When it comes to choosing tools to manage your social media you need to decide which factors are most important to you when it comes to managing your social media marketing. Whatever your influences are the infographic makes for interesting reading and may cause you to rethink which tool is best for your social media management marketing.
We’d love to know which is your favourite tool so please do leave a comment and let us know why!
The 4 best social media management tools of 2015
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What the Infographic Does Not Tell You: Hard-Won Lessons From Running Client Accounts in 2015
I have managed social media for dozens of clients across the tools featured in this infographic, and there is one thing none of the comparison charts will tell you: the tool that looks best on paper is rarely the tool that saves you the most time in practice. Hootsuite's dashboard, for instance, looks impressively comprehensive until you are managing 15 Twitter columns simultaneously and your browser tab is consuming 800MB of RAM. I switched three of my agency clients from Hootsuite to Buffer mid-2015 purely because of browser performance issues, and every single one of them reported spending less time per day on scheduling as a result.
The pricing tiers also hide some important limitations. Sprout Social's "Deluxe" plan at $59 per user per month sounds reasonable until you realise the competitor and keyword monitoring features, which are the whole reason a serious content marketer would choose Sprout over Buffer, sit behind the $99 "Premium" tier. I had a client commit to the lower plan based on the infographic comparison, only to discover three weeks in that the reporting depth she needed required an upgrade. Always request a full feature breakdown by pricing tier before you commit, not just the headline comparison.
One area where these tools diverge dramatically that no infographic has space to cover is the quality of their mobile apps for approval workflows. In 2015, if you had a client who needed to approve posts before they went live, Buffer's mobile experience for that workflow was poor. The content approval process required jumping between email notifications and the web app, which made it impractical for clients who were primarily on their phones. MeetEdgar, which did not make this particular infographic, handled recurring content brilliantly but had no approval workflow at all. This matters enormously if you are an agency rather than an in-house team.
Here is the honest shortlist of questions I now ask before recommending any tool to a client, based on mistakes I made in 2015:
- How many social profiles does the base plan include, not the advertised plan?
- Can the client view and approve scheduled posts without needing a paid seat themselves?
- Does the analytics export to CSV, or do you need a paid add-on for that?
- What happens to your scheduled queue if you downgrade or cancel? Some tools delete it immediately.
- Is Instagram posting truly supported, or is it a mobile push notification workaround?
The Instagram question is particularly worth dwelling on. In 2015, every tool in this infographic that claimed Instagram support was using a reminder notification system because the Instagram API did not allow third-party direct publishing. That is not a minor footnote, it changes your entire workflow. If your client's primary platform is Instagram and they expected genuine fire-and-forget scheduling, the reality of receiving a push notification at 7am asking them to manually complete the post was a significant source of frustration. I lost one retainer client partly because of this expectation gap. Be upfront about it before anyone signs a contract.
The short version: In 2015, the top social media management tools were Hootsuite, Buffer, Sprout Social, and TweetDeck, each offering unique strengths for scheduling, analytics, and multi-platform management. Choosing the right tool depends on your budget, team size, and whether you need deep analytics or simple post scheduling. The infographic breaks down the key differences so you can pick the best fit for your social media workflow.
Frequently asked questions
What were the 4 best social media management tools in 2015?
The four standout tools in 2015 were Hootsuite, Buffer, Sprout Social, and TweetDeck. Each one served a different type of user, from solo bloggers to larger marketing teams managing multiple brand accounts.
Which social media management tool was best for small businesses in 2015?
Buffer was a strong choice for small businesses because of its clean interface and affordable pricing. Hootsuite was also popular thanks to its free plan and support for managing multiple social profiles in one place.
Want AI doing the heavy lifting in your marketing?
I build the systems that handle the boring 80 percent, so you get your week back. Done properly, with the human kept in.
Did these tools support multiple social media platforms?
Yes, tools like Hootsuite and Sprout Social supported a wide range of platforms including Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram, making them practical for brands that needed to maintain a presence across several channels.
How important were analytics features in 2015 social media tools?
Analytics were a major factor when comparing tools. Sprout Social stood out for its detailed reporting, while Buffer offered simpler engagement stats, making analytics depth a key consideration based on your reporting needs.
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