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?
Francisco, thank you for writing this article. You provided some great information. Hopefully the community will continue to share feedback regarding their experiences.
My agency, like yours, is seeking the "best" solution to meet our client needs. Follerwonk's acquisition by SEOmoz and Wildfire's acquisition by Google make each of those solutions much more enticing.
It's time to put you on the hot seat! After reviewing all of the above options, which vendor did you select for your agency?
I specialize at being in the hot seat! Currently I am using Hootsuite Pro. I would love to use Sprout Social, but since they don't integrate with with Google Plus, I'll stay with Hootsuite Pro. I have tried Wildfire's promotion builder, but it's not what my clients need.
I have used TweetDeck extensively and Followerwonk. I am very tempted to get a subscription with SocialBro, but I feel a little guilty knowing it's Follerwonk's competition (LOL). I have a subscription with Buzzstream, but for their link builder. I'm also using Social Crawlytics.
The "reason" I don't use the higher priced Social Media suites is when I look at Google Analytics social media conversions, the price of those suites don't justify the added cost. My clients ONLY care about money in the bank.
Hey Francisco,
Thanks so much for including SocialBro in this amazing list! I've seen that you've shared a list comparing the free and the paid versions of Folllowerwonk, so I want to share the same list comparing the free and the Pro web version of SocialBro ;-) https://bit.ly/TCMSLP
Cheers!
This was a good list, but your comment about "money in the bank" was better. That's been my big issue with so many of these tools. You pay too much for all these charts and graphs and use them very little. For the size companies that I deal with (employees 2-100) they see our effectiveness when the phone rings and the checks clear. We never send reports.
Excellent post and break from the normal posts on YM! Hootsuite is a given and I'd vouch for Buzzstream. Great list Francisco!
Thanks Kevin,I spent days researching all the social media software and in the end I had so much information I decided to make my 1st Youmoz post and to give back to the MOZ community. There are a lot of social media software companies here today, gone today. Hopefully this list is relevant for a long time.
Very good list of software tools for social media. It would really help all social media lovers.
I would also add veooz.com, a free tool to monitor social media buzz + sentiment analysis + influencer search
Hi Francisco,
Please consider SocialAppsHQ for future purposes.
https://www.socialappshq.com
It's a great social media management and marketing platform that I am sure you will like to add to your arsenal - it has Apps, Monitoring, Planner and ad platform
Hi Francisco,
Thanks for including Social Crawlytics in this post.
I used to love Tweetdeck but unfortunately Twitter has absolutely ruined the app.
I didn't realize there were so many tools out there. I've been using hootsuite for the last few years and I love that. I just wish I had the ability to post to my G+ personal page. I'm now doing that via Do Share on Chrome. But, it would be much easier if I could do everything in one place. I'm going to check out some of your suggestions. Thank you.
"So do you use or know of any software you would recommend?"
I'd recommend BuzzBundle. I've been using it for quite a while and am completely satisfied with the solutions they have to offer.
Looked into hootsuite. It works great for my purposes. Thanks a lot for these awesome tips.
regards
Jarno
hmm system failure? posted the same message 3 times..??? edit for that reason.
@admin: please remove this one and the other one below this.
This is very helpful, I really like how you broke everything down. Who should use what and why, this is awesome and if more people use these methods IMO the web would be more organized.
Hey Francisco, Thanks for mentioning the handy tools! Nice one!
You're welcome Vikas. I wanted to save the Moz community some time. It was very confusing for us to select a software because of all the options out there. Let me know which one you choose.
Francisco, thanks for doing our homework for us! Great list.
Thanks for the Wildfire video link. Anything from Google is worth checking out in my book. Thanks
Hi Francisco, amazing article and I really love the selection of tools, haven't come across quite a few of them, Especially PR&Social Media looks super interesting, thanks for the heads up!
Oh and of course, big thanks for the kind Buffer mention, really glad it is useful! :)
Hey Leo!I love the Francisco's selection too. Here at SocialBro HQ we're huge fans of HootSuite and specially of Buffer :-)
great list of tools. Surely I am going to check them out if the description meets my needs. Love some of the aspects as manage Social for your clients but if you then look at the price tag... a shame... but going to look into some of these. Thanks a lot for putting time and effort into it.
regards
Jarno
Surprised at the omission of radian6 – another Salesforce owned bit of software. The strength of it is staggering and is also a great way to monitor share of voice in mainstream news (which could be very useful if looking at co-citation correlation).
Doesn’t come cheap, but it’s the most comprehensive monitoring tool I’ve used.
Appreciate you including Sprout Social in the list, Francisco. Thank you! We certainly continue to look into Google+ integration, so hope you check us out again in the future.
I can vouch for Sprout Social. Great software!
Hi Brit. Thanks for your comment and letting the MOZ community know that G+ integration is coming. I can't wait for that to happen. Many of us push Google + here. SproutSocial looks like it will become an AWESOME software at the pace it's going. It's already awesome, just need G+
Last week I did a roundup of 60 Twitter Tools that still work after the API changes and was contacted by someone from SocialMotus. I have used SocialBro in the past and I think they're very similar except SocialMotus allows Facebook + LinkedIn posting so if someone needs those but likes SB, they may want to try Motus. I actually went back and updated my link to add it because I think it's a great product. Similar pricing to SocialBro + Hootsuite. Lots I haven't explored yet in it, but it looks good!
MAtt, thanks for letting the community know about SocialMotus. It looks really sweet. I wish they had some videos on their site to help us visualize their software.
@Matt, thanks for mentioned SocialMotus here. There are many hidden features that many users may not explored yet. Our customer called it "Social Swiss Army Knife Tool, better than HootSuite, cheaper than Radian6". SocialMotus also supports LinkedIn Group and company pages, while most of the competitor product only support LinkedIn Profile, currently only HootSuite has accessed to LinkedIn group and company pages API, but we made it happen in SocialMotus.
@Francisco Meza, because we just released our tool recently, we will add a video for sure.
Thanks Francisco your articles is really impressive, well searched and nice list. I will be waiting for your next posts and articles.
Thank You.
Yousuf
Thank you for mentioning EdgeRank Checker. We work hard to understand Facebook's news feed better than anyone else. We greatly appreciate the support!
Francisco, thanks for doing our homework for us! Great list.
Thanks Francisco for such a great list! I am writing a promotional plan right now and this has helped me so much. The comments have been such an added bonus as well, its great to see everyone's feedback on the products, and to see what else they are using.
Thanks!
Thanks for including BuzzStream in your post - we're much obliged to be in such great company. Just as a quick note, you can now retweet and reply to Tweets from your contacts through BuzzStream.
Hi Francisco, just came across this review and found it really comprehensive! That’s a great compilation of respected tools in the SMM industry. As for my input, you may also have included BuzzBundle which is kind of all-in-one solution for managing multiple social accounts, forums and blogs, plus the reputation management tool.
Check out Sociopal, the new and most advanced application (and iphone app) for promoting small businesses using social media and web.
Have you considered Onlywire? I really like that it automates my RSS feeds to different Social Media Accounts
Hi,
These tools are great for social marketing Francisco. I used Hootsuite in the past and is very well.
Regards,
I am going to look for more information to complement the knowledge that you have given us, it is very interesting thank you very much
For the german users under us, SocialHub, www.socialhub.io, just launched a free magazine with top social media managers. Nice tips & tricks.
This is an old article, but still very relevant. If you look at the list, and even most of the suggestions in comments, you'd see a trend, where social software tools are mostly either VERY EXPENSIVE, like in thousands $$$$ right off or are in fact SaaS offerings. So, one would have to pay a monthly fee. And another big group is services that don't really give you the ownership of the site - you're essentially building a business for someone else.
Sure these can work for large organisations and for some deep-pocket enthusiasts, but why? There are wonderful social CMSs that do the job for fraction of the cost and give you complete control! For example, Dolphin from Boonex is a powerful social software with open-source and easily more features than any of the products you listed. And it's $600 for everything - even mobile apps. One can even go for something like Trident sCMS (that's social Content Management System) from online.me and not spend a penny until they need some extra module, which are also in a $10-50 range. So, go figure!
If one needed a social network that's being built for someone else... well, go and open a Facebook group - at least there would be more members in the beginning. Otherwise independent solution is the best.
Hi Francisco, your research list very nice. I also interest with social media management tool, i want to add another tool which look very nice benefit for client, it is (Enpick) tool. go here (enpick.com) . It can manage multiple Facebook page, Facebook profile and twitter, real-time post and review report , analysis report, competitor report, smart search engine.
Thanks so much for sharing this. Maybe you should add quintly to the list. I recently tried it and it gives me an awesome overview of my marketing campaigns.
Thanks for sharing the details Francisco.
Adding to it, there is 1 new application to be launched in the market.
Teamberry: It is a mobile application, designed and developed for better co-ordination between managerial & field staff. With TeamBerry, Managers can easily track the performance of their on-the-field team. This application is designed in a universal way and can be utilized across all departments like sales, tracking. This app can the scaled as per the user needs and requirements. Features like logistics, supply chain management, etc can be added are per user's requirements. The CRM application is in final phase and free demo will be available soon for users.
More details are available at https://www.teamberry.biz
Great tools, i am surprised that conversocial is not in there though.
Great and helpful article on Social Media Marketing. I love Hootsuite as it is easy and user friendly with reasonable of 99$ a month like seomoz does :)
Great list, thanks for sharing it!
May I add a newcomer in the field of Facebook Analytics ? https://www.wisemetrics.com
Our software is specialized in news feed optimization.We offer a free trial and pricing starts at $49/month.
Thanks for the resource. Another tool I just started using is Mention. It's a freemium app that allows you to set alerts for certain keywords and monitor their use anywhere online. Enormously helpful for monitoring when you're mentioned on blogs and other sites you wouldn't normally check.
Hi Francisco,
Thanks for taking the time to look into Salesforce Marketing Cloud and for including us on your list. We really appreciate the mention!
Cheers,
Zoe Geddes-Soltess
Community Engagement, Salesforce Marketing Cloud
I guess press releases will effect more in raking in 2013
Sounds interesting Francisco, Thanks for your tips. Will try this later.. For me quality will effect more in Ranking, it's depend how you interact with people and how you build public relation.
Targeting people in the same niche will give color to the marketing strategy and of course it will give traffic and conversion as well.
Thanks for the list, hoping this will help to increase my traffic.
Thanks for the awesome blog. Great content and tons of new sites & services to look at!
Thanks for a great list of useable software! I am starting to look into developing my social media strategy skills and several of these tools will assist me perfectly!
No problem. There are a few others that I learned about, but they are for enterprise level business which is out of my range.
I actually tried Hootsuite to manage Facebook pages, and I quite like it. It has a great overview, and it is easier to manage several profiles at once.
What are you thoughts on Tweet Adder? I've heard mixed reviews. Thanks
I have never used it. I just watched their video and I don't like that there is automated Follow and Unfollow features. This sounds a little spammy. You should use Followerwonk and compare the differences.
When I think of social media software, I think about building relationships. I also think about putting more money into my clients' bank accounts. I don't really see that happening with Tweet Adder.
I hadn't even heard of WildFire before this blog post, but thanks for the heads up! I've just signed up and it's 100x better then the current Facebook template software i was using (and less costly then all the social media monitoring tools we have). Saved us Time & Money!Thanks!- Charlie
Great! I'm glad to hear I helped out another agency. The WildFire apps is fairly cheap for FB templates. I used them.
Great list of tools. Can I suggest including DrumUp (www.drumup.io) to this list of tools. DrumUp can find out relevant content and save social media management time by up to 90%.