Have you ever spent hundreds of dollars on social media tools only to realize they just don’t work for you? I’ve been there. You might think that these million-dollar companies know what they’re doing with technology, but sometimes it just doesn’t workout. Be smart and educate yourself on the best social media management tools today.
If you run any online business, you know that managing social media can be a full-time job in itself. With Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest etc., there are many places to market your products or services. I’ve used these tools for years and in this article, I’m going to share with you the absolute best social media management tools out there.
Sprout Social
If you want to explore your social media analytics, schedule posts across platforms, and monitor engagement, Sprout Social is a great all-in-one social media management tool. The platform allows you to analyze your social media data beyond the built-in analytics offered by Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. You can also track engagement on keywords and hashtags, identify influencers, build custom dashboards, and more. Sprout integrates with all major social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+), as well as other systems including Bitly and Google Analytics.
Pricing: Sprout Social starts at $99 per month, but they do offer a 30-day free trial period so you can give the platform a test run.
Buffer Publish
Website: https://buffer.com/
Pricing: Free (paid plans start at $15/month)
Details:
Buffer is a suite of brand building tools designed to make it easy for businesses and marketing teams to schedule social media posts, analyze performance, and manage all their accounts in one place.
For example, Buffer Publish allows you to set up a schedule for your social media profiles, and after you add content to your Buffer queue, it will publish at the times you’ve designated.
In addition to our web application, we also have both Android and iOS apps as well as a fantastic Chrome Extension that’s great for Buffering while you’re browsing the web or on the go.
Agora Pulse
Agora Pulse is a simple and effective social media marketing tool. It has all features of scheduling, analytics and you can even run quizzes and promotions on your social media accounts to engage with your audience.
Features:
- The dashboard of the Agora pulse is very straightforward.
- It allows easy switching to all your social media accounts.
- One of the amazing features of the Agora pulse is the social media inbox that allows instant checking on social media updates on your accounts.
- It helps you to personalize your content for each social media networking platform.
Social Bakers
This social media marketing tool enables NGOs to work on various social media platforms through Artificial Intelligence (AI) to understand the audience’s behavior. It helps in engaging more donors to your cause.
Features:
- You can get insights into the customer’s requirements and can create your content based on that.
- You can analyze your performance against your competitor’s and can use these measures to improve your content.
- This tool saves you time by managing all social media publishing tools from a single dashboard.
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.
Hootsuite
Hootsuite earns high rankings for its tracking tools and analytics. This software lets you analyze trends and engagement in real-time. Their analytics tools extend to both regular posting and social media ads.Pros
- Professional plans start at just $49 per month
- Free plan available
- Connects with 20+ social networks
- 30-day trial available
Cons
- Some analytics reports are at an additional cost
- Plans can be costly if you have a lot of social profiles or spend a considerable sum on ads each month
- Free plans have limited tools
Hootsuite made our ranking as best for analytics because they offer some of the most comprehensive analytics and social media tracking tools on the market today, including customizable reports and team productivity reporting.
While paying more for detailed analytics and reporting can cause the cost of Hootsuite to swell, having access to this information can be crucial for businesses that rely on social media for the bulk of their marketing efforts.
Hootsuite has four paid options:
- Professional: $49 per month
- Team: $129 per month
- Business: $599 per month
- Enterprise: Varies (it’s for larger or more complex institutions)
The starter Professional plan can be a good option for small businesses because it allows you to manage 10 social profiles in one place. You also get unlimited scheduling, although you’re limited to one user. The Team plan is available for up to three users, and you can manage up to 20 social profiles in one place.
Note that all plans from Hootsuite come with unlimited scheduled messages, unlimited auto-scheduling, a publishing calendar, a social inbox, and plenty of other tools. You can also try two of Hootsuite’s four plans free for 30 days, which is a major benefit if you prefer to try before you buy.
Tailwind
Tailwind is a social media marketing toolkit for Pinterest and Instagram. It’s perfect for bloggers, small businesses, agencies and large enterprises.
Engagement
Engagement on Pinterest is slightly different compared to Twitter and Facebook. People don’t comment as much, and Repins are more of an engagement signal.
To boost Pinterest engagement, Tailwind introduced its Community feature. (Note: It’s still in beta.)
A Community lets you meet and grow with other marketers in your niche. You add your own content to a Community, and your members view, schedule, and share your content with their own audience. And as it’s a Community, you share the other content too. It’s a win-win.
Scheduling
Tailwind is packed with powerful features and shortcuts to help you schedule pins and posts each day.
Tailwind’s Smart Queue helps you pin and post at the best times, so your audience gets content when they’re looking for it. To start with, Tailwind recommends the best time when it knows people are active. But over time it evaluates the optimal time based on your history and audience engagement.
You can populate your schedule days or weeks in advance, by adding content in bulk from your desktop or mobile device. Tailwind also tracks your best performing content so you can reuse it again.
Reporting
Tailwind lets you track key performance indicators to evaluate if your marketing strategy is working. For Pinterest, you can measure followers, engagement trends, and virality by pin, board or category. (For Instagram, you can find influential followers and connect with them to broaden your reach.)
Tailwind also keeps you informed of progress with customizable reports and notifications via email.
Networks
Tailwind works for Pinterest and Instagram.
Pricing
Try Tailwind’s free plan with limited features. They have 3 paid plans – Pro, Advanced and Max, each differ in the amount of access to Tailwind Communities and accounts for publication.
- Prices from $9.99/month per account (billed annually)
Conclusion:
I get it, social media is time consuming; it can be frustrating, and this is why you want to hire someone who will handle your social media. But did you know that social media also brings in business? You can do this by using the right tools! It can be difficult to discover which social media management tool is the right one for your business; after all, there are so many choices.