With more than 75 percent of the United States population on social media, small businesses need to be on social media and use their accounts to market products and services. Using the right social media management tools could increase sales, boost brand recognition and develop loyal customers.
"}},{"__typename":"SectionBestPicks","id":"best-picks","isInToc":false,"order":1,"tocTitle":"Best Picks","type":"bestpicks","title":"Best Picks","bestpicks":[{"description":"WebiMax can help your business with the creation of multimedia content. Its dedicated account managers will work with you to create content like videos, infographics, memes and articles. Your account manager can also help you design a business profile for each social media platform, develop specific strategies as well as update and maintain your social media accounts. \r\n\r\nOnce content is created, you can upload the content yourself or leave it to your account manager to post. WebiMax offers other services, including geotargeting, link building or backlinking, which helps your website rank higher in search engine results.\r\n \r\nThis service's analytic tools will show you how specific campaigns are increasing brand recognition, creating buzz, growing your audience and targeting the right people. WebiMax also provides audits to determine ROI reports, and monitors your reputation and growth. \r\n\r\nThis provider can be reached by phone, email and live chat. Its website features FAQs, blogs, articles and tutorials. You can also read samples of content WebiMax has created for other clients and the amount of traffic it generated. \r\n\r\nFor business owners who may not have the time, resources or personnel, WebiMax can assist with content creation and marketing on a number of fronts. Not only will they help you with social media, but their professionals will work with you to produce videos and identify your target audience to boost awareness of your business and drive sales.","tabTitle":"Best for Multi Media Creation","fullTitle":"Best for Multi Media Creation","review":{"serviceName":"WebiMax","canonical":"https://staging.business.com/reviews/webimax-social-media-management-monitoring-tools/","id":"3c1690b3d6b4609d1a0011d6df651873","pricing":{"isCapped":false,"isFeatured":true,"primary":true,"selected":"affiliate","widgetId":null,"widget":null,"affiliate":{"cta":"Visit Site","link":"https://businesscom.go2cloud.org/aff_c?offer_id=321&aff_id=1000&source=social-media-management-tools&aff_sub4=revenue|Sponsorship&aff_sub3=deal|Webimax&url_id=1","name":"Sponsorship"}},"thumbnail":{"path":"https://staging.business.com/images/rev/prod/ce/54188-webimax-box.jpg"}}},{"description":"Oracle Social Cloud is the best solution for enterprise. It's more expensive than most social monitoring tools, so it's better suited for enterprise-level businesses. With Oracle Social Cloud, you can create and schedule multimedia posts that include content, video, etc., over various social sites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and more. You can also post individual replies to people who engage on your various social media channels. There is also an interactive editorial calendar to help you plan and schedule your social campaigns.\r\n\r\nIn addition to content creation, Oracle Social Cloud provides comprehensive social listening, analysis and a range of back-office and engagement features.\r\n\r\nOracle \"listens\" to more than 40 million sites a day in more than 28 languages around the world. The sites include blogs, news sites, social media networks, video and image sites. This tool utilizes Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA), Natural Language Processing (NLP) and its own proprietary algorithms to provide insight into what customers are saying about you.\r\n\r\nLike other services and platforms in our guide, you'll need to contact Oracle for a price quote. You are assigned a dedicated account manager when you sign up. Oracle's website provides further information, including FAQs, white papers and a blog. If you have a question or run into a problem using the platform, you can reach customer support by email and phone.\r\n","tabTitle":"Best for Enterprise","fullTitle":"Best for Enterprise","review":{"serviceName":"Oracle","canonical":"https://staging.business.com/reviews/oracle-social-cloud/","id":"ccb638ef9a95a0655707b8043eb30112","pricing":{"isCapped":false,"isFeatured":false,"primary":true,"selected":"widget","widgetId":"10746","widget":{"id":"10746","cta":"Compare Quotes","isExclusive":false},"affiliate":{"cta":"Visit Site","link":"http://www.oracle.com","name":""}},"thumbnail":{"path":"https://staging.business.com/images/rev/prod/ce/52912-collective-intellect-box.jpg"}}},{"description":"Sysomos is our pick for the best social media tool for international businesses. It monitors 186 languages in 189 different countries. This social media software can help brands monitor how people throughout the world view their company, who the key influencers are in your industry, what influencers are saying about you and how your campaigns are performing. \r\n\r\nThis tool monitors more than two dozen sites, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, blogs and traditional media. In addition to understanding multiple languages, this easy-to-use platform can understand slang and intent. Sysomos can filter through superfluous posts, identifying advertising, suspicious links and gibberish. The analytic tool can be used to identify spam communities and fake link-boosting activities. \r\n\r\nSysomos' analytic tools can access up to two years of data. The tool integrates with Google Analytics for additional traffic analysis. The drag-and-drop capability allows the user to fully customize reports with ease. Users can manage all of their social media accounts in one convenient place. With Sysomos, you can schedule posts across all of your social media accounts and then respond to each individual post. \r\n\r\nSysomos doesn't publish its pricing on its website. You'll need to contact the company for a price quote. \r\n\r\nSysomos has email and phone support. Some packages include a dedicated account manager. Sysomos is a powerful social media marketing tool, and its ability to understand hundreds of languages makes it a great choice for international businesses in the market for social media listening, analysis and response tools.","tabTitle":"International Business","fullTitle":"Best of International Business: Sysomos ","review":{"serviceName":"Sysomos","canonical":"https://staging.business.com/reviews/sysomos/","id":"52dd4cef911dff78164419f0c7817f5d","pricing":{"isCapped":false,"isFeatured":false,"primary":true,"selected":"widget","widgetId":"10746","widget":{"id":"10746","cta":"Compare Quotes","isExclusive":false},"affiliate":{"cta":"Visit Site","link":"http://www.sysomos.com","name":""}},"thumbnail":{"path":"https://staging.business.com/images/rev/prod/ce/52320-sysomos-box.jpg"}}},{"description":"Portent is the best social media marketing tool for analyzing your competition. Based in Seattle, Washington, Portent is a marketing agency that will work with you one on one to identify your target audience and then outline a strategy to develop what it calls a \"user-centric competitive analysis.\" Based on your target audience, Portent will help you pinpoint and refine the appeal of your product or service so you stand out.\r\n\r\nIt is available to businesses of all sizes, and now has a small business hub, which is focused on social media marketing for small businesses at reasonable prices.\r\n\r\nWhen businesses create a social media campaign, Portent can create content to help promote the brand and gain recognition online. Examples of content that may be created include video production and podcast creation. If you prefer to create your own content, Portent can distribute it across the social media sites that are likely to have the biggest impact. Once you create your own social media profile, Portent's staff will take over and manage the sites for you.\r\n\r\nPortent has social media tools to track the success of your social media and business campaigns. Its tools audit your sites (analyzing up to 12 months of data) to determine if there are any gaps. It will then provide suggestions on how to close any gaps. In addition, Portent can monitor and manage your online reputation to uncover negative feedback so you can make necessary adjustments to reinforce a positive perception among your customers.\r\n\r\nPricing isn't published on Portent's website. You will need to contact the company for a quote. Email and phone support are available. On Portent's website, you can read articles about online marketing and watch a video tutorial that explains what the company does. You can also read several case studies to decide if this social media marketing service is a good fit for your business.\r\n","tabTitle":"Competitor Analysis","fullTitle":"Best Service for Competitor Analysis: Portent ","review":{"serviceName":"Portent","canonical":"https://staging.business.com/reviews/portent/","id":"4dbef0f9a7d437e91a5ccb1b9b17391a","pricing":{"isCapped":false,"isFeatured":false,"primary":true,"selected":"widget","widgetId":"10746","widget":{"id":"10746","cta":"Compare Quotes","isExclusive":false},"affiliate":{"cta":"Visit Site","link":"http://www.portent.com/","name":""}},"thumbnail":{"path":"https://staging.business.com/images/rev/prod/ce/62916-portent-box.jpg"}}},{"description":"For businesses, such as a restaurant or hair salon, that depend on a strong local customer base, OrangeSoda is the service we recommend for geotargeted advertising. This social media marketing service, based in Kansas, will work with you to pinpoint customers in your area and analyze trends to drive more traffic to your website and store.\r\n\r\nOrangeSoda has a team who will create and manage your social media campaigns. Once you become a client, you are assigned an account manager whose job it is to oversee the process of auditing your current website(s) and social media accounts. The manager then works with you to create and promote unique and compelling content for your target market. \r\n\r\nThe service will not create your social media profiles for you – you do that. However, once the profiles are created, it will manage each step of your various social media campaigns. OrangeSoda has tools that will help with your search engine rankings and will promote content on all your social media profiles. This social media marketing service also has reputation-management features that help you find and address negative comments.\r\n\r\nYou will need to contact OrangeSoda for pricing. Pricing is based on your goals and the marketing features you need. OrangeSoda assigns a dedicated account manager to help you monitor and adjust your local marketing campaigns. You can connect with your account manager and the company by phone and email. \r\n","tabTitle":"Geotargeting Ads","fullTitle":"Best Service for Geotargeting Ads: OrangeSoda ","review":{"serviceName":"OrangeSoda","canonical":"https://staging.business.com/reviews/orangesoda/","id":"80509254d70ce8aa1c057b0715669f3d","pricing":{"isCapped":false,"isFeatured":false,"primary":true,"selected":"widget","widgetId":"10746","widget":{"id":"10746","cta":"Compare Quotes","isExclusive":false},"affiliate":{"cta":"Visit Site","link":"http://www.orangesoda.com/","name":""}},"thumbnail":{"path":"https://staging.business.com/images/rev/prod/ce/62917-orangesoda-box.jpg"}}},{"description":"We recommend DataSift, a social media monitoring and analysis platform, for midsize or large businesses seeking thorough analytics of their company, online presence and potential markets. This social media monitoring tool analyzes the more than 1.5 billion interactions that take place on various social media sites daily as well as news sites, forums and blogs. DataSift notes when a link is posted that applies to your company and examines the link and how it applies to your research.\r\n\r\nOne drawback with DataSift is that it lacks social media engagement tools, because it only focuses on monitoring.\r\n\r\nDataSift archives about 2TB of data daily and maintains a large historical database, which provides its clients a vast field of information to search. This tool can also filter out useless data and provide sentiment analysis, however, it doesn't have tools that allow you to create reports or send response posts from the platform.\r\n\r\nPricing isn't published on DataSift's website. Instead, you can complete a form, and a representative will provide a price quote. Customers can reach DataSift by phone and email. The company also has a community page where users can post questions and receive a response from a DataSift support rep.","tabTitle":"Market Research","fullTitle":"Best for Market Research: DataSift ","review":{"serviceName":"DataSift","canonical":"https://staging.business.com/reviews/datasift/","id":"da30ad1b5a51339bde3ede6f8cae2686","pricing":{"isCapped":false,"isFeatured":false,"primary":true,"selected":"widget","widgetId":"10746","widget":{"id":"10746","cta":"Compare Quotes","isExclusive":false},"affiliate":{"cta":"Visit Site","link":"http://datasift.com","name":""}},"thumbnail":{"path":"https://staging.business.com/images/rev/prod/ce/60236-datasift-box.jpg"}}}]},{"__typename":"SectionMoreCoverage","id":"","isInToc":false,"order":2,"tocTitle":"","type":"morecoverage","isActive":null,"title":"More Coverage","articles":[]},{"__typename":"SectionOurApproach","id":null,"isInToc":false,"order":3,"tocTitle":null,"type":"ourapproach","isActive":null,"ourapproach":{"isClonable":false,"servicesConsidered":"0","servicesTested":"0","servicesSelected":"0","linkText":"How we evaluate products and services","linkUrl":"mailto:editor@business.com"}},{"__typename":"SectionWidget","id":"","isInToc":false,"order":4,"tocTitle":"","type":"widget","title":"","widget":{"widgetId":"10121"}},{"__typename":"SectionContainer","id":"overview","isInToc":false,"order":5,"tocTitle":"Overview","type":"container","title":"Overview","container":{"isBuyingGuide":false,"html":"\nAccording to Buffer's State of Social 2018 Report, there are three trends social media marketers need to be aware of in 2020: Plentiful opportunities exist in the messaging space, companies that invest in social media ads will reap numerous gains and benefits, and engagement is the primary way to measure ROI.
\r\nWhile knowing the latest trends is important, the right social media management tools can help implement these strategies and help your brand to stand out. To help you pick the best solution for your business, we evaluated dozens of social media tools, narrowing down the best ones based on the type of business, features and needs.
\r\nIn this guide, we look at key features, how much you should expect to pay and the best social media tools for different businesses. We chose WebiMax, Oracle Social Cloud, Portent, Sysomos, OrangeSoda andDataSift as our best picks. You can read more about each service below, including why we recommend it.
\n"}},{"__typename":"SectionContainer","id":"pricing","isInToc":true,"order":6,"tocTitle":"Pricing","type":"container","title":"Pricing","container":{"isBuyingGuide":false,"html":"\nSocial media marketing tools vary in price. Some providers offer a free trial period, typically 30 days, where you can test out the software or service to see whether it's a good fit for your company.
\r\nPricing is typically structured according to tiers, with monthly costs increasing as more features are offered and if you have a dedicated account manager assigned to you. Packages range from $20 for a basic social media scheduling tool to $500 for programs with myriad features and a dedicated account manager.
\n"}},{"__typename":"SectionContainer","id":"negotiation-tips","isInToc":true,"order":7,"tocTitle":"Negotiation Tips","type":"container","title":"Negotiation Tips","container":{"isBuyingGuide":false,"html":"\nBefore signing on the dotted line with any provider, you should make absolutely sure you're getting the best deal.
\r\nIt's also imperative that you understand exactly what you are buying and what features are included with your plan. Try to think ahead and pick a plan that will accommodate any future growth you may experience.
\r\nHere are some negotiation tips to help you get the most for your money:
\r\nWhen considering which is the best social media monitoring program for your business, you should balance your needs with your budget. If all you want is to track social venues where you have accounts, there are simpler and cheaper options, like AgoraPulse. If you need heavy-duty market research, you will want software that considers millions of sources, like Sysomos. Once you’ve narrowed it down to a few, consider the following.
\r\nMonitoring: Many social monitoring services brag about viewing millions of messages a day, but ask for specifics. Make sure the software is looking where your readers live. For example, monitoring the Huffington Post won’t help you if you manufacture medical testing equipment. Some of the social media monitoring programs we examined are limited to social media you frequent. This may be enough for smaller companies that are mostly interested in customer response.
\r\nYou should also make sure you understand how you are billed. Some companies charge by keyword, others by valid hits. Therefore, with a company that casts a wide net, you could end up paying for results that aren’t helpful, especially if your keywords are popular. For example, if your keyword is “blood testing equipment,” you could end up paying for hits for articles about DUIs and diabetes. Some companies, like DataSift, help you determine the best keywords for your research needs.
\r\nFiltering out the noise. Even with valid keywords, you can end up with invalid results. Social media is rife with people posting for their own promotion and bots posting to boost ranks. Your social analysis program should offer filters to remove the spam, self-promotion and junk posts.
\r\nSentiment analysis. This highly useful tool examines a post ahead of time to see if it’s positive, negative or neutral. Sentiment analysis examines the wording of the post itself, beyond mere keywords, to determine if the phrases are complimentary toward your brand. This is not always an easy thing, especially when you consider slang and the brevity of social media posts.
\r\nThere are several automated language analysis processes, with accuracy results varying from 70% to 86%. Independent human evaluation averages around 80% accuracy. The best social analysis software uses more than one method. Some companies have their own proprietary systems. If you have international concerns, be sure to ask how sentiment analysis takes different languages and cultures into account.
\r\nDemographics. Who is talking is as important as what is said. Most of these services can look at sources (Twitter bios, for example) to discern a poster’s age, gender and even interests. Some allow your marketing folks to access the bios themselves, which can help you woo influencers.
\r\nHistorical data. This is important for trend analysis and for seeing how campaigns work against a norm. Ask how long the social media monitoring service keeps the data it collects on your behalf, but also ask if it stores search results in general. A few do this for several years, enabling you to mine data from before you purchased the software. This can help you establish benchmarks right off the bat.
\r\nLead identification. The best social media monitoring programs search for terms that indicate an interest or need and alert the appropriate department so that you can respond quickly with a comment or offer.
\r\nIntegrations. The programs we considered all work very well independently. Most offer user levels, email alerts and forwarding to other departments, and downloadable reports in multiple formats. However, the best social media monitoring programs also offer integrations with social marketing, advertising and customer relationship management programs. If you already have specific tools you use, check to see if they integrate with the software. Some of the social media monitoring programs, such as the ones from Salesforce and Oracle, are just one of many business tools their company offers. You may discover a package deal with that company is cheaper and easier than integrating several separate programs.
\n"}},{"__typename":"SectionContainer","id":"how-to-use-social-media-monitoring","isInToc":true,"order":10,"tocTitle":"How to Use Social Media Monitoring","type":"container","title":"How to Use Social Media Monitoring","container":{"isBuyingGuide":false,"html":"\nSocial media monitoring goes way beyond identifying tweets you should respond to. Even the most modest of businesses can collect data on a level previously available only to corporations with large research and development budgets. With the social analysis and reporting tools usually provided by the programs, you can use that data in many ways.
\r\nInteract with customers. Online communities are becoming the go-to for communication, even with companies. When customers have a good or bad experience, they share it with everyone, not just with the company or close friends. Some customers use social media as a shortcut to a higher level of management. Social media monitoring and social relationship management allow you as a company to tap in quickly to the compliments and complaints so that you can react quickly. This kind of engagement, even when addressing complaints, goes a long way toward improving your brand's reputation.
\r\nTrack trends. By keeping an eye on what’s happening in your industry, you can stay ahead of innovations and move proactively.
\r\nProduct identification: If you own a restaurant, knowing the next trendy grain can help you adjust your menu.
\r\nScheduling promotions: Housekeeping services might follow real estate trends and promote move-in and move-out cleaning sales during peak months.
\r\nCompetition: If your competitor is having reputation problems, it could be a good time for an incentive campaign.
\r\nAdvertising placement: Say you sell motorcycle gear. You may find your customers also have snowmobiles, so running an ad for your products on one of the most popular snowmobile sites in the early spring might pay off.
\r\nIdentify key influencers. Influencers are people who have a lot of followers in your target audience. If you sell handcrafted leather furniture, an influencer might be an interior design blogger or a poster on the Pinterest Man Cave Board who has a following of 15,000 and growing. Once you identify influencers, you can ask them for reviews, offer free samples, or simply follow them to start a relationship with them and their followers.
\r\nEvaluate sentiment. Knowing if people are posting about you in a positive, negative or neutral light lets you see where you stand reputation-wise. Most sentiment analysis tools let you drill down to specific mentions, so you can see if you need to improve your product or your customer service response time.
\r\nResearch products. By using keywords specific to your industry, you can keep abreast of the latest innovations and what they mean to your business.
\r\nKeep up with your competitors. Most social monitoring software lets you track your competitors as well as yourself. You can track, record and analyze their information as easily as your own.
\r\nResearch markets. It used to be that you had to conduct polls and fact-finding missions to discover what customers wanted. Now, people are openly discussing it in public arenas. Social media monitoring taps into those conversations to get you frank and unsolicited information.
\r\nGenerate leads. Programs with this ability identify phrases that indicate readiness to purchase. (\"Not another flat tire!\" \"Need ideas for a housewarming gift.\" \"Craving Chinese food & again.\")
\n"}}],"author":{"name":"Saige Driver","bio":"Saige received her bachelor's degree in journalism and telecommunications from Ball State University. She is the social media coordinator for Aptera and also writes for business.com and Business News Daily. She loves reading and her beagle mix, Millie.","thumbnail":null,"status":"enabled","type":"Contributing Writer","slug":null,"title":null,"image":null,"social":{"facebook":"","linkedin":"","twitter":"https://twitter.com/saigedriver","website":"https://www.facebook.com/apterasoftware/"}},"breadcrumbs":null,"channels":{"primary":{"name":"Marketing","slug":"marketing"},"sub":{"name":"Social Media","slug":"social-media"}},"tocElements":[{"id":"pricing","title":"Pricing"},{"id":"negotiation-tips","title":"Negotiation Tips"},{"id":"reviews","title":"Reviews"},{"id":"what-to-look-for","title":"What to Look For"},{"id":"how-to-use-social-media-monitoring","title":"How to Use Social Media Monitoring"}],"thumbnail":{"path":"https://staging.business.com/images/rev/prod/Social_Media_Management_nopporn.jpg","caption":"","isBlurred":false},"meta":{"robots":"index, follow","description":"Looking for the best and most affordable social media monitoring tools? We have expert reviews and feature comparisons of the top social media analytic tools.","title":"The Best Social Media Management and Monitoring Reviews of 2020 - business.com"}}},"pageContext":{"displayModified":"2019-01-08T17:00:00.000Z","title":"The Best Social Media Management and Monitoring Tools of 2020","template":"seo","meta":{"robots":"index, follow"},"docType":"categories","slug":"social-media-management-tools","canonical":"https://staging.business.com/categories/social-media-management-tools/"}},"staticQueryHashes":[]}