Best Free Social Media Tools for [current_date format=’Y’]
I have compiled a list of twelve social media management tools, and will be giving the following information on each one; I’ll provide their names if they have costs associated with them, any specific or notable features, and a potential use case within the world of influencing and social media.
#1 – Buffer
Regarded by many as one of the best social media management tools out there, Buffer is renowned for its clean and simple interface combined with a wealth of powerful tools to not only manage but also analyze your digital channels of communication.
Specific / Notable Features: Buffer provides help in three key areas of social media management; publishing, analytics, and engagement. They break the process down into those key steps and focus on first creating and publishing high-quality content using their platform tools, then gathering data on the performance of those posts, and finally creating detailed interaction plans for comments and viewer engagement.
Potential Use Case: Buffer can almost be used anywhere, from figuring out what a specific Twitter audience will retweet more to creating high-quality Instagram content. The three tools work seamlessly yet stand up on their own feet and can be used separately for almost any use case you can think of.
#2 – Hootsuite
Hootsuite is one of, if not the most, well-known social media management tools out there. Its main focuses lie on a more personalized development plan for your audience, and it focuses heavily on team collaboration to grow not just single accounts but multiple or even team digital platforms.
Specific / Notable Features: Hootsuite allows for the ability to schedule social media posts to be made live at a certain time in the future. Posts can be scheduled across multiple social media networks, allowing for the ability to synchronize your content across multiple accounts to create maximum engagement. The analytics presented with Hootsuite at top of the range, allowing for a wide range of information to perfect your future content.
Potential Use Case: Hootsuite is suitable for content creators or influences who have a lot of platforms that they rely on engagement from all.
#3 – Sprout Social
Sprout Social is a social media management tool that is slightly more marketing leaning, alongside having a strong branding image. It begins to edge outside of social media management and into the rest of your marketing strategy across all areas digital and sometimes not.
Specific / Notable Features: If you manage to drag your eyes off of the clean, simple marketing then you will find a wealth of features. Namely, there are well-polished iOS and Android mobile apps, as well as a large focus on keyword and location monitoring to allow for specifically targeted marketing towards various countries.
Potential Use Case: Sprout Social would be good for all levels of creator and influencer, but seems to gear more towards Facebook and Twitter users who may also want the added convenience of being able to go from their mobile.
#4 – Agora Pulse
Agora Pulse is another very well branded software whose main focus seems to be presenting clear and concise results, without any extremely complicated or unnecessary baggage added.
Specific / Notable Features: Agora Pulse not only provides their own software, but also a wealth of resources available to all users which helps them to stand out from the crowd; namely a blog, free tools, and its own ‘Social Media Laboratory’.
Potential Use Case: This software seems to be geared at beginners who may be new to social media management and people who don’t want or cannot understand hugely complicated sets of data and reports.
#5 – Sendible
Sendible is a social media management platform designed specifically for agencies to design at a large scale. They boast more integrated platforms than any other tool, integrating the likes of Pinterest, LinkedIn, and Google My Business alongside the general social media – giving many tools for large agencies to manage their clients and followers with.
Specific / Notable Features: Sendible has a huge arsenal of tools and resources available to its clients, and all of them have a unique spin to be geared towards its userbase of agencies. Their main focus is on creating a robust and strong community that helps new members stick around for a long time.
Potential Use Case: This is clearly aimed at larger agencies and companies who want to integrate social media into their product portfolio.
#6 – Tweet Deck
Tweet Deck is a very basic yet effective way of managing your Twitter posts all at once. It allows you to view multiple timelines in a single interface, alongside multiple features which are more advanced. It is completely free.
Specific / Notable Features: TweetDeck is an official tool that Twitter has provided to allow influencers to manage their tweets from multiple timelines and accounts more easily. It also allows you to view, like, and comment on these accounts and create filters based on them.
Potential Use Case: This platform is good for Twitter-only influencers who only want to manage their tweets from multiple accounts and get an overview of responses and likes from all of them at once.
#7 – Mailchimp
Mailchimp is a software built for creating a mailing list for a set of clients but has now expanded into a social media management tool as well. It features a very clear interface and can provide great results on both a free and paid model.
Cost: There is a free plan which includes the marketing tools, website builder, forms and landing pages, and a creative assistant.
Specific / Notable Features: Mailchimp has one of the widest range of tools available throughout the various tiers, including; email support, custom branding, email templates, website builders, targeted behavioral patterns, personalized customer journey, and more.
Potential Use Case: Mailchimp is a fantastic starting point for anyone who wants to get into marketing and social media, allowing for a great way to kickstart an influencer career.
#8 – Social Oomph
Social Oomph is a free social media scheduling tool that has a heavy focus on blog and post-administration – offering tons of different post-administration tools to help you.
Specific / Notable Features: Focusing almost entirely on posts themselves, SocialOomph provides simpler features such as self-destructing posts after an amount of time and also queues of posts – but also more technologically advanced features such as RSS feeds and webhooks to enhance posting capability.
Potential Use Case: This is good for social media where posting spiels of text, which may need to be linked to other things, is the main focus of your influencer engagement.
#9 – Friends + Me
Friends + Me is a social media platform engagement tool that focuses mainly on engagement, scheduling, and overall general administration. It has a nice name and clean branding as well, providing for a great user experience.
Specific / Notable Features: They generally provide much the same as other social media management tools, but do have some small quality of life changes to make your life easier; such as open team support, shortening of links, and browser extensions.
Potential Use Case: This is a good platform for someone who wants to have a free social media management tool that has powerful features and a basic, yet simple, design.
#10 – Later
Later is an all-in-one social media marketing platform that is aimed at the Instagram platform, allowing you to just analyze, plan and publish posts in single clicks as advertised on their site. They have been endorsed or used by multiple larger brands or publications, including The Wall Street Journal.
Cost: There is a free plan for no cost, a Starter plan at $15 per month, a Growth plan at $25 per month and an Advanced Plan at $40 per month.
Specific / Notable Features: It links in with all of Instagram’s main features, including the ability to build feeds, contact sales teams and share photos, videos and stories.
Potential Use Case: This would be perfect for Instagram users who would want the ability to take their accounts to the next level for a price tag of £0.