What is a content management software?
A content management software (CMS) helps users create and manage digital content, like social media posts, landing pages or blogs.
It provides simple tools for writing, formatting, and organizing content, along with features to schedule posts, manage media like photos and videos, and optimize content for search engines and social platforms. Plus, it also helps teams collaborate by handling approvals and workflows.
Typical features of content management software
From creating articles and pages to collaborating with teams and scheduling posts, CMS platforms offer a wide range of features that help streamline the entire content creation and management process.
Below are the key features of content management software:
- Content creation and editing tools
- Content organization and categorization
- Content workflow and collaboration
- Analytics and reporting
- Content scheduling and publishing
1. Content creation and editing tools
One of the core features of a content management system is its content creation and editing tools. These tools allow users to write and format text, add images or videos, and easily edit or update existing content.
One of the core features of a content management system is its content creation and editing tools. These tools allow users to write and format text, add images or videos, and easily edit or update existing content.
Users can create content with just a few clicks, and the interface often includes drag-and-drop functionality for effortless media insertion. This user-friendly approach eliminates the need for coding, making it accessible even for those without web development expertise. This applies mainly to web content-focused CMS platforms like WordPress and Adobe Experience Manager.
In contrast, social media management tools like SocialBee and StoryChief emphasize the creation, scheduling, and automation of social media posts across multiple platforms, catering to businesses looking to streamline their content for social platforms.
In some cases, businesses may choose a headless CMS platform, which separates the content management from the website’s design. This gives developers more flexibility to customize the website while still making content easy to manage.
2. Content organization and categorization
Content management tools, whether for websites, blogs, or social media, offer various methods to keep your content organized. You can categorize posts, use tags for easy searching, or group related content into folders. This structure helps you efficiently manage content, from web pages and articles to social media posts and marketing campaigns.
For larger websites or busy social media channels, having a clear organization system is essential. Without it, managing hundreds of posts or pages can quickly become overwhelming.
Effective organization is not just about keeping your workflow tidy—it’s also crucial for visibility. Categorizing content properly can improve search engine optimization (SEO) for websites, ensuring your site or posts are indexed correctly. For social media, organizing by categories or campaign themes can help track performance more efficiently and maintain a consistent brand message across platforms.
3. Content workflow and collaboration
For businesses and teams managing a high volume of content, collaboration is key. Many tools offer features that streamline workflows, allowing multiple users to contribute while maintaining role-based permissions, like authors, editors, and administrators. This keeps the content approval process smooth, as everyone knows their role in moving content from draft to final publication.
Some tools even offer real-time collaboration features, which are especially useful for social media teams or content marketing groups working on fast-paced projects. Additionally, version control ensures that previous drafts are saved, so any changes can be reverted if necessary—this is especially important when several team members are working on the same content.
For social media, collaboration features might include tools to assign tasks or approval workflows for posts before they go live. Whether you’re handling a blog, a corporate website, or social media, workflow tools ensure your team stays on track and errors are minimized.
4. Analytics and reporting
Understanding how your content performs is critical to refining your strategy, and most tools come with built-in analytics features. These can track various metrics across different types of content, offering insights into:
- Website traffic: Get an overview of how many visitors your content attracts and where they’re coming from.
- User behavior: Understand how audiences interact with your site or posts, identifying the most visited pages or content that leads to high engagement on social media.
- Engagement metrics: For social media tools, track the likes, shares, comments, and follower growth to see which types of content resonate most with your audience.
- Bounce rate: On websites, track how long users stay and which pages they leave quickly, helping you adjust your content to improve retention.
- Conversions: Monitor key actions like form submissions, downloads, purchases, or sign-ups, providing insight into how well your content drives the desired outcomes.
5. Content scheduling and publishing
One of the most useful features of modern content management tools is the ability to schedule posts in advance. Whether you’re managing a blog, website updates, or a packed social media calendar, scheduling allows you to maintain a consistent flow without having to manually publish content in real-time.
For social media, scheduling tools are invaluable, as they enable you to queue posts across multiple platforms, ensuring content is released at peak times for maximum engagement. This feature is particularly beneficial for businesses juggling multiple platforms or needing to manage time-sensitive campaigns.
For websites, scheduling ensures that blog posts, articles, or product updates go live when needed, even if your team isn’t available to push the content manually. Most tools also allow for quick edits or updates to published content, so if something needs to be adjusted, it’s just a few clicks away.
In both cases, having the ability to schedule posts and updates helps keep your audience engaged with fresh content, reduces the need for constant manual intervention, and ensures you stay on top of your content strategy, no matter how busy things get.
Top 5 content management tools to use in 2024
Managing content efficiently is crucial for any business or individual looking to maintain a strong online presence. Whether you’re working with social media, blogs, or e-commerce, having the right content management system or tool can make all the difference in streamlining your workflow and keeping your audience engaged.
Here are the best 5 content management tools to use in 2024:
- SocialBee
- StoryChief
- HubSpot
- Adobe Experience Manager
- WordPress
1. SocialBee
SocialBee is a highly-rated tool designed to simplify social media management for small businesses, entrepreneurs, and marketers. It allows users to effortlessly create, organize, and schedule content across multiple platforms, making it an essential tool for managing all aspects of social media campaigns from one centralized dashboard.
With SocialBee, users can plan content in advance, track performance, collaborate with your team and manage interactions across various social media channels. Its intuitive interface makes it easy to navigate and reduces the complexity of handling multiple accounts at once.
Users like Tye Threats, founder of WTV Consulting, find SocialBee particularly beneficial for handling multiple social media platforms efficiently. She mentions “SocialBee is a great all-in-one solution for social media management, especially for startups and agencies. I love that it offers competitive pricing while providing all the essential tools: analytics, automatic posting, AI features, and more. It streamlines the entire process of managing social media accounts, saving time and effort. The comprehensive nature of the platform, combined with its affordability, makes it a standout choice for efficiently handling social media presence.”
Key features of SocialBee:
- Supported social platforms: Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), LinkedIn, Instagram, Threads, Pinterest, Google Business Profile, TikTok, YouTube, and Bluesky.
- Universal posting: Schedule content even on platforms that aren’t directly integrated with SocialBee, like Facebook Groups, Reddit, WhatsApp, Telegram, Mastodon, and Quora.
- Design integrations: Create visually engaging posts using Canva directly within SocialBee.
- AI content generator: Automatically generate captions and images for your posts using AI-powered tools.
- AI assistant (Copilot): Get personalized strategy recommendations with the AI social media assistant to optimize your content planning.
- Best posting times: SocialBee analyzes past content performance to suggest the best times to post, helping you reach your audience when they are most active, which can lead to higher engagement and visibility.
- Platform-specific customization: Tailor posts for each platform’s unique style or use AI for automatic adjustments.
- RSS feed integration: Automatically import content from your favorite blogs to keep your content pipeline fresh.
- Team collaboration: Assign roles, provide feedback, and manage post approvals seamlessly.
- In-depth analytics: Track performance and generate detailed reports with insights into engagement, reach, impressions, and other key metrics.
- Social inbox: Manage comments, mentions, and DMs in real time, keeping you connected with your audience.
- Content categories: Organize content into categories to manage and recycle evergreen posts, ensuring continuous engagement.
- Content rescheduling: Automatically reschedule your top-performing posts to maximize exposure and keep your content pipeline fresh.
Best for:
SocialBee is ideal for startups and small businesses looking for an all-in-one social media scheduling tool. With its AI-powered features for content planning, design, and performance tracking, it caters to those who need efficiency and consistency in their social media efforts.
Unique feature:
SocialBee’s Universal Posting feature allows you to schedule content for platforms that aren’t directly integrated, providing comprehensive social media coverage across both mainstream and niche platforms.
Pros:
- Affordable and flexible pricing plans
- Comprehensive social media management features
- Responsive customer support with regular updates
- Users have access to the roadmap and can suggest or vote new features
Cons:
- Slight learning curve initially
- No hashtag analytics
- No link-in-bio tools
G2 rating:
4.8/5 stars (based on 429 reviews)
Pricing:
Starts at $29/month
Free trial:
Yes, SocialBee offers a 14-day free trial.
Essential features checklist:
✅ Multi-platform integrations
✅ Content creation and editing (text and visual)
✅ AI content generation
✅ Content curation tools
✅ Visual content calendar
✅ Post scheduling and publishing
✅ Team collaboration and management
✅ Social inbox
✅ Social listening
✅ Social analytics and reporting
❌ Multi-language support
