With so many social media sites to manage, it’s almost impossible to run a decent social marketing campaign online without a dashboard of some sort. But what are the pros and cons of using these dashboards, and do they really make a difference to your social strategy? Let’s examine the evidence.
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The Pros of Social Media Dashboards
It’s essential in this wild, untamed social landscape to be able to unify your goals, under one solid social plan. This is the reason why social dashboards were created. Here are some of the reasons why having a social dashboard is an excellent idea.
#1: Managing The Big Sites
Most social dashboards will integrate with your Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, blog and Youtube accounts – which is great news if you post on these all the time. They allow you to manage your efforts, while keeping track of the comments that pour in.
#2: Managing The Little Sites
There are a few social dashboards that allow for a fair amount of customization – for example, if you’re a photographer, and your main social site is Flickr. Add the ‘smaller’ sites into your social dashboard, and manage them from a central location.
#3: Tracking and Measuring
The key reason why all of the big marketers have one or more social dashboards, is that they automatically monitor, track and measure your sites. Then they conveniently display these results in the form of graphs, charts and data. Use this data to tweak your campaigns and improve your overall strategy.
#4: Team Building and Collaboration
If more than one person manages your social sites, a social dashboard is a great way to keep track of what each individual has done. Using custom logins, these people can go about their business, with set tasks and without the fear of doing something another team member has already done.
#5: Manage Multiple Accounts
One social media campaign is tough enough to manage, but when you have three or four, things can get out of control. Certain social media dashboards allow the separation and integration of multiple accounts and multiple campaigns, which makes things a lot easier to manage, track and adjust.
The Cons of Social Dashboards
And now, for the not so nice side of using social dashboards.
#1: Finding The Right One
Everyone’s needs are different, and unfortunately – so are the social dashboards. You’ll need to investigate each one carefully before you decide to buy it, or even use it. Choosing the wrong one could end in a lot of hours wasted. On the bright side, there are a lot of trial periods up for grabs.
#2: Finding The Right Five
You’ll often find that the best social dashboards are specialized – meaning it’s really good, but it only manages and tracks your Twitter account, for example. Having more than one social dashboard is time consuming, and time in social media is everything.
#3: The Little Issues
Each social dashboard has its problems, and you need to decide whether you can live with them. Some don’t properly integrate with API software, some time-out if you don’t use them for a while. The trick is to always be on the look out for something better, newer – with more features.
The best social dashboards are still Hootsuite, Argyle Social and Spredfast. Which social media dashboard is your favorite and why? Tell us below!
