The use of social media in businesses has skyrocketed in recent years, with more and more people engaging on these platforms every day. In fact, according to a Smart Insights report, 59% of the world’s population uses social media, and the On an average, a person spends around two and a half hours each day using digital devices. (Jan 2023).
Companies are putting their main focus on their social media actions to make sure that their goods and services get the most visibility possible. They're taking these steps very seriously and with great enthusiasm.
Companies are getting much savvier when it comes to making the most of their social media campaigns. They need sophisticated tools to measure, monitor, analyze, and; engage with customers on all platforms in order to maximize ROI and assess their overall marketing efforts. Companies should make use of social media management solutions to maximize their profit potential. These tools will help them optimize their marketing efforts and ensure they are getting maximum returns on their investments.
Having compared and ranked the top ten social media management tools, it is clear that using them can be beneficial for connecting and managing all the various networks in one convenient platform. That's why we decided to research this topic further. And did all the heavy lifting for you…You’re welcome!
Social media marketers need to keep up with the latest industry trends, enlarge their clientele, advertise blog articles efficiently, and swiftly curate content with the capacity to work together with their cohorts.
In addition, social media managers need to create marketing campaigns that perform with automated social media content and track their social media analytics in a way that helps them pivot where needed.
For marketing agencies overseeing a variety of brands, streamlining processes and automating tasks are essential for increasing productivity. In addition, having the capability to collaborate with teams and customers efficiently is critical.
The importance of reputation management and monitoring is growing fast. And is one of the most important aspects of the online business environment. As social media continues to evolve, companies are beginning to demand web listening capabilities from their social media platforms. This is becoming an increasingly popular feature that can be extremely beneficial for businesses.
While social listening has become a standard across many platforms over the past 5 to 10 years, web listening takes a bit more investment if you want to accomplish it and do it effectively in-house.
Figuring out the right social media management tool is key to maximizing the impact of your social campaigns. Regardless of whether you're a solo entrepreneur, an agency, or a large corporation, it's important to find the platform that best suits your specific business needs.
With dozens of social media schedulers out there, differentiating between them can be overwhelming. Although they may appear to have similar features, it is important to make sure that the tool you are opting for is comprehensive and offers all the features you need. While the list of standout features may go on and on, we bucket the main categories into:
Publishing and Scheduling
Unified Social Inbox
Integrated RSS Feeds
Social Monitoring
Competitor Analysis
Campaign Tracking
Custom Reporting
What Is A Social Media Software Tool?
Social media has quickly become a must-have for any modern business. It allows businesses to connect with customers from around the world with relative ease. However, managing 7 different social media accounts can be a burden. That is where social media management tools come into play.
By automating tasks a business can easily save time & money:
Posts Scheduling & Automation
Simplified Multi-Platform Management
Following & Engagement Analysis
And more
Nowadays, social media management tools are indispensable for any business looking to harness the power of social media for marketing purposes.
The reality is that we are living in an impulse-driven society driven by social media. Social media software tools are crucial for any business’s marketing strategy.
The team and I have done the research and gathered the 7 best social media management tools that are integrated with popular social media channels, so our readers can take advantage of them.
Why these 7 tools you may ask?
Each tool can be used for any size business; from solopreneurs to enterprises.
All tools have integrations of the most widely used social media platforms, specifically Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, Twitter, and YouTube
Here 7 of the best social media management tools for 2023:
1. eclincher – Best for Small Businesses and Agencies
Platforms: Facebook, Facebook Messenger, Instagram, Instagram Stories, Twitter, Google My Business, LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest, TikTok eclincher might just be the best kept secret in social media due to their grassroots ‘word of mouth’ content marketing efforts. eclincher, as brand advocates tote, has been reviewed as “the Swiss-army knife of social media”.
This platform offers more features and functionality to businesses, marketing companies, and larger teams than their competitors. Their customer service is of the highest quality. They provide attentive and personalized support with reliable response times, Dedicated Account Manager, VIP Support, and Advanced Reporting.
24/7 live chat support
1 on 1 demos or meetings
Listen to their customer’s feedback.
They have earned the moniker of 'best in class' for customer support on user review sites such as Capterra and GetApp.
You’ll capture some serious social media ROI using eclincher’s social media management tool. And capturing ROI is the most important thing. Centered around marketing automation, eclincher helps marketers and social media managers to save time using a single dashboard.
This digital marketing platform automates tasks such as:
Bulk scheduling
Publishing from smart queues and RSS feeds
Collecting and responding to all social media interactions in one inbox
Automated and custom analytics reports & team collaboration workflows.
In addition, you can find a comprehensive content scheduler and publisher, drag and drop visual calendar, campaign tracking, competitor analysis, and omnichannel customized social media post editing. This top rated powerful social media management tool, or a platform, has everything you need to execute your social media marketing strategy. If Instagram scheduling is top of mind you’ll love the Insta Link in bio traffic driver, custom Instagram grid planning, and being able to schedule Instagram posts, stories and carousels.
2. Hootsuite – Best for Small Businesses
Platforms: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, & Pinterest) Hootsuite was first on the social media marketing scene and has been around since 2008. Hootsuite is the most blogged about social media platform out there and you will find they exist on most listicles.
They are well known for content curation, organization, scheduling, monitoring, and RSS integration and have a notable reputation. We feel a lot of teams large and small start with Hootsuite and then scale to other services that might meet their needs better.
One of the remarkable achievements of Hootsuite is their enormous size and exemplary marketing strategy, along with their educational approach. Hootsuite Academy that helps you learn social media marketing and allows you to pay for certifications to arm you with the skills you need to be successful.
Hootsuite is a comprehensive social media management tool, as it allows you to schedule multiple posts simultaneously and includes client support. However, its features don't include Auto Post, Social Inbox or Influencer Search.
Their publishing and scheduling tools are recognized for their full integration capabilities, which includes powerful social listening features. Plus, you can take advantage of their 30-day free trial offer to test it out.
Pricing starts at $249/month (Team Plan) – Price increases for additional features.
3. Buffer – Best for Small Businesses
Platforms: Facebook, Instagram, Instagram Stories, Twitter, LinkedIn, & Pinterest Buffer is a comprehensive; easy-to-use social media tool that makes it simple to post content, interact with others, track metrics, and collaborate with team members.
Buffer is an easy-to-use and efficient social media management platform that assists brands, agencies, businesses, and individuals to get optimal results on their social media campaigns. It's renowned for its intuitive features and streamlined workflow, which have earned it the trust of many. Buffer allows you to post a limited number of posts but it also syncs with an RSS feed to make publishing blog posts easier. Additionally, by connecting with Reply, users can access a Social Inbox conveniently.
I wouldn’t recommend Buffer for podcasters or influencers. Also, businesses focusing on influencer marketing does not feature an influencer search and has a limited client management support system, but it is a very easy to use tool simplifying the content planning process.
Pricing ranges $72/month – $1440/month.
4. Loomly – Best for Entrepreneurs
Platforms: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Google My Business, LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest, & TikTok
This is a social media management tool for branding and content creation.
Compared to other social suites, Loomly is not a fully integrated solution as of yet, and due to its core focus on content creation, it, unfortunately, lacks features larger businesses find valuable such as listening and monitoring. This is why I recommend it for entrepreneurs.
Loomly offers a visual content calendar and automated suggestions to help social media managers plan ahead. They also offer tools for social listening, client monitoring and management, albeit with no built-in social inbox yet.
It also lacks an influencer search option, but we still think Loomly is a solution that might make great sense for some solopreneurs and small businesses.
Pricing is from $26/month – $269/month, billed annually.
5. Sprout Social – Best for Agencies
Platforms: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, & Pinterest Over the years, I have used Sprout Social to manage many teams. This platform has scaled well in terms of monitoring, scheduling posts, analytics, team management and approval workflows - making it a popular choice amongst professionals.
This social media management tool is perfect for those looking to get into employee advocacy, this is the ideal tool for managing such campaigns. This efficient platform is easy to use, offering basic features and allowing for custom ones upon request. It even provides individual statistics for each post - a feature that's not always found in competing products.
Sprout is one of the best social media management tools that offers post approvals and administering permission settings, which cater to digital agencies in addition to medium-sized businesses. They have always been seen as the best alternative to Hootsuite and Buffer, which shows the level of trust this platform has earned amongst digital marketing professionals.
If you are a business owner hiring a digital marketing manager or social media manager; ask them if they use or know of Sprout Social. If they don’t, find another candidate because this platform is on the level of Hootsuite, eclincher, and Buffer. The pros know it.
This social inbox tool is a great way to keep in touch with your audience and ensure that you know how people feel about your brand. It also has monitoring and keyword search capabilities. However, it lacks the Auto Post with queues feature and an influencer search feature, which could be useful additions.
Pricing starts at $249 per month – Increases $199 per user/month.
6. SocialPilot – Best for Agencies
Platforms: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Google My Business, LinkedIn, YouTube, & Pinterest SocialPilot is an all-in-one social media management solution for digital agencies and; medium-sized businesses looking to efficiently manage multiple accounts and; clients.
If your team is mostly interested in creating workflows with permission settings, collaboration tools, and custom reporting for clientele, SocialPilot is worth a look. While SocialPilot does provide the basics, their tool also includes a full social inbox feature allowing them to engage with their audience in addition to auto posting.
While they may not have an influencer search feature, their social monitoring and; listening capabilities are becoming increasingly important for businesses operating in remote environments. This particular function has emerged as a crucial feature that many now consider indispensable.
Pricing ranges from $50/month – $150/month.
7. Brandwatch – Best for Large Businesses
Platforms: Facebook, Facebook Messenger, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and TikTok This is a cloud-based social media marketing and customer experience management solution that features tools for social media listening, engagement, publishing content, measuring, and customer data management.
They are proud to offer a comprehensive social media management solution for entrepreneurs and; agencies alike. With features such as Auto-Queue and visual planning, users can create month-long plans for various social channels quickly and easily. It sounds like a lot because it is. If you run a large agency or large company with an entire digital marketing department, then Brandwatch is the platform for you. Outside of that, every other platform is ideal for almost any size business; due to this lack of flexibility, I can only recommend Brandwatch to companies that need an enterprise level solution.
They have a Social Inbox feature in addition to social monitoring and listening. They do not have an Influencer Search feature, yet they are a fully encompassed tool that is likely to serve businesses of any size. With Brandwatch, you can easily plan and create content collaboratively with your marketing team. The content calendar tool helps you to schedule the content efficiently.
It also facilitates the creation of pages using the campaign builder that consists of pre-designed templates providing APIs that deliver metrics on social data, audience, and content, for integration with existing client CRM, CMS, and analytics systems. So, it has more than a HubSpot but you get the CRM integration you need.
This social media management tool gives users access to multiple resources - guides, tutorials, email support, and ticket systems - on business days and custom hours over the weekend. You can expect 24/5 assistance with this software.
Pricing starts at $129 per user/month and increases based on custom features.
Final thoughts
The team and I felt it best not to include tools that only schedule, provide insights, and engagement for under 3 or less social media platforms. So, tools such as Tailwind which is only Pinterest, Instagram, and Facebook were not included, no matter how great they are. It's best practice to cast a wide net and find out which platform(s) your audience is on and engage with them there. Hard to do that if you are only working with 3 from the jump.
The reality is that we are living in an impulse-driven society with all kinds of artificial intelligence at the helm of technology innovation. This is no different in the world of social media management services. Your own business needs will dictate which type of social media management platform best fits your requirements, budget, and your preference.
With various price points serving the market and a plethora of features offered amongst social media management tools, we recommend you choose a partner that will save you and your team valuable time automating social media marketing processes, collaboration workflows, and actionable insights.
Take a look again at the features and prices listed for each app mentioned. And determine what matters most to you and your goals.
When deciding which tool to use for your business, it's important to make a list of your requirements and figure out which option fits the bill. Possibilities include an end-to-end solution to increase engagement and brand visibility, a lead generation system, or even a content monthly planner for social media posts; blogging. Prioritizing your business needs will help you pick out the right one.
I devote my professional life to helping entrepreneurs and small business owners reach their goals. So stay in touch by dropping a comment and connect on YouTube and Twitter!
I'm Ehren Muhammad, Founder of EMPro, Ltd
Let's connect!
YouTube: Ehren Muhammad channel
Twitter: ChiBrother85
EMPro, Ltd - Branding & Digital Marketing
Digital Solutions for Small Business
Chicago, IL
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