Week 14: Social Media Management Tools

         I think that social media management tools can be extremely beneficial to a business, especially a small business where one person has to control every aspect of the business. That person can get extremely busy with the goods or services that they are providing, managing their finances, maintaining a website, etc. Social media is basically a necessity for up-and-coming businesses to connect with potential customers, and having to use multiple platforms is just adding the icing on top of the busy cake. I don't even have a real business and found it to be difficult to create consistent posts on Facebook and Instagram. It put in to perspective why when we were doing research about other business's social media use that some of them hadn't had any posts in months or only post a couple times a year. 

        With the link provided in the assignment post I looked into some of the best social media management tools. The first one on the list was Sprout Social. The first aspect to this tool that I really appreciated was that there is a free 30 day trial. This is a great amount of time for someone to figure out if they enjoy the features because they could try different features of the tool every week instead of having to figure out how to use every resource provided within a week or a few days. It lets you adjust to the features instead of rush. The pros and cons list stated that the user dashboard allows you to manage every social media platform in one place. Instead of having to bounce back and forth between every platform you use you're able to manage all of them at once. I appreciated that because it was really tedious to have to figure out what I was doing for posts on each platform. The analytics portion was really intriguing and seems to be extremely beneficial because you can figure out what content works best for your business so that you don't have to waste time creating content that isn't effective. The cons list talked about the cost of the management tool and said that the amount of social platforms is limited. I think that if the management tool helps to shred a good chunk of time out of personally managing your profiles it could be worth it. With the extra time you're able to focus more on products or services, so the management tool could essentially pay for itself. 

        My search in to free social media management tools led me to a list of the top 7 free management tools. The first one that I looked at was called Buffer. Buffer's features included posting schedules, Google Analytics, and shuffle queue. The social media platforms that Buffer supports include Facebook, LinedIn, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest. I was a little disappointed that I didn't see TikTok on there, but it was unclear if the tool allows video posts or just photograph posts. I really enjoy video posts, so if they weren't an option I would be a little hesitant to use Buffer. I do enjoy that the tool also includes Google Analytics because it is similar to Sprout Social. I also enjoy that the analytics portion is included with the platform rather than you having to go to a separate website to find this information. Buffer could be a great tool to use when you start a business and don't have many platforms to manage or much to post. 

        Social media management tools can be a great resource to a business to take some stress off of the person in charge of social media platforms. I think that a free management outlet would be a great place to start to understand the gist of a social media management tool. Once the business starts to gain a little more traffic, or if there is just a surplus in a social media budget, a paid management tool would be a great option. I would 100% use a social media management tool for my business. 

Blogs I Commented On And Thoughts:

California Rahd Iron on Patches: We talked about the same social media management tools. Max looked further into the packages, and I was shocked to see that there is a plan that is $499. I just cannot get over that. I could definitely see a major company such as Apple using that format, but it makes zero sense for a small business to use something like that. 

A Little Press & No Stress: Alexis looked at multiple management tools. One that I was intrigued in was Loomly. She shared that it has a collaboration feature that I would love to know more about. LinkedIn is a great collaboration tool, but it intrigues me that Loomly has management tools and collaboration tools. 

Protein for Pets: Amy went a little further in to the process of the management tools than I did and she noticed that even with a free trial you had to put in credit card information. This just happened to me with an Adobe feature and I hate it because I always forget to cancel and then am charged the next month for nothing!