Have you ever wondered what are some of the best social media management tools for musicians? Have you been searching for tools to help you easily manage your social media, but don’t know where to begin. Well look no further.
This list of top social media management tools for musicians will help you choose which platform management tool will be the best solution for you and your band. As a musician myself, I’ve been managing my own accounts on social media for the past few years, and have come across some good tools (and had some bad experiences as well). Based on my personal experience, and the intensive research that I’ve done online, I’ve put together a detailed analysis of each tool in this list. If you are anything like me, you probably spend a lot of time searching online for useful information regarding music marketing and promoting yourself online, while
Hootsuite
Launched in 2008, Hootsuite remains the go-to app if you want to set up and schedule social media posts in advance.
The free plan allows you to manage up to three social profiles, and schedule up to 30 posts each month. You also get some decent analytics and follower-tracking tools, and two RSS feed integrations. Hootsuite supports more than 150 apps, including Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, WordPress, YouTube and Pinterest.
Even with apps that are essentially mobile-only, such as Instagram, you can use Hootsuite to create posts and schedule them using your desktop computer (as long as you have an Instagram business account). Most importantly, you can set it to post automatically when you’re going to be away, or if you’re just too busy at work and don’t want to be distracted.
Note, however, that Hootsuite can’t do everything you might want it to. For example, it doesn’t allow you to add a location or tag people on your scheduled Instagram posts.
Later
If Instagram is your main jam, then you may want to consider Later (previously known as Latergramme) as an alternative to Hootsuite.
As a bespoke tool for Instagram, it’s a much more visually focused platform than Hootsuite. For example, its calendar displays thumbnails of your posts to help you balance things out aesthetically over the month.
Later also offers a handy media library, where you can store images in advance, ready to be turned into scheduled posts at a later date. Like Hootsuite, you can schedule up to 30 free posts a month with the free plan.
Later also what it calls a Linkin.bio feature that enables you to link Instagram posts to pages or products, which is great if you sell your wares through Instagram. This is, however, not available until you sign up to the $16 per month plan.
Tweetdeck
Twitter can be a confusing, chaotic beast, and if you need a web app to help you make sense of it, we’d recommend the free app Tweetdeck.
Its main uses are to enable you to schedule tweets, from multiple accounts, and to keep track of whatever you want to keep track of; whether that’s direct messages, mentions or just tweets containing a specific word, phrase or hashtag.
The great thing about Tweetdeck is being able to add columns that contain the specific info you need. Basically, the more columns you add, the more useful it becomes, particularly if you’re using more than one Twitter account.
That does mean it’s pretty useless on mobile, though. But on a wide screen with a good internet connection, Tweetdeck can save you a lot of time and effort compared to fiddling about in the normal Twitter app.
YouTube
If you’re not using YouTube to promote yourself as a musician at this point then obviously you don’t get it. With millions of people trolling YouTube everyday, not having any videos up there of your music is a complete disregard for any online visibility you are trying to achieve. YouTube is not only a great way to showcase what you’re up to, your music videos, and live performances but it is also a great discovery engine. Many people will click on your video if they find it in the related videos section of a band they already like. You can easily gauge where these people are coming from with the YouTube insights module. If you see that the Avett Brothers are sending a bunch of traffic your way, this is an easy way for you to expand your fan base by finding where their fans are online.
TubeMogul
Although YouTube is the number one video platform and has been for sometime, there are still quite a few out there than can not only help your SEO but also provide other ways for people to accidentally find you. TubeMogul allows you to upload your video one time and it will send it out to a vast array of video networks across the web.
Livestream
Broadcast your concert, have a live video chat session with your fans, or just let fans drop in on you in the studio. These are all now realistic possibilities using live web video streaming. Livestream works great across most devices. The Associated Press have done a great job integrating this into their Facebook application. With the right developer and budget, a musician could easily replicate this or setup something very similar on a site of their own.
MeetEdgar
MeetEdgar stands out due to its automation and scheduling features. They even offer continuous posting, which means they will automatically curate and reshare relevant posts on your social media accounts.Pros
- Excellent automation and scheduling features let you set your social media and forget it
- Free trial for seven days
- Analytics for engagement and response
- Edgar Lite plan starts at just $19 per month
Cons
- Only integrates with Meta, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Instagram
- Most affordable plan only lets you work with three networks
- No central inbox for messages or managing comments
MeetEdgar wins for best automation because they are set up to help time-strapped businesses automate their accounts. This software lets you generate posts using a browser extension, set up category-based scheduling that saves you time and effort, and executes continuous posting that ensures you’re constantly engaging your audience.
With MeetEdgar, you also get access to an unlimited content library, which the platform will shuffle and schedule for you on your behalf. You can also set up your account to automatically upload your newest content, and you can use an automatic link shortener that helps you save space when you share your content on social media.
MeetEdgar offers two main plans:
- Edgar Lite: $19 per month
- Edgar: $49 per month
Both plans offer similar tools, although the Edgar Lite plan only lets you integrate with three social media accounts. The more expensive plan also offers 1,000 recurring scheduling time slots per week versus just 10 with the Edgar Lite plan. Either way, you can try MeetEdgar for free for seven days.
Conclusion
Music plays an important role in almost everyone’s life. But managing your social media presence is a time-consuming task that is often overlooked by independent musicians. To help you keep up with your growing social media platforms, here is a list of the best social media management tools for musicians.