Social media platforms are as popular as ever. Facebook alone has around 2.89 billion active users who visit the website every month. While many people use these platforms to remain in touch with family and friends, they also express themselves, grow their careers, and discuss their interests. Because of how prevalent social media is in a person’s everyday life, any brand that wants to gain as much visibility as possible should have accounts on at least some of the more popular social media platforms.
To understand just how popular social media has become, nearly 58% of the global population has at least one social media account. The total number of social media users is right around 4.48 billion. Nearly 99% of people who use social media have accessed a social media website from their phone at least once. If you don’t spend time investing in social media marketing, you’re missing out on gaining access to millions of potential customers.
Even though Facebook is currently the most popular social media platform with a user-base of 2.89 billion, platforms like YouTube, Whatsapp, Instagram, and WeChat all have over one billion users. While the majority of social media accounts are considered to be personal accounts, it’s possible to create a business account. Because of how many people use social media platforms, you can be confident that nearly every age group is represented on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
However, some age groups use social media more than others. When looking specifically at Facebook, the largest demographics are men and women between the ages of 25-34. If you’re looking into different social media platforms for your business, it’s first important that you identify the average age of your target audience. With this information in hand, you can determine which social media platforms would best suit your audience.
Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest are considered to be the primary social media platforms. However, YouTube is also a great social media platform that has more than two billion users. Keep in mind that social media can help with growing your career. Websites like LinkedIn are essentially social media websites. Unlike the alternatives, LinkedIn offers expansive networking opportunities.
Because of the sprawling nature of social media platforms, managing several accounts on different platforms can be difficult and time-consuming. Each platform requires a slightly different approach, which is why it’s highly recommended that you look into a social media management system. This article offers an in-depth guide on seven of the top social media management tools that you can use to grow your business and garner long-lasting success.
1. SEMrush
SEMrush likely has the best reputation among all social media management tools in this list. They offer three separate account tiers that include SEMrush Pro, SEMrush Guru, and SEMrush Business. These accounts are priced at $120, $230, and $350 per month respectively. You can obtain a 17% discount on each membership tier if you pay annually as opposed to month-by-month. A key advantage of using SEMrush is that this tool accommodates numerous social media platforms, which include LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Google My Business.
You can use this tool to schedule your posts on all of the aforementioned social media platforms. Some additional features that can bolster your social media advertising efforts include a UTM-builder, a link shortener, and an image editor. Ad management functionality is offered across Facebook Messenger, Facebook, and Instagram. Analytics and data will be collected from your social media campaigns and displayed in your SEMrush dashboard, which allows you to view the results of your campaigns in a single location. Because SEMrush is a marketing and SEO tool as well, you’ll be able to integrate social media management into your marketing and SEO strategy.
2. Hootsuite
Hootsuite is a feature-rich social media management platform that allows users to search through social media to identify demographic information, brand mentions, and insights. There are four different membership tiers that you can sign up for, which extend to Professional, Team, Business, and Enterprise. While the Enterprise plan involves custom pricing, the Professional, Team, and Business plans are priced at $49, $129, and $599 per month respectively.
If you select the Professional or Team plan, you can test this tool with a 30-day free trial, which will give you some time to get a handle on the tool’s core features. You can schedule your posts across numerous social media profiles and can benefit from integrations with third-party tools like MailChimp, Slack, Zendesk, and Trello. You’ll also be given access to comprehensive analytics functionality that allows you to track your overall performance against numerous key performance indicators. The analytics reports you receive are completely customizable.
3. Sprout Social
Sprout Social is a robust social media management tool that’s known for offering some of the best post-scheduling functionality around. You’ll find that Sprout Social covers nearly all of the top social media platforms while also providing users with customer service assistance. This tool will identify posts on your social media profiles that may be requesting help with a product or service that you offer. From here, the tool will direct these messages to the individuals within your business that can provide answers.
If you want to make sure that your customers remain engaged with your brand even while using social media, you should consider using the Sprout Social tool. The three separate subscription tiers include the Standard, Professional, and Advanced subscriptions, which are priced at $89, $149, and $249 per month respectively. The higher-tier memberships provide support for more social media profiles while also including some extra features that you could benefit from. For instance, the Professional membership offers paid social reporting, time analysis and response rate reports, and trend analysis pertaining to Twitter hashtags and keywords.
4. Hubspot
Hubspot offers comprehensive social media software, which can be found under the basic marketing hub. When you reach this hub, you’ll find that there are three memberships available to you, which include Starter, Professional, and Enterprise memberships. These memberships are priced at $45, $800, and $3,200 per month respectively. Along with some basic social media management tools, all of the marketing packages provide access to additional marketing features and functionality.
Hubspot can monitor several social media platforms at once but will save time by focusing on the social connections that you believe are most valuable. Their management features include reporting, publishing content, and monitoring any mentions of your brand. The reporting features allow you to determine how successful your social media advertising is. If you want access to extra marketing features alongside the social media management features, this is a great tool to use.
5. SocialPilot
SocialPilot is a highly flexible and versatile social media management tool that you can try out for free for 14 days before subscribing to one of the four membership tiers they offer. The four memberships available to you include Professional, Small Team, Studio, and Agency memberships, which are priced at $30, $50, $100, and $150 per month respectively. If you purchase an annual subscription as opposed to a monthly one, you’ll save 15% off the original price.
The SocialPilot dashboard provides users with a single location they can use to schedule and publish their social media posts. You’ll also be given access to a social inbox that monitors comments, mentions, and replies on your social media pages. You can make your posts on desktop computers, mobile devices, and browser extensions. If you obtain the Agency package, you’ll benefit from high-end features like built-in workflows, priority email and phone support, and a dedicated account manager.
6. MavSocial
MavSocial is a feature-intensive social media management tool that provides users with a host of publishing, monitoring, advertising, collaborating, and reporting features. Seven separate social media platforms are supported by MavSocial, which include everything from YouTube and Google My Business to Facebook and Instagram. The four membership tiers include Advanced, Pro, Business, and Enterprise, the first three of which are priced at $19, $78, $199 per month respectively. The custom nature of the Enterprise package means that pricing is based on the features you obtain in the package.
Keep in mind that only the two highest membership tiers provide access to additional advertising and collaborating features, most of which aren’t necessary if you only want to use social media management features like reporting and publishing. With this tool, you can monitor social messages and conversations, allocate different team members to specific messages, and view follower comments and replies. MavSocial offers a comprehensive digital library that allows you to manage and upload videos and images to your social media profiles.
7. Sendible
Sendible is a great social media management tool that offers Creator, Traction, and Scale memberships. These memberships are priced at $29, $89, and $199 per month respectively. If you make a Creator account, six of your social media profiles can be managed. The higher tiers allow you to manage anywhere from 24-49 social media profiles at once, which means that the option you choose largely depends on the size of your business. Along with the standard scheduling and calendar aspects of posting functionality, you can also customize your posts by platform, which ensures that your content can be properly optimized before it’s placed online.
If you have yet to schedule enough content, the Sendible tool will make suggestions on what content you should create. Social monitoring is a core component of this platform. Along with tracking your content and user mentions, you can also monitor targeted hashtags as well as your competition. Google Analytics integration means that you’ll receive exhaustive reports that tell you how well your social media marketing is performing. A key differentiator between the Sendible tool and other social media management tools is that they offer extensive collaborative features that allow teams to complete any assigned tasks and have them officially approved before they’ve been scheduled.
Each tool on this list is considered to be among the best social media management tools on the market. When you start searching for the right management tool for your business, you should consider comparing the feature sets to better identify which option works best for you. No matter which tool you select, you’ll receive extensive reporting, publishing, and monitoring tools that will help you manage every facet of your social media platforms.
