Top 10 Social Media Marketing Tools

Social media marketing tools are essential for increasing efficiency in creating, scheduling, publishing, monitoring, and analyzing content. These tools supplement your social media strategy by allowing you to publish on multiple networks, track metrics across platforms, and more. In this article, we will explore the top 10 social media marketing tools that are simple to use, offer free options, and provide paid pricing options with various benefits.

Buffer

Buffer is a popular social media tool with 140,000 users. It is best known for its post scheduling capabilities.

Winning Features of Buffer

• Connect all your social networks through one platform and schedule posts. You can also customize your posts for each platform.
• Use the automated schedule or customize it based on your business requirements.
• Buffer’s analytics tool aggregates metrics across all channels, allowing you to track performance and create custom reports.
• The link in bio feature allows you to connect all your accounts under one customizable link.

Pricing – Buffer offers a free version that includes scheduling 10 posts per channel on six channels and a single user account. The analytics feature is available only with the paid plans – Essentials, Team, and Agency.

Sprout Social

Sprout Social is trusted by over 30,000 businesses and is ideal for social media management.

Winning Features of Sprout Social

• It offers automated chatbots, allowing your business to be accessible 24/7 to solve customer queries.
• Use the history of your conversations and offer personalized messages to your audience.
• The analytics tool helps you understand consumer sentiments and gain deeper insights into consumer behavior.
• Make reports more intuitive and easily understandable by all stakeholders.

Pricing – Sprout Social offers a free 30-day trial. The basic plan starts at USD 249 per month for up to 5 users.

SocialPilot

SocialPilot is a great social media tool for analytics and more, especially for brands with multiple locations.

Winning Features of SocialPilot

• Schedule and automatically send PDF reports of your analytics via email.
• Use analytics for Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Google My Business separately.
• The content curation tool ensures you have the most trending ideas to post.

Pricing – SocialPilot offers a variety of budget options. The pricing starts at USD 25.50 – 30 per month for a single user when billed annually. A 14-day free trial is available before purchasing.

Buzzsumo

Buzzsumo is primarily a research-based social media tool that also doubles as a powerful monitoring platform.

Winning Features of Buzzsumo

• Gain insights into the top-performing social media posts across all major platforms, regardless of your industry.
• Identify top influencers who receive high engagement and retweets for potential collaborations.
• Keep track of your brand mentions on social media.

Pricing – Buzzsumo offers a free version with limited functionality. Additional features are available with the Pro, Plus, and Large plans.

Later

Later is a social media tool that is especially useful for managing Instagram accounts.

Winning Features of Later

• Publish social content in different formats and determine the best time to post based on your business and marketing efforts.
• The Instagram Visual Planner allows you to preview your posts before publishing.
• Use the Hashtag Suggestions Tool to find popular and relevant hashtags.
• Integration with Unsplash’s library saves time in searching for images or videos.

Pricing – Later offers a 14-day free trial for the Starter, Growth, and Advanced plans. The Starter plan is priced at USD 18 per month.

Zoho Social

Zoho Social is an economical social media tool with all the necessary features, ideal for small businesses and individual creators.

Winning Features of Zoho Social

• Organize and reorganize scheduled posts on the calendar intuitively.
• Collaborate with your team using drafts before publishing.
• The Live Stream option provides a snapshot of audience engagement.
• Manage all direct messages across social profiles in one place.
• Get in-depth audience insights based on demographics.

Pricing – Zoho Social offers flexible pricing plans starting from INR 600 per month, billed annually for small businesses.

Hootsuite

Hootsuite is one of the most widely used social media tools globally, with around 25 million users.

Winning Features of Hootsuite

• Get insights on the best times to post on different networks for maximum audience engagement.
• Use the AI hashtag generator, Canva templates, and content inspiration tool to improve your workflow.
• Reply through saved messages using its machine learning-powered engine.
• Integrate with Salesforce or other marketing automation and CRM platforms.
• Utilize Hootsuite’s proprietary AI analyst, Iris™, for data analysis.
• Integrate Google Analytics for deeper insights into your social media strategy.

Pricing – Hootsuite offers a free 30-day trial. The Professional plan, suitable for one user with 10 social accounts, is priced at INR 1915 per month. Team, Business, and Enterprise plans are also available.

CoSchedule

CoSchedule is an award-winning marketing suite for content marketing and social media.

Winning Features of CoSchedule

• Integrate with content and social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, and popular project management tools.
• Create and schedule stand-alone social media messages and campaigns in the CoSchedule Marketing Calendar.
• Analyze your messages using the built-in tool and optimize image sizes for different platforms.
• Utilize the integrated automation tool to post at the best times.
• Track in-depth analytics from Facebook, Instagram, and other platforms.

Agorapulse

Agorapulse is known for its incredible customer support and affordable pricing. It is best for publishing, monitoring, and reporting.

Winning Features of Agorapulse

• The inbox is highly organized, allowing you to share it with team members before responding to audience messages.
• Integrate Bit.ly to shorten URLs.
• Utilize boolean operators for detailed Twitter searches and track every public mention of your handle on Instagram.
• Gain insights into content views, engagement, and competition on Facebook.

Pricing – Agorapulse offers a free plan that allows three social profiles and one user. The Standard plan, priced at USD 49 per month, is suitable for small businesses and allows management of 10 social profiles. More advanced features are available with higher-priced plans.

Social Inbox from HubSpot

Social Inbox is part of HubSpot’s Marketing Hub Professional and provides comprehensive tools for managing social media, campaigns, and content marketing.

Winning Features of Social Inbox

• Schedule posts up to three years in advance and use the bulk scheduling option for efficient management.
• Connect up to 50 social media accounts and publish up to 10,000 posts per month.
• Attribute leads to sources for comprehensive reporting and understanding customer touchpoints.
• Utilize social listening to monitor online conversations and respond promptly.

Pricing – Social Inbox is available for businesses and enterprises. The business plan is priced at USD 800 per month, billed yearly.

Conclusion

These are the top 10 social media marketing tools with a wide range of features. However, there are many more tools available, such as Tailwind, Biteable, Missinglettr, and Crowdfire. The choice of tool ultimately depends on your team’s ease of use and specific requirements. When selecting a social media marketing tool, consider the features, pricing, and the specific needs of your business.