Digital Marketing Blog <a href="http://www.evonomie.net/"></a>: Top Tools for Social Media Management

For companies who have dived into the new and exciting world of social media, it is very likely that they will have more than just one account on one channel to manage, and getting content out in a timely and ordered manner on multiple channels is a struggle for most. That is why so many turn to social media management tools which allow you to link up most, if not all, of your accounts on various channels and use the tool to schedule when posts will go out and on what channels, as well as monitoring the activity across all the channels in one easy to manage place. But what are these magnificent tools we speak of, and who is already making the most of them?

One of the top freemium tools on the market, Hootsuite is fast becoming the top social media management tool on the market. It has got ahead of the game by offering management of more niche channels, including up and coming Google+, Foursquare and YouTube, as well as the staple Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. You can also post to popular blogging platforms including Wordpress and Tumblr, as well as incorporating tools such as MailChimp and SocialFlow.

Other features include team collaboration, which allows you to add team members to allow multiple colleagues access to specific accounts, and vanity URLs, which is ideal for tracking analytics and branding, geo-targeting for optimised location based marketing and built in analytics to keep track of it all in one easy place.

They have mastered an excellent mobile and tablet app. Apps can often be criticised for being too scaled down and buggy, but Hootsuite have near perfected theirs, as they have managed to incorporate all the most important aspects of their desktop into the app with flawless results.

The pricing starts at nothing, as this is a freemium product, but be warned that there are many limitations and the majority of the useful features do not come under this price bracket. The low budget Pro account drip feeds in some of the basic features allowing for a small company or individual to get by for just $5.99 per month, plus $15 per team member added.

The downfall of Hootsuite is the large price difference between their Pro and Enterprise accounts. If you can afford the $1,499.99 a month Enterprise plan, then this where all the main important features such as geo-targeting, vanity URLs and analytics are included, but the majority of small to medium businesses wanting to use Hootsuite will not be able to afford the huge step even as they grow, and therefore will most likely outgrow Hootsuite and have to then search for a less pricey alternative higher plan.

Well known users of Hootsuite include eBay, MacDonalds, Tiffany and Co, HP, Porsche, Panasonic, UPS, IBM, Gap, Kelloggs, Sony Music, Virgin, and Mashable to name but a few.

Pete Cashmore, CEO of technology and social media news website Mashable says "HootSuite is an essential tool for managing social networks by allowing teams to efficiently track conversations and measure campaign results."

TweetDeck is Hootsuite’s main rival in the stakes for the top social media management tool, and it is a software download as opposed to being an online application. Although originally created to be used solely for Twitter, it now incorporates other popular social networks such as Facebook and LinkedIn.

The program is completely free and does not have any paid plans, so all features are included up front with no hidden charges. It is an easy to use streamline program, and is most useful for monitoring activity and posting tweets and status updates both in real time and scheduled.

You are able can segment Facebook users into groups, a useful feature for business users to keep track of their professional contacts, and who is a potential, current or former client so you can tailor your interactions with these accordingly.

There is no built in analytics so a separate application would be needed for this purpose, and it doesn’t incorporate more niche social networks such as Google+ and YouTube.

The Facebook contact segmentation is something that could be useful on other networks, especially for LinkedIn as this is where the majority of business contacts are based, but unfortunately this feature has not yet been transferred onto other networks.

The browser app and mobile/tablet app is unfortunately flawed, making it difficult to get full usage out of the program away from your desktop, not ideal in an on-the-go society.

Well known users of TweetDeck include Reuters, Yahoo, Audi, Louis Vuitton, Heineken, Dell, Hyundai, Gillette, Nestle and Smirnoff to name just a few.

The above tools are just the main ones, and there are others available that are tailored for more specific needs. For that reason, many companies opt to use more than one social media management tool, so they can make the most of the unique features of each.

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