Social media marketing plays a major role in marketing any product or service. It is crucial to showcase your brand value and cultivate an emotional connection with your audience.
That’s simple, right?
Social media marketing works on a simple concept but with over 4.48 Billion social media users targeted by 93.79% of businesses worldwide, you may struggle to stand out with your social marketing initiatives.
Social media statistics have revealed the popularity of social platforms and how they keep users hooked for hours. With this popularity comes the need to plan social media content skillfully. However, doing it all manually can be consuming, which is why social media tools exist.
To market your offering in such a competitive space, a social media planner can be a lifesaver. So, let us begin with understanding what exactly is a social media planner.
But why Use a Social Media Planner Tool?
A social media planner can be described as a visual content calendar that allows you to plan, organize and schedule social media posts for various social media platforms. It saves you from the hassle of planning and posting your content individually on every platform.
Let’s take a look at the best social media planning tools.
Best for:
Businesses, Publishers, Non-profits, Mid-stage startup teams, Higher education, Solopreneurs, E-commerce, and Sports teams.
About Buffer
Buffer is another good social media planning tool that users prefer for its easy-to-use interface. In addition to content planning, it also allows you to schedule and publish posts on various social media platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Pinterest.
Catering seamlessly to the diverse requirements of today’s digital landscape, Buffer accommodates the needs of various business entities, be it a lone marketer, an agency, a startup, or an established brand.
Unlike other tools, Buffer offers a forever-free plan, which has its downside too. The free plan only allows you to schedule only 10 posts per month. It also lacks various advanced features compared to other premium tools.
Pricing:
Buffer provides a range of four pricing options along with a 14-day trial period for each. There is a free plan for beginners. Paid plans range from $6 a month for one account to a monthly $120 for 10 accounts.
Key Features:
- Publishing: Buffer lets users to plan and create personalized posts, seamlessly automating the publishing process through its advanced content scheduling capabilities.
- Analytics: Users can delve into analytical insights, accessing comprehensive reports for each social profile.
- Engagement: Buffer facilitates the management of audience messages and comments, enabling users to prioritize conversations via its advanced social inbox.
- Collaboration: Users can foster seamless collaboration with their entire team, including clients in the approval process for social media content.
- Start Page: Leveraging this feature, users can design landing pages to convert social media traffic into business sales.
- AI Assistant: Buffer streamlines the social media caption creation process with the assistance of its AI capabilities.
After sifting through numerous user reviews of Buffer sourced from reputable platforms such as G2 and Capterra, we meticulously examined each one, considering all aspects of the tool. From this thorough analysis, we’ve compiled the following insights.
Pros
- A majority of 60% of users have commented on the bulk scheduling capability, which allows them to plan a large number of posts for various social accounts to be scheduled all at once.
- The ability to view post previews for social media posts before the actual publishing facilitated content visualization for and was praised by 18.20% of the users.
- Some users appreciated the ability to draft content beforehand and save it for later edits, allowing content creators to refine their posts and publish effective social media content for their pages.
- A major chunk of Buffer customers find the access to real-time analytics a big advantage to stay in loop with their content performance on different social channels.
- The automated reporting capability of Buffer is appreciated by 25% of the users, saying it makes sending timely information to all relevant stakeholders.
Cons
- The scope of improvement in customization capabilities has been singled out by more than 33% of users.
- Every one out of three Buffer users faced difficulties in content recycling and reporting older posts.
- Every 2 out of 3 users pointed out the fact that the analytics dashboard in Buffer is not very user-friendly.
- The lack of CRM integration into Buffer has been raised as a concern by many users, further limiting the inbox’s functionality.
- A surprising number of people have commented that Buffer’s customer support team has left some of their issues unresolved, leading to a bad experience for them.
SproutSocial is a robust social media post planner that offers advanced features for managing and analyzing your social media presence. It provides a centralized dashboard to schedule posts, engage with your audience, and monitor brand mentions and social media conversations.
SproutSocial’s reporting and analytics features help you track key performance metrics, measure campaign success, and generate in-depth reports. It also offers CRM integration to enhance customer relationship management.
Pros
- Sprout Social allows you to set up and access all your social media accounts in one place.
- It is a decent social media planning and scheduling tool that allows you to group team members for better collaboration.
- It also allows tools integration covering tools like Hubspot, YourVoice, and Zendesk, etc.
Dan K.
“I like that all of our social media accounts are accessible in one location and that I can schedule posts when they are the most advantageous to our organization. It allows us to maintain a clear social branding and present ourselves most professionally.”
Cons
- Comparative is an expensive tool for individuals and small businesses as there are alternatives in the market that come with budget-friendly pricing.
- Sprout Social offers a limited integration facility for the price it offers.
- It has a steep learning curve that requires time investment.
Alexandra H.
“There are some strange UI experiences, such as needing to edit pending posts after the scheduled time is passed and random bugs that feel more common than with other platforms. Limited integration functionality such as liking Instagram posts which is likely not Sprout’s fault but wish was clearer in the sales conversations. Bit of a learning curve with reporting. Like literally any software, everything seems perfect in sales, but when you start using it, you will realize that there are limitations which, while expected, is frustrating.”
Best for:
Professionals, Small teams, Small-medium businesses, and Enterprises.
About Hootsuite
Hootsuite is one of the oldest social media management tools that also offers social media planning functionalities. It caters to a wide range of users, be it solo entrepreneurs, small businesses, large organizations, or marketing agencies with multitudes of clients.
Software like this one makes the herculean task of planning social media strategy and content for platforms at the same time, achievable. Using Hootsuite lets users save a lot of their time by automating a lot of their daily activities seamlessly.
The main dashboard of Hootsuite is loaded with capabilities for monitoring engagement on multiple social media platforms at a time. However, its complicated appearance makes the tool difficult to master for newbies.
Pricing:
Hootsuite offers five pricing tiers after a 30-day trial, ranging from $99/month to $249/month, catering to different social account and user needs.
Key Features:
- Scheduling and Publishing: The tool’s robust scheduling and publishing features let you craft and schedule multiple posts at once to be published at the time of your choosing.
- Engage Customers: Hootsuite’s integrated social inbox helps effortlessly keep tabs on followers’ conversations, engage in meaningful interactions, and foster engagement. The AI chatbots can also automate responses, enhancing customer communication.
- Social Listening: This feature helps users stay attuned to online trends and diligently monitor brand mentions, keywords, and hashtags. You can glean valuable insights into the prevailing public sentiment for their brand.
- Social Media Ads: Seamlessly manage your social media ad campaigns on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn, all from Hootsuite’s intuitive dashboard.
- Analytics: Access comprehensive analytics data from connected profiles across multiple platforms, all conveniently displayed in a centralized dashboard for actionable insights.
- Team Collaboration: Foster seamless collaboration by defining clear roles for your team and clients, ensuring efficient workflow and project management within Hootsuite.
- Employee Advocacy: Extend your brand’s reach by enabling employees to share company posts on their personal social profiles, harnessing the power of their networks.
- AI Writer: Streamline the creation of captivating social media post captions with the assistance of our AI-powered writing tool, making content generation faster and more effective.
We went through a hundred user reviews for Hootsuite, gathered from trusted review platforms like G2 and Capterra. After carefully analyzing each of them in respect to all the features of the tool, we have gathered these insights.
Pros
- Hootsuite’s Hootsuite’s content calendar proved to be very effective in visualizing strategy and easily rescheduling posts from one date to another.
- 64.71% of users agreed that the visual content editing capabilities of the tool proved to be assets for content creation on the platform.
- Two out of every three users find the post-presentation feature very useful which gives them the preview of the posts they create with Hootsuite before publishing it.
- Automating the analytical reporting takes the burden off of users to manually check the data, and they get ready-made reports from one dashboard of all the key metrics in a timely manner.
- Hootsuite analytics also allows competitor analysis, which proved to be invaluable for 18.20% of users to get insights about their position in the market.
Cons
- The lack of content tagging and categorization leaves a major dent in the content management system of Hootsuite, which led to the majority of its users facing difficulties.
- 41.56% people faced difficulties in using the tool due to the complex scheduling process involved.
- Although available, 45.50% of users found customization options in the reports of Hootsuite to be limited.
- Nearly 15.15% of people were unsatisfied with Hootsuite’s inability to export detailed reports with minutely granular data.
- The advanced designs of the tool are unpopular amongst almost 100% of its users.
Planable, is a social media planner tool designed for efficient collaboration among team members. It offers a visually appealing and interactive interface that allows you to plan and schedule social media posts, preview them in a feed-like format, and gather stakeholder feedback. Planable’s approval workflow feature ensures smooth communication and seamless approval processes within your team.
Pros
- Plannable is known for its ease to set up and easy to use.
- It offers a visual planner to plan your social media posts.
- It is a decent platform for individuals and freelancers who want to plan their social media content.
Charlotte J.
“The ease of set up, very intuitive user interface, very helpful and quick to respond support team. Great for freelancers or agencies with different clients.”
Cons
- Allows posting on only the top seven social media platforms.
- Not suitable for large agencies and businesses that need a whole bunch of social media management features.
- Only provides the basic analytics matrix and lacks in offering advanced analytics data.
Mischael S.
“One negative aspect of Planable.io is that the analytics and reporting capabilities are somewhat limited compared to other social media management tools on the market. While it does provide basic metrics such as likes, comments, and shares, it does not offer more advanced analytics like the ability to track conversion rates or customer acquisition. Another potential downside of Planable.io is that it can be a bit expensive for smaller teams or businesses on a tight budget. While the platform does offer a range of pricing options, the cost can add up quickly if you need to manage multiple social media accounts or have a large team of users.”
CoSchedule is an editorial calendar tool that enables you to plan, schedule and post your social media posts and WordPress blogs. It is a decent tool for executing your social media campaigns with the flexibility to plan your content visually.
With CoSchedule, you gain access to a drag and drop social media calendar to organize your social media content. It also provides analytics to track your social media performance and integrates with popular marketing platforms like WordPress, HubSpot, and Mailchimp.
Pros
- CoSchedule allows easy post-planning and scheduling.
- It is a social media planning tool that is fairly easy to use.
Lyndsey B.
“The easiness of scheduling posts with recommended times in one spot.”
Cons
- Lacks many advanced functionalities that are crucial for long term success on social media
- Lacks at offering integration capabilities with various tools.
David W.
“There is no direct way to post to Instagram; it is a somewhat complicated integration with other tools. I have actually started using another app to make this more doable for me both for posts, stories, and IGTV.”
Airtable, is a versatile tool that offers customizable databases, making it suitable for various purposes, including social media planning. With Airtable, you can create customized tables and workflows to manage your social media content calendar, track post-scheduling, and collaborate with team members.
Airtable comes with a flexible and visual interface that allows you to organize and view your social media planning data in a way that suits your needs.
Pros
- Airtable allows you to visualize your content plan for social media.
- Allows team members to collaborate and contribute to social media planning.
Stephanie E.
“Airtable makes importing data, sorting it, and manipulating it very easy and straightforward. There are a ton of functions and features that are conducive to reading information quickly. It works great as a resource center for team members to collaborate on.”
Cons
- Airtable is only suitable for social media planning and doesn’t offer important social media management features.
- It can be a complex tool for many users to learn and get a hang off.
Abdulkader S.
“Can be complex for some users, lacks some features of traditional project management tools. Can be slow at times.”
Best for:
Mid-sized businesses, mid-sized agencies, and some enterprise brands.
About Sendible
Sendible is a comprehensive social media planner tool suitable for managing multiple social media accounts and engaging with your audience. It offers features like post-scheduling, content curation, social listening, and analytics.
Sendible’s social listening feature allows you to monitor brand mentions, industry trends, and competitor activities. It also offers CRM integration and team collaboration features to streamline your social media management efforts.
Nevertheless, it’s crucial to recognize that Sendible might not offer the most pocket-friendly option, and a few users have conveyed dissatisfaction with the caliber of its customer support assistance.
Pricing:
Sendible provides four paid plan options, and instead of offering a free plan, it provides a 14-day free trial period. The plans range from Creator, priced at $29, Traction for $89, White Label for $240, to the last plan, White Label+ plan, which is priced at $750.
Key Features:
- Content Publishing:Sendible improves your publishing tasks by providing the ability to create and schedule posts, simplifying content creation through automation.
- Analytics: Gain valuable insights into audience behavior and a comprehensive understanding of your content’s performance by utilizing in-depth analytics for all your published content.
- Collaboration:Task management is enhanced as you efficiently coordinate with team members and clients, ensuring smooth workflows and effective approval processes.
- White Labeling:The tool helps maximises your earnings with highly flexible social media management solutions tailored for your clients, featuring unique branding, using Sendible’s White Label feature.
We have gathered multiple authentic Sendible user reviews from G2 and Capterra and meticulously analyzed them in regard to the major features important in terms of use case. Based on this study, we have gleaned the following insights.
Pros
- Approximately 20% of users find the user-friendly design of the content calendar to be conducive to easier planning and tracking of their content strategy.
- Users benefit from Sendible’s feature allowing the scheduling of posts at consistent intervals, ensuring automatic and punctual publishing on relevant platforms. This capability proves to be a significant time-saver for users.
- Bulk scheduling is highlighted by 13% of users as one of the most important pros in the content automation section.
- Scheduling capabilities in Sendible, encompassing advanced planning, timeline management, and calendar integration, are highly valued by 16.3% of reviewers.
- The content recycling feature of Sendible, appreciated by 6% of users, aids in leveraging quality content and maintaining consistency.
Cons
- Users have expressed that the visual content calendar exhibits inconsistencies, leading them to suggest that it requires more refinement for effective strategy visualization.
- While Sendible’s UI is generally acknowledged for its user-friendliness, nearly a quarter of reviews suggest that it could benefit from increased intuitiveness.
- Content management within the content library in Sendible has proven to be less than efficient for at least 16% of users, resulting in a slowdown of their content creation process.
- Approximately 23.10% of users share similar sentiments regarding content customization, indicating a perceived lack of depth and flexibility.
- Major complexities in the post-creation process have been highlighted by over half of the reviewers, hindering their ability to deliver and publish posts in a timely manner.
Crowdfire is a social media planner tool that helps you grow and manage your social media presence effectively. It offers features like post scheduling, content curation, follower management, and social media analytics.
Crowdfire’s recommendation engine suggests relevant content for curation and identifies inactive or non-following users for follower management. It also provides insights into your social media performance, including follower growth, engagement, and post reach.
Pros
- Allows easy monitoring of basic performance matrices such as new followers, post clicks, and mentions.
- Helpful for content curation and offers content ideas to plan your social media content.
Niko V,
“Crowdfire is able to link with all major social media platforms. It is easy to monitor new followers and unfollowers, mentions and click per post through the dashboard. Scheduling of post feature works well and also it gives great suggestions on which content to post.”
Cons
- Lacks advanced analytics features that is important to understand overall social media performance.
- Lacks many advanced social media management features needed to succeed on social media.
Brittany N.
“The one thing I dislike is that it’s free to get started, but you are subject to some functionality limitations.”
Sked Social is a powerful social media post planner designed to simplify your content scheduling and management. The list of its supported platforms includes Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
With Sked Social, you can visually plan your Instagram feed, schedule posts, and use the hashtag planner to optimize your reach. Its advanced features, like user-generated content (UGC) management and analytics, further enhance your social media marketing efforts.
Pros
- It lets you plan and schedule your social media posts visually.
- It comes with a fairly easy-to-use interface.
Courtney D.
“I like that you are able to schedule and auto-post stories and carousel feed posts. I haven’t been able to find a service that does this. I also like the insights section where you can assess competitors.”
Cons
- You may experience some bugs while posting content with this tool.
- Lacks in-depth analytics that is offered by platforms like SocialPilot.
Riley S.
“We’ve run into quite a few bugs while using it. There have been issues with content not posting or posting at the wrong time. It can be very hit or miss, although I wouldn’t say this happens too frequently.”
Loomly is a social media management platform that allows you to plan, schedule and post your social media content. It is a versatile tool that simplifies content creation, scheduling, and collaboration.
It offers a calendar-based interface for planning and scheduling posts across various platforms. Loomly’s collaboration feature allows team members to review and approve content before publishing, ensuring a seamless workflow.
With its post-optimization recommendations and analytics, you can refine your social media strategy and achieve better engagement.
Pros
- Comes with a calendar-based interface to plan and schedule social media posts.
- Allows team collaboration to review and approve content before publishing.
Justin G.
“I really like the ease of publishing and the various features provided, like being able to alter content for different platforms and accounts, the carousel posts, creating one post that can be posted to all of our social channels without duplicating it,”
Cons
- The interface can be slow at times leading to difficulty of posting.
- It can come across to be an expensive option if you want to gain excess to advanced features.
- Loomly doesn’t offer real-time phone support to address your issues.
Collin O.
“Although there are many advantages to using Loomly, there are also some drawbacks worth noting. For one thing, while the interface is intuitive and user-friendly, it can be slow at times due to its large number of features. Additionally, while most features are free (such as access to basic analytics), more advanced features require a subscription fee—which may not be ideal for those on a tight budget. Finally, while the customer service team responds in a timely manner when contacted via email or chatbot, phone support isn’t currently available for technical issues or questions about billing plans.”
TweetDeck is a social media planner especially used for managing and monitoring your presence on Twitter. With this tool, you can schedule tweets, engage with your audience and stay updated with the latest trends on Twitter.
You can use TweetDeck to streamline your Twitter management efforts, schedule tweets, and watch over Twitter discussions relevant to you.
Pros
- TweetDeck offers real-time updates that help you to stay on top of your Twitter game.
- Twitter’s own tool to plan your Tweets.
Anisha A.
“TweetDeck – With customizable columns, scheduling, and real-time updates, it’s the perfect tool for staying organized and on top of your Twitter game. Highly recommend!”
Cons
- TweetDeck only works for Twitter and not any other social media platform.
- It comes with limited features in comparison to other social media management tools.
Vishnu M.
“It would have been great if I could integrate Twitter with other social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram. Also, I face some issues while logging in from Mozilla Firefox.”
Zoho Social is a robust social media post planner that offers features like post-scheduling, content curation, and analytics. It supports almost all popular social platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Google My Business.
Zoho Social’s advanced analytics provide insights into your social media performance, audience engagement, and competitor analysis. It also offers team collaboration features, ensuring smooth coordination among team members.
Pros
- Hassle-free post planning and publishing on all social media platforms.
- Offers advanced social media performance insights.
Rohit K.
“The best part of Zoho Social is that in one click, one post gets published on every social media platform linked; you don’t have to do it manually. I love this feature.”
Cons
- Zoho Social offers limited social listening capabilities.
- It can be a complex tool to learn and has a steep learning curve.
- The customer support is limited and is not as good as its alternatives.
Islam B.
“Limited Instagram Posting and Social Listening, steep learning curve, and the customer support is not as fast as can be. As a company, I know they can do better in these fields.”
Brandwatch is not just a social media planner tool but a powerful social listening and analytics platform. It helps you monitor brand mentions, track industry trends, and gather valuable insights from social media conversations.
With Brandwatch, you can identify key influencers, measure the performance of social media campaigns, and make data-driven decisions to optimize your marketing strategies.
Pros
- Brandwatch allows easy social media planning and scheduling.
- A decent tool for working with teams while exercising complete control of access.
Geoffrey G.
“Super flexible and powerful dashboards that allow you to create any view you are looking for. This is a super strength when you work with teams that are unfamiliar with your work because you can set the settings and have people work in the data without fear they mess up your settings. Otherwise, the tool offers all the customizable options found in other tools like command center.”
Cons
- Not an accessible option for individuals and small businesses.
- It comes at higher pricing than its competitors.
Sabariah A.
“Not all social media medium is available to be integrated, and only some, like Twitter, can be used with Brandwatch.”
SocialBee is a social media planning tool designed to simplify your social media posting and content recycling. It offers features like post-scheduling, content categorization, and evergreen content recycling.
SocialBee’s content categories help you organize and rotate your posts, ensuring a varied and engaging social media presence. Additionally, it provides analytics to track your post performance and audience engagement.
Pros
- SocialBee comes with an easy-to-navigate user interface.
- Offers social media post scheduler that offers real-time post previews.
Krysten N.
“I find the platform easy to navigate. I appreciate the re-que features for automation. I find it useful to be able to post on so many different platforms for personal, as well as business use.”
Cons
- SocialBee on only a web-based platform which is not suitable for macro businesses and enterprises.
- Doesn’t offer in-depth social media analytics.
Brian H.
“I cannot schedule my personal Facebook posts the same way I do the rest of the other platforms. In the analytics, I wish it would show me the impressions information that is available on Linkedin, not just the reactions and comments information.”
MeetEdgar is a social media planner tool that focuses on automating your content scheduling and recycling. It allows you to categorize your posts, create content libraries, and set up automated posting schedules. MeetEdgar’s unique feature is its ability to recycle your evergreen content, ensuring your best posts are shared consistently over time. This saves you time creating content while maintaining an active social media presence.
Pros
- Allows you to create content libraries that can help you repurpose content forever.
- Allows you to group your content into different categories for easy scheduling.
Emily J.
“Until I can hire a social media manager, this helps keep content flowing”
Cons
- Comes at a hefty price not suitable for freelancers and small businesses.
- Offers limited analytics and team collaboration capabilities.
Jena A.
“Price is by far the biggest turnoff from regular use. The second is that repetition can be a bit much until you have built quite the library. And you will also need to understand social media marketing to understand what to post”
Conclusion
When it comes to social media planner tools, there are tons of paid and free social media tools that offer this functionality. However, not all these tools are not worth your time. Some tools may come with a high price tag, while some may lack important functionalities that you may need for social media management.
With all that in mind, SocialPilot can turn out to be the best option. It allows you to plan your social media content, schedule it for publishing, and monitor its real-time performance. You can also work with your clients and team to keep everything in place. The best part is that you can test SocialPilot with a free trial and review all its features before switching to it.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are social media management tools?
Social media management tools are software applications or platforms that help individuals or businesses streamline and organize their social media activities. These tools provide various features and functionalities to simplify the process of creating, scheduling, publishing, and analyzing social media content across multiple platforms.
What are the three social media tools?
The three types of social media tools are social publishing platforms, social listening platforms, and performance analysis platforms.
What are examples of social media tools?
Examples of social media tools include SocialPilot, Buffer, Sprout Social, Later, Hootsuite, etc.
These tools offer a range of capabilities, such as content scheduling, performance tracking, audience engagement, and social listening, to enhance social media management and maximize the impact of social media efforts.
About the Author
SocialPilot
SocialPilot is the best social media planner tool that allows seamless social media planning and scheduling. It offers a dynamic editorial planner which allows you to plan, schedule and publish content on numerous social platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Google My Business, Tumblr, etc.
SocialPilot also backs you up with a variety features for planning and managing social media. It is a suitable tool for social marketing agencies that have multiple clients and social media channels to handle. With its easy-to-use interface, you and your team will not have to worry about the learning curve and can get a hold of all its features in no time.
Being a social media management platform, it allows you to set up your social media profiles with ease and allows you to create posts and schedule them for multiple clients. SocialPilot allows you to post content to multiple accounts at once, which can help you stay on top of your audience’s mind.
Another advantage you get with SocialPilot is the ability to work with your team in a collaborative environment. With its team collaboration feature, you can streamline all your social media activities, assign roles to different team members and set content approval channels as well. Overall making the best social media planning and managing platform for everyone.
Its features include:
What People Say About Us
Germain D.
“The solution is very inexpensive compared to other tools. The tool is also able to manage a wide range of platforms. It’s updated very regularly, and new features are added. Last but not least, the editor is very robust: you can start a post for multiple destinations (LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter) and, right from the editor, adjust content for each platform.”