The Top 25 Social Media Management Tools for Startups
Kevin Payne
Helping creators diversify their income with AI-powered micro startups — no upfront costs, just results.
92% of marketers say social media marketing is a crucial part of their marketing strategy. This is because social media marketing gives businesses a level platform to help you scale your business, even if you're just a startup.
That doesn't mean to say that social media marketing is perfect. It's not. In fact, many startups struggle with creating and implementing a social media marketing campaign as part of their inbound marketing strategy.
For starters, there are different social media channels you can use. Each has its own unique set of features and rules of engagement, so there is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all approach. What works well in one social media channel may be damaging in another.
Another reason is the constantly shifting landscape of each social media channel. Facebook, for example, has dramatically changed the layout for personal profiles and business pages several times in the past couple years. They also continually update their algorithms, making it harder for organic posts uploaded by brands in their respective Facebook pages to show up on news feeds.
But the biggest challenge when doing social media marketing is effectively engaging with their target audience.
Part of what makes this goal extremely challenging is the fact that time and money are finite sources, especially among startups. The steps you need to do to launch an effective social media marketing campaign plus doing other inbound marketing strategies, and actually focusing on the core business processes can be overwhelming for a startup with limited financial and human resources.
Enter social media marketing automation.
Simply put, social media marketing automation is the process of using software to automate various tasks and processes involved in launching an effective social media marketing campaign. These include scheduling posts at specific days and times, curating quality content to share, and even kickstart their buyer’s journey.
There are many benefits of automating social media and other marketing tasks. Perhaps the most significant is its ability to free up time. One study shows that 20% of marketers spend half of their time at work publishing posts and engaging with your business' audience on social media. Automating specific processes within your social media marketing campaign can decrease the time you and your team spend here, and more time to focus on the critical core processes of your business.
Finding the right social media management tool
Automating repetitive and low-priority tasks play an integral part in your startup's ability to scale. It's not surprising to find many tools and platforms you can use. In fact, finding the right tools to automate and manage your social media marketing campaigns can be an overwhelming task in on itself.
That said, here are three things that you need to consider to help you find the right social media automation tool to your in your startup.
Define your goals
Take a moment to review the goals you and your team initially set for your social media marketing campaign. Doing this will help you decide which tasks you can automate, and give you a clearer idea of what kind of automation software you'll need to achieve this goal.
Write down the must-have features
Nothing can be more frustrating than buying one only to find that it doesn't do the tasks you consider to be the most critical.
To make sure that you choose the automation tool or app that best matches your needs, make sure to ask the following questions:
- What tasks take a lot of time, yet hardly gives you any ROI?
- Which social networks will you be using?
- How in-depth do you want your analytics to be?
- Will you be using sponsored posts in your social media marketing campaigns?
- How easy is it going to be to add new team members, manage workflows, approve posts, and even communicate with them
- Does it integrate with other tools and apps? If so, what apps do they integrate with?
Do your research
Once you have your list down, you can now begin searching for tools and apps you can use for your startup. Here are three of the best places to explore your options.
Youtube
Many of the reviews you'll find here feature a walkthrough of the entire platform or app, giving you a feel for the platform or app, and see if it's an excellent fit for your startup.
At the same time, you can check for tutorials and troubleshooting videos. Not only would these be helpful in the future, but also give you an insight into the full potential the platform or app provides.
Capterra
Capterra is where you can read through honest reviews written by actual users of the automation software you’re considering. You also can find here in-depth details about the software, some of which are not readily available on their website like their approximate pricing.
Quora
Quora is a Q&A forum site where you can ask the community for suggestions and recommendations for automation software based on your needs.
Of course, even with all these options, finding the right social media management tool can still be tedious. That's why I've put together this list of 25 different social media management tools ranked in no particular order. I chose these based on recommendations made by highly successful entrepreneurs, social media marketing influencers, and my own personal experience.
[Click Here To See The Top 25 Social Media Management Tools]