CHECKLIST How to Compare Social Software Platforms. Introduction Contents Solving social use cases today requires a variety of key capabilities. I. Content Planning & Publishing Amidst all the fancy pictures and hopeful promises, what technology capabilities do brands need to enable their success? II. Moderation Whether brands focus today in one key area (such as publishing across multiple channels), or more complex (such as integrating owned and III. Audiences & Onsite earned) this checklist covers the breadth of social needs. It is organized Engagement into sections to identify with your critical goals. But, each section’s capabilities should actually be inter-connected in the platform–built from one code base–to have all of social in one place. IV. Paid Advertising No matter what requirements are burning today, they will only continue to grow. Social use cases are becoming more advanced V. Listening & Visualization and spreading throughout the organization. When you invest in a social platform, it should easily scale as your needs and social maturity advance. VI. Reporting & Analytics VII. Additional a. Security & Governance b. Mobile c. Global scale & Internationalization d. Social Channels e. Integrations 1 I. Content Planning & Publishing Organize and distribute relevant content for the most impactful audience, time, and channel. Publishing τ Research and track current trends, events, weather, sports events, and more from a single view to Instantly draft, schedule, and publish content to τ inspire real-time content over 20 social channels, including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Sina Weibo, and VK τ Discover user-generated content, top contributors and assets with the highest engagement, likes/ Publish a post to multiple social channels at once τ favorites, reuse and reach or at different scheduled times Request customer approvals on user-generated Publish content to specific audience profiles τ τ content and track that status τ Categorize messages with structured content labels τ Recommend top-performing organic content to be τ Auto-tag outbound messages according to content turned into ads properties τ Group assets, content and relevent social content τ Employ built-in link shortening such as bit.ly, awe. to serve as inspiration for teams planning or sm, po.st, and spr.ly creating content for a campaign τ Automate publishing from pre-approved RSS feeds τ Collaborate across teams on new suggested content τ Target with extensive Facebook and Twitter criteria, including geo-targeting and geo-limiting capabilities Content Management τ Collaborate as well as standardize workflow and τ Store photos, videos, links, posts, text, documents tasks for efficient content production and approvals and files τ Search an organized library of digital assets in a Calendar Planning folder, grid or list view τ Comprehensively view campaigns, tasks, events, τ Measure the performance of an asset overall, and messages by channel, date, or status including nested regional variations τ View past, present and future messages by drafts, τ Edit images on the fly with the ability to crop, add approvals, scheduled, and/or sent classifications filters, and captions τ Filter content by social channel(s), account(s), τ Source assets from stock photography, like Getty campaign(s), contributor(s), message type, or Images, Shutterstock, and Giphy custom options τ Program embargo and expiration dates τ Suggest new content for a specific date or campaign τ Surface popular assets with their corresponding usage, labels and metrics τ Share the calendar with other users or export to iCal, excel, or pdf τ Share well-performing content with other teams or agencies τ View multichannel marketing campaign planning in one place (i.e. social, advertising, PR, web, email) τ Create vanity URLs Content Planning τ Align teams on campaign goals and guidelines by creating and sharing briefs τ Suggest new content between peers, corporate teams and business units 2 II. Moderation Easily moderate high volumes of daily conversations and personalize engaging messages. Moderation Reporting and SLAs τ Monitor and filter incoming social conversations τ Track, measure, and optimize team’s goals and SLAs through moderation dashboards τ Drill into conversations directly from reporting Color code inbound messages for visual τ Filter by response time, resolution, queue categorization τ processing time, user reporting and more τ Filter inbound messages by keyword, status, sentiment, channel, or priority level τ Automatically tag, route, and assign inbound messages based on sentiment, influence and keywords τ Triage messages and expedite turnaround times with sophisticated rules and macros τ Process messages in bulk, even across channels and accounts τ Instantly access user profiles and conversations for contextual engagement τ Email, translate or archive any message τ Establish selective email alerts for messages Real-time Response Collaboration τ Assign messages to team members for response τ Communicate through internal notes on any message or piece of content τ Share monitoring dashboards with other team members τ View and update one single profile of each customer, along with historical conversations and internal notes, for consistent customer communication Case Management τ Group multiple inbound messages into designated and trackable cases τ Automatically assign unique IDs to each case τ Add collaborators to cases with the ability to share internal comments τ Track the status of each case 3 V. Audiences & Onsite Engagement Deeply understand, support, and activate social audiences and deliver rich onsite experiences. Audience Management Influencer Management τ Uniquely label different audience segments and τ Identify new influencers based on listening influencers τ Add depth to influencer profiles based on what τ Aggregate consumer data, interests and past audiences say to their networks interactions into one unified profile τ Learn context of influencers and fans from τ Attach profile icons to visually identify consumer sentiment, intent, emotion and mood segments τ Tag profiles with information based on a customer’s CRM Integration social interaction with the brand τ Integrate with CRM Platforms such as Salesforce τ View message sentiment to easily identify Integrate with marketing automation tools such promoters and detractors τ as Marketo τ View the full engagement history that audiences have with the brand Reporting τ Group social profiles into specific audience segments and custom audiences τ Create customized, visual reporting and analytics dashboards across various segments τ Process customer databases to automatically update custom audiences τ Utilize Message Scorecards to quickly evaluate Engagement, Reach, and Activity across τ Identify, translate or filter over 65 languages to various messages engage with global audiences τ Automatically add users to audience segments based on any criteria Advocacy τ Implement a complete advocate influencer program τ Identify and recruit specific groups of highly engaged fans τ Measure advocacy campaign impact, feedback, and recommendations in real-time 4 IV. Paid Advertising Manage campaigns cohesively and optimize advertising budgets. Link Value Between Paid, Owned, and Earned τ Automatically optimize or amplify content based on Media a flexible set of rules in real time τ Automatically turn organic posts to ads based on τ Send notifications, adjust budgets, pause or delete performance ads and more based on any number of conditions, including impressions, click through rates, cost per Instantly target customer segments, including τ click, etc.. custom audience lists, for native ads View dark or unpublished post comments on τ Collaboration, Workflow, and Governance monitoring dashboards Apply campaign naming convention settings to Adjust ads, creative, and initiatives on the fly τ τ eliminate user error and maintain consistency Map a customer’s entire journey on and offline to τ Manage permissions for individuals and groups, identify conversion areas τ including access to ad accounts to manage and τ Plan spend based on an integrated marketing organize spend strategy, boosting scheduled content from a shared View, review, or comment on campaigns via global calendar τ desktop and mobile τ Manage flexible approval workflows for both Create and Target Paid Ads internal and agency users τ Create Twitter paid promotions: promoted posts, τ Track account activity with comprehensive promoted tweets, and promoted accounts audit trails τ Target advanced Twitter ads based on demographic, location, device, etc. Reporting and Insights τ Create Facebook paid promotions: boosted posts τ Leverage global data from across your social τ Target advanced Facebook ads based on custom accounts, combined with real-time ad performance audiences, lookalike audiences, FBX and retargeting, reporting and partner categories τ Enable clients and agency partners to login and τ Identify and target specific times and days of the review results week most likely to drive results τ Allow teams to collaborate and discuss ad τ Process first party data to automatically update performance from within the platform custom audiences τ Align the structure for targeting and categorizing τ Build ad creative variations to test responses custom social audiences with a legacy database, CRM systems, and marketing automation tools τ Easily attach ad creative and targeting lists from a central asset manager τ Analyze how paid media effects brand metrics vs. competitors τ Clone ads