Nearly every marketing team that has a significant social media presence can use a social media content management tool to help them with their social media activities. However, instead of looking at content management as just a part of a social media tool, you should view it as an all-around function that different parts of an all-in-one tool contribute towards. 

In this case, a more holistic understanding of content management involves not only the content itself, but the processes that go into creating, publishing, and measuring the success of that content. However, one question still looms: what features should a social media tool provide you, so your content management is effective? 

While there are a number of social media content strategy templates that you can find on the internet, our focus will not be on how to craft your strategy. Rather, we want to discuss content management within the framework of an all-in-one social media tool.

Features of the Best Social Media Content Management Tools

Content planning on social media involves more than just working on a content calendar that details when and where you will post. In fact, an effective social media content planning tool should be able to provide you and your business with a number of features that help make your content a success. 

Below, we break the features you need into four categories: Research, Planning and Publishing, Post Management, and Analysis. For each category, we will explain what is needed in terms of managing your social media content.

1. Research

Many may not associate research functions with a social media content management tool, but this function is crucial. Since we are talking about the entire process of content management, this necessarily involves discovering what type of content works, and what doesn’t. We have already written articles relating to topics such as how to find the best time to post or hashtag research that give you insights about those topics. However, what we want to do here is to highlight the importance of being able to research content and to manage and observe content approaches that inspire you.   

In reality, being able to monitor and analyze content that is performing well or that inspires your own content creation is an important part of content management. It is important to keep learning from content or profiles that you see as successful so you can begin to craft your own content strategy. What is needed, in this case, is for a social media tool to be able to discover other profiles that are in your industry and be able to get an overview of their metrics and content approach.

2. Planning and Publishing

For many, the content planning and publishing features represent the core “content management” part of a social media tool. While many may look at various scheduling tools for social media, there are a few points related to planning and publishing as a whole when it comes to content management. 

Second, effective social media content planning tools should provide you with a simple way to manage and organize your images. This is done through an image library, where you can upload and manage all the images and pictures you will be using in your posts. The best content management tools for social media will enable organize for images and allow for easy upload. 

3. Post Management

Post management incorporates a few different activities that will be discussed in this article. The first is simply being able to edit or change a post if an error needs to be corrected or if something else needs to be changed. Generally, this can be relatively easily and quickly done so we won’t go into more detail here.

The second area involves managing the various responses and interactions with your post. An effective social media post management tool would also incorporate powerful community management features so you can make sure you are keeping up with all the interactions of your post. 

4. Analysis

As part of a holistic understanding of content management, the ability to analyze and understand the performance of your content is paramount to any content management strategy. How else can you determine whether or not your content is preforming? This is another reason why your content management solution should also include social media content analysis tools. 

Regarding your social media analysis, you should be able to not only track the performance of your own posts, but also to benchmark your performance against your competitors. Important insights include using the data you collect to find the best times to post or to determine what hashtags correlate with higher engagement rates. At the end of the day, content management is not just about setting up publishing processes, but is also about understanding what the best approaches are for future content.  

Finding the Best Social Media Content Management Tools

When you are reviewing the many content management tools out there, you should ask yourself if what you need it just for planning and publishing, or if you want to concentrate on more comprehensive content management functions. As we have shown in this article, if you are looking for a holistic content management solution, you should always consider the four areas above. 

Fanpage Karma offers an all-in-one social media tool that involves strong content management capabilities. You can take advantage of a free 14-day free trial to see for yourself how a holistic content management solution may look. 

In addition to this free trial, Fanpage Karma also offers a free weekly webinar focused on how to improve your social media performance and management.