Social media projects require more than creating a social media calendar and calling it a day. Your team needs structure and organization to build effective social media strategies and campaigns. Clients need to know what’s happening. Followers wanted their messages responded to yesterday.
Thankfully, there are solutions that address these challenges (and more). In this article, we’ll explain how social media project management software can make your social media work more effectively for your clients. We also describe 13 of the best tools you can use so your clients are happy and your agency can thrive.
What does great social media project management software include?
Great social media project management software helps agencies improve the efficiency and communication of social media campaigns across multiple sites and client projects. These tools include:
Dashboards that provide a bird’s eye view of campaign performance across social media platforms
Metrics that help demonstrate the ROI for each campaign
Communication tools that allow team members to give timely feedback on social media posts
Scheduling options that allow you to schedule posts across multiple platforms simultaneously
Task management options that help with keeping social media campaigns on target
It’s important to truly understand what your team needs from your social media project management software before you buy, so you can better manage your agency’s social media projects. Remember, you aren’t purchasing a general marketing agency tool; you’re purchasing a tool (or set of tools) that specifically addresses your social media needs.
Why social media project management software is so valuable for agencies
Social media project management software helps agencies manage their client’s social media campaigns more efficiently. Here’s how.
Time and money savings
When used with project management software, social media tools help you automate many aspects of your social media strategy and people management. Your team won’t spend hours manually managing each social profile. Also, team members won’t feel overburdened since tasks will be effectively organized and allocated.
The result? Your team will spend more time being productive, meet their deadlines, and produce better work — three core areas that impact your agency’s bottom line.
Heightened team productivity
A more productive team helps reduce operational costs. Your team is taking less time to complete tasks because there’s a workflow and task management system that’s easy to follow. Less wasted time equates to more revenue.
Engaged employees are also more productive. With employee engagement being one of the biggest concerns in the workplace, it’s important to use marketing tools that will help your team feel more engaged while also allowing them to do their jobs effectively.
Improved client relations management and communication
Project management tools make it easier for your team to communicate internally with each other and externally with clients. Consistent, clear communication keeps tasks on track and keeps clients in the loop of project status.
12 social media project management software tools to help agencies succeed
Social media projects have many interconnected parts. Things will slip through the cracks if you don't manage them effectively: Your team will get flustered and miss deadlines, and clients will be unhappy.
The social media project management tools described below will help keep your projects on track so you can deliver the results your clients seek.
1) Teamwork.com
Teamwork.com is a project management tool designed to help agencies manage their projects more effectively. Teamwork.com can help your agency streamline the social media management process in several ways — let's take a look at a few.
Key features and benefits
See how much work is on each team member’s plate so that no one is overburdened using the Workload Management tool.
Manage support requests using the help desk tool.
Use the planned vs. actual report to see the actual status of projects vs. how they were originally planned (great for course-correcting at-risk projects and planning future projects more effectively).
Tie client billing to billable hours recorded.
Forecast any problems that may arise in the lifecycle of the project by using the Risks view.
Gather information from clients and team members using intake forms, and connect the information you collect with various projects and tasks.
Estimate a team member’s availability and immediately assign tasks using the resource management tool.
Learn more about why Teamwork.com is the perfect match for agencies and marketing teams!
Pricing plans
Free for up to five users
Deliver: $9.99 per month
Grow: $17.99 per month
Scale: Custom pricing
2) Hootsuite
Hootsuite is the most well-known brand in the social media management tool niche. With over 18 million customers, Hootsuite is trusted by small and large agencies alike to improve their workflows, schedule content, collaborate, and prove the ROI of social media marketing efforts.
Key features and benefits
Separate interaction activities across all social media networks using the tabbed layout.
Use the analytics and reporting features to help you measure the value of your social media strategy based on how your posts are performing.
Track and understand the changing needs of customers using the social listening tool.
Create draft posts that can be scheduled and posted at the best times for your audience.
Connect over 20 social networks.
Pricing plans
Professional: $49 per month
Team: $249 per month
Business: $739 per month
3) Sprout Social
Sprout Social is one of the best social media management tools in this highly competitive niche and it's a great alternative to Hootsuite. Your agency’s social media team will benefit from a wide range of features and integrations that simplify team collaboration, communication with social media followers, post-scheduling, and reporting.
Key features and benefits
Track your competitors’ social media profiles using advanced analytics.
Use the calendar view, draft mode, and editing features to plan posts.
Toggle between the social media profiles of multiple clients.
Connect up to nine social networks — Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube, WhatsApp, and Google My Business.
Manage and reply to customers’ WhatsApp messages in your SproutSocial Smart Inbox.
Pricing plans
Standard: $249 per month
Professional: $399 per month
Advanced: $499 per month
4) SocialPilot
SocialPilot is a social media scheduling and analytics tool. The platform’s analytics make it easy to see what’s not working and what is working.
Key features and benefits
Use the content queue to pull information about your industry into a feed so you can curate content from other sources.
Queue content based on consistently used groups of posts.
Connect with up to eight social networks — Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Google My Business, Pinterest, Tumblr, and VK.
Plan strong social media strategies using the insights and reporting provided.
Pricing plans
Professional: $30 per month
Small Team: $50 per month
Agency: $100 per month
White Label: $200 per month
5) NapoleonCat
NapoelonCat is a social media management platform driven by data. You can automate social media posts and use the platform’s advanced reporting capabilities to optimize your social media strategy.
Key features and benefits
Look at stats and analytics for competitors.
Use labels to effectively categorize users, inboxes, and content.
Automatically hide comments containing certain words or phrases so you can get rid of spam, address repetitive messages and comments.
Stay current on what’s happening with all the profiles you manage using the social inbox.
Find your top-performing content and audience preferences.
Connect up to five social media platforms — Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin, Twitter, and Google My Business.
Pricing plans
Custom pricing based on the number of social media profiles you’re managing and the number of users you’ll need.
6) Trello
Trello makes it easy for you to view what’s happening with your social media projects at a glance. The simple Kanban board view simplifies checking project status and organizing tasks.
Key features and benefits
Access automations and power-ups that allow you to have mini-apps in boards to help with specific workflows.
Navigate dashboards easily.
Create Advanced Checklists to map out complex projects granularly in an accessible visual format.
Access via desktop or from any Android or iOS mobile device.
Pricing plans
Free for up to 10 workboards
Standard: $5 per user per month
Premium: $10 per user per month
Enterprise: $17.50 per user per month
7) Buffer
Buffer is a social media management tool that’s perfect for small businesses. If your agency works with five or fewer clients, this tool is a great option for you. Agencies with more clients will need more features and pricing plans that accommodate large volumes of social media accounts.
Key features and benefits
Analyze your social media feeds and determine what to post and when to post it.
Share third-party content quickly and easily using their browser extension.
Post original social media content quickly and consistently using the post-scheduling tool.
Connect with up to six social networks — Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, Pinterest, and Instagram.
Pricing plans
Free: Basic publishing tools
Essentials: $5 per month per channel
Team: $10 per month per channel
Agency: $100 per month per channel
8) Coschedule
Coschedule is a content marketer’s dream. It allows you to manage all content assets in one place. Content distribution is a huge part of making content marketing effective, and that’s why a tool like Coschedule is great for getting your content on the right social media networks at the right times.
Key features and benefits
See your entire marketing calendar at once — social media posts, newsletters, blog posts, etc.
Visualize your daily to-do lists and associate these lists with specific social media marketing projects.
Create workflow automation that helps you group marketing assets and send them out at pre-scheduled times.
Bulk upload social media posts from a spreadsheet.
Schedule social media content resharing using the re-queuing feature.
Connect up to five social networks — Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Twitter.
Pricing plans
Free: Publishing for up to two profiles
Pro: $29 per user per month
9) Sendible
Sendible helps simplify the process of managing multiple social media accounts and communicating with social media followers. The platform allows you and your team to streamline your social media management workflow.
Key features and benefits
Monitor brand mentions and respond to comments directly within the platform.
Create separate dashboards for each client.
See posts exactly as they'll appear on each channel using Post Preview.
Build custom reports to monitor social media successes, or use pre-built templates.
Connect up to six social networks — Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google Business Profiles, and Youtube.
Pricing plans
Creator: $29 per month
Traction: $89 per month
Scale: $199 per month
10) Zoho
Zoho Social provides some of the most important social media publishing and analytics tools. It’s a particularly useful platform used along with other relevant products in the Zoho One Suite, such as Zoho CRM and Zoho Desk.
Key features and benefits
Select posts according to the audience you’re working with using the Smart View feature.
Use separate dashboard views for each client.
Update social media accounts and respond to comments in real time.
See who consistently engages with your posts (they may be a good lead).
Connect up to seven social networks — Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Google My Business, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Pinterest.
Pricing plans
Zoho has specific pricing plans for agencies:
Agency: $200 per month billed annually for 10 brands and five team members
Agency Plus: $300 per month billed annually for 20 brands and five team members
11) MavSocial
MavSocial is the ideal social media management tool for location-based businesses. One particularly useful feature of the platform is that it supports the creation of geo-targeted social media ads.
Key features and benefits
Publish evergreen content using the Mavrepeater tool.
Manage multiple social media accounts in a single control panel.
Pay per connected profile instead of per business location. This makes sense if you have many locations with only one or two profiles.
Connect up to seven social networks — Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Google Business Profiles, and Tumblr.
Pricing plans
Pro: $78 per month for three users and 30 user profiles
Business: $249 per month for five users and 40 profiles
Enterprise: $499 per month for a fully configurable account
12) SocialBee
SocialBee is a social media management tool that covers everything from post creation to scheduling and analytics. Its integrations are particularly useful because they help you create posts and track their performance directly on the platform. Working with one of the Ads Management Bees will help you optimize your social media campaigns for the best performance.
Key features and benefits
Organize your content into folders so you can classify your launch sequences.
Use the Concierge Service to access your own social media specialist to help with social content creation, content marketing, engaged growth, and more.
Push content to personal FB accounts. (Most social media scheduling platforms push content to FB pages, not personal accounts.)
Connect up to seven social networks — Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Google Profile, and Tik Tok.
Connect the RSS feed of any blog to import content automatically.
Pricing plans
SocialBee has four agency plans.
Small (Pro 25): $79 per month for 25 social accounts, three users per workspace, and five workspaces
Medium (Pro 50): $149 per month for 50 social accounts, five users per workspace, and 10 workspaces
Large (Pro 100): $279 per month for 100 social accounts, five users per workspace, and 20 workspaces
Extra Large (Pro 150): $379 per month for 150 social accounts, five users per workspace, and 30 workspaces
Level up your social media project management with Teamwork.com
There you have it; 13 tools to help you more effectively manage your social media projects! Chances are that you’ll need more than one tool on this list, but remember to find out what functionalities matter to your customers so you can make the right choices.
Want more suggestions for digital agency tools? Check out our article 13 Powerful Digital Marketing Agency Tools Your Team Needs.
Teamwork.com is here to help you get things organized and keep your team on track. Learn more about how Teamwork.com can help you by signing up for a free account.