I know you’re curious about the best social media marketing tools 2021, and I’ll tell you straight up that there isn’t one. Social media marketing is as much art as it is science, which means picking the best social media management software free depends on factors like your brand and what you’re trying to accomplish.
What are the best social media analytics tools 2021? Who is using them and how? Is it really possible to use free social media management software 2021? What are the most reliable social media monitoring tools 2021? These are just some of the questions I will be answering in this article.
Social media has become a communication “go-to” for many businesses. There’s plenty of easy to implement, affordable and quite powerful tools at your disposal. I’m not saying that’s the best social media monitoring tools or that you should use the ones listed here, but if you’re just starting out on social media or looking for some free social media management software 2021, these are a great fallback option.
Social Media Management Software Free is a comprehensive and powerful application that can help managers to increase their Twitter account’s popularity with using smart tools.
What Does a Social Media Report Look Like?
Checking engagement on a social media analytics tool
A social media report should highlight your brand’s analytics and visualize key insights.
To prepare an effective report, start by featuring the channels and metrics that matter to your brand.
Then add helpful findings, such as competitive analyses and ROI calculations. Conclude with your team’s commentary, including wins, losses, trends to focus on, and problem areas to address.
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.
CoSchedule
#1 marketing calendar
Prices: Starting at $0 – 20, $40, $60, $210, $300, $1,200 per month (with a 14-day free trial)
Description: CoSchedule is more than a social media management tool; it’s a powerful calendar to manage many aspects of your marketing. With CoSchedule, you can manage and collaborate with your team to create your social media posts, content, events, and tasks.
Unique value: CoSchedule is great for marketers who want to organize all their projects (social media, content, events, emails, etc.) in one place.
Their ReQueue feature helps you automatically find optimal posting times and fill gaps in your social media schedule with your best posts.
MavSocial
Streamlined social media management
Prices: Free, $19, $78, $199, $499 per month (with 7-day free trial)
Description: MavSocial is a social media management tool with a focus on visual content. For the higher-priced plans, it seems that you can also manage your Facebook ads with MavSocial.
Unique value: On top of the common features (such as scheduling, monitoring, and reporting), MavSocial has a digital library where you can manage, use, and edit your multimedia for your social media posts and a search engine where you can browse through millions of stock photos.
If you wish, MavSocial can also help you repeat your social media posts for a specified duration.
Friends+Me
Share to anywhere
Prices: Free, $9, $29, $59, $259 per month (with a 15-day free trial)
Description: Friends+Me has a strong focus on Google+ but also allows you to schedule your content to the other major social platforms (except Instagram).
Unique value: Friends+Me supports scheduling for Google+ profiles, collections, communities, pages, and even GSuite Google+ and allows you to set up automations to re-post your Google+ posts onto your other social media accounts, which is great for marketers who focus on Google+.
Crowdfire
Social media management, simplified
Price: Free
Description: Crowdfire has been adding new features over the years. Besides scheduling content, it also allows you to manage your Twitter account (follow and unfollow) and suggests articles for sharing.
Unique value: Crowdfire stands out from most social media management tools in that it lets you connect your blogs, YouTube channel, and online shops and will create social media posts for every update you have on your sites.
Sprout Social – Rate: 4.3 out of 5 via G2
Platforms: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, & Pinterest
G2 Ranking: 4.1 out of 5
Sprout Social has positioned their scalable platform to large organizations and teams known favorably for monitoring, scheduling posts, analytics, and team management with approval workflows. Those interested in employee advocacy will also enjoy this social media management tool.
This simple yet powerful platform is user friendly and offers all of the basics that you’d expect in addition to any customized features upon requests. One such feature is the individual statistics for each post.
Sprout offers post approvals and administering permission settings, which caters to digital agencies in addition to medium sized businesses.
There is a social inbox tool that is great for communicating and engaging with your audience, in addition to a social monitoring and keyword search feature. Unfortunately, it does not have the Auto Post with queues feature or an influencer search feature.
Pricing begins at $99 per month up to $249.
Hootsuite
Platforms: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, & Pinterest)
G2 Ranking: 4.1 out of 5
Hootsuite was first on the social media marketing scene and has been around since 2008. Hootsuite is the most blogged about social media platform out there and you will find they exist on most listicles.
They are well known for content curation, organization, scheduling, monitoring, and RSS integration and have a notable reputation. We feel a lot of teams large and small start with Hootsuite and then scale to other services that might meet their needs better.
But, what we can genuinely appreciate is the sheer size of Hootsuite, their marketing prowess, their educational Hootsuite Academy that helps you learn social media marketing and allows you to pay for certifications to arm you with the skills you need to be successful.
Hootsuite social media management tool allows for bulk scheduling, meaning you can upload several posts at once in addition to client management support. They do not have an Auto Post feature, social inbox or influencer search.
However, it is highly well-known for being a fully integrated tool that has a great social listening feature. They also offer a 30day trial.
Pricing is from $29-$599.
Agorapulse
Platforms: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, & YouTube
G2 Ranking: 4.5 out of 5
Agorapulse, similar to the above fully integrated social media management platforms, contains all of the main features of scheduling, visual calendar, social inbox, analytics, and team collaboration.
Similar to eclincher, Agorapulse also provides a competitor analysis and permits boosted Facebook posts to really capture your audience. Unfortunately, they don’t have an influencer feature so you can’t really stalk your favorite industry leaders.
Regardless, Agorapulse has a cult following of niche users that find this social media management software to meet their needs. Don’t count them out!
Pricing begins at $79 per month up to $399 per month.
SocialBee
Seamless social media posting for all your profiles
Prices: $19/ $39/ $79 per month (with a 14-day free trial)
Description: SocialBee is a social media management tool that promoses to bring you more leads with less effort. Its core functionalities allow its users to add, organize, and share content across several social channels from one place: Facebook (Pages, Profiles, Groups), Twitter (Profiles), LinkedIn (Profiles, Pages), Pinterest (Boards), Instagram (Profiles), and even on Google My Business. And it even integrates with Buffer.
Unique value: Oneof SocialBee’s most-loved features is the possibility to recycle evergreen content while keeping it fresh by using post variations. You can use SocialBee to posts consistently, while having an overall balanced mix of content in each category. More than that, the quality of support and is another valued asset of SocialBee.
How Do I Report Social Media Analytics?
To report social media analytics, you need a tool that can collect accurate data, share helpful insights, and allow your team to draw informed conclusions. Although all social media platforms provide native data, their analytical and reporting capabilities tend to be limited.
The best social media analytics tools source data directly from each social platform and compile the information into easy-to-understand reports.
Many provide customized or automated reports that let you easily share insights with colleagues or clients.
Conclusion
Social media management software allows you to schedule and publish posts on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn. Some solutions also include monitoring capabilities to let you determine how people are responding, listening or engaging with your content.
Running your own social media campaigns, handling multiple social media accounts, a growing business… It all can get too much, especially when you keep forgetting to share the right things. But have no fear! There are tools out there that help you manage all that: social media tools that provide you with valuable analytics and insights.