Social media has become a powerful tool for businesses of all sizes to help promote themselves, establish a brand presence, and engage and connect with their customers. But as a small business owner, managing social accounts may seem like a daunting task. Coming up with new content and posting on multiple platforms can be time-consuming, especially when you’re busy managing other aspects of your business. Before you get started, it’s important to ask yourself, what am I trying to achieve? Hiring a dedicated social media person could solve that problem, but what if you don’t have the budget for it? Fear not, we’ve put together a list of 10 social media management tools that can help step up your social media game and save you time!

10 Key Social Media Management Tools

• 1. Analytics Tools: Many social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram offer free analytics tools to their user. You can track how well your content is performing and learn more about your followers.
• 2. Tweetdeck: If your business is mainly active on Twitter, then this free tool is worth checking out. Tweetdeck offers several advanced and helpful Twitter functionalities outside of the platform.
• 3. Planable: This is a great tool to help create and customize posts across multiple platforms at once. Planable makes it easy to build out a content calendar and allows you to preview your posts before publishing. A free account allows up to 50 posts a month with options to upgrade if needed.
• 4. Crowdfire: This tool makes it easy to schedule multiple posts at once across all of your social channels. With a free account, you can link to 5 social accounts and schedule up to 10 posts per account at any one time. You can also upgrade to their small business account starting at $7.48/month.
• 5. Buffer: Similar to the previous tool, Buffer also offers analytics options, so you can track the performance of your posts all in one place. A free account only lets you link to 3 social accounts and schedule up to 10 posts at a time with a limit of 30 posts a month. To access their analytics tool, you can upgrade to their pro account for $15/month.
• 6. Canva: Although this isn’t a management tool, Canva offers hundreds of free templates to help you create custom graphics to share on social. For more features, you can upgrade your account starting at $16.99/month.
• 7. MavSocial: Like the other tools listed above, this tool also allows you to post in multiple languages at once with ease. MavSocial also offers a free starter kit with the option to upgrade to their small business plan for $19/month.
• 8. Later: This tool helps you visually plan, schedule, and analyze all of your social posts in one place. A free plan allows you to post up to 30 posts per social platform. The cost of upgrading to their business plan, which includes more features, starts at $19/month.
• 9. MeetEdgar: This scheduling tool allows you to recycle old posts by auto-generating new copy from existing posts, which can save you time. Unlike the other tools listed, there is no free membership plan, but they do offer a 30-day free trial with plans starting at $19/month and $49/month depending on what your business needs are.
• 10. Hootsuite: Hootsuite is a popular and free tool that offers basic features including managing up to 3 social profiles in one place, scheduling up to 30 posts a month in advance, generating leads and providing some basic analytics. For $29/month, you can unlock more capabilities if needed.

Before Starting

We’ve only listed 10 but there are hundreds of other social media marketing tools available that cater to different needs. Before you get started, it’s important to ask yourself, what am I trying to achieve? If you don’t know, then it can be hard to set up : Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), which are metrics used to track the performance of your social media accounts. Doing so will help make it easier to calculate your ROI and see tangible results from all the effort put into your social media marketing strategy. Once you’ve outlined a clear goal, it will be easier to find the right tools for you and your business. Capterra can be used to compare the features and prices of any social media management tools you’re considering, to help narrow your search.

Cyber Risk

While social media is a great tool for connecting with prospective and current customers, any business that utilizes today’s modern technologies does open themselves up to some risk. And large businesses are not the only ones susceptible to cyber-attacks. Your small business’ social media accounts could be hacked, compromising both your customers’ data and your own personal data. This could result in customers losing trust in your brand and your reputation suffering. Recovering your social accounts could be costly, time-consuming, and may disrupt the flow of business. The reality is that any business, regardless of its size or resources, could face a cyber-attack. Our cyber insurance policy can help protect your business. Find out how by visiting our cyber insurance page for more details.

This blog is provided for information only and is not a substitute for professional advice. We make no representations or warranties regarding the accuracy or completeness of the information and will not be responsible for any loss arising out of reliance on the information.