Several weeks ago I noticed my agency was spending way too much time on our clients’ social media marketing campaigns and not enough time on the rest of inbound marketing channels. So we decided to do some research on social media software that would help us improve our workflow. Along the way, we discovered software that is worth mentioning to the Moz community. The objective of this blog post is to provide a list of social software that can help you run your social marketing campaigns better. Some of the software is FREE (my favorite four letter word) while others are expensive. We highly recommend going through all 12 tools to find what is best for your current situation. Many of the companies mentioned below have videos demonstrations. It should take about 1-2 hours to go through all these to assess what fits your budget (if any) and marketing agenda. I put the cost for each software so if it’s over your budget, skip it.
The first five are social media marketing suites (like a CRM). Eveything below those five tools can help your social media marketing campaigns. The list is presented in no particular order. Enjoy my fellow mozzers!
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You can think of HootSuite as a Social Media Management Dashboard. Enhance your social media management with HootSuite. As of today, it’s the leading social media dashboard. You can manage multiple networks and profiles and measure your campaign results. You can learn more by going to the HootSuite website. You can send messages from Hootsuite to a Facebook Page, Twitter, Google+ Page, and LinkedIn. In addition, you can create profiles for internal communications.
Use this if: You are marketing Facebook Pages, Twitter, Google+ Pages, or LinkedIn.
Don’t use this if: you need robust Analytics. They “do” have analytics, but you have to pay for them if you go over your monthly points. These reports can get expensive ($50 each). Note: I’m a web analytics consultant with a Market Motive certification from Avinash so maybe I’m just too analytical.
Cost: Free, $10/mo for Pro
Sprout Social is a social media management tool created to help businesses find new customers & grow their social media presence. It is also a Social CRM for Businesses. You can monitor all your clients social media profiles. It is affordable and is worth the monthly subscription for many people. It has one of the best social media analytics. It integrates with Google Analytics. Social Sprout may become the Social Media software that surpasses ALL the other tools. SEOmoz was looking into using Sprout Social, but they haven’t settled on any one company yet.
Use this if: you are an agency, company, or a mom and pop shop.
Don’t use this if: you need to market Google Plus. This is a BIG drawback for Sprout Social. Eventually they will get around to integrating with Google Plus. If you are promoting your Google Plus Local Business Page, use another software like Hootsuite. Remember that your Google Plus Local Business Page appears in the SERPS.
Cost: Starting at $39/mo
Spredfast is an Enterprise Social Media Software with a social CRM dashboard. Spredfast was featured by Meghan Peters post Mashable’s top five social media management tools. This is an awesome tool for enterprise level companies and for social media marketing agencies.
Use this if: you are an agency managing social media for several companies with high ROI demands. Also you can use this if your company is an enterprise.
Don’t use this if: you don’t have a social media team. Although affordability is subjective, this is cost prohibitive for many small companies. A possible good alternative to Spredfast is Hootsuite’s Enterprise Plan. It doesn’t fully integrate with Google Plus yet. Spredfast told me though Twitter they will integrate Google+ into the product in early 2013. Stay tuned!”
Cost: Plans range from $12,000/yr to $1 million/yr.
Radian6 (SalesForce Marketing Cloud) offers social media monitoring tools, social media engagement software, social CRM, and marketing. This software has many great features for an established business that already has a traditional sales force, hence, made by SalesForce. You can tag a social media advocate for your brand and make that person a contact within SalesForce. Radian6 has some great demo videos.
Use this if: your company already has Salesforce. It will integrate social data with the SalesForce CRM.
Don’t use this if: you don’t have a fulltime social media team. The other software on this blog post can do a lot of the same things, but they cannot integrate with SalesForce. Although Radian6 claims this is good solution for small businesses, it seems pretty cost prohibitive.
Cost: Starting at $5,000/mo
The FollowerWonk app lets you search Twitter bios, measure yourself against competitors, audit & track followers, and find & cultivate key relationships. Here is a list Followerwonk benefits comparing the free vs paid versions. This is an AWESOME software which can help build relationships. You can make new friends and even link partners. Followerwonk is a tool that can be used for Twitter analysis, but it’s not a social media suite like Hootsuite or SproutSocial. It stands on its own and should be part of you social media marketing arsenal. It is included for FREE with your SEOmoz subscritpion. Watch Rand’s White Board Friday on Using Followerwonk to Grow Your Twitter Account
Use this if: you want to build relationships with Twitter influencers. Many of these influencers are bloggers and/or run their own companies. Followerwonk can help you build these relationships.
Don’t use this if: there’s no reason not to use this wonderful software.
Cost: Free – $99/mo (the $99/mo is the SEOmoz subscription which includes Followerwonk).
With SocialBro you can manage and analyze your Twitter Community. It allows you to break down the barriers between you and your followers. There is a nice video demo on home page. The SocialBro software is for Twitter users only. You cannot post to any other social media channel besides Twitter. Use this software to get to know who is ‘already’ in your community and tag them. Once you tag your followers you can expand their Twitter information. SocialBro identifies influencers with your own criteria. This is some pretty cool software; however, it overlaps with Followerwonk. The SocialBro software comes highly recommended by a famous international SEO named Gianluca Fiorelli. He is a highly respected SEOMOZ associate.
Use this if: You have a decent sized following and you’re spending a lot of time on Twitter.
Don’t use if: you need to post to Facebook, G+, or LinkedIn. SocialBro is awesome, but only for Twitter. If you have a very small Twitter following, then this might not be a good fit.
Cost: Starting at $6.95/mo
A smarter way to share on social media. Buffer makes it super easy to share any page you’re reading. Keep your Buffer topped up and it automagically shares posts for you through the day (scheduled posts). This software is a sharing platform. Like many tools included in this blog post, you can schedule sharing. You can only post to Facebook, Twitter, & LinkedIn. This was also recommended by Gianluca Fiorelli.
Use this if: you only need to share posts on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn. This is a basic software that can help you save time by scheduling posts.
Don’t use this if: you need to build up your Google Plus Pages. You can use Hootsuite as an alternative.
Cost: Free and $10/mo.
Tweet Deck is a FREE tool provided by Twitter. You can manage multiple Twitter accounts using this software. Since Twitter didn’t have anything like Facebook where a person can have multiple Pages under one account, Twitter created Tweetdeck so there is no logging in and out of multiple Twitter profiles. You can instantly connect to what’s most important to you. Follow your friends, experts, favorite celebrities, and breaking news. You can schedule Tweets in advance.
Use this if: you are only marketing multiple Twitter account.
Do not use if: you are marketing Facebook Pages, LinkedIn, Google+ Pages. You can use Hootsuite’s free version.
Cost: Free
EdgeRank Checker allows you to check your Facebook Page’s EdgeRank. It’s a free tool to check your Facebook Page’s EdgeRank (or exposure within Facebook). Check your score in one simple step! EdgeRank is Facebook’s algorithm which shows what posts are displayed in the News Feed and how high it ranks. EdgeRank Checker can help increase your Facebook exposure and fan engagement. This can be a GREAT tool to increase your Facebook News Feed rankings. It’s only for Facebook though, and doesn’t work on personal profiles.
Use this if: you want your Facebook posts to rank higher.
Don’t use this if: there’s no reason not to use this because it’s free. The strength of this EdgeRank Checker is in the PRO plan.
Cost: Free – $15/mo.
PageLever provides analytics, publishing, monitoring & reporting tools for Facebook Pages. It designs and creates data-driven tools that help brands and marketing agencies optimize their presence on Facebook for the News Feed. PageLever is only for Facebook marketers. It provides much better information than Facebook Insights. It powers data driven social marketing decisions for your Facebook campaigns. PageLever was recommended by Facebook consultant Brian Carter, author of “The Like Economy”. Brian was a speaker at MozCon 2011.
Much of the data comes from Facebook’s API but isn’t available in Facebook’s free Page Insights. – Brian Carter (The Like Economy)
Use this if: you need extra analytics tools beyond Facebook Insights.
Don’t use this if: you are marketing Twitter, Google Plus, LinkedIn, or anything other than Facebook. You can still use it, but you won’t be able to post on any other social networks besides Facebook.
Cost: $99/mo
With Social Crawlytics, you can identify your competitor’s most shared content and find out who shared their content. This software is great to spy on your competitors! You can look at Social Crawlytics as a competitive analysis tool for Twitter. It is a “social media share analysis” program. Social Crawlytics was highly recommended at MozCon by a famous London online marketing specialist, Mark MacDonald (a fellow Moz community member).
Use this if: you want to see your competitors most shared content. Use this in conjunction with one of the other tools on this blog post.
Don’t use this if: there’s no reason not to use this especially since it’s free.
Cost: FREE, FREE, FREE
Buzzstream is a team based software for building and managing relationships with social influencers. Think about this as a contact book for social media relationships. It is NOT for posting messages to social media channels. BuzzStream has two products: 1) PR & Social Media contact management 2) Link Building contact management.
Use this if: you want to create and maintain a record of social media contacts. It’s like your little black book of contacts.
Don’t use this if: you are posting on multiple social media campaigns. You cannot post to your social accounts. It’s only for social contacts.
Cost: Starting at $19/mo for their Solo Plan.
Your Turn
So do you use or know of any software you would recommend? (SEOmoz’s social team is looking)
If you are using any of these tools, what’s your opinion on them?
