One of the main reasons many businesses fail on social media is that they don’t use social media management tools. Free social media scheduling platforms will help you save time and get more value from your social media pages.
Several free social media scheduling platforms have popped up over the past few years and they have become a favorite option for many entrepreneurs. They are increasing in popularity and usefulness – and this article compares the most noted platforms so you can discover what best fits your needs.
Zoho Social
Whether you’re a growing business or an agency, Zoho Social will help you manage multiple profiles, research relevant keywords, work with team members, and of course schedule posts from one dashboard.
Zoho Social has many of the same tools and features that the other platforms have, but they also have Facebook lead ads, advanced reporting features, a SocialShare browser plugin, and CRM integrations. Zoho Social caters to agencies as well so marketers have the choice of choosing between the business or agency plans. Pricing for the paid plans ranges from $8.33 to $125+ for larger agencies. Zoho Social’s free plan allows you to manage 1 brand, and includes the URL shortener and SocialShare browser plugin.
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.
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.
Canva
Social media is increasingly becoming more and more visual. Canva is an excellent tool for anyone managing social media accounts to use. You can create designer-level marketing assets using any of the thousands of ready-made designs they have available to you. Now, you can even connect your social channels and publish or schedule directly from Canva. They have a free version available, which gives you decent access to great pre-made templates. The pro plan gives you access to all of the templates for only $12.95/month.
Hootsuite
Hootsuite is one of the most established and popular apps for social media scheduling and marketing. You can use it to schedule posts, receive in-depth reports, and collaborate with your team members, thanks to built-in teamwork features. It enables you to view multiple streams at once and monitor what your customers are saying. There is a free limited plan available for 3 social profiles and up to 30 scheduled messages.
Buffer
Buffer is also one of the best apps for managing your social media presence and scheduling your posts. The app also comes with analytics tools that enable you to track your audience’s activity and figure out when it is the best time to post in the future. We especially love its Chrome extension, which integrates itself seamlessly and never gets in the way, yet it is always there when you need it. It is a more straightforward and more effective way of managing your social media, and you are never more than a few clicks away from setting up anything you want. Buffer supports over 7 different platforms – you can add up to 4 on the free plan.
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.
Everypost
With Everypost, in addition to scheduling publications, you can customize them and create visual content. In the free version of the platform, you can curate content, meaning you can gather relevant content from different media and sources and easily publish it across your social networks.
In the free version of Everypost you can schedule 10 publications and soon the company plans to offer media analysis. Despite the limitations, the free version of Everypost is quite versatile as it is possible to schedule publications on all networks via smartphone, computer and tablet.
Conclusion
Not sure if you need a full-blown, expensive social media management platform? Using free social media scheduling platforms means smarter planning and lower costs. These free and premium tools can help you get control over your feed, grow your following, and keep the content on track.