We live in a busy world and as business owners have so much work to do.
But what if I told you that working online with social media doesn’t have to be so hard. It doesn’t have to suck your time and your soul and you might even have fun doing it if you use the right social media tool for the job.
There are so many moving parts when you are using social media to promote your business and there is a never-ending stream of new ways to do it. It’s important not to get distracted to what is important in your business.
Managing all these moving parts can be made so much easier by using a good social media management tool.
In 2016, Ian Anderson Gray of Seriously Social compiled this infographic based on G2Crowd rankings that asked users to rate 5 social media management tools so that they could advise people based on user experience.
Let’s take a look at how to choose the right one by answering some really important questions first.
1. What do users think of their social media management tool?
If people are raving fans of a tool, it is usually a good indication that you should at least take a look under the hood.
According to the infographic that we are about to examine the top 5 social media tools that people raved about were Agorapulse, Sprout Social, Hootsuite, Sendible, and Buffer. Agorapulse takes the lead with user satisfaction on this point.
2. Will the social media tool remain relevant?
The social media landscape is a fast moving one. Facebook changes daily, features on other platforms move and you need your chosen solution to move with them. As you can see from the screenshot below, each of the main players in the tool space perform well.
3. Is it user friendly?
Using a social media tool needs to reduce your workload, after all you want to make your life easier, right?
This said you need to make sure that the tool you choose is easy to set-up and easy to use on a daily basis.
If your social accounts are not synced properly you may suffer painful consequences. Getting the foundation right the first time will save you a ton of time.
Take a look at what users actually experienced with set-up and usability in the chart below:
4. How is the tool’s customer service?
Have you ever been sold something only to find it broken or didn’t work the way you were promised?
It happens. Things break or you get confused about how something should work.
This is why customer support is a top priority when investing in a marketing tool. When you are under pressure to get something working, good customer service will save your day!
All of the social media tools reviewed by users scored well here with Agorapulse and Sprout Social at the top of the list.
5. Does it increase my productivity?
Before you decide on which tool to use, you need to think about your needs, the size of your company and what solution will fit your challenges. Whichever solution you choose, it has to save you time, have great support and functionality.
Each of the main providers scores pretty well on usability.
6. How much will it cost your business?
There are many free tools on the market but if you want to bring your “A” Game to social media management, paying for a tool becomes essential.
Generally speaking, what you pay is what you get and choosing the right solution that will scale with your business is generally reflected in pricing.
Most tool providers have an entry-level package, but be warned they don’t come without their limitations.
To get an idea of cost you can try this cool free tool developed by social media tools expert Ian Anderson Gray.
There are many providers on the market and it is important that you research each of them before you make a purchase. To see a full list of the other options, refer to this blog post by Ian, where he gives some super alternatives and of course, review the full infographic below:
Which social media tool are you using for your business ? Please let us know in the comments below.
This is a guest post from Jenny Brennan, Director of Prospect Happiness at Agorapulse , a Paris and San Francisco based Social Media Management Software launched in 2011. Agorapulse is currently being used by more than 5,000 businesses across 180 countries. They have advised international brands such as Virgin Megastores, FIA, McDonald’s, Microsoft or Volkswagen
