Top 10 Social Media Management Tools

In a previous article about content marketing for B2B practitioners we discussed about the importance of having a centralised system for managing and monitoring social media content. In this post we will focus on the Top 10 Social Management Management tools.

As with everything in business, organisation is one of the keys to success in marketing. Not only will using a social media management tool make your life substantially easier, it doesn’t need to go through budgeting approval – because there are many robust free tools out there to help you accomplish all of your social marketing goals.

Social management platforms will help you manage multiple social profiles in one place, schedule posts in advance, run contests, track analytics across platforms, and the list goes on. These tools really are game changers for your social strategy!

This is a list of the five best free social media management tools to incorporate into your marketing arsenal.

#1. Hootsuite

HootSuite has probably been around the longest (since 2008). It has all the various applications you need and some robust content features, as well. For example, it has content curation, organization, scheduling, and RSS integration.

Publishing & RSS – Hootsuite has bulk scheduling, which allows you to upload several posts at a time. However, it doesn’t have the Auto Post feature that recycles the content for you. It has a cool feature that allows you to create social sweepstakes or contests on social media. It also has RSS integrations, just like eClincher.

Social Engagement – Hootsuite doesn’t have a Social Inbox or anything like it. You have to manually engage with each follower by logging in to each social media account separately.

Influencer Search – Hootsuite doesn’t offer the ability to find influencers.

Client Management Support – Hootsuite has the basic team features, plus post-approval and custom branded URLs.

Supported Networks: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, WordPress

So what does the Hootsuite free plan include? This option is decently robust with the ability to:

• Manage 3 social profiles in one place
• Schedule 30 posts in advance
• Generate leads with social contests

The free plan also includes basic analytics for tracking followers and various growth and content statistics and two RSS feed integrations. Not too shabby!

#2. Buffer

Next up is Buffer. Similar to Hootsuite, Buffer has been in the social media management space for quite some time, and they are a respectable platform that allows you to manage multiple social profiles with ease.

With many overlapping features to Hootsuite, some of the favorite Buffer features include the ability to easily schedule content while browsing the web with their Chrome extensions. Buffer also suggests the perfect moments to post based on follower activity.

While there are a variety of options for larger organizations and agencies, the free plan just may suit your social media management needs. Buffer’s free plan includes the ability to manage three social profiles, schedule up to ten posts, utilize their browser extensions and mobile apps (iOS and android) feature, create and schedule content using their image creator and GIF/video uploader, and shorten and track links.

#3. TweetDeck

If Twitter is the bread and butter of your social media strategy, then TweetDeck is likely the best social management platform for you! TweetDeck will allow Twitter birds to use custom timelines, create and manage Twitter lists and searches, and add team accounts. It is also free for Twitter users!

While TweetDeck may not be the all-in-one platform you’re searching for, it is the perfect tool for social marketers managing multiple Twitter accounts where these live conversations are critical for business success.

#4. eClincher

eClincher is a comprehensive platform but simple to use. It has all the essential features a social media management tool should have, plus unique ones. These include auto posting with smart queues, social inbox, RSS feeds integration, auto posting, suggested content plus curation. They also include influencer discovery, custom analytics reports, Canva integration, media asset management, a free image library, and URL shorteners. Let’s look at a few of those.

Publishing & RSS – eClincher has a robust system for publishing content. One of the most liked features is the Auto Post with Queues. This allows users to automatically publish hundreds of posts for the next X number of months, with just a few clicks. eClincher offers the ability to recycle content as well as publish it once and remove it from the queue. There is RSS integration, which allows users to automatically publish blog posts (their own or industry blogs) onto their profiles. eClincher offers a scheduling tool with visual calendar, auto link shortening, free images, animated GIFs, and video publishing support.

Suggested Content allows you to use keywords or categories to quickly find articles to share with your audience.

Social Engagement

eClincher offers a Social Inbox which lets users manage all their social media engagement and interactions in one place. We’re talking about tweets, DMs, mentions, comments, likes, shares, new followers, even YouTube and Facebook Ad comments. There are social listening and monitoring features to help you monitor your brand, interact with followers, and start conversations.

Influencer Search – eClincher offers the ability to search for influencers on Twitter, view by topic, ranking, location, and interact.

Clients Management Support – If you are an agency or have a several clients that you manage, then this feature is perfect for you. eClincher offers a dedicated workplace for each client. They have a separate calendar, inbox, analytics, and assigned team members. You won’t ever get confused and will be able to keep everything organized and clean.

eClincher offers fully customized white label analytics reports, inbox workflow for teams, and internal/external post approval workflow.

Supported Networks: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Instagram Business, Google My Business, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube, Google Analytics

#5. Sprout Social

Sprout Social is similar to HootSuite and other social media tools in that it combines a variety of tools. It has monitoring, scheduling, analytics, the whole gamut.

Publishing & RSS – Sprout Social has some cool features when it comes to publishing. It has all the basics and a few more customized features. These include individual statistics on each post, and agency features such as post-approval. It does not have the Auto Post with queues feature.

Social Engagement – Sprout Social has the social inbox, which is great. It also has social monitoring and keyword searching features that help you monitor your brand on social media.

Influencer Search – Sprout Social doesn’t have an influencer search feature.

Clients Management Support – Sprout has the basic team features but not much else in this category.

Supported Networks: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn

#6. Sendible

Sendible is a tool that was built for agencies in mind. It has many features and includes a CRM, just like eClincher and Sprout Social.

Scheduling & RSS – Sendible has a Smart Queue feature similar to eClincher’s Auto Post. It helps you put your favorite posts on repeat. It also has a smart recommendation system that recommends the top posts for you.

Social Engagement – Sendible has the Social Inbox feature and it has team member features, just like eClincher’s. Sendible also has social listening features. These allow the user to monitor different keywords and see what is being said about their brand.

Influencer Search – Sendible doesn’t have an influencer search feature. It has a CRM that allows you to treat social interactions and people that you interact with like leads. It shows you the entire conversation history and different information about them.

Clients Management Support – Sendible has a separate dashboard for each client and even has a white label solution.

Sendible’s pricing is calculated per number of services. A service is a one-way interaction with any social media network. For example: posting and streaming to 1 Facebook page would count as 2 services.

Supported Networks: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, Google Analytics

#7. Social Pilot

 

Social Pilot is a great platform because it offers many features in one dashboard.

Scheduling & RSS – Social Pilot has the basic scheduling features (bulk scheduling included) but doesn’t have the Auto Post or Smart Queues. It does offer RSS integration and auto publishing.

Social Engagement – Social Pilot doesn’t have the Social Inbox feature or any social monitoring or listening features. It has content feeds where you can browse at different content and get ideas. However, you can’t engage with other social media enthusiasts (or your own followers).

Influencer Search – Social Pilot does not have any influencer features.

Client Management Support – Social Pilot allows you to connect your clients into the social media management system without needing their credentials. They also have post approval and a separate client dashboards.

Supported Networks: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, VK, Tumblr

#8. Agora Pulse

 

Agora Pulse has a variety of features that are really useful. These include social engagement, publishing, listening, reports, and team collaboration.

Scheduling & RSS – Agora Pulse has the Auto Post feature, where you can queue evergreen posts (indefinitely). You can put labels on your content that allow you to retrieve and analyze each post (or an entire category).

Social Engagement – Agora Pulse has the Social Inbox feature, where you can interact with every follower and message in one place. You can also view every single profile, just like you can with eClincher. It does have social monitoring and keyword searches.

Influencer Search – Agora Pulse does not have any influencer features.

Clients Management Support – Agora Pulse has the basic team sharing features, plus content approval from clients. It also has the ability to assign messages to clients, which is pretty cool.

Supported Networks: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube

#9. CoSchedule

CoSchedule is known for its social calendar feature. The whole platform is positioned to help you schedule and organize all of your social media posts. What’s really cool is that the CoSchedule blog is one of the top blogs on content marketing.

Scheduling & RSS – Generally, CoSchedule has all basic publishing features, as well as something called ReQueue. This is an intelligent piece of software that schedules only the top posts in your social history.

Social Engagement – CoSchedule doesn’t have social engagement features or social monitoring, listening, or keyword searches.

Influencer Search – CoSchedule does not have any influencer features.

Clients Management Support – CoSchedule has a separate dashboard for each client, task templates that you can re-use, social approval, and custom reports.

Supported Networks: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Tumblr

#10. 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.

Final Thoughts

If you have a need for a particular feature, then you can find exactly the tool that you need. But if you are looking for a social media management tool that has all the features to boost your engagement, get more leads, and grow your business with powerful social media presence and engagement, then HootSuite, Buffer, and eClincher is the best tools for you. At the end of the day you can’t go wrong moving onto a social media management tool – it will likely save you time, grow your social presence, and quickly recoup their cost.