, based on what you want them to be able to do. For example, you can set things up so content creators have to submit all posts for approval, or allow managers to edit and schedule but still retain final approval for yourself. This allows you to delegate responsibilities to the people you work with, without having to give them free rein.
SocialPilot also integrates with Zapier, so you can automatically add content to your SocialPilot queue whenever something happens in the other apps you use most.
Social Pilot Price: From $30/month for the Professional plan; the Small Team plan with 3 users and 25 accounts starts at $50/month
Agora Pulse
Social media management simplified
Prices: Free, $79 per month, $159 per month, plus enterprise options
Description: Like the social media management platforms mentioned above, Agora Pulse is also an all-in-one social media platform with scheduling, responding, and reporting features.
Unique value: Unlike the rest, Agora Pulse has several unique features such as competitor analysis and Facebook contest apps at a very affordable price point.
The benefits of social media marketing software
- Build brand identity: Social media is a great, strategic location for posting content and strengthening your brand identity and voice. 50% of consumers follow brands on social media to learn about new products or services. Use your company social media profiles to promote new goods or services, request reviews, and encourage brand loyalty by building an online community.
- Engage with customers: Social media provides a virtual watercooler for people to talk with their friends, family, and acquaintances. Empowering your business to join these interpersonal conversations and build relationships with existing and potential customers boosts your name ID in your community and builds brand loyalty with your current customers.
Conclusion
Social media software is one of the most common types of software used on the web today. This type of social media management software is used to keep up with your favorite social networks, as well as track and boost your brands, and services’ profiles for the benefit of maximizing their search results, follower engagement, and brand permeation.
Whilst there are numerous platforms for social media, it can still be somewhat confusing, especially when you have multiple platforms to manage. Luckily, here you have the knowledge of what platform software is best in all situations.