Whether you lead an in-house social media marketing team or work independently, managing multiple social networks can be a real challenge. The best solution is to use a social media marketing tool designed with teams in mind, but how do you choose?
There are a lot of great tools out there that can help you streamline your marketing. These tools let you schedule and publish posts, keep an eye on incoming comments and messages, and even allow you to review analytics. With so many tools, it can be difficult to find the one that is best for you.
My team and I use Agorapulse to manage my social media accounts and those of our clients. Check out 9 Reasons Why I Love Agorapulse to get a better feel for why I love this tool so much.
To be honest, there aren’t many tools out there that allow you to collaborate with your team. The success of social media marketing relies on being able to communicate effectively within a team and any outside clients. So, it’s uber important to choose a tool that makes team work easier and keeps everyone on the same page.
You know what my fav tool is, but is it the right one for you? If you would like to explore other options for a social media marketing tool for your team, make sure it has these 5 must-have features.
5 Must Have Features Teams Should Look For in a Social Media Marketing Tool
1. Task Assignment Options
One of the most important features you should look for is the option for task assignment. This option should let team members flag incoming comments, messages, or even social media posts and assign them to specific team members to handle.
The task assignment feature can ensure that every private message and comment containing customer questions or concerns will be answered promptly. This means that no conversation is accidentally abandoned or left unanswered.
Social media tools like Agorapulse, Sprout Social, and Hootsuite (the latter of which is pictured above) will notify a team member when they’ve been assigned a specific task. Check out the deal Agorapulse has graciously offered my readers – 2 whole months for FREE!
Once the task is complete, a team member can click “reviewed” so that it disappears from their queue and their inbox will stay clear.
2. Submissions for Review
We’ve all seen social media posts go out that have clear mistakes that somehow were missed during the review process and were probably started and never finalized.
Trust me…You don’t want that to happen to you! Scheduling and publishing tools allow you to send completed posts to a specific person for approval before scheduling occurs. Having another team member review content before it goes out into the world is always a good idea as they will inevitably see something you do not.
A scheduling tool can also make publishing easier for the team leader to keep up with what they need to review. Scheduling will be much easier and faster. AND, fewer mistakes will slip through the cracks. For my team, we see it as an “I’ve got your back!” system. Again, always a good idea!
3. Saved, Canned Replies
How can saved, canned responses make teamwork easier and more effective?
Social media management tools that offer saved responses are a powerful shortcut that many overlook. One of the things that is super important for brand consistency is sharng the same type of response to the same question, right? Your customer service team and your social media managers should be messaging the same response to a questions you get all the time. So, having saved replies will show your team exactly how you want a particular question answered.
Not only that, but it will save you and your team valuable time if you are not having to look for a response, get feedback from a team member on how you should respond or even googling how you should respond. Right?
Saved replies can be set up and even customized to a each situation. Having these responses saved makes customer support and interaction so much easier. It requires less oversight from the team’s leader because your team already knows how they should respond.
4. Internal, Private Communication Features
Social media tools that allow users to assign tasks to other members needs to have an internal, private communication feature as well.
Internal, private communication features should allow you to review a conversation between a customer and a member of your team. Going outside of the tool to ask why you need to review something, slows down the process and it makes it more likely to slip through the cracks. Having an internal communication feature reduces that risk and allows you to respond to the customer quicker, which ultimately makes you look good!
Agorapulse (pictured above) has communication features that simplify the process of assigning and sharing work instead of complicating it. You can attach messages to assignments, allowing for a level of private, internal communication. This communication is discreet, but effective, and simplifies the process.
Sprout Social will also let you leave internal comments on posts and responses, even if no actions need to be taken. This can draw attention where it’s needed.
5. Conversation Bookmarking & Labeling
Having your team labeling or bookmarking comments or conversations is a great way to deal with messages or content that needs to be reviewed, but isn’t super urgent. You can create pre-existing labels like “future product ideas” or “unhappy customers”. Labels make it easy to find and evaluate by the appropriate team members when necessary.
Your customers will tell you what they want more of, what they don’t like and what they love about your products. So, it’s important to listen to what they are telling you. For example, you can review all negative messages to see how they were handled and whether there is room for improvement.
You can also review customers suggestions like new ideas for products or services. If you tried to assess them one at a time, reviewing responses could get overwhelming.
Being able to label, bookmark and review content all at once is a great asset to look for in a social media marketing tool.
Final Thoughts
Managing social media is rarely the work of a single individual. Even if it starts that way, it usually doesn’t stay that way for long. Teamwork and clear communication is key to the success of any social media management team, no matter the size.
Without the above listed features, you’ll end up communicating on other tools like Slack or via email to tell team members about posts for review or a difficult customer. Without internal notifications, tasks tend to get lost in the shuffle. It goes without saying that you don’t want that to happen.
I’d love to hear which of these features would make social media management easier for your team. Share your thoughts in the comments below.
Looking for other productivity tools to help your team? Check out my article, 6 Top Productivity Tools for Small Businesses.
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