Mike Allton — July 12, 2019 — July 12, 2019
There’s no denying that social media marketing software can be an enormous asset to businesses of all sizes, creating, publishing, and even reviewing the performance of their content easier and quicker. Many tools can help you streamline the social marketing process while making it more effective and impactful, too.
Some social media marketing tools, however, don’t live up to the hype of what you hoped they could do. Some are difficult or confusing to use, and plenty don’t have the features or support that brands need for their campaigns.
Social media software can fail you. It may sounds a little melodramatic. But if you’ve invested hundreds (or even thousands of dollars) and an enormous chunk of time in training into a single tool, you’d consider the tool a colossal disaster if it ended up not helping and actively holding you back. It’s why choosing the right one up front is so essential.
I want to help you avert a potential disaster! So, let’s take a look at the 5 most common ways your social software will let you down and how to avoid each one.
1. It Doesn’t Offer Social Management Features
Plenty of social media marketing software that offer publication and analytics is out there. A chunk of them, however, don’t offer true management tools, and those can get you in a bind.
Imagine trying to manage six company profiles and only looking at big picture analytics of how many likes or comments your posts get instead of seeing what people say.
Image source: Hootsuite
The best software will offer social listening and engagement management features, which will allow you to see who is getting in touch both publicly and privately, and allow you to respond immediately.
Look for tools that stress “social management” and not just “social publishing” to avoid this problem.
2. It Doesn’t Enable Teamwork
Even if you’re a one-person business right now, you may want to eventually scale or hire a third party to help you with your social marketing. You’ll then need software that has teamwork functionalities.
Many tools lack that feature, allowing you to add multiple users to your account but not set restrictions about what they can do or what their roles are. Those tools also often lack internal communication features to keep everyone on the same page.
Image source: Agorapulse
Check out tools like Agorapulse for this, which allow you to assign tasks to specific teammates and submit posts for review.
3. It Doesn’t Have the Analytics You Need
Facebook’s Insights seemed overwhelmingly original when they first rolled out, but now every social platform has pretty strong native social media analytics and reporting features.
So if you’re choosing a social media tool that boasts great analytics, it should give you at least a little more information than you can already get natively for free. Unfortunately, only a few do.
Image source: Sprout Social
Tools like Sprout Social, however, go deep into their reporting, so choose tools that stress this. Look for evidence of features that standard native analytics won’t have, like hashtag reports or details about your audience’s demographics or activity.
4. It Doesn’t Support Enough Users … or Enough Profiles
As you scale your business (and many readers will if they haven’t already), you’ll find yourself with more social profiles to keep up with and more team members to help you do exactly that.
Many social media plans promise to offer unlimited support for as many profiles as you need … but only with an enterprise-grade plan (and an enterprise-grade price tag). Take a look at how many profiles that you have now and how many you expect to have, and make sure that the plan you want will support them.
Image: Hootsuite
For example, say you have four now but plan on adding LinkedIn and a Facebook group to the mix by the end of the year, and the plan you can afford only supports 5 profiles.
Similarly, look at the number of team members who need access to the tool. Some software have free plans but only allow for one user. Pick your plan according to how much support it can offer, or you’ll struggle to pick up the slack.
5. It Doesn’t Offer Publishing for the Platforms You Use Most
Do you have an avid, engaged YouTube following and you need to stay on top of those comments? Or perhaps do you have a Facebook Group that you want to schedule regular content, or a thriving Pinterest account?
You may find that some tools may not help you on more “niche” social media platforms.
Image source: SEMrush Social Media Poster, which offers Pinterest scheduling
Many social media management tools will include the option to connect Facebook profiles, Instagram business accounts, Twitter accounts, and LinkedIn profiles. Those are a given.
Platforms like YouTube, Pinterest, and Facebook Groups can be a wildcard.
Take a careful look at how the tools under consideration support each platform. Check to see whether publishing, reporting, and social listening/management are available for each one, too. Doing so will help you avoid getting stuck with a tool that isn’t the right fit for your needs.
Conclusion
When you’re choosing the best social media marketing software for you to invest in, the choice can be tough. There are so many options out there, and there’s a decent chance that a tool you already use like Hubspot or SEMrush have some sort of social publishing integrations.
Make sure that when you choose a social media tool, you aren’t choosing one based on convenience. Pick a reliable platform with plenty of features that will give you the full social support you need.
Consider these 5 key ways that some social platforms can let you down, and keep them in mind while you choose.
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