So, we’ve compiled a list of some of the best options, in our opinion, and what makes each of them so great, so that you don’t have to do any of the dirty work!
Buffer
Buffer is a content publishing platform that allows you to plan, schedule and publish your content on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and LinkedIn with ease, all from one simple dashboard. Their software is very user-friendly, and the platform is well-suited to bloggers, entrepreneurs and SME owners who are looking to get ahead of their social media strategy.
We feel that Buffer ticks all the boxes when it comes to social media scheduling, and know a few people who have had great success using this tool. The platform even goes beyond content planning and scheduling, with a community management function that helps build relationships between a brand and its customers, and a social media analytics and reporting function to help measure ROI and create reports.
Sprout Social
Similarly to Buffer, Sprout Social offers a one-stop social media management solution, where you can manage everything associated with your social media marketing, including content curation, publishing, scheduling, reporting and analytics. Catered to businesses and agencies of all sizes, the platform is great at helping users to visualise and manage all content on one comprehensive calendar.
Sprout Social also provides opportunity for automation, with exciting features like a Bot Builder, which allows you to create social chatbots that are capable of responding to direct messages with predetermined responses based on customizable workflow. Or, ViralPost, which analyses your audience engagement to optimise the time when you send out posts, ensuring that your content is published when your audience is most active. And to top that all off, you can try Sprout Social out for yourself without any commitment using their 30-day free trial.
SocialBee
SocialBee, much like Buffer and Sprout Social, makes it easier for companies and individuals to manage their social media while improving engagement within a brand’s community; but is their slogan, “get more leads, with less effort,” true to form? The scheduling platform supports all leading social networks, although it doesn’t have a direct Pinterest integration.
SocialBee allows you to organise posts into different categories (e.g. technology, social media, affiliate marketing) and apply specific settings to each of them. You can mark a category as either ‘evergreen’ or ‘share once’. SocialBee will automatically share your evergreen content on connected social accounts at regular intervals. And with a starting price of just $19/month, the platform offers the cheapest scheduling solution of the three.
Choosing the right social for you and your goals is not easy, but we’re lucky to have plenty of good options available to us! It’s important that you take your time, and we recommend that you test drive as many as you can before committing to one. It’s far easier to add a new tool to your existing workflow than it is to adapt your workflow to a new tool!
If you’re still finding the task of streamlining and automating your social calendar to be daunting, why don’t you let us take care of things for you? This is the stuff that gets us out of bed every morning. Get in touch with us today.