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How to Choose the Best Enterprise Social Media Management Platform

Enterprise social networking is a company’s use of social media to distribute brand messaging, raise brand awareness, and connect with customers and potential customers. Organizations that have an extensive reach or multiple locations may face additional challenges in successfully executing in those areas. Fortunately, enterprise social media management platforms are designed to simplify and streamline a company’s complex social media marketing needs.

 

What is an Enterprise Social Media Management Platform?

At its most essential, an enterprise social media management platform is a software that provides a single interface for all social media content creation, publishing, and analytics data on social media platforms like Facebook, Google My Business (GMB), Instagram, and Twitter. Below we outline the features to look for in an enterprise social media management platform and how to choose the best platform for your organization.

 

Enterprise Social Media Management Platform & Software Overview

A common need for larger companies is being able to create on-brand content that is relevant to corporate headquarters but still incorporates local information. Since offerings may differ slightly by locale, it can be tricky to combine corporate and local messaging. Additionally, social media platforms often get low marks in the scalability department. It can be difficult for social media platforms to meet the needs of a company changing its structure, branding, or product offerings.

 

Enterprise social media marketing platforms are designed specifically for corporations with complex social marketing needs and can provide valuable solutions to these problems. Solutions may include a centralized asset management system to manage on-brand content creation, and custom workflows to streamline publishing processes. Dynamic tokens (like location phone number or address), localized tagging, and social listening are some of the additional tools that can improve messaging and customer interactions. Integrations with other systems like a customer relationship management system (CRM), or content enhancement apps like Canva are other essential components to an enterprise social media marketing platform.

 

5 Key Features to Look for in Enterprise Social Media Management Platforms

 

1.   Consistent On-Brand Messaging with a Flexible, Centralized System

The right enterprise social media marketing platform and software will create a flexible central command over content creation and distribution. Such a system will allow collaborating teams to alter or share roles during the content creation, approval, and posting process.

 

For example, some companies may create content at corporate headquarters that can be distributed both from corporate and local pages. Other times, locations may produce their own unique content without corporate weighing in. Finally, hybrid messaging means that corporate and other locations create and post in some collaborative fashion.

 

Given the diversity of content responsibilities, the ideal enterprise social media management platform balances centralization and flexibility at the local level. For example, local teams can create their own content that is approved by corporate, or corporate can pre-approve content that falls within branding expectations. This approach allows for clear responsibility between team members and a more consistent, on-brand social media presence.

 

2.   Blended Corporate-Local Content with Dynamic Tokens and Localized Tags

A multi-location company faces the challenge of having corporate-created content with local information blended into it. Take the example of a corporate office that creates a social media post about a sale at all locations that require each location’s phone number and address included in the post. Typically, this means that local contacts must take the template and add in their information and then publish the content to their own social media account. A piecemeal approach like this consumes the time of countless employees and lends itself to content error. Of course, there is also the possibility that a locale will not post the content to their profile.

 

Dynamic tokens and localized tags are two features that allow for synthesized corporate-local content. Users create a single post from a central command that automatically incorporates local information and posts to the corresponding social media accounts.

 

3.   Scalability that Expands and Changes with Your Company

Quite simply, complex organizations need an enterprise social media management platform that scales with them. Companies are always expanding or contracting, launching new products, opening new locations, acquiring other brands, or merging with them. A social media platform needs to work with a company undergoing constant change and be able to publicly reflect that change.

 

An enterprise social media management platform that does scalability right will facilitate the publishing of at-scale, on-brand content with features like libraries of pre-approved content and a feature that suggests peak times for publishing.

 

4.   Smart Crisis Management and Data-Driven Marketing with Social Listening

Also known as sentiment analysis, social listening involves analyzing opinions circulated on social media about a given brand. This is more than counting likes and followers. It means tracking hashtags, comments, and tags. With social listening, brand management protocols can be quickly enacted in the event of a problem or crisis. Also, real-time data on customer and potential customer sentiments to inform messaging and marketing initiatives.

 

For instance, social listening can analyze an increase in social media mentions following a new ad campaign. This invaluable insight into how people responded can guide adjustments to the campaign and inform future marketing initiatives.

 

5.   Software Integrations for Improved Overall Workflow

Companies rely on different software systems to manage business operations. CRM technology, for example, is found in most company settings. CMRs manage all relationships and interactions with current and potential customers. It is especially advantageous in the areas of contact management, sales management, and productivity.

 

Enterprise social media management platforms with CRM integration simplifies workflow for enhanced customer interactions. Customer interactions are streamlined, and more meaningful contact data is provided at every moment of interaction.

 

In addition to operational software integrations, an enterprise social media management platform should have smart app integrations, especially for improving content and the user experience. Canva, a popular graphic design program that lends the power of eye-catching content creation to anyone, even the artistically challenged, is a fantastic app to have integrated into a company’s social media platform. For an enhanced user experience, there are Google My Business integrations that facilitate a fast, branded response to customer questions.

 

How to Choose the Best Enterprise Social Media Management Platform

To help you choose the best enterprise social media management platform for your organization, consider the following factors:

 

1.   The Number of Social Media Profiles & Who Is Managing Them

How many social pages your business has and who is managing them is of key concern when selecting an enterprise social media management platform and software system. If a company’s social media presence includes a handful of profiles that are managed by one person or team, then a simple platform with basic scheduling and analytics tools should be sufficient.

 

Alternatively, a company with 100s or 1,000s profiles managed by a large team, or disparate teams with varying levels of interaction, will need a robust enterprise social media management platform. The ideal system has a central command with automated postings, but also affords the flexibility for both local and corporate teams to seamlessly collaborate on content creation and dissemination or do so independently.

 

2. The Complexity of Your Online Customer Interactions

A company with an extensive digital presence has multiple points of contact for customers to reach the company, such as on business websites, social media profiles, and Q&A forums to name a few. From a social media standpoint, a company may receive customer questions or feedback on each profile on different platforms.

 

Inadequate or untimely responses to customer feedback are a considerable liability for a brand, but an enterprise social media management platform can transform the online customer experience. Tools like notifications, task assignments, and smart rules make it easy to swiftly respond to customers with accurate information. For example, SOCi’s Google My Business integration empowers local teams to quickly prioritize, assign, and respond to customer questions with corporate oversight.

 

3.   The Extent of Your Localization Needs

Blending on-brand corporate and local messaging on social media is a perennial problem for any multi-location company. Franchisees, independent owners, authorized realtors, co-ops, property managers, and other local employees need to post content about their local brand while meeting corporate branding guidelines.

 

The answer is a centralized social media management platform that allows teams to collaborate with flexible levels of control over content creation and posting schedules.

Additionally, the platform will allow for localized-corporate messaging with features like dynamic tokens and localized tags such that posts originating from headquarters can automatically tie in local information and post to relevant accounts.

 

 

Learn More About SOCi, the Central Command for Enterprise Social Media Management Platforms

SOCi creates award-winning software specifically for enterprises with complex social media needs. Learn why so many organizations have chosen our enterprise social media management software to streamline their workflow and create a more dynamic social media presence.

 

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