As an IT marketing professional, I know all too well the challenges of staying on top of your social media marketing tasks. Whether you’re a solo creator building a personal brand or managing social media accounts for a business, there’s a lot to think about – from creating and publishing content to analytics and reporting. It’s a full-time job in itself!
Thankfully, there are plenty of great social media management tools available to help streamline your workflows, save time, and ensure your content reaches the right audience at the right time. But with so many options, how do you decide which product to use? Enter this guide.
The Ultimate Social Media Toolkit
In this comprehensive guide, I’ll break down some of the best social media management tools out there, categorized into two sections: tools for small-to-medium businesses and those designed for enterprise-level teams. Of course, there’s room for maneuver in these categories – a tool on the second list might suit a smaller business, and vice versa.
This round-up of social media management software is not arranged in any particular order, as all of them are great in their unique ways. If there’s a reason you love a tool and I didn’t mention it, feel free to give it a shout in the comments section to help others understand more about that software.
Social Media Tools for Small-to-Medium Businesses
1. Buffer
Buffer is an intuitive, streamlined social media management platform trusted by small businesses and individual creators to help drive meaningful engagement and growth on social media. From a single dashboard, you can manage every aspect of your social media presence.
As a Bufferoo, I’m definitely biased. But I’ve worked as a social media manager and creator for many years (longer than I’d care to admit), and I’ve been around the block when it comes to social media tools. No matter what, I keep coming back to Buffer.
Let’s take a closer look at why:
Scheduling and Calendars: With Buffer’s post scheduling tools, you can schedule posts to go out at specific times and even cross-post to multiple social media profiles simultaneously. The platform also has a robust social media calendar to help you map out your content across all your channels, with a handy drag-and-drop feature that lets you reschedule posts.
Content Creation: Buffer offers a range of features to help cut back your content creation time, like a built-in image editor, a link shortener, and the ability to easily repurpose and rewrite your best-performing content.
Engagement and Analytics: Responding thoughtfully to your social media comments is essential when building an engaged following. Buffer’s social media engagement tools surface all your Facebook page and Instagram comments in a single place, so you can respond to them right in the platform. The platform also provides in-depth analytics to help you make sense of your social media performance and take action.
Customizable Landing Pages: Buffer’s Start Page is a versatile tool that can function as a link-in-bio or even a microsite or landing page for you or your business. With plenty of beautiful templates and customization options, you can ensure your page matches your brand’s style – or just feels like yours.
Content Inspiration and Organization: If you’re anything like pre-Buffer me, you currently have 345 uncategorized notes on your phone, 13 scraps of paper, a forgotten spreadsheet, and an old napkin where you track your content ideas. Buffer’s Create space lets you store all those random thoughts, drafts, links, and inspiration in one place, organized and ready to go.
AI-Powered Content Creation: Creating content for multiple platforms daily can take its toll, but Buffer’s social-media-savvy AI assistant can help lighten the load. From creating posts from scratch to repurposing your best-performing content for other platforms, it will help you create more, faster.
Overall, Buffer’s clean, intuitive tools, friendly and timely customer support, and helpful content make it a standout social media management platform for small-to-medium businesses.
2. Hootsuite
Hootsuite is an all-in-one platform that allows you to curate and schedule content, measure your social metrics, run social media ads, and more. Its unique value lies in its ability to monitor your social media presence across multiple accounts and keywords, as well as connect with over 35 social media networks and bulk-schedule social media posts.
3. Sprout Social
Like Hootsuite, Sprout Social combines several social media tools into one platform – from social media scheduling to social media monitoring to its analytics tool for better reporting. What sets Sprout Social apart is its customer relationship management (CRM) features, making it one of the few social media management tools that provide these capabilities.
4. Agorapulse
Agorapulse is another all-in-one social media scheduling platform with scheduling, responding, and reporting features. Its unique features include competitor analysis and social listening.
5. Sendible
Sendible is a social media management tool built specifically for agencies with several clients. In addition to the typical features, Sendible allows users to create customizable dashboards according to their branding to attract new clients. It also has impressive integrations, such as the Canva graphics editor, royalty-free image search, and YouTube search.
6. eClincher
eClincher enables you to schedule and publish posts, respond to social messages through its social inbox, and analyze your social media performance. It differs from other tools by offering auto-posting with smart queues and RSS feeds, a media library for your images, and the ability to search for social media influencers.
7. Social Pilot
I like how Social Pilot fits many social media management tools, such as scheduling and analytics, but not monitoring, into a simple dashboard and offers it at affordable prices. With its client management feature, I believe it’s great for agencies with multiple team members and several clients. Another valuable feature is its white-label reports, which are especially handy for agencies.
8. CoSchedule
CoSchedule makes a simple promise: it has the best marketing calendar. With CoSchedule, you can manage and collaborate with your team to create social media posts, content, events, and tasks. Its unique value lies in its ability to help content marketers organize all their projects, social media content, events, emails, etc., and foster team collaboration in one place.
9. MavSocial
MavSocial is a social media management tool with a focus on visual content. In addition to the usual features, it has a digital library where you can manage, use, and edit your multimedia for your social media posts, as well as a search engine where you can browse through millions of stock photos. MavSocial also connects to Tumblr, which not many other tools do.
10. Crowdfire
Crowdfire has been adding new features over the years. Besides scheduling content, it allows you to manage your Twitter account, follow and unfollow, and suggests articles for sharing. Crowdfire stands out from most social media management tools in that it lets you connect your blogs, YouTube channels, and online shops, and will create social media posts for every update you have on your sites.
Social Media Tools for Enterprise-Level Teams
If none of the tools above suit your social media strategy, you may need something more comprehensive. Here are six social media management tools generally designed for larger enterprise teams. Most of these tools do not list their prices on their website, but they offer demos.
1. Sprinklr
Sprinklr is a suite of products to help enterprises connect and serve their customers across any channel at scale. It enables enterprise teams to collaborate effectively and reach, listen to, and engage customers on more than 25 social channels.
2. Oktopost
Oktopost is a social media management platform catered to B2B marketers who want to generate leads through social media and quantify the business value of their social media efforts. Oktopost has all the tools most B2B marketers could want, from social media management to promotion to employee advocacy.
3. Brandwatch
Formerly Falconio, Brandwatch’s social media management tool combines everything social media marketers would need in one platform: social media management, engagement and analytics, customer experience management, and a DIY landing page builder.
4. HubSpot
HubSpot’s social media management tools are part of their all-in-one marketing platform. As HubSpot integrates all your marketing efforts, such as social media, email, SEO, and CRM, into a single platform, you can easily compare your results across your marketing channels and measure your social ROI.
5. Khoros
Formerly Spredfast, Khoros is social media software used by some of the world’s biggest companies to handle all aspects of their social media management. They also offer a tool to help enterprise companies build communities.
6. Reputation
Formerly NUVI, Reputation provides real-time data visualization and social media insights to help you decide your social media strategy. It also gives you the tools to publish and engage on social media efficiently.
The Right Tools for Your Social Media Strategy
Social media management tools come in all shapes and sizes, and what suits you best depends on your social media goals and needs. I hope I’ve mentioned at least one tool that might suit your needs. If your favorite tool is on the list, I would love to hear what you love about it. And if I’ve missed your favorite tool, please leave a comment below and share why you love it.
Remember, no matter which tools you choose, the key is to find the ones that align with your organization’s goals and streamline your social media marketing efforts. With the right arsenal of tools, you can create, curate, publish, schedule, analyze, and so much more – all while driving bigger business, attracting new audiences, and increasing engagement.
Ready to dominate the social landscape? Start filling your toolkit with the right tools today. And if you need help figuring out where to start, try a free trial of IT FIX or get in touch with one of our social media professionals.
