Social Media Scheduling Tools reduce the amount of time spent on social media. Why post content to individual platforms when you can post to several simultaneously? Social media scheduling tools also allow you to schedule your posts months in advance if needed.

Here are a few scheduling programs to consider.

I’m familiar with Hootsuite as I’ve used it for myself and several of my clients for years. I like the ease of use, ability to multi-schedule posts, and easy-to-understand analytics. Do your research and let me know what you decide. (Please verify pricing information as what I have included here may be a bit outdated.)

• Hootsuite. Hootsuite offers free, paid and enterprise versions. 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.
• Sprout Social. Sprout Social is $60 per month and allows publishing to Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. It claims to look for hidden engagement opportunities through its use of monitoring tools and analytics.
• Buffer. It offers free and paid options and is similar to Hootsuite but offers a chance to dial posting times in more specifically.
• Facebook. Facebook has an easy-to-use scheduling feature which I encourage you to use even if you never consider any of these other programs! It will definitely save you time.

Instagram

• Iconosquare. Consider this program if you’d like more marketing options and are willing to pay a minimum of $49/per Instagram account.
• Sked Social. This program begins at $25 for a freelancer profile. My thought is, if you’re only posting to Instagram, why pay for a program? Because you’ll get analytics.

Pinterest

• TailWind. Various plans are available and the website claims that “Tailwind is focused on visual social content — particularly Pinterest and Instagram. For Pinterest, you can use this tool to schedule posts, find trends through insights, monitor your brand, launch contests or promotions and get access to analytics and reporting. For Instagram, you can take advantage of the Instagram “listening” feature, schedule posts, monitor hashtags, manage your audience, manage user-generated content and also get access to analytics and reporting.”

Twitter

• TweetDeck manages multiple accounts, follows specific hashtags, replies to other users and accesses real-time tweets.

Jules Marie is a freelance writer and certified social media manager. Meet her at www.33Words.us