Social media management software is sold as one platform for everything a brand does on social. The buyers describe something that comes apart under pressure: a publishing tool the social team lives in, a listening feed that communications reads, a customer-care queue that may sit in different software altogether. About one in seven interviewed companies that list their stack runs a dedicated social tool — and in many of them the leader overseeing the purchase is not the one doing the work, which falls to a social team or an agency.
What is social media management software?
Social media management software lets a brand publish, schedule, reply to and report on its social accounts from one place, and many platforms add social listening and social customer care.
Buyers name Sprout Social, Sprinklr and Hootsuite most, followed by Dash Hudson, Meltwater and Brandwatch. The basic promise is the one a Sprout Social user describes: “I can then push content from one software into multiple social media platforms.”
What the interviews add is how those tools are actually bought and used:
In these interviews social media management spans three related jobs — publishing and engagement, listening, and customer care. Some companies use one suite for several of them, while others add a dedicated listening vendor or handle customer care in separate software.
The person overseeing the purchase is often not the daily user. In many interviewed companies, marketing, digital or ecommerce leaders oversee the tool while a dedicated social team or agency handles publishing and engagement. Which tier a company buys follows its size: enterprise suites at large companies, mid-market platforms everywhere, low-cost schedulers at smaller ones.
What is the difference between social media management, social listening and social customer care?
Social media management focuses on publishing and engaging through a brand's own accounts; social listening monitors conversations, mentions and sentiment across social platforms and other online sources; social customer care handles service questions and complaints in social channels. These capabilities overlap, and companies may combine them in one platform or use separate tools.
Listening is the job most often bought on its own. A minority of companies run it with a second vendor beside their publishing tool — Meltwater beside Sprout Social is the most common pairing — and one buyer states the frustration plainly: “Ideally, it should all be either in Meltwater or it should all be in Sprinklr, but we use it only for listening.”
Care is the job that moves furthest from marketing. Sprinklr stands apart here: it is the one tool buyers describe running as a contact-center platform, handling chat, messaging and cases, and a few companies keep it for care while moving listening elsewhere.
Social media management
Publishing, scheduling, replying and reporting for a brand's own accounts, from tools such as Sprout Social, Hootsuite and Dash Hudson.
Social listening
Monitoring mentions, sentiment and share of voice for a brand and its competitors across social and the wider web, from tools such as Brandwatch, Meltwater and Talkwalker.
Social customer care
Handling complaints and questions in social channels as service cases, often by a care team in software built for the contact center.
Who uses social media management software?
Often a different person from the one overseeing its purchase. In these interviews the person overseeing it is typically a marketing, digital or ecommerce leader, and in many companies a separate social team runs the tool — “I don't use Sprinklr. Our social media team does,” as one puts it. Communications and PR teams co-own it at some companies, customer-care teams at others, and at a number of companies an agency runs it entirely: “we had an agency who we hired to do all that hands-on work.”
The tier follows company size. Among interviewed companies using an enterprise suite such as Sprinklr or Emplifi, about three-quarters have more than a billion dollars in revenue, against fewer than half of all interviewed companies; mid-market platforms such as Sprout Social and Hootsuite are spread across every size; low-cost schedulers such as Later and Buffer sit mostly at smaller companies. Very few companies run two publishing tools.
What do companies use social media management software for?
Three core jobs, then a longer tail. Among companies that describe what they use it for, publishing, reporting and listening appear about equally often, ahead of these:
- Publishing and scheduling
- Reporting and analytics
- Social listening
- Social customer care
- Governance across brands, regions, locations and agencies
Influencer work, paid social and employee advocacy are smaller, separate jobs.
Publishing and scheduling
Planning, scheduling and posting across networks, with the unified inbox for comments and messages close behind.
One buyer on the inbox: “The unified smart inbox of Sprout Social is great, as we get all the messages, comments, and mentions from all the connected social channels into one inbox.”
Reporting and analytics
Engagement, reach and follower growth across accounts, which buyers say is often only part of the picture: one team reports “we're finding that we have to do about 50% of our reporting through the native Meta apps now.”
Social listening
Mentions, sentiment and share of voice for the brand and its competitors, often read by communications as much as marketing.
As one buyer describes it: “It gives brand sentiment for us and competitors where we can see volume of social online mentions.”
Social customer care
A care team working the social queue, sometimes inside the same tool as marketing: “our customer care team is also in that tool responding to comments.”
Governance across brands, regions, locations and agencies
Approvals and brand control where many hands post — franchisees, hotels, regional teams. One franchise system's tool “gives the franchisees the ability to post local content, but in a controlled brand environment.”
Adoption is the test. A hotel group found local marketers bypassing its central tool; after switching platforms, “we were getting maybe 50% posting through there versus on native apps. Now we're closer to 80 to 90%.”
Buyers describe uneven experiences with AI. Some use or report access to features such as post writing, content grading, suggested posts and automated replies, while others say their platforms lack the AI they want — a complaint spread across vendors, put most sharply by one daily user of an enterprise suite: “I would leave tomorrow for a tool that had better AI incorporation.” A smaller group reports reliability problems with automated features; one consumer brand piloted automated replies and then, after an incident, “there was a situation where I had to on a Sunday just cold turkey end everything.”
Which social media management tools do companies use?
Sprout Social, Sprinklr and Hootsuite are named most. Buyers rate Sprout Social 7.4, Hootsuite 7.2 and Sprinklr 7.0, with Dash Hudson around 8 and Meltwater around 7; the full ratings table, with what buyers pay for each, is on what social media buyers actually pay.
Publishing and engagement
Sprout Social · Hootsuite · Sprinklr · Dash Hudson · Emplifi · Later · Buffer · HubSpot
Listening and local
Brandwatch · Meltwater · Talkwalker · SOCi · Yext
Some companies use their marketing automation platform's social tools instead, and others post only through the platforms' own tools. Local-listing platforms such as SOCi and Yext cover social for franchise, hospitality and multi-location businesses, where posting is tied to each location's listing.
What does social media management cost, and how do buyers judge it?
Cost is the complaint buyers raise most, and proving the value of social is the harder problem behind it. No prices are published here.
Buyers describe paying by seat, by channel, by listening topic and for modules they do not use; how those add up, and how renewals go, is covered on what social media buyers actually pay. Behind the price is a measurement problem. Engagement is the metric buyers name most, ahead of reach, follower growth and sentiment, and only a minority tie social to conversions or bookings — “the biggest problem for us on social is we haven't figured out how to monetize it,” one says. Reporting weakness and inaccurate listening come next after cost among the complaints.
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Start with which of the three jobs you need, and who will do them. A brand with a few accounts and one person posting may manage with the platforms' own tools; a company with many accounts, locations, approvers or a care team answering in social channels is where a dedicated tool earns its cost.
Three things follow from the interviews; the recommendations are ours, not practices buyers describe. First, let the team that will run the tool — the social team, the care team or the agency — shape the choice, since the person overseeing the purchase is so often not the daily user. Second, decide up front whether listening and care belong in the same tool as publishing, rather than discovering the split after signing. Third, test the reporting against the native platforms during the trial, because several buyers find they still report from the native apps.
For where buyers go next, see Hootsuite alternatives; head to head, Hootsuite vs. Sprout Social and Sprout Social vs. Sprinklr; for the creator side of social, what is influencer marketing software.
Common questions
What is social media management software?
Social media management software lets a brand publish, schedule, reply to and report on its social accounts from one place, and many platforms add social listening and social customer care. In buyer interviews the tools most named are Sprout Social, Sprinklr and Hootsuite, followed by Dash Hudson, Meltwater and Brandwatch.
What is the difference between social media management and social listening?
Social media management runs a brand's own accounts: publishing, scheduling, replying and reporting. Social listening monitors what people say about a brand and its competitors across social channels and the wider web, including volume and sentiment. Many suites do both, but a minority of companies in these interviews buy listening from a second vendor, such as Meltwater beside Sprout Social.
What do companies use social media management software for?
Three core jobs appear about equally often: publishing and scheduling, reporting and analytics, and social listening. Smaller groups use it for social customer care, for governing posts across brands, regions, locations and agencies, and for influencer work.
Which social media management tools do companies use?
Sprout Social, Sprinklr and Hootsuite are named most. Enterprise suites such as Sprinklr and Emplifi are used mostly by companies over a billion dollars in revenue, mid-market platforms such as Sprout Social, Hootsuite and Dash Hudson across every size, and low-cost schedulers such as Later and Buffer mostly by smaller companies. Very few companies run two publishing tools.
Who uses social media management software?
Often a different person from the one overseeing its purchase. In these interviews a marketing, digital or ecommerce leader often oversees the tool, while a separate social team runs it day to day; communications and customer-care teams co-own it at some companies, and at others an agency runs it.
Do social media management tools use AI?
Increasingly, though experiences are uneven. Some buyers use or have access to AI post writing, content grading, suggested posts and automated replies in their social tools, and some use general assistants alongside them. Others say their platform lacks the AI they want, a complaint spread across vendors, and a smaller group reports reliability problems, including one company that switched off AI replies after an incident.
Do you need a social media management tool, or can you post natively?
Some companies manage without one. A small number in these interviews moved from a third-party tool to posting natively on the platforms, and several say their tool still sends them back to the native apps for some features or reporting. Our view, not a buyer finding, is that the case for a tool is strongest where many accounts, locations, approvers or a care team share the work.
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