I've been using the Social Marketing Tool for about 8 or 9 years, and I've seen many improvements (good improvements) made in that time. I've been requesting a specific set of improvements for the past five years, and have never received any communication from Vendasta as to whether, or not, these improvements are even being considered.

The improvements I'd like to see are in (2) major areas:

1) Most of my clientele are in the restaurant or service-related industries (like mechanics, Carpet Cleaners, etc...) and about 70 to 80% of their monthly posts are repetitive. For instance, a restaurant will post the same daily specials every Monday through Thursday, or a post that tells people their hours & location once every week. I do a good job of periodically changing up the picture or image that accompanies these posts, but basically it's the same information being posted every week and/or month. If I'm posting twice a day for a customer, (approx. 60 posts a month) and 75% of their posts are repetitive, that's 45 repetitive posts that I'm having to MANUALLY post every month. It's time consuming, and limits how much time I can spend growing my business, stopping to visit current clients, etc...

My MAIN request for an improvement is adding a function to automate repetitive posts. Basically I want to be able to designate a series of photos (and corresponding captions), like Daily Specials, to automatically post every Monday at 4pm, or every Wednesday at 10:30am, etc... This would eliminate 70% (or more) of the time I spend creating and scheduling posts for my clients. For an example of how this could work, see Google Calendar UI on creating repetitive events.

2) The second improvement is also related to efficiency, but just in a different way. I currently have a few clients who are growing and adding new locations. None of them have gotten beyond 5 locations yet, but I dread the day they do, because the Social Marketing Tool caps the number of Facebook pages, Google My Business pages, Instagram pages, Twitter Pages, and LinkedIn pages that you can post to. Currently, to be able to post content for a client with more than 5 locations, I would have to purchase (2) Social Marketing packages. I understand that there are API limitations, and I also understand that Vendasta has to make money. I don't mind paying more to be able to post to more social channels per customer. What I do dread is the MANUAL duplication of work I would have to accomplish every month for those clients. It's everything I mentioned in the first improvement, times two, three, or four depending on how many locations a customer has.

There has got to be a way to "save" the entire Social Media Schedule (including images and captions) from one Social Marketing Tool account, and transferring all of it to use on a second Social Marketing Tool account. Electronically duplicating the work, then going in and making a few tweeks and edits afterward, is far more efficient than just manually doing it again.

CONCLUSION:

I have seen both of these features demonstrated in other Content Management Platforms, and for cheaper then Vendasta charges. To Vendasta's credit, none of the other platforms I've researched or demoed, have had the full suite of programs and partners that Vendasta does. I can still currently offer more programs and services with Vendasta then those other programs offer, but the Social Marketing Tool is the flagship product that I offer my clients and use the most on their behalf. The inefficiencies I've outlined above are a serious drain on my time every month, and since time is money, it's also costing money in time wasted and sales opportunities missed because I don't have as much time to prospect for new clients.

I love using Vendasta, and I want to remain as a customer, but as a time and money-conscience business owner, I NEED to know (one way or the other) if Vendasta is EVER going to implement any of these improvements. I've been requesting these changes for five years and have never been given an answer. I do consider "NO" to be an acceptable answer from Vendasta. I would at least know where I stood, and I could make an informed decision for the sake of my company and my clients.