Social media management is essential for your business to succeed today. You have to target the right people and make it easy for them to follow you on their preferred social media platform. Social media management tools or free social media management tools can help you get more from social media.
If you manage accounts for multiple social media platforms, then you understand how hard it can be to post and respond to messages. Luckily, there are a bunch of free social media management tools that can be used to schedule, automate and respond to messages on all your social accounts. I’ve taken a look at the top social media management tools, including those that are free and paid. Here is my list:
Buffer
The platform for successful social media management
Prices: Forever free plan, $5, $10, add $10 per month per social channel connected (with a 14-day free trial).
Description: Buffer is an intuitive, streamlined social media management platform trusted by small businesses and individuals to help drive meaningful engagement and results on social media.
We have a suite of products for publishing, engagement, analytics, simple landing pages, and team collaboration. Our products are carefully considered and highly refined in order to help social media marketers and teams work more efficiently and effectively.
Unique value: What we’ve heard from our customers is that they love how clean and intuitive our tools are, how friendly and timely our customer support is, and how helpful our content is.
eclincher
eclincher might just be the best kept secret in social media due to their grassroots ‘word of mouth’ content marketing efforts in the past. ec, as brand advocates tote, has been reviewed as “the swiss-army knife of social media”.
why eclincher?
They are pushing out extremely more value to marketing agencies and larger business teams, than their competitors.
You might expect that customer service is a standard in general. But, in the SaaS world eclincher’s support team really takes the clients’ expectation of service seriously, and not just because they are 24/7.
You’ll capture some serious social media ROI using eclincher’s social media management tool. Centered around marketing automations, eclincher helps social media managers save time using a single dashboard with this digital marketing platform, automate mundane marketing tasks with bulk scheduling options, rss feeds, queues, etc.
Every feature or capability seems to have the goal of productivity in mind to the end user.
An all-in-one social media management tool and consistently expanding platform, eclincher is packed with all the value every social media team needs (and wants too).
Scalable from the professional solopreneur, SMBs (Small & Medium-Sized businesses), Enterprise, to Agencies with large teams who need that extra workflow and internal/external team collaboration.
The huge benefits you gain working with a well-rounded solution helps you quantify your return, increase productivity, save precious time, and gain back insight for what is working and what isn’t.
It stands to note their customer support is consistently and notably awarded best in class from sites like G2Crowd, Capterra, GetApp, and the like.
This top rated powerful social media management tool, or should we say a platform, has everything you need to execute your social media marketing strategy.
There are loads of value in the features and capabilities offered, such as a comprehensive content publisher, savvy drag and drop visual calendar, campaign tracking, competitor analysis, and omnichannel tailored social media post editing.
If Instagram scheduling is top of mind you’ll love the custom Instagram grid planning, and being able to schedule Instagram stories and carousels with push notification.
eclincher has an intuitive scheduler toting auto posting with smart queues, a very smart inbox or social CRM so you never miss a review, message, or engagement, integration of RSS feeds, suggested content plus curation, keywords and hashtags monitoring, social media analytics reporting including Google Analytics, URL shorteners, campaign tracking and more.
This social marketing tool really has it all to keep campaigns innovative and organized catering to multiple social media account(s).
Did we mention they already partner with a wide range of companies like Canva, wave.video, Zendesk, Bitly, Feedly, Unsplash and add more integrations constantly? Slack and TikTok for Business are coming in the 1st quarter of 2021.
If they don’t have a feature or integration you need, your odds are good they probably will soon.
Remarkably, two of the most amazing benefits of working with eclincher is their agile team atmosphere and their ability to be nimble with the ongoing addition to features benefiting new and current clients without costs pushed onto users.
The real value of eclincher evolves when you need to scale. If you have many brands to manage or a lot of franchise locations, that cost adds up in thousands.
Comparing against some of the social media marketing giants like Hubspot, Sprout Social, or Sprinklr eclincher is the best choice for scaling large accounts with multiple locations or brands.
You won’t have to lose capabilities with regard to visual marketing either.
In other words, if the feature doesn’t exist, suggest it with their live 24/7 live chat offering and if it is scalable and beneficial for companies like you, they will implement that suggestion. How cool is that?
They have recently updated their UI in July 2019 to be more user friendly and users are raving! There are a lot of features to choose from, so make sure to get a live FREE personal demo.
Pricing starts from $59 per month up to $219 for more advanced plans. Pricing supports up to 40 social media profiles, but some clients have hundreds of profiles and require a more custom social media plan.
Customized add-ons such as Reputation are also available for larger teams so be sure to check out their paid plans. LIVE demos are available with their team and currently they offer a 14-day FREE trial with no credit card required.
(Chrome extension for browser extensions; app available for iOS and Android)
If you are a current client you may also benefit from their referral program.
Asana
Source: Asana
Use it to: Streamline multiple complex projects that involve different team members.
Pricing: Free plan available. Paid plans start at $10.99 per month per user, billed annually.
If you want to manage tasks across different projects without dropping a Slack message here and there, look no further than Asana.
This project management tool allows you to communicate with collaborators, set tasks and deadlines for individual members, and share files and updates all in one place. It also boasts an impressive template library.
With Asana, you can create separate threads for specific projects. This means that members outside of these projects won’t ever receive irrelevant notifications in their dashboard.
Another cool feature of Asana? You can view project status in various ways: Lists, boards, Gantt charts, your pick.
Simply put, Asana is collaborative task management at its best.
Trello
Source: Trello
Use it to: Manage simple projects with small teams.
Pricing: Free plan available. Paid plans start at $9.99 per user per month, billed annually.
Trello works similarly to Asana — that is, in terms of scheduling and organizing tasks, tracking progress, and assigning them to relevant team members.
One of the significant differences between these two project management rivals? Asana is more suited for managing multiple complex projects. Trello, on the other hand, works better for more straightforward one-off projects.
With its accessible UX and customizable templates, it’s easy to get started on Trello right away.
Just take it from Trond Nyland. Immediately after using the workflow management tool, the founder and CEO of Mattress Review noticed a big improvement in his productivity.
Back then, it would take him five working days to create long-form content. With Trello, it takes only two to three days.
Proofhub
Source: YouTube
Use it to: Manage workflows and speed up the project approval process for big teams.
Pricing: 14-day free trial available. Paid plans start at $45 for unlimited users per month, billed annually.
Proofhub may not be a household name like Asana and Trello, but this underdog’s worth a look as it gets the job done efficiently.
One of Proofhub’s best features is its user-friendly online proofing tool. Annotating files takes a few clicks. You’ll never have to experience endless rounds of revision as Proofhub’s markup and file versioning tools simplify the project review process.
Note: Asana also offers online proofing, but it’s only available for Business and Enterprise plans (they charge per user). Proofhub allows you to add as many users as you want without paying extra.
Other stand-out features of Proofhub include built-in time tracking, Gantt charts, and customizable project templates.
Stackby
Like your tables in Excel and Google Sheets? Then you’ll love Stackby, which combines the best of three worlds — spreadsheets, databases, and business APIs.
Stackby lets you organize information from unique data types like attachments, dropdowns, and more. You can collect data automatically from various services via connecting columns with APIs, collaborate with your team from anywhere, and even automate your end-to-end workflows.
Source: YouTube
The possibilities are endless with Stackby. Build your custom CRM, manage orders from your e-commerce store, plan your SEO content calendar, streamline your video production, and even automate custom Google Analytics reports.
You don’t have to build everything from scratch, either. Choose from the numerous templates from the template gallery or start by importing your spreadsheets.
Get yearly access to Stackby for $199 (retail value: $648) on AppSumo today.
Quickbooks
Source: YouTube
Use it to: Maintain your bookkeeping records with your in-house or freelance bookkeeper.
Pricing: 30-day free trial. Paid plans start $25 per month (50% off for three months).
Quickbooks lets you do everything from sending invoices to managing cash flow and analyzing your financial statements.
Julia Spahiu, founder and CFO of Edi and Sienna Group, picks Quickbooks as her favorite accounting solution as it comes with extensive features.
“Quickbooks has a fuller package. You can also run payroll and get workers compensation insurance, which makes it easier when you’re reconciling your accounts at the end of the month.”Julia Spahiu, Founder and CFO of Edi and Sienna Group
A word of caution: Quickbooks comes with a steep learning curve. Unless you work with a professional bookkeeper or accountant, it’s best to skip it and opt for a simpler option (I’ll get to this in a minute).
Source: Reddit
Freshbooks
Source: YouTube
Use it to: Send invoices and maintain bookkeeping records on your own.
Pricing: 30-day free trial. Paid plans start $6 per month, billed annually. Currently offers a limited time 50% offer for three months.
Freshbooks makes financial management easy as pie.
Like all bookkeeping tools, Freshbooks helps make sure you’re financially on track.
This beginner-friendly tool allows you to send invoices in seconds and offers various essential features such as expense tracking, time tracking, and reporting.
It’s extremely easy to understand Freshbooks’ profitability dashboard. Right away, you can tell if your business is making progress.
That said, give Freshbooks a shot if you’re new to bookkeeping.
Zoho One
Source: Zoho
Use it to: Streamline different departments (e.g. sales, marketing, support, human resources, etc.) in one platform.
Pricing: 30-day free trial available. Paid plans start at $30 per employee per month, billed annually.
Zoho One is an all-in-one management system that enables you to track every aspect of your business.
Boasting 40+ integrated applications, you can easily manage and automate multiple processes across your entire organization.
SalesIQ allows you to see how customers behave on your website. Books enables you to track and prepare your finances. And Social helps you to grow your presence on social media. And these are just a few of its standout features.
Overwhelmed by your messy business workflows? Zoho One could be the one-stop management solution you need.
G Suite
Source: G Suite
Use it to: Oversee essential tasks from emailing to running meetings and creating documents and spreadsheets in one complete business management solution.
Pricing: 14-day free trial available. Paid plans start at $6 per user per month.
G Suite provides the essentials to get your business up and running, and at an affordable price to boot.
You get your professional email address, run meetings with your teams and clients, and collaborate on files in real-time.
Plutio
Agency owners and freelancers, listen up! If you’re looking to wow your clients, look no further than Plutio.
This project management and customer relationship management (CRM) tool rolled into one is something else.
Source: YouTube
Plutio enables you to manage everything your business needs from collaborating on projects and creating proposals to organizing timesheets and sending invoices — without ever leaving the platform.
That’s right, you get to create a remarkable client experience from beginning to end!
Get the Plutio team plan yearly access for $199 (retail value: $360) on AppSumo today.
Ahrefs
Use it to: Create SEO-driven content and analyze and build backlinks, especially if content marketing is part of your inbound strategy.
Pricing: 7-day trial costs $7. Paid plans start at $82 a month + two months free, billed annually.
Ahrefs is a must-have tool if you want to grow your small business organically.
This SEO powerhouse software solution allows you to monitor your competitors and identify the type of content you need to create to blow them out of the water.
James Canzanella, owner of Isolated Marketing Nights, does this by finding low-competition keywords on Ahrefs’ Site Explorer and Keyword Explorer.
HubSpot
Image Source: hubspot.com
HubSpot is a business management system built with specialized features for inbound marketing, including a marketing hub, sales hub, CMS hub, and service hub. In short: it’s definitely one of the most powerful tools for managing a business out there.
Hubspot really seems to have it all. Not only can you manage your content and PPC marketing, but also sales pipelines, lead relationships, and support tickets without any issues whatsoever. It also tracks every one of your customer interactions into amazing detail, helping you save time on sales management.
Additionally, by offering features such as email tracking, email sequencing, and prospect profiles, this business management software is there to help you automate all of your tasks faster than ever.
However, one of the main complaints is that it has quite a bit of a learning curve, so if you opt for Hubspot, be sure to set aside some time to learn how to use it.
Key Features
- Lead Generation
- Sales Automation
- Lead Management
- Pipeline Management
- Marketing Automation
- Email Automation & Tracking
- Support Tickets Management
- Analytics
- Meeting Scheduler
- Click to Call Function
- Sales Email Templates
- Knowledge Base
- Customer Feedback
- Ads Management Dashboard
- Blog Management Dashboard
- SEO Management Dashboard
- Social Media Management Dashboard
- Content Management System
- Document Tracking
Pricing
Hubspot’s pricing depends on which hub you choose, but it generally starts around $45 per month. It also offers free tools which you can use to get a better sense of what this software can do for you.
Bitrix24
Image Source: bitrix24.com
If you’re looking for the best business management software for CRM, task management, and collaboration, then Bitrix24 is the perfect tool for you.
Bitrix24 offers a suite of awesome tools for management, communication, and social collaboration, meaning your team will lack for nothing when it comes to working on different projects. You get features for managing support, sales leads, online stores, creating landing pages, a CRM, and all the bells and whistles that come with it.
There’s even an HR system that you can make use of, which is all kinds of cool.
Some of the main issues users have had with this business management platform is that their customer support is limited and that the UX gets a bit clunky from time to time. However, the good news is that the learning curve isn’t steep so you’ll get to figure it out fast.
Key Features
- Team Communication
- Task & Project Management
- Kanban Planner
- Gantt Charts
- Notifications
- Quotes & Invoices
- Reminders
- Task Time Tracking
- Task Templates
- Rate Task
- HR System
- Report Builder
- CRM, Workflow, Calendar & Drive Integration
- Task Dependencies
- Project Workgroups
- Template Sharing
- Sites & Landing Pages
- Data Import/Export (CSV)
Pricing
Bitrix24 currently has a free plan for an unlimited number of users, while the first paying plan starts at $14.40 per month for 2 users if you opt for a two-year period plan.
nTask
Image Source: ntaskmanager.com
Just like the title states, if you’re a solopreneur or small business with five or fewer projects at a time, then you can definitely manage your whole business with nTask.
While more focused on task planning, this business software can still help you efficiently manage your business and your team. With features such as prioritization, scheduling, and tracking you’ll be able to get a hold of all of your planned projects and tasks. Add to the mix reporting and visualization features, as well as collaboration and you’ve got yourself a tool worth checking out.
One of the major downsides of this tool is that it tends to be too complicated for users to understand, plus features don’t come out as fast as people would like them, too. Still, if you’d like a business management tool that’s free and functional, this is the one.
Key Features
- Gantt Charts
- Time Tracking
- Project Issues
- Project Risks
- Project Budgets
- Risk Analytics
- Cost Estimates
- Checklists
- Assign Tasks
- Recurring Tasks
- Public Links
- Task Management in Grid, List, or Calendar View
- Meeting Management Tool
- Calendar Integration
- Third-Party Integrations
- Activity Log
- Built-In Custom Search
- Notifications
- 2-Factor Authentication
- iOS and Android Mobile Apps
Pricing
nTask is completely free for up to five team members and 100MB of storage. The pricing plans start at $2.99 per user per month, if paid annually. There’s also a 14-day trial you can use if you want to give it a go without commitment.
Conclusion:
If you are like I was starting out in blogging and social media, you really want to start on a shoestring budget. When I started out with my first blog, I had a grand total of $0 in funding. I started with all the blog posts that I could get for free from other blogs. And you should do the same if you are starting a blog today!