Best Social Media Scheduling Tools for Business Owners
Here are a few of the best Social Media Scheduling Tools for Business Owners
Social Media Scheduling Tools reduce the amount of time spent posting to social media. Many of the scheduling tools offer you the opportunity to post to several platforms simultaneously. As an example, I use LATER for one of my clients and I can write one post and then simply click the icons for Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc. Just one post can appear in many places so consider using a scheduling tool.
Social media scheduling tools also allow you to schedule your posts days or months in advance, and at particular times, as needed, which enhances your marketing strategy. Of course, you still want to post realtime content along with your scheduling content.
There are so very many scheduling tools these days! Here are just a few that I’ve used.
Hootsuite offers free, paid and pro options. Advanced versions allow for increased scheduling options and analytics. It eases monitoring of customer engagement and conversations when ‘comments’ and ‘mentions’ are added to the customizable dashboard. It’s mobile-friendly and easily accessible on a tablet or mobile device. The free version has limited features.
Later allows scheduling to Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, LinkedIn and TikTok.
Sprout Social provides social media management tools for small businesses, agencies and enterprise accounts. Standard Plan pricing starts at $99 a month; the Professional Plan is $149 per month and the Advanced Plan is $249 per month. They offer a free trial version for a limited time. They work with Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest. They also claim they can mine social data and activate social listening and they look for hidden engagement opportunities through its use of monitoring tools and analytics.
Like many scheduling tools, Buffer allows you to schedule posts, analyze performance and manage your social accounts all in one place. Buffer offers a free option allowing you to schedule up to 10 posts per social channel on a maximum of three social media platforms. Their “Essentials” plan allows for unlimited social channels but you pay based on how many posts you schedule. They also claim to offer a solution to make social engagement and conversations easier for an additional cost and also for a service they refer to as “Buffer Analyze”.
Iconosquare is a social media management tool for Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and TikTok. Consider this scheduling program if you’d like additional marketing options and are willing to pay a minimum of $49/per month.
It also allows you to manage multiple brands on Instagram and Facebook on one dashboard. It allows tagging of users and accounts and it tracks the effectiveness of the hashtags used. They provide in-depth, easy-to-read analytics (they all say that!) and the ability to monitor competitor activity. Iconosquare’s “free tools” tab on the menu bar offers a free download of a social media calendar chockfull of content ideas.
Meta Business Suite for Facebook and Instagram Scheduling
Facebook has an easy-to-use scheduling feature in “Business Manager” which allows you to post to Facebook and Instagram. It also offers helpful insights to help you determine what works and what doesn’t.
SkedSocial’s program allows you to post to multiple platforms including Google Business Profile. This program begins at $25 and can be customized based on needs.
Tailwind promotes its service as your marketing solution for winning on Pinterest and Instagram. Their tool allows you to discover content, schedule posts, monitor conversations, amplify reach and analyze results. The tool also recommends hashtags to use. They offer a “free forever” account and pricing begins at $12.99 per month.
Jules Marie is a certified social media specialist in Westcliffe, Colorado. Call her at 303-478-7863 or email Jules@33words.us
