In the U.S. alone, there are over 10,000 digital agencies. It is crucial for brands to possess a strong social media presence in order to remain competitive.
Marketing agencies that handle one or multiple brands can benefit from utilizing the appropriate set of tools. These tools, which include project management software and content collaboration platforms, enable agencies to effectively create, report on, and optimize their content. By using these tools, agencies can ensure that their team’s efforts are maximized and that their content strategy is successful.
What are Social Media Management Tools?
Social media management tools aid agencies and businesses in enhancing the efficiency of managing their social media accounts.
These tools offer a variety of features, including:
- Planning and scheduling posts
- Social media monitoring
- Team collaboration
- Analytics and reporting
- Project management and campaign management
- And more
Overall, their purpose is to decrease the amount of time spent on mundane tasks in order for agencies to concentrate on tasks of importance.
What Makes a Good Social Media Management Tool?
To have a solid social media management tool, it is essential to have the following aspects:
- Intuitive UI
- A calendar feature that offers an overview of content across multiple platforms
- Feedback and collaboration functionalities
- Approval workflows with custom or pre-set options
- Accessible and scale-friendly pricing
Why Should Your Agency Use a Social Media Management Tool?
For agencies, the task of effectively managing numerous client campaigns across various social media platforms can be quite difficult. However, with the help of a reliable social media management tool, agencies are provided with the necessary solutions to carry out all vital tasks, including data analysis, performance measurement, client collaboration, and content creation and distribution.
The Best Social Media Management Tools You Need to Know About in 2023
- Brandwatch Social Media Management
Ideal for: Businesses and agencies seeking an all-inclusive global platform that provides a wide range of basic and advanced features for managing social media.
Brandwatch is a platform that encompasses social media listening, publishing, advertising, measurement, and customer data management. With offices in New York, Berlin, Budapest, Sofia, Melbourne, and Chennai, Brandwatch operates globally and serves a diverse group of employees and customers around the world.
There are two plans available. The Essentials plan includes a Content Calendar & Campaign Planner, advanced analytics dashboards, community management, and In-app support. The full suite plan includes all the features of the Essentials plan, plus unlimited channels, reporting & teams, social media advertising, competitor benchmarking, collaboration & approval flows, and custom onboarding & support available 24/7.
Advantages:
- Comprehensive platform covering listening, publishing, advertising, measurement, and customer data management.
- Global presence with offices in multiple countries.
- Offers both basic and advanced plans catering to different needs.
- 24/7 custom onboarding and support for the full suite.
One drawback is that…
- Full Suite pricing is not transparent; available only by quote.
- Might be overwhelming for users who only need basic features.
For pricing, Brandwatch provides the option to schedule a demo to obtain specific pricing information for the three available plans, namely Consumer Intelligence, Social Media Management, and Influencer Marketing.
- Brand24
Ideal for: Agencies that place emphasis on managing their online reputation and seeking to take proactive measures to address customer feedback.
Brand24 is an ideal social media management tool designed for agencies seeking to safeguard their clients’ online reputations. You have the ability to monitor and address both positive feedback from brand advocates and customer complaints, thereby preventing any negative consequences on your clients’ financial performance. Utilizing automated sentiment analysis, Brand24 effectively categorizes comments into positive, negative, or neutral mentions.
Advantages:
- Focuses on online reputation management.
- Automated sentiment analysis segments mentions into positive, negative, and neutral.
- Allows for proactive response to customer feedback.
Drawbacks:
- Seems to be more niche in its focus on sentiment analysis and reputation management.
Brand24 provides a free trial and the pricing commences at $79 per month.
- Agorapulse
Ideal for agencies that handle multiple accounts and desire insights on team performance, as well as a built-in CRM.
Agorapulse is an ideal solution for managing various social media accounts efficiently when it comes to publishing, monitoring, and reporting. This platform enables you to handle incoming messages from various channels in one centralized place and gain valuable insights about your team’s performance through the dashboard. By utilizing Agorapulse’s monitoring feature, you will receive notifications about trends, hashtags, and influential figures, which allows you to stay updated on the most relevant trends for your clients.
Advantages:
- Centralized management of multiple social media accounts.
- Unified inbox for incoming messages.
- Dashboard insights on team performance.
- Alerts for trends, hashtags, and key influencers.
- Built-in CRM feature.
Drawbacks: The following text has been reformulated while maintaining the same meaning: Negatives:
- Might be more than what smaller businesses or individual users need.
Agorapulse provides a free trial, with paid plans beginning at $49/month when billed annually.
- Iconosquare
Ideal for: Agencies that require a comprehensive solution for social media management, prioritizing analytics and reporting.
Iconosquare is a great tool for agencies because it simplifies social media analytics and reporting. It allows agencies to conveniently track the performance of multiple clients through one easy-to-use dashboard and generate branded PDF reports with just one click. Additionally, Iconosquare offers all the standard features that a solid social media management tool should have, including automatic posting, feed preview scheduling, hashtag tracking, and social listening.
Advantages:
- Simplifies social media analytics and reporting for multiple clients.
- One-click branded PDF reports.
- Comprehensive features including automatic posting, feed preview scheduling, hashtag tracking, and social listening.
Drawbacks:
- While it offers a range of features, some users might only need its analytics capabilities.
Iconosquare offers a free trial and begins pricing at $59 per month.
- Rival IQ
Ideal for: Agencies in search of comprehensive analytics and insights concerning the performance of content across multiple social media platforms.
Rival IQ is an excellent platform for social media analytics that agencies can utilize to obtain in-depth insight into their clients’ performance on various social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, Twitter, and others. Additionally, Rival IQ serves as a useful tool for content discovery. By utilizing this platform, you can easily identify the most successful hashtags in your clients’ specific industry or the ones their competitors are utilizing. This information enables you to generate content centered around the most effective hashtags.
Advantages:
- Detailed analytics across multiple social media platforms.
- Content discovery features.
- Insights into top-performing hashtags and competitor hashtag usage.
One drawback is
- Higher starting price compared to other tools.
- Might be more analytical than some users need.
The pricing for Rival IQ includes a complimentary trial period, with paid plans beginning at a monthly cost of $239.
- Sprout Social
Ideal for: Agencies seeking a comprehensive social media management solution that prioritizes maximizing post engagement.
Sprout Social offers a range of features for managing social media, such as publishing, social listening, messaging, engagement, analytics, and reporting, for various clients. It enables users to create, schedule, manage, and publish social media posts across multiple platforms and profiles, while also providing easy tracking of campaign performance. Additionally, Sprout Social’s “send time optimization” feature allows for publishing social posts at the optimal time to achieve maximum engagement.
Advantages:
- Comprehensive tool covering publishing, social listening, messaging, engagement, analytics, and reporting.
- Allows scheduling and management of posts across multiple platforms.
- “Send time optimization” feature for optimal post engagement.
One drawback is that…
- Might be pricier for smaller businesses or individual users.
When it comes to pricing, Sprout Social provides a complimentary trial period, with paid subscriptions beginning at $249 per month.
- Mention
Ideal for marketing agencies that give importance to monitoring their brand in real-time across different online platforms.
With Mention, marketing agencies can conveniently track and comprehend discussions about their clients’ brands on social media. The tool enables real-time monitoring of various platforms such as social media, news sites, blogs, and forums, providing valuable insights. This information can be used to inform clients about their online brand perception, and data-driven solutions can be implemented to enhance brand reputation and develop effective social media strategies.
Advantages:
- Real-time monitoring of social media, news sites, blogs, and forums.
- Provides insights into brand perception online.
- Data-driven solutions for brand reputation and strategy formulation.
Drawbacks:
- More focused on monitoring and might lack some advanced management features.
Mention provides a limited free plan as part of its pricing options. The pricing starts at $41 per month.
- Awario
Ideal for: Agencies in need of comprehensive social media listening, which includes advanced features such as Boolean search and influencer identification.
Another tool that agencies can use to monitor social media, news, blogs, forums, and more for mentions of their clients or other important keywords is Awario. It offers a Boolean search option that allows for customized searches to obtain the most relevant information. Additionally, Awario provides information on mention growth and reach over time, performs sentiment and competitive analysis, and helps identify social media influencers.
Advantages:
- Comprehensive monitoring of social media, news, blogs, forums, etc.
- Boolean search option for customized searches.
- Provides insights on mention growth, reach, sentiment analysis, and competitive analysis.
- Helps in identifying social media influencers.
Disadvantages:
- Might overlap in features with other social listening tools.
Awario provides a free trial option, and its paid plans commence at a monthly rate of $29.
- HeyOrca
Ideal for: Social media managers and agencies who give importance to client collaboration and scheduling of visual content.
HeyOrca is a trusted tool used by agency professionals and adored by numerous social media managers worldwide. It simplifies the process of scheduling social media posts, effectively collaborating with various clients, obtaining approvals, and sharing client-friendly reports, all in one convenient platform. Furthermore, the visual layout of its scheduling feature guarantees that what you see is what your clients will receive. To ensure client satisfaction with scheduled content, you can choose to implement automatic approval reminders or provide them with a shareable link to gather their feedback.
Advantages:
- Visual scheduling feature for accurate content previews.
- Collaboration, approval requests, and client-friendly reporting in one place.
- Automatic approval reminders and shareable links for client feedback.
Drawbacks:
- Pricing is based on the number of calendars, which might not be suitable for all users.
Pricing: Following a complimentary 14-day trial, the pricing commences at $59 per month for each calendar. Should you choose to include five or more calendars, you have the opportunity to enjoy a 40% discount.
- CoSchedule
Ideal for: Agencies seeking a powerful tool for social media marketing that seamlessly integrates with various platforms and prioritizes optimizing content.
CoSchedule is an effective tool for social media marketing that assists in managing assets, establishing workflows, and incorporating other tools such as email marketing service and content marketing platform. It simplifies content marketing by allowing agencies to organize multiple projects and campaigns for easy monitoring. With CoSchedule’s Social Message Optimizer feature, you can create optimal messages for clients as it evaluates and provides suggestions for enhancing your social content.
One advantage is that…
- Integrates with other tools like email marketing services or content marketing platforms.
- Allows grouping of multiple projects and campaigns for easier tracking.
- Social Message Optimizer feature for content grading and improvement suggestions.
Disadvantages:
- Might be more feature-rich than some users need, leading to a steeper learning curve.
CoSchedule provides a free trial option and offers plans starting at $29 per user per month.
- Canva
Ideal for smaller agencies or businesses lacking internal graphic designers and in need of a simple design tool.
If you lack in-house graphic designers, Canva is an invaluable tool for smaller agencies. It is a user-friendly graphic design software that simplifies the process of creating social media posts, web banners, ad imagery, and much more. With Canva, you have the option to either start from scratch or utilize their extensive collection of stunning templates. Simply adjust the colors to align with your clients’ branding and you’re ready to go.
Advantages:
- User-friendly graphic design software suitable for non-designers.
- Wide range of templates for various design needs.
- Customizable designs to match client branding.
Disadvantages:
- While versatile, it might not replace the need for professional design software for more complex tasks.
Canva offers a free plan, with pricing beginning at $119.99 per year.
- Visme
This tool is most suitable for agencies that place importance on visual storytelling and require a tool for generating interactive and dynamic content.
Visme is a visual content creation platform for agencies that offers a centralized location for design assets and brand information. It provides infographics and reports to help agencies present their story to clients. Visme also includes a variety of tools such as animated icons, illustrations, shapes, characters, and special effects to help create eye-catching content. Additionally, it allows for the embedding of visuals with popups, hover effects, links, and more to create interactive blog posts.
Advantages:
- Comprehensive visual content creation platform.
- Centralized storage for design assets and brand information.
- Features for creating interactive content like infographics, reports, and blog posts.
- Wide range of design elements including animated icons, illustrations, and special effects.
Disadvantages:
- Might have a learning curve for those unfamiliar with visual content creation tools.
In terms of pricing, Visme provides a restricted free plan and the option to subscribe to paid plans starting at $12.25/month.
- Cyfe
Ideal for: Agencies in need of a versatile analytics tool that can be personalized and customized according to the preferences and branding requirements of individual clients.
It is important to note that Cyfe is an exceptional tool for managing social media analytics. One outstanding feature is the provision of detailed reports on various aspects like SEO, Google Ads, brand mentions, and Google Analytics, all accessible through a single integrated dashboard. Cyfe offers ease of setup and management and includes pre-built dashboard templates to facilitate the connection of data and monitoring of key performance indicators (KPIs). Users can also establish personalized data sources, generate customized reports, and consolidate data in unique ways. Notably, Cyfe is a white-label tool, enabling the customization of reports for individual clients, presenting it as an added value or upsell.
Advantages:
- Integrated dashboard for multiple analytics reports like SEO, Google Ads, and brand mentions.
- Pre-built dashboard templates for easy setup.
- Customizable data sources and branded reports.
- White-label tool allowing for client-specific customization.
Drawbacks:
- Might be overwhelming for users only needing basic analytics.
In terms of pricing, Cyfe provides a free trial and the pricing begins at $19 per month.
- Reputation
Ideal for agencies seeking a comprehensive solution that integrates marketing, social media management, and customer experience, with an emphasis on collaboration.
Reputation is a platform encompassing marketing, social media management, and customer experience. It offers a variety of tools for activities such as social listening, planning, creating, publishing, engaging, and reporting. Additionally, it allows you to add permissions to your workflows, ensuring secure collaboration with clients’ content. Furthermore, Reputation includes social listening features to facilitate staying updated on trends within your clients’ specific fields.
One of the benefits is:
- Comprehensive platform covering marketing, social media management, and customer experience.
- Collaboration features with permission settings for content safety.
- Social listening features for trend monitoring.
The following points are drawbacks:
- Pricing is not transparent; available only upon request.
- MavSocial
Ideal for agencies in search of a comprehensive and cost-effective social media management tool offering numerous features for publishing and curation.
MavSocial is a social media management tool that helps agencies simplify their social media management process. It achieves this by assisting with curating, scheduling, and overseeing the social presence of clients. The platform allows users to consolidate all their publishing activities in one place and regulate approval flows. Furthermore, it enables the creation of a master post that can be edited for different networks, tagged with other pages or locations, and supplemented with hashtag groups. MavSocial also facilitates the creation of multi-page posts, the saving of drafts, and the scheduling or publishing of content to specific networks at designated times. The tool offers a plethora of features that are beyond the scope of this article. However, it is important to note that MavSocial is a robust social media management solution for agencies that is cost-effective.
Advantages:
- Streamlined social media management with features for curation, scheduling, and publishing.
- Comprehensive publishing features like approval flows, multi-page posts, hashtag groups, and more.
- Versatile tool with a wide range of features for different social media tasks.
Drawbacks:
- With its extensive features, there might be a learning curve for new users.
MavSocial provides a free trial and the pricing begins at $65/month.
- Planable
The most effective option for collaborating on content.
Planable is a tool for planning and collaborating on content that assists marketing teams in planning, previewing, approving, and collaborating on their social media content.
With Planable, you have the ability to easily distribute post ideas to your colleagues and clients and promptly receive feedback in one centralized location. With the introduction of their most recent update, Universal Content, teams have the capability to generate and cooperate on a diverse range of content, encompassing social media posts, newsletters, blogs, product descriptions, and everything else in that realm.
Planable offers various ways to streamline content approval. Firstly, users can choose from four approval workflows: None, Optional, Required, and Multiple levels of approval. The Multiple levels of approval option allows users to personalize their approval process according to their specific needs. This option also provides an additional layer of protection by requiring posts to pass through an approval chain prior to publication. For instance, it is possible to set up a requirement for posts to be approved by the client’s legal department before being published.
Planable’s intuitive interface makes collaboration between different teams effortless. Your team’s conversations are contained within a single platform, and starting discussions or reviewing content by tagging other members is easy. This is possible because conversations are displayed as comments and replies right next to the relevant post.
External collaboration is also possible. The settings for content and comments can be changed to “internal” until you are completely confident that it is ready for the client’s approval. In addition, clients can be provided with a direct link to the post, simplifying the process for them to provide their thoughts in the comments section.
Planable offers the necessary tools to optimize collaboration processes and enhance campaign results, whether you operate as a boutique marketing agency or manage multiple clients. By utilizing Planable, you can begin by planning a product launch and efficiently synchronize content across various channels such as social media, blogs, emails, and banners.
What are the top features?
- Multi-level and custom approval workflows
- Sync and/or tweak posts for social media platforms (not available for universal content yet)
- Intuitive and sleek calendar view
- Customizable filters for your content that can be saved as Custom Views
- Five ways to view content (Grid, List, Feed, Calendar)
- Real-time collaboration
- An in-app image editing tool
- Integration with major social media platforms
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- Free plan
- Basic: $13 per user/month
- Pro: $26 per user/month
- Enterprise: Contact for pricing
Reviews and ratings provided by customers.
- G2: 4.6 out of 5 (548 reviews)
- Capterra: 4.5 out of 5 (305 reviews)
- Hootsuite
Ideal for organizations specializing in content creation and reporting.
Hootsuite, being one of the oldest and most prominent social media management tools available, has established itself as a go-to solution for agencies looking to enhance their social media marketing efforts.
With its range of features, Hootsuite provides the expected functionalities of a top-tier social media tool. These include scheduling posts, monitoring, managing tasks, and reporting on performance. Its combination of project management and reporting capabilities makes Hootsuite a suitable solution for agencies balancing performance and creative-driven projects.
The most exceptional qualities
- Managers can assign specific social media posts to specific team members.
- Hootsuite’s calendar offers three ways to view the calendar (List, week, month) and two subviews (by post status or social network)
- Detailed analytics & reporting features
There are limitations in the text.
- No centralized media library to share assets
- Relatively limited collaboration features compared to other tools
- Steep pricing
- No version control for posts
- There’s no way to share posts with guests
Determining the cost of something.
- Professional: $99 per month
- Team: $249 per month
- Business: $739 per month
- Enterprise: Contact for pricing
The ratings and reviews provided by customers.
- G2: 4.1 out of 5 (3,840 reviews)
- Capterra: 4.4 out of 5 (3,412 reviews)
- Buffer
Ideal for integrations, reporting, and management purposes.
Not only has Buffer gained recognition through its numerous integrations, but it also serves as a robust tool for agencies of any size.
Buffer allows for the simple creation and scheduling of posts on different social media platforms. Its exceptional analytics feature enables tracking of post performance, progress reporting, and competitor comparison. Additionally, agencies with a substantial client base can benefit from its bulk scheduling capability, making it an ideal tool.
Top features
- Lots of integrations, including Canva
- Campaign tracking and management; you can create content in the campaign window and track scheduled, published, draft posts and approvals
- Has a pricing plan literally for agencies
There are constraints or restrictions that need to be considered.
- There are no labels and tags for posts, which are pretty much essential in large-scale social media initiatives
- Doesn’t allow collaboration with external teams
- Hootsuite’s approval infrastructure is a tad limited in the sense that aside from a 1 to 1 approval workflow, users can’t structure approvals by layers
One way to approach pricing is to break it down into smaller steps or elements. This can help to ensure that all important aspects are considered and priced accurately. By thinking step by step, you can thoroughly analyze the costs associated with materials, labor, overhead, and any other relevant factors. This approach can also help you to avoid overlooking any hidden costs or underestimating the true expenses involved in a product or service. Therefore, by carefully considering each pricing element one by one, you can ensure that your pricing is comprehensive and accurately reflects the value of your offering.
- Free plan
- Essentials: $6 per channel/month
- Team: $12 per channel/month
- Agency: $120 for 10 channels/month
The ratings and reviews given by customers.
- G2: 4.3 out of 5 (971 reviews)
- Capterra: 4.5 out of 5 (1,390 reviews)
- Sendible
Ideal for agencies that are small to medium in size.
Continuing with the list, we have Sendible, which is a robust tool created specifically for agencies to effectively handle their social media accounts. Sendible provides a range of features, such as content calendars, automated messages, and reporting abilities. Another benefit of using Sendible is its real-time collaboration feature, which enables users to work together with clients and team members on projects.
Sendible offers a variety of distinguishing features compared to similar tools, including the ability to monitor direct messages and a client dashboard. The client dashboard is particularly effective in simplifying the management of teams and clients. Additionally, notable features include the inclusion of a built-in image editor and topic suggestions.
Top features
- Users can sync and edit posts across multiple social media platforms instead of editing each post individually
- Intuitive social media calendar that is very easy to use
- DM monitoring
- Client Connect enables clients to connect their socials to the Client Dashboard without giving away their login credentials
- Custom approval workflows for clients and social media teams
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- Mobile experience can be improved
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- Creator: $29 per month
- Traction: $89 per month
- Scale: $199 per month
Customer ratings and reviews
- G2: 4.5 out of 5 (832 reviews)
- Capterra: 4.5 out of 5 (116 reviews)
- Later
Ideal for agencies specializing in social media and content marketing.
Later is an ideal option for any agency seeking to enhance its social media management. Its user-friendly scheduling system allows users to efficiently plan and publish content across several channels within a single platform, thus saving both time and energy. Moreover, it possesses robust analytics functionalities and SEO tools.
Later’s visual media library simplifies the process of storing and organizing visual content, making it effortless for users to locate the ideal photo or video for their upcoming post. Considering these impressive features, it is hardly surprising that Later has gained immense popularity as a top social media management tool for agencies.
Which features are the most outstanding or impressive?
- Integration with WordPress
- Ease of use and clean interface
- Robust media library that makes asset management for teams and client management easier
- Supports Link in Bio
Restrictions
- No Google Profile (previously Google My Business) integration
- Somewhat inflexible pricing. For example, the Starter and Growth plans set limits to 30 and 150 posts per social, respectively
- Starter plans limits analytics data to up to three months of data
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- Starter: $18 per month
- Growth: $40 per month
- Advanced: $80 per month
Ratings and reviews given by customers.
- G2: 4.6 out of 5 (289 reviews)
- Capterra: 4.4 out of 5 (358 reviews)
Common Problems for Marketing Agencies
When dealing with clients, social media marketing agencies commonly experience three problems.
- Lack of communication
- Too much communication
- Small client budgets
Taking a logical approach, let’s reconsider each of these issues that can hinder the provision of optimal service. By closely examining these difficulties in social media marketing, we can gain a clearer comprehension of their consequences and how the utilization of social media management tools could assist your agency in achieving success.
Communication is lacking.
To ensure successful social media marketing campaigns, it is important to collaborate with clients in order to develop suitable content using an appropriate tone. If a customer decides to withdraw from this process, there is a chance that the resulting social media marketing plan might not meet the client’s expectations. This would mean that a significant amount of time would have been invested in creating the plan and possibly even its accompanying content, only for the client to desire something different. The agency’s selection of social media management tools will enable continuous communication with the client during the planning and creation stages, minimizing any unforeseen issues.
The presence of excessive communication.
At the opposite side of the spectrum, we encounter clients who desire involvement in every stage of the social media marketing planning process. This can significantly impede productivity as it restricts the agency’s autonomy required for meeting clients’ needs and assisting them in achieving their goals. However, the utilization of social media management tools can expedite decision-making without completely excluding the client from the process.
Budgets of small clients.
It appears that clients are often reluctant to allocate sufficient funds for marketing. However, this does not imply that they are uninterested in receiving exceptional services. Utilizing a social media management tool can assist in managing their expectations and informing them about the limitations and possibilities within their budget. They will appreciate knowing that you are equally mindful of their financial constraints.
Features to Look for in Agency Tools
In order to maintain efficiency, it is crucial for a social media management tool to possess three key qualities.
- Collaboration. We already talked about the importance of the right amount of communication, so this shouldn’t be surprising. The best social media management tools for agencies include collaboration tools so you and your clients can get and stay on the same page.
- Permissions. Along with collaboration comes permissions. Who will be able to make edits to the content or the schedule? Who’s allowed to comment? These are important questions to answer so you can lock things down and ensure that no accidents happen to derail your plans.
- Reporting. Last, you need to be able to show your results. After all, your clients are hiring you for what you can do for them. You need reporting to be able to show them the proof.
