Source: Royal Pingdom survey
Value: [rating=4]
Recent data compiled and released by website monitoring business Pingdom looked at the top 100 brands in the world and which Social Media Management Tools (SMMT) they are using. While the survey reviewed Twitter, many of these tools support multiple social networks including Hootsuite, are service of choice at Smart Insights and First 10 (it support Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, but not yet Google+.
While a typical Twitter user would use the Twitter website or one of the Twitter owned applications to publish to their profiles, naturally businesses require a little more management. For example, they need multiple people to have access, the requirement to schedule & monitor results.
Tools used by fewer than 3 accounts: Sprout Social, Spredfast, Context Optional Social Marketing Suite, Seesmic, Involver, Astute Social, Buddy Media Suite,SocialOomph, Socialware, Crowdbooster, Twitterfeed, and a couple that seem to be custom made.
Data courtesy of Pingdom
The top two platforms are known to most marketers and without doubt the most popular, TweetDeck is also now owned by Twitter (since 2011) and this has limited its support for other networks so I wouldn't recommend it.
Any business actively taking part in social media should undoubtedly be using a social media management tool even if just to improve processes. Other benefits include:
Some of the tools mentioned above do much more than just organising your posts to outposts, especially systems like BuddyMedia and Oracle owned Virtue. My advice if you are currently not utilising such platforms would be to write down your requirements before deciding on a platform; they all vary so much in their features.
A large number of the platforms above only allow Twitter & Facebook management which given the growing number of outposts to manage could quickly restrict you and make things complex. The big 3 above that are showing good progress in other integrations are:
By Chris Soames
Chris Soames is a Smart Insights blogger and consultant, he has worked in digital marketing for over 6 years with the last few years managing international web strategies for a leading travel brand. Now the Commercial Director at First 10, an Integrated marketing agency, he helps clients get clarity on their marketing strategy and create campaigns engineered to engage with their consumers to help drive sell-through. Most of all, Chris enjoys working with talented people who want to create great (& commercial) things not just tick boxes.
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