Week 14: Social Media Management Tools

I did my research based on the recommendations of the Best Social Media Management post. I selected four different tools: Sprout Social (Best Overall), Zoho (Best All-in-One), Buffer (Best Budget), and SocialPilot (Best for Small Teams).

Sprout Social was rated as the best option for businesses based on the number of scheduling tools and analytics it offers, it has a mobile app for iOS and Android, and its paid promotion tools to help companies boost Meta posts. This software supports all the major social media platforms, including Meta, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Pinterest. One major benefit of Sprout Social is a 30-day free trial with any of its plans. However, after that, all their plans are expensive compared to other options; there are three paid plans to choose from:

• Standard: $249 per month
• Professional: $399 per month
• Advanced: $499 per month

The Professional plan lets you manage an unlimited number of 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 other valuable tools. With any of its 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, among other reduced features.

Zoho was ranked the best all-in-one tool based on the CRM product it offers 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 that can be purchased separately or integrated for complete all-in-one management. Zoho offers three affordable plans for businesses:

• Standard: $20 per month
• Professional: $35 per month
• Enterprise: $50 per month
• Ultimate: $65 per month

Each plan lets you publish and schedule posts across multiple platforms, access summary reports and analytics. The Standard and Professional plans are limited to 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 the ability to publish multiple posts in one place.

Buffer was rated the best budget option for small businesses with few employees that want to manage social media without a pricey management plan. It offers a free plan that lets one user access three social channels. For an extra $5 per month, a Team Pack upgrade allows for unlimited social channels and unlimited users. The Team pack has a 14-day trial to get started, and all plans let you directly schedule posts on the platform. Other core benefits of Buffer’s plans include a posting scheduling tool, a link shortener tool, and optimization tools for hashtags, tags, and mentions across platforms.

All plans also come with a browser extension, access to a mobile app, two-factor authentication, social media, and email support, and access to the Buffer community. As one of its disadvantages it does not integrate with as many major platforms as competitors. The free plan is also limited to three social profiles. As such, you may need to go for a Team Pack upgrade, which is still the best price compared to others.

SocialPilot was ranked as the best option for businesses that want access to affordable social media software for more than one user. Their most affordable plan is $30 per month. The offer and discount if you pay for one year of usage upfront. They have a 14-day free trial available. Its Small Team plan lets up to three users have access for $50 per month. However, to access this special pricing, you must pay for a year of access upfront after the 14-day trial. Four plans are available:

• Professional: $30 per month (10 social media accounts; 1 users)
• Small Team: $50 per month (20 social media accounts; 3 users)
• Agency: $100 per month (30 social media accounts; 6 users)
• Agency+: $200 per month (50 social media accounts; Unlimited users)

All plans allow the management of a minimum of 10 social media accounts. It comes with features like unlimited scheduling, bulk scheduling, access to social media analytics, a browser extension, and customer support. More expensive plans from SocialPilot let you have more users, oversee more social accounts, manage more Facebook ad accounts, and gain access to special features like client management tools.

Conclusion: It is difficult without any real experience using a social media management platform to express an opinion of the key features required to select one tool versus the others available in the marketplace. From an initial investment/cost perspective and the size of my small fictitious business, it is hard to justify the price asked for Sprout Social. It seems that all other 3 options have similar offerings with relatively small differences in pricing. At this point, I would select Zoho for its unique CRM solution.