Social Media Management Software Selection Guide

Social media has changed the way businesses interact with their customers. It is essential to engage with your customers regularly and in a timely manner.
Businesses must stay on top of the latest news and update the public regarding the status of downtime or any mishaps.
Customers are present in multiple social media platforms, and it is important for businesses to engage with all audiences without alienating one group.

Our Advice

Critical Insight

There are many social media platforms, and any post, image, or other content must be uploaded on all the platforms with minimal delay.
It is often difficult to manage replies and responses to all social media platforms promptly.
Measuring key performance metrics is crucial to obtain targeted ROI. Calculating ROI across multiple platforms with various audiences is a challenge.

Impact and Result

A business’ social media presence is an extension of the organization, and the social media management strategy must align with the organization's values.
Choose a social media management platform that is right for you by aligning your needs without falling for bells and whistles. Vendors offer a lot of features that are not helpful for most day-to-day activities.
Ensure the social media management platform has support and integrations for all the platforms that you require.

Social Media Management Software Selection Guide Research & Tools

1. Social Media Management Software Selection Guide – A deck outlining the features of SMMP tools and top vendors in the marketspace.

This research offers insight into web analytic tools, key trends in the marketspace, and advanced web analytics techniques. It also provides an overview of the ten top vendors in the marketspace.

Social Media Management Software Selection Guide

Identify the best tools for your social media management needs.

Analyst Perspective

Connecting through social media is an essential way to understand and engage with your customers.

Social media management platforms (SMMP) allow businesses to engage with customers more efficiently. Ten years ago, Facebook and Twitter dominated the social media space, but many alternatives have emerged that attract a wide variety of audiences today. Every social media platform has a unique demographic; for instance, LinkedIn attracts an audience looking to develop their professional career, while Snapchat attracts those who want to share their everyday casual experience.

It is important for businesses and brands to engage with all kinds of audiences without alienating a certain group. Domino's, for example, can sell pizzas to business professionals and teenagers alike, so connecting with both customer segments via personalized and meaningful posts in their preferred platform is a great way to grow their business.

To successfully implement a social media management platform, organizations need to ensure they have their requirements and business needs shortlisted and choose vendors that ensure the best return on investment (ROI).

Sai Krishna Rajaramagopalan
Research Specialist, Customer Experience & Application Insights
Info-Tech Research Group

Executive Summary

Your Challenge

Social media has changed the way businesses interact with customers. It is essential to engage with your them regularly and in a timely manner.
Businesses must stay on top of the latest news and update the public regarding any downtime or mishaps.
Customers are present on multiple social media platforms, and businesses need to engage all audiences without neglecting or alienating any one group.

Common Obstacles

There are many social media platforms, and any post, image, or other content must be uploaded on every platform with minimal delay.
It is often difficult to manage audience interaction on all social media platforms in a timely manner.
Measuring key performance metrics is crucial to obtaining the targeted ROI. Calculating ROI across multiple platforms with varying audiences is a challenge.

Info-Tech's Approach

Social media presence is an extension of the organization, and the social media management strategy must align with organizational values.
Understand your feature requirements and don't for bells and whistles. Vendors offer many features that are not helpful during 80% of day-to-day activities. Choose the SMMP that is right for your organization's needs.
Ensure the SMMP has support and integrations for all the platforms that you require.

Info-Tech Insight

Choosing a good SMMP is only the first step. Having great social media managers who understand their audience is essential in maintaining a healthy relationship with your audience.

Guided Implementation

What does a typical GI on this topic look like?

Phase 1	Phase 2
Call #1: Understand what a social media management platform (SMMP) is. Call #2: Build the business case to select an SMMP.	Call #3: Define your key SMMP requirements. Call #4: Build procurement items, such as a request for proposal (RFP). Call #5: Evaluate the SMMP solution landscape and shortlist viable options.

A Guided implementation (GI) is a series of calls with an Info-Tech analyst to help implement our best practices in your organization.

The SMMP selection process should be broken into segments:

SMMP shortlisting with this buyer's guide
Structured approach to selection
Contract review

Info-Tech offers various levels of support to best suit your needs

DIY Toolkit

“Our team has already made this critical project a priority, and we have the time and capability, but some guidance along the way would be helpful.”

Guided Implementation

“Our team knows that we need to fix a process, but we need assistance to determine where to focus. Some check-ins along the way would help keep us on track.”

Workshop

“We need to hit the ground running and get this project kicked off immediately. Our team has the ability to take this over once we get a framework and strategy in place.”

Consulting

“Our team does not have the time or the knowledge to take this project on. We need assistance through the entirety of this project.”

Diagnostics and consistent frameworks used throughout all four options

What exactly is an SMMP platform?

A social media management platform is a software solution that enables businesses and brands to manage multiple social media accounts. It facilitates making posts, monitoring metrics, and engaging with your audience.

An SMMP platform offers many key features, including but not limited to the following capabilities:

Integrate with popular social media platforms
Post images, text, videos on multiple platforms at once
Schedule posts
Track and monitor activity on social media accounts
Send replies and view likes and comments across all accounts
Reporting and analytics
Send alerts and notifications regarding key events
Multilingual support and translation

Info-Tech Insight

Social media management platforms have continuously expanded their features list. It is, however, essential not to get lost in endless features to remain competitive and ensure the best ROI.