Want to know the best social media management tools for agencies this year? Click to read and get an edge over your competition.

Best Social Media Management Tools for Agencies

October 8, 2023
By
David Olsen

Want to know the best social media management tools for agencies this year? Click to read and get an edge over your competition.

Social media marketing agencies are all about efficiency. Agencies are always trying to do things better, faster, and smarter, in order to get the best possible results for their clients and maximize profits. But if you want to be the best, you need the best tools for the job. And you don’t want just any tools. The market is flooded with social media marketing tools that are either too expensive or simply don’t do the job they were built for.

With so many agencies realizing the benefits of remote work in recent years, more and more are working and collaborating online. This means that it’s more important than ever to have efficient and collaborative social media marketing tools to rely on.

That’s where we come in.

We’ve pulled together the best social media management tools for agencies so you can stop worrying about the little things and start focusing on boosting results for your clients and maximizing efficiency.

Ready to dive in? Keep scrolling to get our carefully cultivated pick of the best social media marketing tools for agencies around.

Why Do Agencies Need Social Media Management Software?

Any social media marketing agency worth their salt knows that, as with most service-based small businesses, profit margins can be slim. Therefore agencies need to embrace automation and increase efficiency wherever they can – while still providing top-notch service and generating results for their clients, of course!

Social media management tools have become a huge part of this process, allowing agencies to collaborate, communicate, schedule social media posts for multiple social networks, edit images, and pull critical social media reporting data wherever required. By using these tools, agencies can save hours every week. And every hour saved translates to a greater profit for the agency.

But not only that; social media marketing platforms can make life easier for your staff. Let’s face it; no one wants to be scheduling posts on the weekend or working overtime to painstakingly generate social media reports manually. Your staff’s time can be better spent creating awesome social media strategies or viral social content.

The problem is that there are countless social media marketing tools out there and it can be difficult to decide which tools are best for your agency.

How To Choose The Right Social Media Management Tools For Your Agency?

If you’re working at a digital marketing agency or social media marketing agency, you probably already understand the appeal of intuitive social media marketing tools. You may even be using them already to speed up your workflow.

Yet, with so many tools out there, how can you decide which tool is right for your agency – and at the right price?

When you’re choosing a social media marketing tool, there are several things to take into consideration. To start with, you should think about:

  • Your budget. Budget is an important consideration when deciding which social media marketing tools you will provide. That said, it’s important to be smart with your allocated budget. For instance, instead of choosing three affordable tools, it might be better to choose just one more expensive tool that does the same job. You’ll also need to consider the time saved in using social media marketing tools. If one tool is going to save multiple staff members hours out of every week, calculate how much this might cost and weigh this up against the cost of the tool.
  • Your needs. How many social media profiles are you managing, and for how many clients? What services are you providing? When considering these factors, you may also want to think about what services you may want to offer in the future as well.
  • Your available resources. Is your team well-resourced? If you are trying to take on more clients or your team simply doesn’t have time to spare, social media marketing tools could be well worth the investment. For instance, you might be trying to pitch for a large new client. If social media marketing tools can help you save time, this time could be better spent seeking new business that could potentially bring in a large amount of new revenue.
  • Your processes. Think about your current digital marketing processes and the way your social media marketing agency operates. Each agency is a little bit different. Some agencies might be able to save time in the content curation process. For others, it’s the little things such as scheduling, managing their social inbox, and reporting. These tasks can be automated with the help of various social media marketing tools.
  • What you value. What kind of clients do you have, and what are their expectations? What do you value in a tool? Affordability? Ease of use? Or is it more important that a tool is reliable, so you never miss a post? Consider what is important for your team and keep it in mind when making a decision.

Which Tools Do Agencies Need In Their Social Media Marketing Stack?

You might have heard of the social media marketing ‘stack’ or tech ‘stack’. But what does this actually mean? A ‘stack’ simply refers to a collection of software programs and applications that a company uses for its day-to-day operating needs. When it comes to social media marketing, there are several programs and applications that agencies can invest in to enhance productivity and boost overall performance.

Ideally, over time, agencies will build a social media marketing ‘stack’ that suits their business. It’s important to understand the best social media marketing tools, to begin with, to ensure that you can meet the growing needs of the agency – and keep up with the competition.

So, what does a typical social media marketing ‘stack’ look like? Here’s what it might include:

  • Graphic design/photo editing tools. Whether you have an in-house graphic designer or not, there are several tools at your disposal, from Canva; an easy-to-use graphic design replacement tool, to tools like Adobe Lightroom, there are endless options available.
  • Video editing tools. Video editing tools for social media can range from affordable to quite expensive, depending on what you need to do. Canva can help with basic video editing while more comprehensive tools like iMovie or Adobe Rush can help with more complex video edits.
  • Social media management and post scheduling tools. The best social media management tools can help you with the entire social media management process, from editing your images to scheduling your content calendar, reporting on your social media post performance, and collaborating with other members of your team.

You may already have existing social media marketing tools in your stack. If so, it might be worth revising all your tools in one go and assessing their value and suitability.

What Are The Best Social Media Marketing Tools For Your Agency?

At the end of the day, deciding which social media marketing tools are right for your agency is a personal decision. You may need to test multiple tools and do some number crunching to ensure that you’ve chosen the most cost-effective option.

Luckily, most of these digital marketing tools offer trials. Some even offer a 30-day trial, allowing you and your team to test the platform thoroughly and ensure that it works for your needs.

But first, you need to understand all the tools that are out there, and how they could be helpful for your agency. Keep reading to learn more.

1.  Sked Social

Sked Social is a popular all-in-one social media management tool, perfect for anyone but especially those who are managing multiple social accounts at once. This means that it’s got everything; social media scheduling, photo editing, reporting functions, and the technology to allow for streamlined team collaboration. All this is located in a single dashboard, making it super easy to strategize and take action all at once.

There are plenty of social media scheduling tools out there, but not all of them let you upload your photos to a huge image library, plan out your posts in a visual feed planner, and collaborate in the platform with your team members so your managers, clients, and graphic designers can seamlessly review, edit, and approve your social media calendar. 

Agencies can spend a lot of their time chasing clients for approvals, or going back and forth on feedback for social media posts. Often social media posts need to go through multiple rounds of approvals from different client contacts, from brand managers to graphic designers. Sked simplifies this process by keeping approvals confined to the app in a branded portal that can be easily accessed by agencies and client teams. All feedback and approvals can be easily tracked, so it’s easy to see which posts still need work, and which are ready to be scheduled.

Discover how Sked Social can streamline your agency’s approval workflow here.

When scheduling, you have the ability to add tags, hashtags, and locations, and use the link shortener to make your copy as concise as possible. Then, simply slot your posts straight into your schedule. Too easy!

It’s also easy to schedule content for all your social media accounts at once, from LinkedIn to TikTok, Instagram, and more. It’s compatible with most social networks.

When it comes time to do your reporting, Sked has got you covered. Sked features reporting and social media analytics tools, allowing you to seamlessly export reports on your social media post performance, track competitors, see which social media channels are performing well, and ultimately optimize your content according to what’s working best.

Aside from all of this, Sked also offers comprehensive customer support, as well as an intuitive mobile app for scheduling when you’re out and about.

WHO CAN USE IT: Sked Social is great for anyone who is scheduling their social media content – or should be! It’s great for agencies, brands, influencers, and anyone else who wants to streamline their social media marketing processes. It would suit both small teams and larger agencies.

AVAILABLE ON: Desktop and mobile; both iOS and Android.

Want to see if Sked works for you and your team? Give it a try today by signing up for our 7-day trial.

2.  Lightroom

Adobe Lightroom is an advanced photo editing application suitable for a wide range of users. It has an array of simple, easy-to-use features and filters, which are ideal if you need to make quick edits to your images.

Yet this software also has much more advanced photo editing features for those who are more familiar with photography or graphic design, or simply want to learn more. This can be particularly useful for those wanting to enhance the quality and overall effect of their images, especially those taken on a smartphone.

The great thing about this application is that your edits can be copied and pasted, allowing for bulk editing. You can save all your assets in the Lightroom content library, apply pre-saved edits, and then export the assets again.

On the flip side, Lightroom can be complicated to learn to use, especially if you are unfamiliar with photography or graphic design.

WHO CAN USE IT: Lightroom is ideal for all content creators, agencies, photographers, social media managers, and graphic designers.

AVAILABLE ON: Desktop and mobile; both iOS and Android.

3.  iMovie

If it’s not already, video should be an important part of your social media marketing strategy moving into the future. Video editing tools like Apple iMovie are an important part of creating unique social media video content. iMovie is fairly simple to use and features several pre-set video filters which can be very helpful when applying quick edits to your videos.

It also contains an intuitive feature called Magic Movie, which helps you to automatically identify the most important parts of your video footage and create an edit to match.

iMovie also has social media-friendly features, like the ability to add special effects, soundtracks, and fun text and images to your video.

WHO CAN USE IT: iMovie is great for beginners. More advanced graphic designers or videographers may want more advanced tools.

AVAILABLE ON: Desktop and mobile; both iOS and Android.

4.  Mention

If you need to track mentions of a particular topic or even brand mentions on social media, Mention is a great tool to try. Some brands use social listening tools like this to track the effectiveness of their social media campaigns. Others simply want to see what social media users are saying about their brand or manage sentiment around a certain topic.

This tool could also be used in situations such as an airline monitoring sentiment around a recent plane crash, or a car brand monitoring the reaction to their latest car model.

Social media listening tools are also great for shaping your content marketing strategy, as they tell you what users are really interested in, and help you identify the most appropriate social media networks to suit your brand. They can even help you find user-generated content, or UGC.

Mention has advanced technology that allows you to track and analyze hundreds or even thousands of conversations. It will assess the conversations for sentiment, analyzing whether comments are positive, negative, or neutral.

You can even use it to track your social media presence over time or help you come up with content suggestions for your social media content calendar. If you need to analyze a larger proportion of your mentions, you can even generate RSS feeds from your alerts and easily share this with your team.

Social listening tools can be used to provide additional white-label services to your clients and increase your profit margins while providing relevant insights and improving their digital marketing strategies.

Mention can be highly useful, however, it is expensive, especially if you’re trying to track multiple topics all over the world. It’s also worth noting that, to track metrics like social media account reach and social engagement, you may need other social media analytics tools.

Mention offers a 14-day trial, so you can test out its capabilities without fully committing to it.

WHO CAN USE IT: Mention can suit any agency with the available budget.

AVAILABLE ON: Desktop and mobile; both iOS and Android.

Collaborate effortlessly, save time and spend less

Why settle for a lackluster social media management tool when you could be using Sked Social? With unlimited collaborator access, streamlined approvals and advanced auto-post technology that lets you schedule to all major platforms, Sked Social offers everything you need.

Get Started for FREE

5.  Google Analytics

If you’re working with e-commerce brands, you should already be aware of Google Analytics. You may already be using it to help brands track conversions, manage your client’s Google my business profile, or monitor other important events. If not, it’s definitely worth looking into, as it is free to use. You’ll just need to ask your clients to share access with you to get started.

Google Analytics is an analytics tool that provides information about websites and their visitors. It offers all the information you might expect, such as the number of visitors using your site, where those visitors are coming from, and how many of them are converting or signing up to your newsletter. Most brands will already be using it in some capacity. But not all of them understand how to use it for social media.

Google Analytics can offer in-depth analytics data that can deepen your social media insights. You can use it to understand which social media marketing campaigns are driving the most traffic to our website, or even calculate your social media ROI.

WHO CAN USE IT: Any brand or agency with a website wanting greater insight into the results of all their marketing efforts.

AVAILABLE ON: Desktop and mobile; both iOS and Android.

Want deeper insights? Discover more social media analytics tools here.

6.  Hubspot

Hubspot is a popular CRM platform. CRM stands for customer relationship management. CRM platforms help brands to manage client contacts, generate new leads, and convert these to sales. It’s also a handy way of helping you to generate insights and manage your funnel, following the customer journey down the path to purchase.

When it comes to social media management, Hubspot can help you schedule content and can assist with your social listening needs. It can also help you track specific social media posts and link them to marketing campaigns, which can effectively help you track and monitor social media ROI.

Hubspot can be expensive, but it can be useful to use it for your social media marketing activity, especially if you are already using it as a CRM platform. It features a 14-day trial, so you can test it out and see if it might be worthwhile.

WHO CAN USE IT: Hubspot is great for large companies with a healthy budget who are looking for a CRM system as well as a social media management tool.

AVAILABLE ON: Desktop and mobile; both iOS and Android.

What Is The Best All-Rounder Social Media Marketing Tool For Agencies?

When you’re deciding on the best social media management platform for you, it’s important to take everything into consideration, from your budget to your changing needs. However, consider this: how many tools do you need? It can be exhausting having to manage multiple subscriptions and train your staff to use several different tools at once. By streamlining your subscriptions and using just one or two tools, you’ll be simplifying your social media processes and making life easier for your staff.

The best social media marketing tools are the ones that can help you to edit images, schedule posts, add hashtags, collaborate with internal and external team members, and assist with reporting, all at once. Best of all, using one tool can often mean that you can reduce your expenditure, giving you more budget to invest in social media content creation or developing social media strategies.

Sked Social is an intuitive social media marketing tool that allows you to schedule your posts, videos, Reels, and Instagram Stories in advance. It also offers bulk scheduling and the ability to add location tags, hashtags, and other tags for products within your posts.

Instead of having to use five different applications to conduct all your social media editing and scheduling, you can use just one social media marketing platform, like Sked Social.

If in doubt, test out some new platforms or sign up for a trial. You might need to enter your email address and credit card details, but it’s usually a simple process. This way, you can see first-hand which platforms work – and which don’t.

Want to get started? Test it out today by signing up to Sked’s 7-day trial today.

Ready To Boost Efficiency At Your Social Media Marketing Agency?

Social media marketing agencies thrive on efficiency. But having the right tools for the job is critical for the success of agencies, especially with so much competition out there. The right social media management tools can save your agency hours every week. And every hour means more money in the bank, which can make a huge difference over the course of a whole year. Ready to boost efficiency at your agency?

Sked Social is a powerful social media marketing tool with the ability to edit and schedule your social media posts, produce comprehensive social media marketing reports, and streamline your social media management processes. This can enable you to simplify your social media management process and save hours every month.

Sked Social’s social media scheduler allows you to automatically schedule Instagram Reels, Stories, tweets, and posts in real-time (without having to post after notifications!) for every major social media platform from Instagram to TikTok, LinkedIn, and pretty much every platform in between. Your images will look better than ever. Best of all, you and your staff can say goodbye to manual reporting or posting after hours.

Ready to embrace automation and start revolutionizing your agency? Try it yourself by signing up to Sked’s 7-day trial today.

Or, learn more how to utilize Sked Social by signing up for a demo today.

This article has been reviewed and updated to ensure the information provided is accurate and up to date.

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