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Social media is one of the most powerful marketing tools for your blog or small business. Platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter reach billions of users, and they’re a great way to make a personal connection with your audience and grow a following.
But posting on social media manually can be time-consuming and difficult, making this once-fun marketing channel feel like a huge chore. Fortunately, there are social media tools that automate your posts for you.
The best social media management tools can post updates across your accounts, schedule future posts, and help you determine the best time to post on social media, along with showing you analytics about your followers.
I’ve collected and reviewed the best paid and free social media management tools to streamline your social media presence and grow an audience of raving fans.
- 9 best social media management tools
9 best social media management tools
Are you ready to make your social media efforts a whole lot easier? Here are the best social media management tools to run and grow your accounts, along with their pros, cons, and pricing.
1. Hootsuite
Best for: An in-depth analysis of your performance across all your social networks. Hootsuite is one of the best social media management tools out there. By tracking your performance, HootSuite helps you easily identify loopholes, set targets, and plan your content all in one place.
HootSuite helps you plan, create, and schedule your content before publishing it to the right channels, at the right time. It comes with team features for your social media management team, the ability to assign tasks to specific individuals or teams, and a Hootsuite Academy for further training on social media management.
Pros
- Supports all major social media platforms
- Comes with a 30-day free trial
- Trusted by industry-leading brands
- Has an easy-to-use interface
- Provides training and certification for new users
Cons
- The free plan has limited features
Hootsuite pricing
HootSuite’s cheapest plan starts at $29 per month, but it comes with a free 30-day trial period so you can test it out before buying.
2. Sprout Social
Best for: Bloggers and small businesses who are already earning some money from their business. Sprout Social is rich with features, but it has higher pricing than some other tools.
Sprout Social is one of the most popular social media management tools. It boasts a list of high-profile clients, including VICE, Glassdoor, Loews Hotels, Shopify, Evernote, and Subaru. This software pledges an excellent return on investment, customer support and satisfaction, and usability.
Pros
- Comes with a unified social inbox for enhanced engagement
- Supports teamwork with effortless planning, creating and publishing of social content
- Has powerful analytics tools for strategic decision making
- Uncovers trends from social conversations to create effective marketing strategies
Cons
- Significantly more expensive than some other social media management tools
- May have a social profile limit, depending on your subscription
Sprout Social pricing
Sprout Social plans start at $99 per month and go up from there. Below are some of the features that come with each plan:
3. Zoho Social
Best for: Managing relationships with your customers. Zoho Social is an all-inclusive tool to manage your emails, social media, inboxes, accounting, live chat, and other related tasks from one platform.
Zoho Social is a feature-rich tool that allows you to do lots of things from a single platform. Its customer relationship management (CRM) tool lets you not only manage your social media, but also manage other projects, such as emails, accounting, and more.
Pros
- Powerful CRM tool for better customer relationship management
- One of the most affordable social media management tools available
- Comes with help desk capabilities to manage your customer conversations from one platform
- Supports several add-ons, such as invoices and forms, for the ultimate user experience
Cons
- Free trial only lasts for 15 days
- CRM tool may require additional payment
Zoho Social pricing
Compared to other plans we have reviewed so far, Zoho is one of the most affordable, yet still offers lots of features. Here’s the pricing on its various plans:
4. Sendible
Best for: Comprehensive integration. Sendible supports at least 26 social networks, which means a wider reach for your content.
Sendible offers some of the most comprehensive integration; it supports Google My Business, Medium, Canva, Slack, Google Analytics, Tumblr and more all from one platform.
Pros
- Integrates at least 26 social media networks and other platforms
- Provides content suggestions to help you beat your competitors
- Supports bulk scheduling so you can focus on optimizing
- Lets you automatically share and draft relevant content with its auto post RSS feed
- Comes with a content library to store hashtags and canned responses
Cons
- Free trial only lasts for 14 days
- Basic plan supports only one user, despite being $29 per month
Sendible pricing
Here’s how much you’ll pay if you subscribe to Sendible, after its free trial.
5. Buffer
Best for: Bloggers who are operating on a tight-budget and are looking for a low-cost or free social media management tool that works with the major platforms.
Buffer is one of the best free social media management tools available. This tool is ideal if you’ve just started blogging and you are looking to grow an audience on social media without spending money. The only major drawback of the free plan is that it may not connect to all the channels you want to use.
Pros
- Has a free plan available
- Paid plan is also affordable, and comes with a 14-day free trial
- Integrates with Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and LinkedIn
- Has apps for both Android and iOS users
- Provides daily updates and metrics from multiple social channels
Cons
- Free plan has limited features
- Software does not integrate with some major social media networks ,such as YouTube
- Most expensive plan only allows up to six users
Buffer pricing
Buffer is built for affordability; here’s a quick look at its plans:
6. SocialBee
Best for: Authors, coaches, and solopreneurs (such as bloggers) who are looking for an affordable social media tool that integrates with Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Google My Business.
SocialBee stands out because of its ability to recycle (or repost) evergreen content while also keeping it fresh to ensure that your social media profiles are constantly updated and never empty. Here are some of the best reasons to use SocialBee for your social media management needs.
Pros
- Has a bulk editor to help you make changes to multiple posts at once
- Lets you post the same content multiple times, but with new variations
- Supports category-based scheduling for a better-looking and cleaner social media feed
- Recycles your content to keep your feed constantly updated
- Comes with collaboration features for teamwork
- Provides comprehensive analysis, including activity and audience status
- Has a 30-day money-back guarantee
Cons
- The free trial lasts only 14 days
SocialBee pricing
SocialBee may not be the cheapest social media management tool out there, but its pricing is reasonable.
7. Friends+Me
Best for: Bloggers who want to reach their audience on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Tumblr without paying a cent.
As a beginner blogger, you need a social media management tool that can help you use the most popular networks without digging deep into your pockets. This is the advantage you get when you choose Friends+Me as your social media management tool. Here’s why:
Pros
- Integrates with major social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Google Plus and Pinterest
- Comes with a free plan
- Has a mobile application for both Android and iOS devices
- Supports link shortening to make your posts neater
- Has desktop applications for MacOS, Linux and Windows
- Comes with a web browser extension to help you manage your posts from anywhere
- Has team support features for better coordination and teamwork
- Supports bulk scheduling to save time
Cons
- Does not integrate with some major social networks such as Instagram and YouTube
- With the basic plan, you can only schedule up to 5 posts at a time
Friends+Me pricing
This social media management tool may have limited features and integration, but it’s all about affordability. Here’s look at its pricing:
8. Post Planner
Best for: Bloggers who need help planning their content and generating fresh ideas. It has a “Find tool” that helps you discover ideas, create content, and schedule it at the best time to post on social media.
Post Planner is one of the most affordable social media management tools, but it still supports some of the most important social networks for sharing blog posts. It integrates with Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter to help you reach more readers at a lower budget.
Pros
- Comes with a star rating feature to help you plan your next post and predict engagement
- Helps you create topic-based content streams
- Provides 24/7 recommendations to ensure that you don’t run out of content ideas
- Shows popular topics based on specific niches to help you generate more content ideas
- Has an easy-to-use interface with folders to organize your content
- The automated publishing plan helps you choose when and what to post
Cons
- It integrates with a limited number of social networks
- Its starter plan is cheaper, but has limited features
- Does not offer a free trial, at the time of writing
Post Planner pricing
This tool is quite affordable, and considering the many features it comes with, it may be worth the money.
9. CrowdFire
Best for: Bloggers with a shoe-string budget who want to dive deep into their social media analytics.
It is impossible to discuss the best social media managing software without mentioning CrowdFire. This tool lets you manage all your social media content from one place, while providing helpful support along the way.
Pros
- CrowdFire is available on both the Apple App Store and Google Play Store
- Its analytics come with custom professional reports to help improve your content
- Has competitor analysis tools to keep you above the competition
- Lets you preview your posts before publishing
- Recommends the best time to post on social media
- Has a “queue meter” that indicates whether you have enough content for the next seven days
Cons
- Supports a limited number of social networks
- Free plan does not support video posts
- You cannot schedule bulk posts with the free plan
CrowdFire pricing
CrowdFire’s free version makes this tool great for beginner bloggers who are yet to make money blogging. However, even if they choose to upgrade to the “Plus” plan, it is still affordable compared to some of the other tools on this list.
So, what’s the best social media management tool?
Social media management tools come with a variety of different features and functionalities to help manage your social networks. The best tool is the one that suits your specific priorities, whether that includes in-depth analytics, a low monthly cost, specific social media platforms, or other factors.
Fortunately, there are free social media management tools for beginner bloggers, though they have more limitations than the paid plans. On the other hand, some paid plans may have features that are too advanced for your needs at your current stage.
So before choosing a tool, figure out exactly what you’re looking for in a social media management tool. Once you’ve clarified your social media goals, you can select a tool that will help you grow an audience of raving fans who love your content and can’t wait to see what you’re going to share next.
