15 Things Agencies Need From Social Media Management Tools

Back in the old days of social media management 2012 we released an article – 10 things agencies must have in a social media management tool. Now that Social media has reached puberty we at Sendible think it’s time to update these rules as much has changed in the world of social media since.

In our 2012 article we used a great blog post by Chuck Hemann on A Buyer’s Guide to Social Media Management Software and expanded on it to describe what and agency should look for in a Social Media Management Tool . Since then social media has certainly grown up and proved it can make commercial success, some with more success than others. Facebook floated and the shares immediately fell but have made a substantial recovery since. Twitter followed next with its successful debut on the stock market. These two events have had a huge impact on social media and in turn how brands use social media. This of course has had huge consequences for agencies that use social media to market these brands. Now that the major social networks have shareholders they had to think of ways to generate revenue with their respective ad networks which are ever growing & evolving.

There was also the release of Vine and the great success of Snapchat which could change the whole industry with a growing emphasis on visual and interactive content. Social media is becoming the best friend of all other media with TV, Radio & print all wanting to hang around with the coolest kid in the class, just like what happens in real life when kids become teenagers.

Agencies rely more and more on social to prop up their campaigns and so more than ever agencies need to have a social media management tool in place that allows them to manage all their clients ever changing needs from one dashboard.

Here’s the updated list of 15 things agencies must have in a social media management tool. Some are the same as always, some have just evolved & there are some brand new ‘must have’ features to stay on the cutting edge of social media management.

Ability to plan and schedule posts to a large number of social networks – Don’t choose a tool that limits you to just posting run of the mill Facebook and Twitter messages. The tool should be able to support multiple formats such as Facebook, Twitter LinkedIn Company pages and even Pinterest & YouTube as well as a long list of other social networks.
Ability to filter and respond to incoming posts for multiple clients on social media at once - A large brand will get hundreds or thousands of incoming posts a week so the ability to filter out the irrelevant is extremely important. Your platform should also provide you with any available information on that person who has posted on your network.
Ability to manage multiple clients efficiently from one dashboard - It should easy to toggle between clients from one log in. It should also be possible to share access with team members without needing to disclose passwords.
Dedicated Account Management team & training – You may think you have found the perfect platform for your agency but there is no point in having a brand new car if you haven’t learn to drive. Make sure you receive extensive training on the software and have it tailored to your exact needs. Also, with social media being one of the fastest moving industries you will need an account manager to explain all the new changes on social media and new features on the software. Also it’s important to have a quick answer so a LifeChat feature is a must.
Excellent Support – As agencies are always working to tight deadlines quick support is essential. Even better than quick support is live chat support which is invaluable if something goes wrong or advice is needed. Support also means customizing your dashboard and having the ability to add custom integrations via an API.
Photo & Video posting - You need a software tool that goes beyond the basic posting features and keeps up to date with the latest trends It can also be quite confusing trying to figure out how the latest Facebook algorithm will affect your brand posts. Your SSM should be ahead of the game by allowing “link share” and posting of full size images to Facebook and other social networks.
Work flow approval – Once a post has been made on social media it’s out there and can be sent across the universe in seconds. So to ensure you are getting the right message across for your client your social media management tool should have the ability to have clients approve social posts before they are published by the agency.
Mobile apps – As we know social is increasing becoming mobile and therefore is extremely important to have a social media management tool that works just as well on the go as it does from the office.
Ability to re-brand, customize and/or white label the social media dashboard - If you are going to allow your clients log into the dashboard then it’s important that they are logging into your own branded dashboard. If they log into a 3rd party branded dashboard they might just think to themselves “why don’t we just used this tool ourselves and cut out the middle man”. If you are not going to give them access your SMM tool should at least have the ability to replace the “via” tagline on social media updates for each client, creating more brand awareness for clients.
Reliability – Consistency and security in your SMM tool is extremely important. As we all know sometimes minor outages cannot be avoided but you must be able to trust that your scheduled messages will go out in time and that your analytics are up to date. Pick a tool that is proud of their up-time and doesn’t try to hide it.
Highly customizable analytics and reporting – A key to agencies proving their worth to their clients is with their analytics. Your SMM tool should have in-depth analytics that also stores historical data. You need to be able to compare success month by month or even day by day. Also extremely important is to be able to customize and re-brand the reports with the analytics that are relevant to each client.
360 Degree Social Media monitoring – You may be surprised to know that most tools (including Hootsuite) only track mentions on Twitter, but a SMM tool that your agency select must be able to support all social networks, blogs etc.
Review Site Monitoring – The popularity of review sites is through the roof, but that’s really only logical. Word of mouth has always been and will always be the most effect form of advertising, and people love to tell others about their experiences, both good and bad. Review sites have become the new word of mouth, and consumers are very much paying attention to what others say on them.
Social moderation – Close attention should be given to fans’ comments that may damage brand reputation or conflict with the company’s overall message. A holistic priority inbox and some automated features really help the streamline this process and mitigate negative mentions.