Managing social media is one of the most important aspects of growing a business. Regular tasks involve creating a content calendar, designing visuals, scheduling posts, and finally publishing those posts with the right hashtags. Social media marketers are thus very high in demand, and any brand with the right social media strategy can scale its reach pretty quickly.
The right tools can greatly aid in this objective, and help a marketer be significantly more productive. But first, what are some important features for a social media management tool?
Features that most tools in this space provide are as follows:
1. Content calendar
A well-planned content calendar can help you be more productive. It's wise to plan your posts, tweets, reels, etc. at least a week in advance so you always have something that your audience can engage with. Marketers often, even schedule posts up to a month in advance.
2. Auto-scheduling posts
It's extremely important to have enough volume when it comes to posts, tweets, etc. At a minimum, you should plan to post on Instagram every alternate date and tweet a day if you have an audience already on the platform. If you're starting from scratch, it's a great idea to schedule 3-5 Instagram posts a day, and 3 tweets a day.Moreover, with remote work and flexible working on the rise, it's quite possible that your teammates and your audience may be in a very different timezone. This may lead to very different "ideal-time" scenarios for publishing your posts across the various platforms. For example, you may find that on Instagram, your audience is more receptive to posts between 2-4 AM Pacific Time (local time for you).
Thus, auto-scheduling can provide tremendous benefits for your marketing efforts, and following a structured plan of #x posts a day across multiple channels is absolutely crucial.
3. Bulk scheduling across multiple channels
Gone are the days when marketers could only focus on one channel for maximum impact. Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, and so many others have become bread and butter for marketers today. If you're only using one channel, you're greatly underestimating the power of cross-channel reach. Moreover, the demographics and engagement behaviour is quite different across channels, so it's extremely important to take a data-driven approach.Thus, bulk scheduling - which is the ability to schedule a post across multiple channels at the same time is extremely important, which will help you determine what kind of content is working across which channel.By deep-diving into the analytics over time, you can further refine your content strategy. With these table stakes features in mind, let's take a look at some of the most popular social media management tools in 2022 👇
Top 15 Social Media Management Tools in 2022
1. Buffer
Schedule posts and manage your social media in one platform
Description: Buffer has a free plan and is suitable for both individuals and enterprises. The free plan offers up to 3 social channels and 10 posts per channel.
Buffer also offers analytics, engagement and landing page tools, but these are not available on the free plan. It also does not support TikTok.
However, it's a great platform for creators to get started with scheduling posts.
Pros:
– Free plan
– Suitable for creators and enterprises
Cons:
– Analytics, engagement, and landing page tools not available on free plan
– No content library
– Does not support TikTok
2. Loomly
Loomly is a collaboration and content management tool for teams.
Description: Loomly brings social media posts and ads in one place and is also useful for collaboration, which is beneficial for marketing teams.
It can be thought of as a social media scheduling plus project management tool for marketing teams. Loomly is built for the enterprise use-case and does not have a free plan.
Pros:
– Collaboration and scheduling in one place
Cons:
– No free plan
– Expensive (base plan starts at $26/month yearly)
3. Later
Social media scheduler and link-in-bio tool
Description:
Later brings social media scheduling and link-in-bio in one place and is suited for creators. Later has a free plan but it is quite limiting (1 social set and 10 posts limit). Even the paid plans have a limit (30 posts and 60 posts, etc.), which makes it expensive very quickly.
Pros:
– Social media scheduling and link-in-bio
– Free plan
Cons:
– Paid plans quite limiting
– Expensive
4. HootSuite
Enterprise social media scheduling and messaging inbox platform
Description:
HootSuite is one of the first and original social media management tools in the market. They have a product with a very limited free plan (5 scheduled messages and 1 user) and are focused more on the enterprise end of the market.They also have an "Engage" product where you can listen to all incoming messages and reply from one inbox.
Pros:
– Free Plan
– Holistic social media management with several products
Cons:
– Very limited free plan
– Enterprise focus (not suitable for creators and SMBs)
– Very expensive paid plans (minimum plan starts at $49/month)
– Does not support TikTok
5. Social Pilot
Enterprise social media scheduling and messaging inbox platform
Description:
Social Pilot is targeted towards agencies and enterprises and includes scheduling, collaboration between team members, and a social inbox.They do not have a free plan and start at $30/month.
Pros:
– Scheduling, collaboration and social inbox in one platform (if you need all that)
Cons:
– No free plan
– Very expensive to start with, $30/month for base plan
– Does not support TikTok
6. MeetEdgar
AI based scheduling tool, automate your posts across social channels
Description:
MeetEdgar is an AI based scheduling tool that gives you content ideas everyday which will help you grow your social media accounts.
Pros:
– It saves you time with automation
Cons:
– No free plan
– Very expensive to start ($49/month)
– Does not support TikTok
7. Zoho Social
Social product by a B2B enterprise giant that is targeted towards agencies
Description:
Zoho Social brings all your channels in one place and has a content calendar along with scheduling. It does not have a free plan and starts at $15/month.
Pros:
– Paid plan is not too expensive ($15/month)
Cons:
– No free plan
– More focus towards agencies
8. Metigy
All in one marketing tool for SMEs
Description:
Metigy is an all-in-one marketing tool that consists of a content planning calendar, assets, social analytics and ads. Metigy has a limited free plan (20 scheduled posts and 3 social profiles).
Pros:
– Free plan
Cons:
– Paid plans are expensive ($25/month for base plan and only 50 scheduled posts)
– Free plan is quite limited (20 scheduled posts, 3 social profiles)
9. Sked Social
Sked Social is a social media scheduling and link in bio platform
Description:
Sked Social helps brands auto post across multiple channels and also includes collaboration and link-in-bio functionality. It does not have a free plan and the base plan (Fundamentals) starts at $25/month.
Pros:
– Social media scheduling and link-in-bio in one platform
Cons:
– No free plan
– Base plan is very expensive
10. CoSchedule
CoSchedule is a social media marketing platform for enterprises
Description:
CoSchedule is marketing calendar software for enterprise teams, and consists of a Marketing Calendar and Marketing Suite. The Marketing Calendar helps plan and schedule their content, while the Marketing Suite consists of collaboration and coordination products.
Pros:
– One platform for scheduling and coordinating marketing content
– Free plan
Cons:
– Product is not very user friendly
– Base paid plan is extremely expensive ($29/user/month)
– Free plan is very limited (2 social profiles and 5 social messages)
11. Tailwind
Tailwind is a Pinterest and Instagram post scheduler and automation tool
Description:
Tailwind is a marketing automation platform that helps you schedule posts on Pinterest and Instagram. It does have a free forever plan which is quite limited (20 posts/month).
Pros:
– Free forever plan
Cons:
– Product is quite difficult to use and buggy
– Only Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest platforms supported– Free plan is quite limited (20 posts per month)
12. Sprout Social
Sprout Social is an enterprise social media management suite
Description:
Sprout Social is a social media management platform for enterprises. It is an all-in-one solution with a social inbox, post scheduling, social media analytics, and social listening. It does not have a free plan.
Pros:
– Has a lot of product offerings (if you need so many different solutions that is)
Cons:
– No free plan
– Too expensive (base plan starts at $99/month 🤯)– Too many product offerings which drives up the prices quite a bit
13.SocialBee
SocialBee is a social media management and collaboration platform for agencies
Description:
SocialBee allows you to post on multiple platforms, analyze your post data and collaborate with your teammates. SocialBee does not have a free plan.
Pros:
– Simple to use
Cons:
– No free plan
– Base plan is a bit expensive (starts at $19/month)
14. Kontentino
All-in-one social media management platform for enterprises.
Description:
Kontentino is an all-in-one social media management platform for enterprises. Its feature set consists of social media publishing, engagement, and creating ads. Kontentino does not have a free plan and starts at $53/month.
Pros:
– All-in-one platform
Cons:
– No free plan
– Enterprise plan starts at $53/month
15. Falcon
All-in-one social media management, collaboration and workflow approval platform for enterprises.
Description:
Falcon is an all-in-one platform for social media marketing that helps you manage all your channels, analyze data, advertise and listen to your social media audience. It does not have a free plan.
Pros:
– Product suite is quite expansive and vast.
Cons:
– Very expensive platform (base plan starts at $129/per seat/ month)
– No free plan
Regardless of which platform you choose for your social media management needs, it is important to use one which will help you be significantly more productive and thus increase your reach tremendously. It's also a great initiative to build a community around your brand and we at Casa help creators and brands build their own community for customer engagement and product feedback.
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