There are many social media content management and planning tools out there and the choice you have is enormous. However, if you are working with a larger social media team (more than 1 person) and some or all of you are working remotely, then not all social media content management tools have the requisite features to get the job done right. After all, many of the existing tools are useful if you are only managing a few profiles, or perhaps even if you are the lone social media manager for a small- or medium-sized business.
Agencies or larger companies may have many team members working on various social media campaigns, across different networks at the same time, which makes their needs complex. However, one of the advantages of multiple social media and marketing professionals working together is that you can pool ideas, iterate on the best ones, and create outstanding content and images for your posts. What makes this challenging is that, these days, large teams seem to be often working remotely or in different places. This means that effective creative brainstorming and discussion among a larger team is made much more difficult.
The huge increase in remote work since the Corona pandemic seems like it is here to stay. The flexibility that remote work and home office gives to employees has been embraced by many. However, some may find that this inhibits the very brainstorming that makes large social media teams so creative and innovative. This is because social media content planning is more than just creating a post draft from a few random ideas. It requires a significant amount of communication and back and forth about the overall message, specifics of the content, and the right image(s) or video to use.
Using Excel sheets, a messaging program such as Slack, or simply having some random calls with your team members leaves a lot to be desired. So with this reality in mind, what would the most advanced social media tools offer to solve these problems? And how can they enable better teamwork across members of a remote team?
Social media tools offer a range of features that make it easy to manage different social media profiles in terms of posting. However, even though most social media tools offer some sort of content management function, it is much more difficult to find one that incorporates advanced teamwork features. Fanpage Karma has developed one of the most advanced social media content management tools that enables social media and marketing teams to work together in creating their posts across social media networks. Below, we will go through the different parts of the content management and planning process and what your social media tool should offer to improve team communication and brainstorming.
Brainstorming and Idea Exchange
This is perhaps the most important, and difficult, task for larger teams to effectively undertake, especially those in different locations and/or timezones. Who should do what? Who needs to give feedback? And how can you best organize suggestions and ideas?
Social media posts often go through many iterations, both in terms of the images/videos you are creating as well as the caption you want to use. How can a social media tool allow teams to exchange ideas about what should be done and what needs to be changed?
The most effective way to solve these challenges is through two features. The first is to have a chat history that shows the various ideas and suggestions from team members. This helps you pool all comments and ideas together and find out which ones are best, either through voting or simply coming to a consensus. The second is to have a function that allows members to assign various tasks to each other and keeps a clear overview of what needs to be done by whom.
As an added benefit, you should look for tools that allow for guest access. For example, perhaps you have a client or manager that needs to give feedback on a particular post. In these cases, it is very useful for those without paid access to be able to provide feedback from within the tool itself.
Drafting the Post
Agreeing on the content, image(s), videos(s), and the format (i.e. story, reel, etc.) of a post is important. However, successful posts on social media require more than just that. There are many additional tasks to do even when the content and image/video of a post is agreed upon. For instance, you may want to use mentions (@), insert hashtags, or perhaps you want to post the first comment on a post. Your social media tool should allow you to add all these to a post from within the tool itself.
Another important aspect of looking for the right content management tool is the added features that come with it that are designed to get the most out of your posts. For instance, your social media content planning capabilities are most likely part of an all-in-one social media tool that offers other features such as finding the best times to post on social media networks. These tools may also provide hashtag generators and other types of features such as a hashtag research tool that go hand-in-hand with creating outstanding content.
Always be aware that there are many different aspects that make a post successful. While the content and images/videos are crucial, there are many other reasons why it makes sense to find a social media tool that helps you find ways to improve your posts.
Content approval
Who has the final say on a post? How can companies ensure that their posts are fully approved before being posted? For many companies, social media is the main way they communicate with their customers and other stakeholders. For this reason, what is posted must be correct and meet all brand and company guidelines.
Having clear approval processes as part of your content management system is necessary for many companies. Therefore, it is important that your content management system comes with options that allow for an approval failsafe, so posts are always reviewed before they are posted.
Scheduled posts
Most of the time, social media posts are designed and curated well before they are planned to go out. Having an overview of all these posts is important, and content management tools normally come with a content calendar.
As we pointed out above, your social media tool should be able to help you discover the optimal times for you to post across various social media networks. However, what happens when you are out of the office during the ideal posting times?
While scheduling posts to go out automatically at some future times is a feature that, presumably, all social media planning tools would give you, be aware that some tools have restrictions to, for instance, mentions (@). In some cases, you will not be able to post mentions automatically and would have to do this manually. Always check to see what can and cannot be posted automatically. It is important to make sure that your auto-posting features allow for different elements of a post to actually be posted, or else a tool’s usefulness is limited.
Searching for the Right Social Media Content Management Tool
In searching for the social media content management tool that fits your needs, you should be sure to understand how your social media post creation process works. If you are the only social media manager for your company, most likely the free content management solutions with limited features will be perfectly fine. However, if you work with more than one other person, you should consider the latest, most advanced social media content management tools in order to benefit from industry-leading features.
