Unless you have been living on a desert island for the past 20 years, you will be aware of the impact and indeed the influence that social media has had on our lives. It has many uses including staying in touch with family, providing the means for giving your personal opinion on just about everything there is to, and most importantly for any business, you are running, marketing.
If your business is not yet using social media in any way, then you are missing out on a huge opportunity. If you are but are not seeing the results you had hoped for then the reason might be that you are not managing your social media campaigns effectively. The resolution to the former issue is to start using it now, and to the former, start using social media marketing tools and software. To help you choose, here is a quick guide to 7 of the best social media marketing tools.
Social Pilot
For any business that is seeking a cost-effective and simple social media management tool, you will find that Social Pilot fits that description. It has an easy to understand interface that allows you to schedule all your social media posts and to analyse their performance. Another great feature is its content curation which suggests posts from several business sectors. Has a 14-day free trial and affordable tiered price plans based on the number of social media accounts.
CoSchedule
This could be described as a hybrid tool that not only lets you manage your social media campaigns but also helps you plan and schedule your other marketing activities. Its ReQueue function provides a means to automatically schedule posts for optimal times. This tool can integrate with many other platforms including WordPress, HubSpot and Zapier. It has a free 14-day trial and very affordable monthly fees.
MeetEdgar
Apart from a great name and logo, this social media tool has a huge range of features to assist with the scheduling and management of your social media. It can be operated via a browser extension, and once you have created posts it will shuffle and schedule them for you. It comes with analytics so that you can assess engagement and responses. Has a 7-day trial and one of the lowest monthly fees for this type of software.
Buffer
Buffer is another social media tool that is ideal for those with limited budgets given that it has a free plan which has no time limit, and its paid plan levels, are very affordable. As for its features, they include scheduling posts, a calendar view for the entire campaign, and the ability to create your own video thumbnails.
Sprout Social
Those looking for comprehensive social media management software that brings all the tools you need within one interface will find Sprout Social a highly desirable asset to have. It provides features to schedule your social media posts and analyse them with the information displayed on some of the best looking reports you will find. It also includes CRM features to enhance your prospect engagement and communication.
Hootsuite
Arguably one of the top software of its type and certainly a social media tool with a massive number of users, including many Fortune 1000 businesses, Hootsuite has a comprehensive list of features. These include curating, advance scheduling, analytics, and ROI assessment of your social media posts. You can also use it to manage your social media paid advertising.
Zoho Social
The most comprehensive of all the social media tools we have highlighted, Zoho is an all-in-one marketing suite that is most suited to larger companies and marketing agencies who wish to manage social media for clients. Apart from social media management tools, it has excellent CRM tools, it can be used to manage email marketing, and you can even use it to set up a ticket system for customer support and sales enquiries.