Week 14: Social Media Management Tools
The first social media management tool I decided to check out is known as Loomly. Loomly offers: simpler scheduling, built-in insparation, smoother collaboration, etc... Loomly does have a free trial that lasts 15 days for the base membership. In terms of a subscription you have to pay a minimum of $26 a month for the base membership, $59 a month for the standard membership and $129 a month for the advanced membership. The base membership offers 2 users, 10 social media accounts, and core features. The standard membership offers 6 users, 20 social media accounts, and advanced analytics. The advanced membership offers 14 users, 35 social media accounts, and custom roles & workflows. I personally have no use for this specific tool. I need a maximum of 5-8 social media accounts on all platforms in order to gain as much of a following as possible. I could see someone with a business that has many locations using this type of tool.
The second social media tool I decided to look into is known as Hootsuite. Hootsuite offers: scheduling to Instagram, measurements of your performance, scheduling TikTok posts, building support via TikTok, build a fanbase on Facebook, track trends on Twitter, and pique interest on Pinterest. Hootsuite does have a free trial that lasts 30 days for the professional plan. With the subscriptions, they offer 3 different packages. The professional plan costs $49 a month and provides: 1 user, 1o social media accounts, $500 ad spend for social boosts, discover the best time to publish, access messages in one inbox, schedule a bulk, access to free integrations, and live in-dash chat support. The team plan costs $249 a month and offers: 3 users, 20 social accounts, $2000 ad spend for social boosts, analytics and reports, access messages in one inbox, schedule in bulk, access to free integrations, and live in-dash chat support. The enterprise plan says, "contact for pricing" which most likely means that it costs an absurd amount of money per month. The enterprise plan offers: 5+ users, 50 social accounts, publishing approvals, employee advocacy, social advertising, social customer care, app directory with 150+ tools, and priority support and training. Again, I can't see myself ever feeling the need to use a tool like this with my business. Seems to me that they're asking for insane amounts of money so that you don't have to do any work. Which would explain why these businesses for these tools are still up and running.
I personally would rather do most of the work myself and not resort to a tools help. But then again, I have yet to start my business and see if it'll be tough to run or fairly simple. I may just change my mind about these tools as soon as I step foot in the world of running a business. I can definitely see why some companies could benefit from paying for these types of tools.
I totally agree--I feel like these tools are really overwhelming and expensive to a person who is running a business by themselves--but like you said, that might change once we start having to manage things regularly. We may find these tools useful eventually. I didn't know much about Loomly so I appreciated your info on that. (North County Fam/Megan McDonell)
ReplyDeleteI also think these tools could get really expensive and also complicated. I've talked to a couple of small business owners in my area and they all said they do not use any of these management tools. The only person that does was a gym owner in Carlsbad. I can understand why many people do not use these tools because they are pricey and also some just don't know about them.
ReplyDeleteHey Manny! I came to the same conclusion as you in deciding that initially I would rather do the posting myself and wait until my business has grown to outsource social media management. I really appreciate how in depth your research was and that you took time to give us a summary of more than one service!
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