Social Media Dashboard
Do you ever feel disorganized with all your social media profiles? What if you could manage all your accounts in one place. Well, you can with SMMS (Social Media Management System), otherwise known as dashboards.
The following are 3 dashboards that you might want to consider for your business and/or personal social media activity.
Hootsuite
Image source: http://berryflow.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Hootsuite-logo.jpeg
The leading social media dashboard to manage and measure your social networks
Features & Benefits
If you have Twitter, Facebook or Google Plus, you can easily sign up for a free Hootsuite account. If you’re not comfortable signing up with one of these social media platforms, Hootsuite also allows you to sign up with your email.
Once you’ve signed up, Hootsuite offers different plans that an individual or business/corporation use to sync all their social media platforms with Hootsuite. Hootsuite will also organize all your different social media profiles into different columns, and under each column you can add streams. Streams are essential, one’s activity on its social media profile. For example, if you sync your Tweeter account, you can add streams such as Home Page, Sent Tweets, Retweets, Mentions and so forth. You will then be able to see all your different streams in an organized way. Streams are not limited to just Twitter, any social media network that you add offers different streams for that particular network.
When developing a post, Hootsuite gives you options like attach image or file, shrinkage URL link, add location and save message as template.
When ready to post, you can pick what profiles you want to post your message to. You can pick just Twitter, or you can pick all your social media profiles. All depending on the message and who you want to see it.
Hootsuite also offers the ability to schedule Tweets, Facebook posts, and other social media posts/messages in advance. One would do this if they knew they’ll be away/offline and won’t have the ability to tweet or share relevant information with their followers.
For those using Hootsuite for business, Hootsuite provides the ability to add team members to your business’s Hootsuite account. Team members are the people that you authorize to use Hootsuite on your organization's behalf, allowing you to assign tasks to these individuals. Without authorization, individuals won’t be granted access to the company’s social media profiles on Hootsuite’s dashboard.
Hootsuite provides analytical reports for all Hootsuite users. Depending on the plan your Hootsuite account is on, your analytical report will be more detailed if you have the enterprise plan. Analytics reports allow you to track the performance of your social media campaigns at an in-depth level.
Costs
Free: Great for personal use, add up to 3 social media profiles.
Free lets you schedule one post at a time only.
Includes 3 basic analytical reports.
No team members.
Pro: Great for businesses, from $9.99/month for 50 profiles and one added team member. (Free 30-day trial)
Pro lets you schedule up to 350 posts at a time, with access to the Auto Scheduler.
Includes an enhanced analytical report plus 3 basic analytical reports.
1 added team member, with the ability to add 9 additional members.
Enterprise: Great for corporations, organizations and governments. No price listed.
Enterprise allows for unlimited message scheduling.
Offers unlimited enhanced analytical report.
Unlimited team members.
Social Media Platforms
Google+
Foursquare
WordPress
Mixi
Hootsuite allows more platforms then just the ones listed above. Hootsuite has an app directory, where Hootsuite offers third-party free and premium apps. At the moment, Hootsuite offers 118 different free and premium apps. The following are some of the third-party apps that you might be interested in.
Instagram (Free)
YouTube (Free)
Reddit (Free)
Foursquare for Business (Free)
Gmail ($1.99/Month)
Google Drive ($1.99/Month)
Vimeo ($4.99/Month)
Browsers/Mobile Compatibility
Hootsuite currently has mobile web browsers for iOS, Android, Blackberry and Windows phones, while only having Hootsuite mobile apps for iOS and Google phones. Hootsuite is also compatible on web browsers, Safari, Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer.
Sprout Social
Image source: http://westwoodva.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/SproutSocial-Logo-Light-BG-NoReflect-Large-42.png
Powerful Social Media Software - A Management & Engagement Platform for Social Business
Features & Benefits
Signing up with Sprout Social is very easy, as you are not asked for any credit card information and you receive a free 30-day trial. Sprout Social offers 3 different plans, much like Hootsuite. They are Deluxe, Premium and lastly Team. You will need to pick what plan you want before starting your free 30-day trial. However, Sprout Social is very pricey compared to other dashboards, as it caters more to active online businesses.
The following are features that all Sprout Social plans offer.
Engagement: You’ll receive a message whenever you business is mentioned, this way you can ensure no customer goes unanswered.
Publishing: With Sprout Social, you can post on your company’s Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and/or LinkedIn pages easily from one dashboard. Sprout Social lets you schedule your posts and lets you have shortened links and attach photos to your posts.
Analytics: Sprout Social offers analytical reports for all its users. It develops customer reports with your businesses logo on it, and is available in a PDF format.
Monitoring: Your business will receive an inbox on Twitter or Facebook whatever you company is mentioned. Even if you’re not tagged in the post, this happens with keyword monitoring.
CRM: Sprout allows you to manage all your contacts and previous messages through one easy tool.
Collaboration: Assign tasks to other team members, and collaborate in real time to see who’s available to respond to customer comments.
Help Desk: Spout Social has help teams on standby to fix any problems a Spout Social user might have. With quick responses to any problems, within 4 minutes.
Costs
Deluxe: Everything you need to get started for only $59 per user/month. (Free 30-day Trial)
All-In-One Social Inbox
Real-Time Brand Monitoring
Publishing, Scheduling & Drafting
Comprehensive Reporting
Manage Up to 10 Profiles
Premium: Powerful tools for social businesses. $99 per user/month (Free 30-day trial)
Includes all Deluxe Features
Publishing Send-Time Optimization
Advanced Reporting
HelpDesk Integration
Manage up to 20 profiles
Team: Advance features for growing team. $500/month for 3 users
Includes all Premium Features
Advanced Publishing Permissions
24/5 Support
Custom Branding
Manage up to 30 profiles
Social Media Platforms
Sprout social has a limited number of social media platforms where their users can sync their social media profiles with. Although it’s limited, Sprout Social covers the basic and must popular social media platforms
Google+
Zendesk
UserVocie
Browsers/Mobile Compatibility
Spout Social is compatible with IOS (iPhones, iPads, Desktops/Laptops). It is also compatible with Android phones, and finally Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer as web browsers.
Gremln
Image source: http://www.whichsocialmedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/gremln_logo.jpg
“In our search for a solution to help eliminate the risks of violations and fines, it became clear that GREMLN’s social media dashboard and compliance toolkit would make it possible – and easy – for our members to proceed.” - NEW YORK BANKERS ASSOCIATION
Features & Benefits
Gremln is an online marketing tool that allows business to organize their social media marketing platforms all in one dashboard, while also being able to measure the impact of their campaign with analytical reports from Gremln. Although I’ve never used Gremln, it seems like an effective and easy to use dashboard for businesses looking for an all-in-one social media dashboard. It’s very easy to sign up with Gremln allowing users to sign in through their Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn profile. You can also log in through email and password.
Organization Tool
Connect with current and potential customer through Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
Schedule posts, so its reaches your target audience at the right place and time.
Assign team members different tasks, i.e. responding to consumer comments.
Gremln offers a translation tool to allow you to expand globally.
ROI/Analytics
Develop target pages, and track your ROI from specific posts you’ve shared
Use Gremln analytical reports to measure your success, and have presentation ready reports
Track shortened links that you’ve posted on your social media platforms.
Compliance/Security
Filter words and/or phrases and upload all files containing the word and/or phrase you want to monitor/filter
Organize your team members to match your corporate hierarchy, this way no posts are published without approval
Team Management
Allow team members to access different profiles within the Gremln dashboard
Assign department’s specific social media accounts to monitor and respond to consumer problems.
Allow modernization to posts before they go public.
White Label
Integrate your brand with Gremln’s software and allow your clients access to your company’s social media software.
Customize the look and feel of the software to meet the image of your business.
Costs
Free version includes
1 user
5 Social Profiles
Scheduled Messages
2 RSS / Atom Feeds
Compact Social Analytics
Ad Supported
Larger plans also available. To receive a quote, you can request for a demo on Gremln’s website.
Social Media Platforms
Gremln only offers the top 3 social media platforms. Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
Browsers/Mobile Compatibility
Gremln is browser friendly on desktop (Safari, Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer) and mobile devices (iOS and Android) yet there’s no applications for Gremln on mobile devices.
Sources
Hootsuite
https://hootsuite.com
http://www.business2community.com/social-media/5-top-social-media-dashboard-tools-manage-social-accounts-01015451
Sprout Social
http://www.business2community.com/social-media/5-top-social-media-dashboard-tools-manage-social-accounts-01015451
http://sproutsocial.com
Gremln
https://www.gremln.com
http://socialmediafuze.com/hootsuite-alternative-gremln/
