Best Social Media Management Tools for Small Business in 2024

Social media management tools (SMMS) help businesses and freelance professionals improve and leverage their social media presence to grow their brands. There are, however, different types of platforms that can help you manage your social media presence, from planning to creating attention-grabbing posts. And, luckily, there are many good ones out there that are specially designed for small business use.

But, as you already know, every business has a different set of needs for social media management. Given the number of social media management tools for small business on the market, choosing which one or a combination of apps can be quite difficult.

Hence, in this buyer’s guide, we’ll provide you with tips and pointers on how to choose the right software for you. You will not only get to understand what is social media management software better but also learn the general benefits that you should expect if you use them properly. Hopefully, with this guide, you’ll be able to find what you are looking for.

The best way to get to know a software product is to try it out firsthand. This way, you will not only get to know its set of features but also the product’s interface and feel. Luckily, this is pretty easy to do as vendors of social media management software for small business usually offer demos or free trials. All you have to do is sign up and get started. Of course, it is best to test different platforms in order to make a good objective comparison. Hence, from all the software available, you should make a short list of what you think are the best candidates. To help you get started, you might want to check out the products that gained high scores in expert and user reviews. They are HubSpot Marketing, monday.com, Birdeye, Semrush, and Planable.

It just seems that today no small business can be truly successful without having a strong social media presence. This even includes other types of organizations such as non-profits. Here are examples of organizations that can greatly benefit from using the best social media management tools for small business.

• Freelance Professionals. Individuals providing professional services may use social media management software to maintain an active online presence to improve brand awareness and even open their social channels for sales.
• Small Retail Businesses. With social media management tools, small retail businesses can launch and manage promotional campaigns to boost awareness and sales.
• Local Food Businesses. Announce events, menus, and promos on social media. Also, some social media management software products allow users to accept reservations too.
• Gyms and Clubs. You can also use social media management tools for small business to make important announcements and update your clientele about new promotions, events, and offerings. Build and maintain an active member community.
• Non-Profits. Get the word out for your advocacies and causes. There are also apps that allow you to get donations straight from social platforms.

HubSpot Marketing: One of the most comprehensive social media management tools for small business, HubSpot Marketing is an online presence management suite with great social media management tools. Features include monitoring, ad management, lead management, and analytics.

monday.com: A top business management application, monday.com can help you create post schedules and manage social media campaigns. Its project planning and management solutions are simply one of the bests on the market today.

Birdeye: Essentially, this is a reputation and customer experience management solution. It helps businesses manage online reputation across various online channels including social media sites. Moreover, it has a neat social ticketing feature for CRM and support.

Semrush: This is a leading online visibility management suite. It integrates SEO with social media management tools. The product is also known for its social media post scheduling features.

Planable: A social media collaboration application, Planable allows social media team members to work together on posts, campaigns, and other content. It provides a single unified workspace for managing various social network sites.

• Social Listening Software: The best social media management tools for small business lets you see all your social mentions and listen to public sentiments in real time.
• Social Media Planning: Plan your content such as posts before publishing. These apps are even used to plan and execute long-term campaigns.
• Social Media Posting: These platforms allow you to manage your social networks in one place. They allow you to post and interact with your audience.
• Social Conversation Software: Used for sales and support, this type of social media tool allows users to engage clients and prospects under a lead generation or CRM/support framework.
• Social Marketing Software: This allows small businesses to build apps and manage creative assets on social platforms for promotions. Usually, these platforms include ad management solutions.
• Social Analytics Software: With social media management tools for small business, users can have a data-based appreciation of their performance on social media across different networks.
• Social Influencer Software: This, firstly, helps users identify social media entities, even among your followers, that can help them improve the visibility and reputation of their brand and offerings. Secondly, they provide businesses with an array of collaboration tools for carrying out influencer marketing campaigns including affiliate marketing.

Even though there are different types of social media management tools, you should have a good set of features handy. However, one platform may not provide you with all of them. This is why many social media management teams use a stack of applications.

• Social Ads: Post ads about your brand, products, services, or promos on different social networks such as Facebook and YouTube.
• Social Sharing: Add smart social sharing buttons to your content and campaigns. This allows your audience to share your content with their audiences as well. This enhances visibility and may lead to conversions.
• Social Campaigns: Schedule automated posts on multiple social sites. This set of features usually has a URL shortening tool that you can use to measure performance such as shares, likes, and comments.
• Social engagement: These are applications that allow you to engage your audience better using interactive tools. Examples of such apps include polls, sweepstakes, and referrals. You can enrich your online campaigns and deploy these tools across all platforms not limited to social media sites.
• Social analytics: This set of features allows you to monitor your brand reputation across online platforms. With this, you can have a real-time view of customer sentiments and issues. This way, you’ll be able to proactively resolve them.
• Collaboration Tools: These allow multiple people to collaborate on content planning, design, and campaigns. Usually, they come under a project management framework combined with web-based media design tools.

• Gather key actionable data about your target audience and competitors.
• Gain deep insights into the behavior and preferences of your target audience and customers.
• Monitor the activities and reputation of your target competition across all social networks.
• Proactively engage with customers on various issues including those requiring support or criticisms that affect brand reputation.
• Have only one workspace for managing multiple social media accounts on different networks.
• Provide full access to customers via all your social channels to build healthy social engagement.
• Improve customer relationships by personalizing interactions according to conversation histories.
• Optimize team collaboration to avoid redundancy and keep everybody on the same page.
• Improve social accountability and secure your accounts from hackers and rogue employees that may publish claims that can hurt your brand reputation.

Actual real-time engagement

Customers prefer real-time engagement. They want instant answers to their queries and solutions to their concerns. This is even from small local businesses. As such, the best social media management tools for small business owners are now fitted with real-time customer engagement tools. These include automated responses and advanced social listening. So, take advantage of these to provide stellar service.

Live streaming video is becoming popular

Customers now want real-time access to otherwise offline events, especially from the brands they love and follow. Social media platforms know this. This is why many now have live video streaming features. Live streaming engaging content won’t only provide exposure but also makes your brand more tangible and relatable.  There are many clever ways to do this as exhibited by top brands. If you want to get the same results, it is best to keep up with the latest social media trends.

Social commerce is the buzzword

People are always on social media. Today, it is like a one-stop shop for socialization, news, and commerce. When it comes to commerce, sales influenced by social media have skyrocketed. Social media platforms have noticed this and have quickly included commerce-based tools for sellers and marketers. These are usually free. So, you can take advantage of these quite easily. It is good to note, however, that you can extend their effectiveness if you pair them with eCommerce tools found in the best dedicated social media management apps available today.

Multiple social media managers

Social media management software tools usually allow multiple users to concurrently work in the system. If they are not coordinated, content and engagement would not look uniform. As such, small businesses need to have everybody on the same page when it comes to branding and interactions.  Having a good tool is not enough. You must accompany them with good social media practices.

One app is not enough

As mentioned, many businesses use different software tools for social media management. This is, again, because there are different types of social media management tools available. Some are specialized for posting while others are for planning. Moreover, others are solely focused on team collaboration. As such, having a single app may not be enough. If this is the case for your small business, then you might need to opt for a stack.

Content planning is difficult 

Many small businesses are understaffed. Many times small business owners wear multiple hats including that of a social media manager. So, they could not really focus on content planning that stays true to their branding and overall strategy. Hence, their social media presence is not as coordinated and engaging as it can be. Just having a good app is not really enough. One must truly invest in getting to know best practices for creating timely engaging content.

The cost of a software tool is a very important factor to consider when choosing the best social media management tool for small business. It is connected to your ROI and brand reputation investment. Luckily, there are many affordable software solutions specially targeted at small businesses. They usually come in monthly or yearly subscription plans and payment schemes. Here are the most common kinds today.

• Free. There are free tools out there. And some of the are more than enough for small business use. However, you might outgrow their feature sets as you scale. So, you may have to upgrade to paid solutions after a certain time. Keep in mind that there are free versions of paid solutions available. You can start with a free social media management tool for small business
  and just scale as you go.
• Monthly Plans. This just might be the most common payment scheme. What’s great about this is that you can opt out at any time. However, they are usually priced a bit higher than their longer-term counterparts.
• Annual Plans. Annual subscriptions are best for small businesses that are already committed to using a particular solution. These are usually cheaper than monthly subscriptions.

Purchasing a social media management platform should be treated as an investment rather than an expense. As such, one should take care of their investment by maximizing its potential. This means using all of its features and adopting the best practices. As mentioned, just having a tool or a stack of tools is not enough. One must be good at these tools and know the proper way of using them to get the full benefits.

Moreover, best practices evolve depending on market dynamics. Hence, to keep up with them, small business owners and social media managers need to be attuned to social media trends.