Social media is playing a big role in our daily lives and has become an important source of information. It is an integral part of marketing campaigns. Many companies are using it to reach their target audience and generate business. A lot of social media sites are there that are actually worth blogging about and also help in generating traffic. But managing every single aspect of them is not simple. That’s why there are some amazing Free Social Media Management Tools that you can use to post on multiple accounts at the same time, schedule posts across different social platforms, increase engagement and much more.
Free social media management software can help brands and marketers streamline the task of managing, measuring and growing their social presence. The most popular tools are usually free, although you may need to upgrade to premium plans for more advanced users. Completely free tools often limit the number of accounts or posts you can make on a daily basis. Unlike paid social media management software that charges a flat fee per month, some free tools charge a set amount per post or task. Although Free Social Media Management Software can be effective, it’s important to consider what your competitors are doing and choose the best tool for your business.
Many people are curious about free social media management tools 2021, however, there are many reasons why you might want to choose a paid social media management tool over a free one. There are also a multitude of competing software on both sides of the fence so it can be very hard to decide which software will work best for you. This article should help make that decision a little easier.
Social media is tough to keep up with, so you need social media management software on your side. Luckily, there are a lot of tools designed to make the process easier. I’ve created a list of the best social media management tools that will make your life a bit easier. You’ll learn about free and paid options, as well as which ones are right for your business.
Tips before you start:
- Plan posts in advance.
- Brainstorm social posts to bring new voices into your social media presence.
- Plan both evergreen and timely posts to delight audiences in the moment while also scheduling perennially relevant posts.
- Keep a running list of relevant hashtags and new ones you could use.
- Plan visual content in advance to make your posts pop.
- Track how your posts are doing and keep engagement metrics on hand.
- TRACK TIME…Track ongoing work so you can set and achieve your goals.
Agora Pulse
Social media management simplified
Prices: Free, $79 per month, $159 per month, plus enterprise options
Description: Like the social media management platforms mentioned above, Agora Pulse is also an all-in-one social media platform with scheduling, responding, and reporting features.
Unique value: Unlike the rest, Agora Pulse has several unique features such as competitor analysis and Facebook contest apps at a very affordable price point.
Sendible
The #1 social media management tool for agencies
Prices: $29, $99, $199, $299 per month, and enterprise pricing (with a 30-day free trial)
Description: Sendible is a social media management tool built specifically for agencies with several clients. On top of most features that social media management tools provide, Sendible allows you to customize your dashboard according to your branding to attract new clients.
Unique value: Sendible has some impressive integrations such as the Canva graphics editor, royalty-free image search, and YouTube search. It also provides some automation for those who want to save time on repetitive tasks.
eClincher
Best in class social media management tool
Prices: $49, $99, $199 per month, and enterprise pricing (with a 14-day free trial)
Description: Like most social media management tools, eClincher allows you to schedule and publish posts, respond to social messages, and analyze your social media performance.
Unique value: What makes eClincher different from other tools is that it enables you to auto-post with smart queues and RSS feeds, has a media library for your images, and lets you search for social media influencers.
YouScan
YouScan provides assistance with social media monitoring, along with social media analytics.
The social media monitoring incorporates image analysis, giving greater insight into how consumers view a company’s product.
YouScan’s primary goal is to help companies learn by listening to their consumers online. They have incorporated artificial intelligence (AI) and natural language processing (NLP) into their software.
YouScan offers four pricing tiers, from Standard ($500 per month) to Ultra ($5000 per month). The differences between the levels mainly reflect the numbers of mentions per topic and the number of rules that can be set per topic. Higher-level plans also offer more insights, APIs, and integrations. All plans include sentiment detection, spam filtering, analytical reports, smart alerts, auto-categories, and trends detection.
GAIN
GAIN helps businesses automate and streamline their content marketing.
GAIN gives you a centralized content command center, where you can create social media content, get client approval, and schedule all in one place. It allows your whole team to collaborate.
You can automate your collaboration and approval workflow. Just define your approval workflow, and GAIN takes it from there. GAIN automatically notifies each team member, client, or stakeholder when he or she has content to review.
Firms can use GAIN for both social media content (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn) and other marketing assets, such as PDFs, Photoshop and Illustrator files, Word and PowerPoint files, videos, text, and images.
GAIN offers all of its services for a flat rate of $20 per user.
Hotjar
Hotjar provides a visual way for companies to understand what their users do on their website and social pages. It makes heat maps of web pages, highlighting the parts that people actually use, click on and scroll.
You can use Hotjar for instant visual feedback. It helps you see how people really use your site. You can also use it to ensure that you make the right changes, and aren’t just altering things in hope.
Hotjar is more than just heat maps, however. It also includes tools relating to visitor recordings, conversion funnels, form analysis, feedback polls, and a way to collect instant visual feedback from your site visitors. You can also use it to create and analyze surveys and to recruit test users from your existing audience.
Hotjar integrates with most web platforms. It works out of the box on any WordPress website – or for that matter, Drupal, Joomla, Shopify, or many other platforms.
Hotjar offers a variety of plans aimed at personal, business, or agency usage. There is a free Basic package targeted at students and enthusiasts. Business plans vary depending on the quantity of collected data in page views per day.
Loomly
Loomly is our top pick for large team collaboration due to its comprehensive plans for teams of up to 26 people. All plans also come with core features such as audience targeting, post preview, automated publishing, analytics, and more.Pros
- Try it out free for 15 days
- Base plans start at just $25 per month
- Manage and share all your social assets in one place
- Real-time optimization of posts
Cons
- Plans for large teams can be costly
- Companies with large ad spend may have to upgrade to a more expensive plan regardless of their team size
Loomly is an excellent option for large teams that want to collaborate on a social media strategy. While their base plan is only accessible for up to two users, their top-tier plan for businesses can include up to 26.
Core plans from Loomly include the following:
- Base: $25 per month (2 users)
- Standard: $57 per month (6 users)
- Advanced: $119 per month (16 users)
- Premium: $249 per month (26 users)
- Enterprise: Price available upon request
This pricing is only available if you pay for a year of management upfront; you’ll pay more if you want to pay for your plan monthly. As you compare options, you’ll also note that each tier of management software has a cap for ad spend, so you will have to use the Premium plan if your business spends $5,000 or more on ads with Meta.
All plans from Loomly let you post unlimited content and come with core features like audience targeting, automated publishing, post sponsoring, interaction tracking, and basic analytics. You’ll also get chat and email customer service with each of their plans. A 15-day free trial is also available regardless of which tier of coverage you want to try out.
Buffer
Buffer scored well in our ranking because their plans start at just $5 per month. You can try any Buffer plan free for 14 days, and there’s a free plan for one user that lets you access three social channels and create 10 scheduled posts.Pros
- Plans start at $5 per month
- Free 14-day trial available
- Free plan available
- Works for Instagram, Meta, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest
Cons
- Doesn’t integrate with as many major platforms as competitors
- Free plan limited to three social profiles
Buffer is the best budget option for small businesses with few employees that want to manage social media without a pricey management plan. They offer a free plan that lets one user access three social channels. For an extra $5 per month, a Team Pack upgrade allows for unlimited social channels and unlimited users.
Either way, you can use a 14-day trial to get started, and all plans let you directly schedule posts on the platform. Other core benefits of Buffer’s plans include a posting scheduling tool, a link shortener tool, and optimization tools for hashtags, tags, and mentions across platforms. All plans also come with a browser extension, access to a mobile app, two-factor authentication, social media and email support, and access to the Buffer community.
SocialPilot
We believe SocialPilot is best for small teams since their Small Team plan allows up to three users. By contrast, many competing software programs only allow one user on their more affordable plans.Pros
- Most affordable plan is $25.50 per month
- Discount available if you pay for one year of usage upfront
- 14-day free trial available
- Manage a minimum of 10 social media accounts with any plan
Cons
- Must pay for a year upfront for lowest pricing
- Basic plans don’t include as many tools or features
SocialPilot is the best option for businesses that want access to affordable social media software for more than one user. Their Small Team plan lets up to three users have access for just $42.50 per month.
In total, four plans are available:
- Professional: $25.50 per month (10 social media accounts; 1 user)
- Small Team: $42.50 per month (25 social media accounts; 3 users)
- Studio: $85.00 per month (50 social media accounts; 5 users)
- Agency: $127.50 per month (75 social media accounts; 10 users)
Remember that to access this special pricing, you have to pay for a year of access upfront after your 14-day trial.
All plans from SocialPilot come with features like unlimited scheduling, bulk scheduling, access to social media analytics, a browser extension, and customer support. Higher-tier plans from SocialPilot let you have more users, oversee more social accounts, manage more Meta ad accounts, and gain access to special features like client management tools.
Be aware that plans from SocialPilot set limits on how many posts you can publish per day. Their Professional plan only lets you post up to 200 posts per day, the Small Team plan limits you to 500 posts per day, and the Agency plan limits you to 1,000 posts per day across all your clients.
What are Social Media Management Tools?
Social media management tools are important platforms for making it easy for you to handle social media accounts. Workflows can be easily streamlined by the users when using these platforms.
These tools also help in assisting with creating the right content and publishing it. Various tools even operate your work without costing anything.
These tools have multiple categories including paid and free. You can also use these boxes according to the size of your business. For small businesses and large enterprises, there are different rates.
The specifications and prices are reasonable for all of these tools and you can easily find the perfect one for you.
Conclusion
As a small business owner, you probably wear lots of hats, including managing your company’s social media accounts. While you know social media marketing is important, there’s never enough time in the day to manage your business and also create engaging social media posts. Until now!
Many businesses just dipping their feet into the social media waters are overwhelmed by the sea of social media management software available to them. Not wanting to spend a small fortune on something as new and unproven as social media marketing, they’re left wondering how they will manage their accounts without breaking the bank.