Why Dedicated Talent Management Platforms Outshine Traditional Tools

In today’s creator economy, talent managers find themselves overburdened with paperwork leaving them with less time to focus on what they do best - growing outstanding talent. 

Traditional tools like spreadsheets and basic project management software can no longer cut it.

Influencer management has become more complex than before and is no longer about finding creators with huge fan followings, embedding brand content on their feeds, and waiting for results.  Campaigns have to be frequently optimized and brand ambassadors/ influencers who are the face of the campaigns must be continuously engaged, monitored, and supported to ensure alignment with brand goals and messaging. 

This requires a more sophisticated approach to talent management, leveraging a dedicated talent management platform to streamline operations, track performance metrics, and foster stronger relationships between brands and their influencers.

Why does all this matter? It matters because around 76% of local brands use social media as a part of their marketing strategy and 41% of them rely on social media to help drive up revenue.

Furthermore, social media platforms frequently add new features to engage users, and the number of influencers and content creators is increasing alarmingly. This means that talent managers looking to manage their roster of growing creators can no longer use traditional tools of the trade. They require a dedicated talent management platform to cut through the administrative inefficiencies and bottlenecks that plague traditional tools of the trade.

Why Dedicated Talent Management Platform over Traditional Tools for Influencer Management?

Managing influencers was a foreign concept in the early days of social media. Earlier influencers went about posting sponsored content without a proper plan and this yielded less favourable results for the brands they had partnered with.

But fast-forward to 2024, and both talent managers and brands have realised that a dedicated talent management platform is essential for optimal campaign management and guaranteeing results.

Overview of Traditional Tools

In the early years of social media, talent managers used basic tools to manage their talent roster. Here are some traditional tools used by them: 

• Spreadsheets: Listing influencer details and campaigns in spreadsheets can be a hectic task. However, this will not provide a comprehensive view of the marketing strategy. 
• Manual Contracts: Signing agreements with influencers was done on manual contracts, which was time-consuming and less effective. 
• Basic project management: General project management software is not designed to manage social media influencers and campaigns, which doesn’t solve its purpose. 

Common Challenges Faced by Social Media Managers with Traditional Tools

• Inefficiency—Traditional tools often require time-consuming manual input and updating. Social media managers may spend significant time on repetitive tasks, leading to inefficiency. 
• Scalability Issue—As the number of influencers or campaigns grows, traditional tools can struggle to keep up with the campaign dynamics. While managing a handful of influencers via spreadsheets might be feasible, dealing with dozens or hundreds becomes cumbersome and difficult to scale. 
• Lack of Integration - Traditional tools often operate in silos, meaning they don’t integrate well with other systems or platforms used in social media management. For example, a social media manager might use separate tools for influencer outreach, content scheduling, and analytics, with no easy way to sync data.
• Manual Errors—Relying on manual entry and updating increases the risk of human errors. Mistakes such as incorrect data entry, missed deadlines, or overlooked communications can significantly impact the success of influencer campaigns. 

Talent management Platform: Comprehensive Talent management tool suite

Challenges in managing social media influencers and campaigns need advanced talent management tools and software specifically for influencer management. 

What is a Talent management Platform?

In social media influencer management, a Talent management platform is software designed specifically for managers to find and manage the right creators and influencers for their brand marketing and promotion. They also comprehensively view their influencer campaigns and monitor their performance. 

Instead of scrolling social media to find creators, this talent management platform provides a dedicated space for creators and influencers to showcase their profiles, and social media managers can select them. Talent management platforms, like LinkedIn, are for social media managers and creators. 

Core Talent Management Software Features

1. Centralised Dashboard: Talent management platforms provide a centralized dashboard to manage all your social media marketing campaign activities and their performance. This allows a comprehensive view of all activities and makes it easy to monitor and streamline to get desired results. 
2. Contract and Payment Management: A specific feature for managing contracts and payments for influencers. Instead of having scattered agreements from different sources, this feature will allow you to track and maintain records of contracts. 
3. Campaign Management: Basic project management software doesn’t have specific tools for managing campaign activities. Managing multiple campaigns across different platforms is hectic. Access to these numerous campaigns in one place allows you to track them easily. 
4. Analytics and Reporting: Talent management platforms provide detailed insights and reports on the performance of campaigns, creators, and influencers. You can analyse different metrics to assess the effectiveness of their strategies and make data-driven decisions.
5. Client Collaboration: This feature will save you time and resources if you are a social media marketing agency. You can onboard and interact directly with your clients on the same platform. 
6. Creators and Influencer Management: This tool is specifically designed to help manage relationships with creators and influencers. It includes features for finding, onboarding, and maintaining these relationships, tracking their performance, and managing collaborations.

Key Advantages of Talent Management Platform

Let’s understand what are the benefits of having a talent management platform for social managers: 

Streamlined Operations

• Efficiency: The talent management platform allows you to manage all your social media influencers and campaigns in one place, allowing you to streamline your operations and improve performance efficiency. Rather than scattered operations across multiple platforms
• Scalability: When you can manage multiple influencers and campaigns in one place, you can analyse them better and identify areas for improvement quickly. This will improve the brand's scalability over time. 

Enhanced Collaborations

• Integration: The Talent Management platform allows a social media manager to integrate all their campaign and influencer management performance across multiple platforms, boosting collaborations among clients and creators. 
• Real-time updates: Since everything is integrated and streamlined, social media managers can get real-time updates from all social media channels in one place. 

Data-driven Decision makings

• Advanced Analytics: The talent management platform provides insights into campaign and influencer performance analytics. These will allow you to make decisions based on facts, leading to less uncertainty. 
• Performance Tracking: You can also track your influencer and campaign performance, which gives you insights into where to improve and allows you to make developmental decisions.

Comparing Talent Management Platforms with Traditional Tools

Alternative Modern Talent Management Platform - RosterGrid

RosterGrid is a comprehensive Influencer Talent Management platform that aims to reduce social media managers’ administrative burden. It allows social media managers to build a roster of talented influencers and creators to share with potential clients for their brand promotions. 

RosterGrid aims to centralize the creator talent pool and pitch the best one to your clients. 

It is a one-stop solution for all your social media influencer management needs. It solves all social media managers' challenges, from creating shareable rosters to managing campaign management. 

Core Features of RosterGrid

Effortless Roster Sharing 

RosterGrid has simplified the process of showcasing your talent roster to the world. Their new Instant Public URL feature lets you quickly generate a unique, shareable link highlighting your talent's profiles, skills, and availability.

1. Build Your Roster: Compile your talent's profiles and add them to your RosterGrid account.
2. Generate a Shareable Link: Create a unique URL for your roster with a simple click.
3. Distribute and Promote: Share the URL with potential clients, collaborators, or anyone interested in your talent.

Targeted Talent Lists 

The Lists feature empowers you to create and share curated talent lists with specific clients based on skills, experience, location, and niche criteria. By organising your talents into these targeted lists, you can better match candidates with the right opportunities, increasing the chances of successful placements.

Comprehensive Media Kits 

Media Kits provide a centralised platform for sharing detailed profiles of individual talents. These profiles include key information such as:

• Biography: An overview of the talent's background and experience.
• Expertise: A breakdown of the talent's skills and abilities.
• Portfolio: A display of the talent's work, including project samples.
• Contact Details: Information for reaching out to the talent or their representative.

By offering media kits to potential clients and partners, you can help them make informed decisions and streamline the collaboration process.

Final Thoughts

Talent managers use Traditional tools to manage influencers and marketing campaigns. They tend to be slow and inefficient, leading to poor management. Finding talented influencers is as hard as finding the right candidate for any job. 

Social media is a massive platform for marketers, but relying on outdated tools can hold them back. A talent management platform is all they need to hire influencers and manage their campaigns successfully. It is one common place to streamline operations and monitor tasks. 

RosterGrid is a perfect match for your social media influencer management. They offer effective strategies and resources to achieve your desired results and satisfy your clients. 

Don't wait any longer. Sign in to RosterGrid today and experience the difference.