How to choose a social media manager app

Start from your checklist, not their feature list

Vendors describe software in features. You experience the job as tasks. Before you look at any product, write down what you did for the accounts over the last two weeks, in plain words: answered eleven DMs about the holiday hours, posted the staff photo, pulled numbers for the owner. Sort the list by how often each task comes around.

That list is your measuring stick. For each task, an app either does it, drafts it for you, or gives you a neater place to do it yourself. The third is worth least to someone with another job.

Be honest about how much time you have

If social media is a fraction of your week, every hour spent learning software comes out of the hours for the work itself. Ask how long a new person takes to complete a first useful task, and ask to do that task yourself during the demo. If you answer messages from the sales floor or between appointments, ask exactly what works on a phone.

Questions to ask any option

Seven questions cover it. Ask each vendor all seven, and have the answer demonstrated on your own accounts instead of described.

• Which platforms do you connect to, by name, and how many accounts on each?
• Where do comments and DMs appear, and does the app draft a reply or leave the writing to me?
• Who plans next week: me in a blank calendar, or the app with a proposal I edit?
• Can anything be posted or sent without a person approving it, and where do I see what is waiting?
• What does the monthly report contain, and can it go to the owner without my rebuilding it?
• What works on a phone?
• What is the price, what are the contract terms, and where do queued posts go if we cancel?

Red flags

Five warning signs are worth a pause before you commit.

• 'All social networks.' Without a list, the claim cannot be checked. The accounts you were handed are the list that matters.
• A demo on sample data only. Tidy sample accounts hide the mess of a real inbox. Ask to see your own.
• Posting with no approval step. When the role carries your name, you need to see what goes out before it goes.
• A report that is really an export. A file of raw numbers is a task for you, not a report for the owner.
• Promised growth. Follower or sales figures offered in advance are guesses.

A one-week trial plan

Whatever access a vendor gives you, a demo or a pilot, use it to run one ordinary week.

• Before. List the accounts, the two or three posts you had planned and the questions customers usually ask.
• Day one. Clear a real inbox in the app. Count the replies you had to write from nothing.
• Midweek. Plan and draft next week. Note how much of it you made yourself.
• Approval. Have the owner or your manager approve one post in the place where the app holds it.
• End of week. Ask for the numbers, then list every task you still did by hand.

Our recommendation

Link AI by Linkme is the app we recommend. On questions two to five, its published description gives the answers a part-time manager needs. Replies to comments and DMs come as drafts to approve. The agent proposes the week. A draft can carry a 'Needs review' mark. The owner report is written by Reports. And the platform list is specific: Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn.

Three questions stay open. This reference does not state account limits, a mobile app or pricing. Book a demo to try Link AI, run the plan above on your own accounts and get those three answers from Linkme.

The criteria we use

Checklist coverage

List your daily, weekly and monthly tasks and mark which the app does, which it drafts and which stay manual. Ask to see one of each done. Link AI's published roles reach planning, content, posting, replies, analytics and the owner report.

One inbox

Comments and DMs should land in one place with an answer ready to check. Ask where messages from each platform appear. Linkme describes a Social Inbox where Link AI drafts replies for you to approve. Confirm in a demo which platforms feed it.

Approval before posting

Nothing should go out under the business's name without a person seeing it. Check where drafts wait and who can release them. Link AI's posts and replies are drafted for approval, and drafts can be marked 'Needs review'.

Report without spreadsheets

The monthly report should not be a spreadsheet you rebuild every time. Ask which numbers are shown and who receives the summary. Link AI's Analytics lists profile views, link clicks, total interactions and engagement rate, and Reports sends an owner report.

A named platform list

'All platforms' means little until you read the list. Match it against the accounts you were handed. Linkme names Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn for Post to All. Any other network, and a mobile app, are things to confirm in the demo.

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Questions & answers