When it comes to successful social media practices and platforms for the commercial painting industry, professionals have a lot of decisions to make. From defining their target audience and demographics to identifying platforms that will help them reach their customer base, there are a ton of factors to consider when creating a strategic social media plan.
For better engagement and customer interaction on social platforms, those in the commercial painting industry need to be consistent and responsive. However, we realize that consistency and responsiveness can be challenging, especially during the busy painting season. This is why we’ve made a list of recommended social media managers to help you stay on track and in front of your customers around the clock.
At the CPIA, we understand that while social media might not be on the top of everyone’s to-do list, it is important to ensure constant engagement with your customers, future clients and even potential employees. Social media is great for all of those things and more. In addition, the various platforms work even better when you have the tools and right management systems to review analytics, advertisement options and ensure that your brand is maintaining consistency.
While there are a variety of platform management options, each option certainly provides its own unique properties and might suit certain companies better than another. Review the list below and if you’re not currently using a social media management platform, consider something that you might want to try. If your company is currently using a social manager, consider how some of these other options could work to streamline and advance your company’s current goals.
OUR TOP 8
Following is a collection of what we believe are the top social media managers for the commercial painting industry:
Hootsuite helps with basic organization, like scheduling social posts, as well as large-scale monitoring and ROI data. By putting all customer conversations into one easily navigable space, the software allows users to find and apply social media analytics for highest customer satisfaction. Plan prices vary, with a team costing $129/month and a business costing $739/month.
Social Pilot works to schedule and publish content on a variety of social media platforms. While the platform has the ability to schedule and customize posts with a variety of media, it also provides a calendar view, giving you a macro and micro version of your social media strategy and execution. Social Pilot also provides users with insights and data needed to continuously improve and develop your social media goals and audience engagement. Plans vary and are available as “Professional,” “Studio” and “Agency” accounts, costing $29.75/month, $63.75/month and $127.50/month, respectively.
Sendible puts all social channels and audiences into one database, but it also focuses heavily on branding. They work with Canva to provide users with built-in design editing and new graphic designing capabilities. For a growing agency, Sendible charges $199/month. For a business, the company charges $399/month.
MeetEdgar's scheduling site is specifically designed for freelancers and small companies. While it offers typical scheduling, the company has users create a library of evergreen content that the software can automatically pull from so that planning and scheduling posts is no longer manual. For example, you can request that the software post podcast promos every Wednesday, and the site will automatically pull and post podcast-related content from the library you upload. For 5 social accounts, MeetEdgar charges $24.91/month. For 25 social accounts, the company charges $41.58/month.
Sprout Social is an analytic and scheduling site. It allows users to schedule out posts, analyzes social media decisions, organizes data to inform users of the next best decision, and offers social listening for marketing strategy. This software seems to be more so designed for big businesses. The site charges $149/month for the Professional package, and it charges $249/month for its Advanced package.
Buffer is another social media scheduler with social media performance metrics and social listening features available for market strategy. The software also allows multiple users to collaborate on social media campaigns, and has users create “Start Pages” that are tailored to a specific audience to drive more traffic to a site. The Team package charges $10/month, while the Agency package is $100/month.
Agora Pulse offers social post scheduling and social media reporting, but it focuses more heavily on competitor analysis. The software also has messaging and inbox tools so other team activities can be done in the same place to ensure all information is collected and automatically organized. For a smaller package, the site charges $79/month. For a large package, the site charges $199/month, with additional customizable price options available.
CoSchedule is more focused on organizing social media platforms, users, and marketing content so it’s all in one, cohesive location. It’s designed as a calendar to break down various aspects of marketing data and analytics into more digestible bits of information. Additionally, users can include content and events in the calendar that might be useful for future social campaigns. The Marketing Calendar Prof is $29/month, while the Business package has no set price and can be negotiated with a salesperson.
