Setup Help For Social Media Management Tools & Systems - Business

A short-term social media campaign targeting all networks isn't so uncommon, but social media management on an on-going basis is an entirely different matter. There are many benefits, but adoption has been slow. Let's clear up some of the misconceptions and list the tools and their benefits.

LinkedIn is a business network connecting professionals. Facebook is an online hangout for young kids. Twitter also operates in an informal setting, but it's mostly about information sharing across all demographics.

On the other hand, it's also true that celebs and big brands have no such problems. The exact same message is very well received on each network, if it comes from someone or a company that is well known or trusted. The point is that on a social network, it is the messenger that counts more than the conversational style or actual content of the message.

But it's possible to have the best of both worlds - as in send one message which then gets published on all the major networks. This is done through what is known as Social Media Management Systems (SMMS). An SMMS has a central dashboard to monitor all accounts across all networks, sends out a message to all the accounts, and will track the response and offer conversion metrics.

One such SMMS is Spredfast, an SMB and enterprise tool for managing social media outreach. It automates the entire process, and has a single dashboard to observe accounts not only for social networks but also blog platforms. It tracks clicks and integrates data from all the networks to offer overall conversion metrics.

Buddy Media is another enterprise level facebook management system. Their geo-targeted system allows marketers to maintain a single presence across multiple country and language pages on facebook. Hootsuite is also a useful tool that offers a dashboard for corporate teams posting simultaneously to multiple accounts on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Foursquare.

On a slightly smaller scale, TweetDeck offers one centralized login and monitoring capabilities for multiple networks including Google Buzz, Foursquare, MySpace, LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. For those who need a team to operate a single account, CoTweet can direct tweets that need a response to specific team members.

In summary, social media management tools and systems will definitely make life a lot easier for the manager, and possibly allow for a smaller team. It will also aggregate data, spotlight trends, and offer conversion metrics. Most importantly, it will also help grow the brand across all networks, instead of just on twitter or facebook.