Best Social Media Scheduling Platforms

Discover the best social media scheduling platforms of 2021. This in-depth article also covers essential tips to help you plan your social media marketing strategy, and outlines why most small businesses should use a scheduling tool effectively manage their social media activity.

We have researched and written an article to help those searching for best social media scheduling platforms . We have found that canva , reach planner , and buffer are some of the most reliable social media scheduling platforms . They are easy to use and allow small businesses to create well-designed posts on multiple platforms in less time.

 ContentCal

ContentCal is the ultimate tool for bringing your team together. You can share ideas with, create approval workflows, build your content plan and then publish that content to multiple platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Google My Business, YouTube, and Medium). ContentCal’s analytics will help you understand your content performance and the latest ‘Respond’ features act as a shared inbox for monitoring and responding to mentions, messages, and comments across social media.

One of the star features is the fact that ContentCal integrates with over 2000 other applications so that you can create the perfect social media workflow by connecting ContentCal to tools you currently use (think of things like Slack or Trello) and also distribute content to channels beyond social media, like emails and blog posts. The best content is created together. Involve your team (and clients) into the content creation process, share ideas, gain feedback and watch your content performance soar!

a screenshot of the contentcal dashboard

 Later

Instagram is one of the most popular social networks, with over 1 billion users active on the platform each month. Later started as an app dedicated to Instagram as a scheduling tool, but since its inception, they’ve added support for other social networks and are continuously adding new features. The app has a strong focus on visual content. Whether you want to schedule in-feed image or video posts, stories, or carousel posts — Later supports all of these options. Later has a free plan available that you can use forever, but you get features such as analytics, saved captions, scheduled stories, and more for paid plans. Their paid plans start at $9/month.

A screenshot of the later dashboard

TweetDeck

Those who rely on Twitter to get their message across will find much to like about TweetDeck. TweetDeck is a free application that enables you to manage multiple (unlimited) Twitter accounts from a unified interface. You can create your own customizable social media dashboard that allows you to send and receive tweets and manage and monitor your Twitter profiles. You can use TweetDeck as a web app, Chrome app, or desktop app. TweetDeck can be set to post scheduled tweets, build Tweet lists, and more. And the extra special part is that it’s always free.

A screenshot of the TweetDeck dashboard

 Buffer

The free version of Buffer allows you to connect one type of account via social network, such as a Facebook account, a Google+ account, an Instagram account, etc. Buffer is very didactic and intuitive, with an extension for Google Chrome, Firefox and Safari browsers that make the use of the software even faster.

Despite having a 10-post programming limit for almost all social networks, Buffer gives you the ability to track the performance of your content and is available for phones using iOS and Android operating systems.

 Social Oomph

On the market since 2008, Social Oomph promises to increase your productivity on social networks, allowing you to program messages and posts, and monitor social networks to know what customers have been saying about your brand.

Previously, the company, which was named TweeterLater.com, was focused on Twitter solutions. With the transition and expansion of features, the Social Oomph now allows you to schedule and monitor posts on Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Tumblr etc, but the Twitter features are the ones that draw attention by their differential and are the only ones offered for free by the company.

The free version of Social Oomph lets you: plan tweets, track keywords, save draft posts, follow links, see mentions, retweets, etc.

 Social Pilot

Launched in 2014, Social Pilot is a very complete tool with very personalized plans. The free version of Social Pilot lets you connect up to 3 accounts, share a total of 10 posts per day, have 30 scheduled posts, shorten and monitor links, and more.

What strikes you about Social Pilot is that it supports 9 different social networks: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Pinterest, Instagram, Vk, Tumblr and Xing. It’s a shame that the free version allows only 3 accounts to be connected.

Hootsuite

free social media scheduling tools - Hootsuite

Hootsuite is the most popular tool for managing social media platforms. 18+ million social media marketers use it, and it has everything you need to manage your team, schedule posts, measure results, plan upcoming campaigns, etc. From freelancers to large businesses, it’s the perfect tool for anyone who wants to grow their social media presence the right way.

Hootsuite comes with five different plans, including a free plan. The free version plan allows you to manage two social media accounts, schedule up to 5 posts at a time, and allow one user. 

You can easily create, schedule, and customize posts for all your connected networks from their beginner-friendly dashboard. Plus, you can connect to more than 20+ different social networks, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Linkedin, and more.

One of the key features of Hootsuite I like is the Engage. Using this option, you can quickly access all the incoming messages across your social networks.

💰 Pricing: Hootsuite offers five different plans. Additionally, they also offer 30 days free trial on professional and team plans.

  • Free Plan: One user, two social accounts, five scheduled posts
  • Professional Plan ($49/ mo): One user, ten social accounts, unlimited scheduled posts
  • Team plan ($129/ mo): 3 users, 20 social accounts, custom branded URL
  • Business plan ($599/ mo): 5 users, 35 social accounts, content library, campaign planning
  • Enterprise plan (custom): 5+ users, 50+ social accounts, team productivity reporting, social selling add-ons

Buffer

free social media scheduling tools - Hootsuite

If you want an app like Hootsuite, Buffer would be a great alternative. In fact, it’s much cheaper than Hootsuite.

Buffer offers two different plans – free and essentials. The free plan is limited to one user, allowing you to add three social media accounts, schedule 10 posts per social channel. 

With Buffer’s powerful publishing tools, you can schedule posts across all major platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, Pinterest, etc. You can also schedule posts in advance, so they get published when it’s convenient for you – and automate them based on your RSS feeds.

This comes very handy when you run a large website. For example, let’s say you published a post about best SiteGround alternatives, and then the RSS feed will automatically add the post to Buffer.

Another feature of Buffer I like is its Chrome extension that lets you easily share any page, link, or video from any website directly into Buffer without opening up another tab in the browser. 

💰 Pricing: Buffer offers two different plans – free and essentials. Plus, you can also try their essentials plan free for 14 days.

  • Free plan: 1 user, up to 3 social accounts, schedule 10 posts, basic publishing tools.
  • Essentials plans ($5-$10/ month): unlimited channels, unlimited schedule posts, advanced publishing tools.

Conclusion

We conducted an in-depth analysis of leading social media scheduling platforms to uncover the best social media audit tool. To come up with our top recommendations, we researched dozens of unique features, then evaluated each platform based on: Features – How easy is it to add and edit content from your social media accounts? Content Editor Interface – How user friendly is it? Time Saver – Can it save you time? Integrations – Is it integrated with other apps? Support Options – How much ongoing support does it offer? Social profiles – Can you schedule content for 6+ social Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn feeds at once? Advanced Scheduling

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