In an effort to provide a much-needed service to small businesses, PCWorld.com recently listed the top five social media management tools in the sector. Choosing only those suitable for smaller companies, every social media outlet listed meets criteria such as affordability; scalability; support for Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter; and update posting assistance. Each tool is more suitable for specific types of businesses.
The first tool on the list is HootSuite. Calling it the “tool of choice for many social media professionals and small businesses,” PCWorld ranks this tool at the top of the list. However, “the limitations of the free version mean that most businesses will grow to the point where the free version is no longer acceptable. Although HootSuite seems to have dealt with this problem by providing the option to upgrade to HootSuite Pro for unlimited profiles and more features, it’s worthwhile to look around at other alternatives once your business starts demanding too much of HootSuite.”
Next is VerticalResponse. PCWorld explains: “VerticalResponse launched VerticalResponse Social as a complete service for the small-business professional. It marries email and social media campaigns in a way that other tools aimed at small businesses do not. Usually people regard email and social media as separate islands, and bringing them together under the umbrella of one online marketing campaign makes much more sense. VerticalResponse tailors its products to the harried small-business person who knows how to run a company but is far from being a social media expert.”
Third is Sprout Social. “Sprout Social’s major advantages over other social media management tools lie in its user interface and in its detailed but easy-to-understand reports…its ability to assign tasks to team members, as well as its ‘Smart Inbox’, which collects all your social media messages in an organized inbox that you can manage from one dashboard.
Sprout’s feedback is also extremely useful. After you set up your account, it pulls together your follower demographics within 24 hours, and it tells you what you could be doing better.”
Fourth is Sendible. “Sendible drills down on various tasks, giving you the choice of posting to your Facebook personal-page photo album, posting notes to your Facebook page or profile, posting items to a LinkedIn Group or your LinkedIn status, and so on. This attention to specific actions saves you a lot of time, and it makes Sendible’s cost over other tools well worth the investment for businesses that use social media more aggressively.”
Last is Postling. “Postling blends social media monitoring, posting and reporting, but it also incorporates instant notifications for reviews of your business on TripAdvisor and Yelp, the two sites by which hospitality and restaurant businesses live and die. For any companies involved in those industries, Postling is the obvious tool of choice. The inbox is similar to Sprout Social’s in that it allows you to deal with all mentions and messages from one place.”
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