Pros and Cons of Using Social Media Management Software SMY software platforms have become a must-have tool as digital marketers and agenc...
Pros and Cons of Using Social Media Management Software
SMY software platforms have become a
must-have tool as digital marketers and agencies realize the impact social
interactions have on every part of the investment, from engineering and
manufacturing development to marketing and sales.
The platforms used can range from free
services to company-wide solutions costing tens of thousands of dollars per
month. Many companies license more than one SMY software and use only the
most powerful features from their vendors.
Pros:
·
Structured
workflow management
·
Permission
and compliance tools that allow the client to control all social media content
and campaigns
Cons:
·
Large
companies can pay tens of thousands of dollars a month just for the license.
·
Some
platforms may require additional privileged services to operate and integrate
with training and legacy technological systems
·
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·
Does
your company need SMY Software?
Companies that will license or update SMY software
should first consider the following:
o Will we use accounts on Facebook, Twitter, other
social networks, as well as blog publishing platforms such as Wordpress?
o Do we work in a regulated industry, such as insurance
or real estate, where non-compliance problems could lead to legal problems?
o Will we trust a sales network consisting of local
marketers, agencies or dealers and using perhaps hundreds of social media
accounts that are not controlled by our company's marketing department?
If your answer is yes to one or more of these, it's
time to use SMY software.
Access Internal Resources
Choosing an SMY software platform includes the
evaluative steps in any software application:
4. Do we need it?
5. What skills do we need?
6. Do we have the necessary internal resources for
effective compliance and management?
7. Does the investment make financial sense?
One important step in the decision process is
determining the value of the firm's internal resources. Social media has
come a long way for many organizations – from HR departments to marketing
departments to public relations departments. Before investing in an SMY
software system, make sure you thoroughly understand who will be using the
software and where. Know how many accounts there are and where they are
critical to your social media strategy. Consider:
o Do we have a social media strategy? – Or will we
need social media consultancy services in addition to the SMY software package?
o Do we have a social media team that can handle the new
software? – or will we need a team to train?
o If yes, who will be the best selected people to
evaluate the SMY software platform?
o Do we have an organizational plan to integrate the use
of SMY software into our social media strategy? Otherwise, who will create
the plan?
o How will we define success?
o Can we afford the additional costs of using SMY
software and still achieve our business goals?
o How will we measure success?
o
o
Which
SMY Software is the Right Choice for Your Company?
Equally important is to evaluate SMY software vendors
that can best address your company's unique and specific social marketing
needs. For example, companies that employ expert social media
practitioners and have the resources can choose a platform built on the social
markup language, allowing developers to produce fully personalized social
content and applications.
Businesses with less specialized employees and
resources can also seek services from vendors that offer plenty of social media
consultancy and programming services.
Many SMY software vendors serve vertical markets
for regulatory and compliance monitoring of social media marketing
content and campaigns, or offer specific platforms for companies with a large
network of vendors, agencies, and resellers.
SMY Software Capabilities
All SMY software platforms available today offer a
core set of social media tools and capabilities:
§ Content creation, scheduling, publishing and editing
§ Collaboration, workflow and permissions
§ Data analysis and reporting
Platforms are starting to differentiate themselves by
offering additional capabilities that often require additional costs:
§ Goal-based sentiment analysis
§ Vertical-specific compatibility
§ Marketing campaign optimization
§ Compatibility with marketing and analytics platforms
§ Strategic social media consultancy service
The next section discusses some of the key criteria
involved in selecting an SMY software platform.
Supported Social Networks
While Facebook still accounts for the lion's share of
social media traffic and brand pages, most SMY platforms are increasing the
number of social media networks they support. It is very important to
distinguish between the ability of an SMY software to broadcast to social
networks versus the ability to track interactions on social networks.
Social Content Creativity
The majority of SMY platforms offer marketers the
ability to use ready-made app templates as well as the ability to create
personalized social content such as Facebook pages, surveys or small
contests. Some platforms allow users to design the theme, lock certain
content elements, or have other elements edited by local or regional
offices. Many platforms allow users to use pre-approved pieces of content
or assets to create special campaigns or promotions.
Pricing
All SMY software platforms license their technology on
a software-as-a-service basis; The technology is hosted by the vendor and
customers use the system by logging into the web-based management
panel. Although the majority of vendors require annual contracts to be
signed, customers are licensed to use the technology on a monthly basis.
Pricing varies from vendor to vendor depending on who
covers the licensing fee. Fees can vary from $25 per user per month to
several hundred thousand dollars, depending on the company's social media
marketing programs.
Open or Flexible APIs
A platform's Application Programming Interface (API)
is a source code-based feature that helps communicate with other
software. In other words, the API is the key that can turn integration
with other platforms on or off.
Many SMY vendors have opened up their platforms' APIs
to more seamlessly integrate with their customers' existing web analytics and
email platforms. Many marketers are seeking this type of integration to
cut through the clutter of data within the company, create a more holistic
approach to customer relationship marketing, and understand the impact of
social media on other marketing initiatives.
Standard and Custom Reporting
Analysis and reporting have become one of the most
important functions of any SMY software platform. The volume of social
media data available to marketers is overwhelming, and without powerful
analytics and reporting capabilities, this volume is impractical.
All SMY software vendors offer social data reporting
suite that focuses on basic qualitative metrics such as number of Facebook
followers, number of Facebook likes, number of Facebook comments or number of
Twitter followers, number of Twitter retweets. User engagement, which
tracks how often and how many times a user engages with brand-specific content,
is becoming increasingly critical. Reports can be organized in a variety
of ways, including social media channels, brand, and location for
multi-location companies.
The availability of more qualitative data that
measures the sentiment or tone of social media content can vary
widely. Many vendors rely on their platforms' open APIs to accommodate
existing social listening and monitoring tools such as Radian6, Crimson
Hexagon, and Social Mention; Others offer patented sentiment engines that
work with keyword filtering to decide whether user content is positive,
negative, or neutral.
Strategic Advisory Services
The importance of strategic consulting services,
defined as services that help marketers set goals, develop content, launch and
analyze social media initiatives and campaigns, varies depending on the needs
of the company. Some marketing companies have strong teams to work on
their own platforms. Many SMY software vendors offer extensive add-on
social media consulting services designed to educate customers and involve the
customer and their team in the strategy, execution and analysis phases of
social media efforts.
Questions to Ask Potential Sellers
Before meeting with any dealer, ask others in a
similar situation for their advice, as you would with any other investment business. Make
sure you talk to multiple vendors. Reframe your questions as you go, and
don't hesitate to ask for additional information and advice. The 6 key
questions are as follows:
§ Do you have access to Facebook Insights and Twitter
API?
§ How often do you provide real-time alerts?
§ Can the system adapt to other applications?
§ What kind of reporting features does the tool have?
§ How much will it cost and what services are included
in the cost?
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