Being a social media manager is a fast-paced, dynamic, and exciting role. With social media being a crucial aspect of modern communication, businesses, and organizations are looking for individuals who can help them navigate this ever-changing landscape.
Social media management covers the process of managing someone’s online presence. This is done by strategically analyzing audiences, creating and scheduling content for their profiles. A social media manager also monitors performance and arranges collaborations with social media influencers to create opportunities for growth in the number of followers and increase income using marketing strategies.
If you’ve started your social media management business, or just thinking about it, you’re going to need some tools to help you succeed. We’ve listed some tools that you may consider using in order to balance the workload.
Scheduling and Management
Buffer
Buffer is a social media management app with over 4.5 million users worldwide. Using this app, you can create and schedule content on your smartphone or your computer. There are free features available such as basic post scheduling. But for a reasonable price they also offer paid services to gain extra traction.
Buffer keeps track of the most active time periods for social media and uses that data to create a select few default time slots. When creating your post, you can then select a time slot for it to be published when most people are already online. This is an easy way to optimize visibility for your brand without having to do all the leg work yourself.
Later
Later is another social media management app which specializes in working with TikTok and Instagram. The two highly popular social media platforms that continue to rapidly grow. This tool offers a wide variety of features at no expense, making it highly popular among small business owners on a budget.
With Later, you can schedule apps over a month in advance, meaning you can plan ahead and strategize more effectively. They also offer an email newsletter which can provide you with tips and tricks for the future.
Zoho Social
Although it only offers paid services, Zoho’s prices are surprisingly affordable for the quality of information and features you receive. For as little as $10/month (billed annually) you get access to nine social media channels. Also, a team member readily available for assistance if needed. You also get a publishing calendar, summary reports, an image editor, and more.
If you’re looking to find the full package for social media marketing, Zoho is the perfect fit. You can manage every aspect of your social media content from one single app, minimizing clutter on your device and streamlining the online marketing process.
Hootsuite
Among the more popular social media management apps is Hootsuite. Hootsuite offers a 30-day free trial on their website for signing up. They also offer free classes you can attend to learn how to make the most of the platform. Hootsuite allows you to create and schedule content with ease.
Although it is a tad more expensive, starting at $49/month, the results have been proven to be effective for small businesses in the past, even those that just started out.
Sprout Social
Sprout Social specializes in not only marketing for small businesses, but in developing relationships between businesses and clients online. Rather than just producing content, Sprout Social helps you bring personality to your social media accounts and offers features that bring clients to you instead of the other way around.
Some of the features they offer include a social inbox where customers can reach you directly, group posts, paid promotion tools and a post calendar. The standard plan is currently $99/month, but they also offer a 30-day free trial.
Oktopost
For businesses looking to create more dynamic, unique content, Oktopost is without a doubt the best option. One great thing about this app is that it was actually created by business owners as a B2B-specific app. Oktopost allows you to create captivating content such as videos, podcasts, ad campaign organization, post analytics and more.
Customers who have used Oktopost have left many positive reviews about their experience. Most of which highlight how user friendly and easy to navigate the interface is.
Reporting and Analyzing
Iconosquare
Iconosquare specializes in one specific social media platform – Instagram. For business models which heavily rely on photos and visual content, Iconosquare is ideal. Iconosquare uses a lot of graphs and charts which relay data. So, using the app may be easier if you’re comfortable with using more technical analytics. They also offer a 14-day free trial, so you can give it a test run to see if it’s right for you.
Socialbakers (Now Emplifi)
Emplifi, formerly known as Socialbakers, is an all-in-one social media analytics app. Not only can you create and schedule posts with this app, but you can also look into how successful every post is online. Emplifi offers some unique features such as social media customer care, direct inboxes, AI chat bots, email automation and more.
Emplifi focuses on building a professional social media presence where customers can reach out and familiarize themselves with your brand easily. And, without feeling like they’re watching an ad. They also offer an email newsletter with advice as well as live webinars and tutorial clips to help users get started.
Team Writer: Ari is a writer, blogger and small business owner based in Washington state.
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