Choosing the Perfect Enterprise Social Media Tool

There are more enterprise social media tools out there than there are cat videos on the internet!   

But most of these tools fall short of meeting the needs of enterprise businesses — for the simple reason that they can’t keep up with the scale, complexity and demands of these organizations. Often, the priority is on adding new features and capabilities while the security and compliance aspects are overlooked.  

So, when it comes to selecting the right social media tool for your enterprise, there are several factors to consider. In this blog, we'll walk you through some practical tips to save you the hassle of constantly switching between different tools.   

What are enterprise social media tools?

Enterprise social media tools are a set of applications designed to enhance communication, collaboration and business processes within an organization. By providing a centralized platform for sharing, storing and managing documents and other resources, they allow employees to access and collaborate on essential work material easily.  

These tools are key components of enterprise social networks (ESNs) and incorporate social networking features like profiles, news feeds and groups, which help in fostering a sense of community within the organization.  

Why are social media tools essential for an enterprise?

An enterprise social media tool can help you handle your company's social media accounts better, connect you with the right audience and track and measure social media performance accurately. It's essentially a one-stop solution to carry out your daily social media activity and is especially useful if your company is quite large and has a presence in multiple locations.  

Given the diverse needs of each business, does an ideal enterprise social media tool truly exist? Probably not. But investing in these tools is crucial for various reasons. 

• Manage social media better: Enterprise businesses manage multiple social accounts, which can become challenging when done natively. Consider investing in a Unified Customer Experience Management (Unified-CXM) platform. It centralizes your social media tasks, gathers customer information from different places, builds detailed customer profiles, automates repetitive jobs, supports communication across multiple channels and offers a range of other useful features that streamline your social media operations.  
• Maintain a consistent brand image: Creating a strong brand image is important but keeping it consistent over time is just as crucial. Enterprise social media tools help maintain a consistent identity on all social media platforms. This means having a uniform brand voice, consistent style and messaging. With this, you leave a lasting impression on your target audience, which makes them return for more.   
  
  For instance, Samsung consistently uses creative visuals in combination with a light color palette to promote its products across various channels.  Their X (formerly Twitter) handle also features captivating videos and crisp captions, just like their Instagram handle. 
  
  Also Read: How to maintain a positive brand image on social media 
• Understand audience better: To truly connect with your target audience, you have to understand their preferences, needs and emotions. By default, enterprise social media tools come equipped with powerful features, including social listening, which enable you to stay tuned to the online conversations happening across various social platforms. This makes it easier for you to get to know your audience better and personalize your messages effectively.  
• Perform in-depth analytics: Enterprise social media tools boast advanced analytics, empowering you to identify emerging trends, promptly recognize crisis situations and proactively address potential threats to reputation. Refining the data gathered through social listening and gauging sentiment around your brand rely heavily on analytical capabilities. These capabilities not only help determine the effectiveness of your campaigns but also offer valuable insights on optimal posting frequency and timing.   

Learn More: Social media analytics tracking: How it's done  

• Enhance team collaboration: Effective collaboration and seamless teamwork are crucial within a large organization. This is particularly true when it comes to the success of social media campaigns. When teams work harmoniously, it significantly enhances the quality and impact of these campaigns. In this regard, enterprise social media tools play a vital role in facilitating this collaborative effort. Teams benefit greatly from having a dedicated platform to effortlessly exchange ideas and thoughts. According to a McKinsey report, the most advantageous aspects of social tools used by companies include real-time interactions, seamless collaboration and cross-platform availability.  

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How to choose the right enterprise social media management tool

Finding the perfect enterprise social media management tool can elevate your brand's online presence and enhance team productivity. However, with tons of options available in the market, making the right choice can be challenging.  

To simplify your decision-making process, here are some effective tactics to consider.  

Find the gaps in your current marketing efforts 

Do you see a lot of unhappy customers ranting about your business on social media? If you do, it's a clear indication that employing a social listening tool is necessary. This tool enables you to monitor, comprehend and address any mentions about your brand online. 

Similarly, when your social media campaigns fail to generate the desired results, you should look for a tool that can transform unstructured data into actionable insights. Because such situations require a solution that aligns with your current business priorities. Also, be sure to brainstorm with your team to identify areas that need improvement. 

Take into account the extent of your online engagement

How engaged are your customers with your brand online?  

When your social media team receives numerous inquiries from various sources, responding quickly can be a challenge. Additionally, when addressing complaints, prompt responses are crucial. Failure to do so can result in your social feed being filled with negative tweets and shares. 

If you find yourself in such a situation, relying on a basic scheduling tool won't suffice. Consider investing in a tool that provides instant alerts about both positive and negative sentiments around your brand. 

Did you know? You can get a comprehensive view of your brand and customers, including real-time sentiment analysis, with AI-powered Sprinklr Insights. It can transform data from millions of conversations — including 200 billion historical messages across 30+ digital channels — into actionable insights for your entire business, driving faster, smarter decisions.

Set a realistic budget

There are numerous enterprise social media management applications available in the market. The monthly cost can range from a few dollars to several hundred. So, it is crucial to select a solution that aligns with your business needs and budget. 

The price range often varies based on the features offered by different tools. Always explore multiple options and choose the one that best meets your budget and requirements. But avoid investing in premium services that are currently unnecessary just to maximize your social media ROI. 

Research and compare different solutions

Now that you’re clear on your needs and budget, start examining the offerings, pricing and user reviews of each tool. Websites like G2 and Capterra are great resources for gathering authentic insights from businesses like yours. They provide valuable information to aid in your decision-making process.  

Additionally, consider joining LinkedIn groups that are focused on social media management and digital marketing. These groups are preferred by professionals who actively share their experiences and recommendations, making them a great source of knowledge and insights. 

Make the most of free trials

Free trials are a great way to figure out if the paid plan is worth it. Lots of enterprise social media tools offer free trials, usually lasting seven days or sometimes even a whole month. Use these trials to assess your team's proficiency with the tool, verify its functionality and explore any additional features it offers. By doing so, you can gauge its effectiveness and determine if it aligns with your requirements.  Listed below are a few things you should keep in mind before finalizing your enterprise social media management tool.  

• Comprehensive features: Look for a solution that offers a wide range of features to streamline your social media management. These can include automatic and bulk post scheduling, AI-powered analytics, social listening capabilities, generative AI writing and support for all popular social platforms.  
• Scalability: Ensure the selected tool can handle many social accounts, users, content workflows and engagement metrics as your enterprise grows.  
• Reporting and analytics: As a business with customers worldwide, you will need a social media tool that provides comprehensive campaign reports, facilitating data-driven decision-making. 
• User-friendly interface: An easy-to-use interface is essential for enabling smooth collaboration within large teams. It is important to test the tool's usability, keeping in mind the diverse needs of team members.  
• Customer support: When it comes to customer support, transitioning to a new tool can be challenging, particularly for a large enterprise. That's why it's important to choose a provider that offers dedicated assistance.  
• Integration: Your business relies on a variety of tools, each containing valuable data that can significantly enhance campaign efficiency. The ideal platform should seamlessly integrate with CRM systems, email marketing platforms and other essential third-party tools, ensuring a smooth and streamlined workflow. 
• Data security: Since data security is of utmost importance, when selecting a social media tool, it is vital to ensure that it prioritizes safety and follows industry-standard security protocols to safeguard your data.  

3 enterprise social media tools you must have

An enterprise social media tool can perform many functions, but there are three essential tasks that it’ll help you ace namely: 

Social media management and engagement

Your customers are active on various social media channels such as Facebook, X, Instagram and LinkedIn. However, managing these platforms natively is both time-consuming and less efficient. An enterprise social media tool simplifies customer engagement at scale by offering comprehensive dashboards that help you stay on top of active queries. You can promptly respond to customers’ queries and assist them whenever they need help.   

Quick Tip: Ever felt engaging customers online was becoming more and more difficult with the proliferation of channels? With Sprinklr Social, engage with customers across 30+ social and messaging channels effortlessly — its AI-driven automated inbound triaging capability lets you categorize messages by intent, target engageable conversations and increase the productivity of your team. 

Analytics and reporting

Enterprise businesses are no strangers to vast amounts of data. However, collecting data alone is not enough. It's crucial to collect, present, monitor and leverage this data effectively. That's where the AI-powered analytics and reporting capabilities of an enterprise social media tool can be of immense value. Why? Because they help extract meaningful insights from billions of data points, presenting them in well-structured reports. 

Also, tracking important social media metrics such as click-through rate, conversion rate, customer sentiment and ROI becomes easy. Not to mention, you can even monitor competitors' social media campaigns.  

Learn More: Your Social Media Competitor Analysis Guide for 2023 and beyond 

Did you know? Sprinklr’s AI-based crisis detection picks up on sudden changes or anomalies in online activity at very earliest stages — and alerts your team via emails and mobile notifications, so you can respond more quickly. 

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Social listening

Even if you're unaware, your target audience is conversing about your brand on social media. Failing to recognize this hinders your ability to make necessary adjustments to your social media strategy.  

The social listening capability of your enterprise social media tool monitors these conversations across various social platforms which, in turn, enables you to observe and comprehend these discussions, offering valuable insights into how your brand is perceived and aiding in the enhancement of your social media plan.  

Quick Tip: Do you listen to your customers? If you do, are you listening in on the right conversations? Sprinklr’s AI-powered social listening tools unlock millions of conversations beyond your preferred brand channels, surfacing data and actionable insights across social media, messaging, chat, review sites and more. 

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In-Depth Read: 11 Best Social Media Management Tools for all Businesses  

In a nutshell... 

To choose the right enterprise social media tool, start by assessing your current business priorities and aligning your social media strategy with them. Next, set a budget and compare the pros and cons of various tools using platforms like G2, Capterra and LinkedIn groups. Narrow down your choices to a few tools that align with your objectives and make use of free trials to evaluate them practically. 

See to it that the tool that offers the functionality you require, scalability, an intuitive user interface, first-rate customer service and smooth integrations before making your final decision.  

With its comprehensive suite of tools like social listening, conversational bots, and extensive channel coverage across 30+ channels, Sprinklr Social guarantees that no customer query or complaint goes unanswered. The unified dashboard ensures seamless management and empowers you to provide timely responses and solutions. 

Book a demo today and experience the power of Sprinklr firsthand!