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Top Social Media Management Platforms for Small Businesses

Vista Social
Best for brands and agencies
Competitor tracking.
Customised social reporting.
AI content creator.
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Sprout Social
Best for social media management
Schedule post across all social media platforms.
Manage your inbox efficiently with smart tools.
Collision detection to view in real-time when a teammate is viewing or responding to a message.
Manage your reviews across various platforms.
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Table of Contents
Introduction

In this day and age, social media platforms and social media management play a vital role in how businesses market themselves. Leveraging platforms like Facebook, X (formerly Twitter) and TikTok, can elevate your brand to new levels.

Utilising social media for business purposes is not just about posting specials and discounts and hoping for the best. Using social media requires a lot of social media management (SMM). Social media management is the process of creating and scheduling content designed to grow and nurture an audience across various platforms.

Social media management is not typically something done manually, instead, businesses opt to leverage these tools. A social media management tool/platform is software designed to help businesses streamline and optimise their social media efforts.

Main Features

Social media management platforms are a great way to better your customer engagement and build your brand without taking time away from your business.

Unified Platform Social Media Management

Social media management platforms provide you with a centralised dashboard to access your accounts and handle multiple tasks. This dashboard provides you with all the information you need in a single place and makes it easier to interpret.

Integration with Social Media Platforms

A good social media management tool integrates with your social accounts seamlessly, making it easier to run campaigns and post. Additionally, these tools can integrate with content creation platforms to help you create images and videos or even provide you with analytics.

Monitoring and Engagement

Social media management platforms help you track comments and messages in real time. These tools allow you to filter out interactions based on keyword, urgency or importance ensuring you don’t miss any important customer messages.

Pricing

Each social media management platform has its own pricing. Some platforms will offer the basic features in a free plan and the more complex features will be in the paid-for plans. Typically, each platform lets you choose between paying annually or monthly depending on the software provider.

In some cases, subscribing to a paid plan gives you access to tools for more than social media management.

Buyer's Guide

Social media management tools are there to automate and streamline your social media efforts. When choosing the right platform for you, consider the following:

Time-saving

A good social media management tool should save you a lot of time. The platform needs to automate certain actions and allow you to monitor and manage interactions from a centralised location, usually a dashboard.

Data-Driven Decision-Making

Social media management tools are able to analyse and report on your social account actions. This means you can use the provided data to make better decisions on campaigns, content and audience preferences.

Seamless Integration

Good social media management software allows for integration with multiple social media platforms and other tools (content creation). The tool you choose should easily form part of your tech ecosystem.

Cost-saving

The right social media management platform for your business should not only work well but should also save you money. Consider your budget and the pricing of the various platforms before you sign up. Additionally, you want to look for platforms with transparent pricing and plans that are affordable for small businesses.

Compare our best picks
Sprout Social
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Pros

Access to a 30-day trial.
User-friendly.
All-in-one platform with extensive features.
View notifications in one place with Smart Inbox.

Cons

No free plan.
Expensive compared to competitors.

Vista Social
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Pros

Free plan available.
Easy-to-use interface, suitable for beginners.
Strong AI content creation tool.
All-in-one inbox.
Good integrations (Canva, Unsplash, Zapier, Google Drive, and more).

Cons

Mobile app experience isn’t as great as the desktop.
Limitations in options for customisation.

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