John is a social media marketing manager at a big brand and manages its social media presence on Twitter, Linkedin, Facebook, Google business, and Instagram accounts. He has manually designed social media publishing calendar and strictly follows the same by manually publishing updates on all different accounts. Most of his time is spent on accessing all different accounts, publishing updates, and individually replying to the audiences. He hardly gets time on creating social media strategies and looking for some help to save time. And the real struggle is; when he is preparing the performance report to present to his boss! Manual analysis of all social media account performance is really time-consuming for him and additional skill is required to understand data and convert them into a visual presentation.

If you are already aware of some of the big names in this segment and want one to one comparison, I recommend directly visiting our article about Social Pilot vs Buffer vs Hootsuite now. Here you can have a detailed comparison of these 3 popular tools and can choose the one as per your requirement.

The same is the case with many social media managers who manually handle multiple accounts which results in poor performance. In this article, I am going to share the 10 best social media management tools and will explain to you how to save time from social media publishing to enhance productivity.

In modern times, every organization, big or small, understands the importance of social media and being an active part of it. However, with a dozen of social media platforms out there, it becomes hard for an organization to manage all of them with the same competency. To our advantage, there are some great social media management tools to make the job of a marketer easier. Using a single dashboard, social media managers can stay active on all the integrated social platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, etc. The process saves time, enables scheduling, helps better management of content, helps brands stay active, and also personalizes content for followers and fans. Well, let’s look at the top social media management tools available at our end and how they promise efficiency.

Best Social Media Management Tools

In this article, we have picked up 10 social media management tools which include:

  • SocialPilot
  • Buffer
  • Sprout Social
  • Hootsuite
  • Mavsocial and
  • Meet Edgar
  • Agora Pulse
  • Sendible
  • Crowdfire
  • eClincher

Rather than writing about each tool, here we have focused on important features and then recommended tool which offers those features and so on. In this way, you will learn about important features and at the same time, you can also find the best tools suitable for your business.

Here we go!

Social Media Post Publishing Calendars

Businesses and individuals need social media to engage in content promotion, community engagement, customer support, and coming out with periodic offers. However, managing so many things would require multiple strategies, and multiple people and also create multiple problems and challenges. The calendar feature in most social media tools allows everyone in the marketing/management team to know what is being scheduled and what others are doing. The calendar helps track a variety of elements like publish time and date and post images, text, campaign goals, campaign category, and much more.

Thankfully each of the social media management tools mentioned above offers the social media post-publishing calendar feature to streamline your social media marketing activities.

Custom Facebook Branding in Social Media Automation

facebook-custom-branding

Whenever something is shared on Facebook via third-party tools, the post content is attached to a profile. It can however become quite irritating to have someone else’s a product/brand name in your company profile. Customized Facebook branding is a way of allowing such users to have their own brand name when sharing content. The automation tool allows consistent branding.

Note: After recent updates from various social media platforms, they imposed some restrictions on their APIs. We have sent emails to all these brands for providing the latest update on this feature. We will accordingly update this post soon.

Bulk Scheduling

Bulk Scheduling is among the most sought-after feature of a social media management platform. It allows marketing agencies and brand managers to create, schedule & publish multiple posts by using CSV files. Every social media tool might have a different process to create & upload CSV files. Marketers just need to prepare the list of posts in recommended editor and can directly upload them to the social media tool. After uploading the file some tools will show you a preview of all posts and later you can select connected social media accounts where you need to publish the posts.

It is best understood by the situation when you want to post an hourly discount offer on all your social networks. Marketers often use bulk scheduling features for e-commerce stores for better e-commerce social media marketing.

  • SocialPilot’s bulk scheduling allows up to 500 posts in advance on all different social media accounts.
  • Hootsuite allows the posting of a maximum of 350 scheduled posts across your social networks.
  • Meet Edgar also offers Bulk Scheduling features, catering to up to 25 social media accounts and allowing for the scheduling of 5,000 posts in your library.
  • Sprout Social also offers bulk scheduling features limited to 350 messages. Here you can use this feature to upload up to 350 messages at a time with tags, links, images everything at one go.
Bulk Schedule

Team and Collaboration

Any business or brand working with an extensive network of enterprises, PR agencies, digital marketing agencies, and consultants always faces complications in its promotions. A thoroughly described team of professionals is the only way out of the mess. Social media management tools help to divide the task between these team members and assign roles for content creation, distribution, and management. This not only makes the task easier and saves time but also allows followers to easily find content.

Thankfully, all the social media management tools here offer a feature for team and collaboration but you will have to subscribe to that specific plan.

Content Suggestion

The content suggestion feature is very crucial when you are managing multiple accounts. Here you can directly find popular content from all different categories and directly schedule to your account with a single click. Here is a good example from Sprout’s Social content suggestion feature.

The aim of every brand and business in its social profile should be about sharing more relevant, interesting, and unique content. But, it can be a tricky task to scoop out such updates. Well, social media management tools offer a feature called “suggestion” that finds interesting feeds from across the networks and allow marketing managers to work on them. This really does make the take easier if you are looking to make an active and engaging presence.

SocialPilot, Bugger, Hootsuite, Agora Pulse, Sendible, Crowdfire, eClincher, Sprout Social and Meet Edgar offer content suggestions feature.

Browser Extension / Link Shortening

In special cases like Twitter, the browser URL can create a problem when you are seeking to share a link across your social profiles. The browser extension and link-shortening features allow you to lengthen or shorten these URLs by attaching your bit.ly or Google accounts.

SocialPilot, Buffer, Hootsuite, and Sprout Social does an amazing job of a browser extension and link shortening however, you will miss out on this if you are using Mavsocial. Meet Edgar doesn’t have any default link-shortening feature so you need to connect your bit.ly account to shorten links and track them.

RSS Feed

Feed automation has always been an exciting feature of social media management tools. They keep your social profiles active by attaching real-time updates from your blogs and websites. Social marketers for brands can control their feeds and the way they appear on social networks. RSS Feed management is one of the most helpful features for agencies that are working with several networks and blogs.

SocialPilot offers both automated and manual setups for RSS feed management. With Buffer, the process is completely manual and with Hootsuite, it is completely automated. Mavsocial and Meet Edgar fall behind in this feature with little or no support.

Recently, we got the mail from one of the popular RSS Automation tool Twitterfeed that they are retiring after 31st Oct. After reading that news you might be interested in alternatives to Twitterfeed and these tools helps you to automate your social media posts via the RSS Feed automation feature.

Video Uploader

Video is another form of content that is quite popular with brands across the globe. The support for video content is however offered only by SocialPilot, Sprout Social, Buffer, Hootsuite, and Mavsocial. If you are looking forward to making video content an integral part of your social marketing Meet Edgar wouldn’t be the best tool.

GIF Support

This expression when Social Media Automation Tool allows us to post GIF image as well. 🙂 @socialpilot_co pic.twitter.com/bh04kft5xz

— DigiFloor (@DigiFloor) October 19, 2016

GIF is a special image format where 2 or three images are played inside a single image file to say more. It is best for small advertisements and animations. Offered as an image format, all the above social media management tools support GIF uploads.

Social Media Account Performance Analytics

Social Analytics is again a very important feature when it comes to successful social marketing. Analytics refers to the feedback on the success, reach, and failure of various marketing strategies and campaigns. It’s always an advantage to know how many people you had been able to reach with a particular campaign and what type of content brings you more popularity.

Such social media analytics is offered by Buffer, Hootsuite, SocialPilot, SproutSocial, Mavsocial, and Meet Edgar.

Social Media Profiles

  • SocialPilot offers you to link 9 social accounts – Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Google Business, Tumblr, TikTok, Pinterest, and VK.
  • Sprout Social offers social media integration with Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin, Google business, Pinterest, and TripAdvisor.
  • Buffer offer 5 – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Instagram
  • Hootsuite offer for 6 – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, and WordPress
  • Mavsocial offers for 6 – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, and Tumblr
  • Meet Edgar offer just 5 – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and Linkedin
  • Agora Pulse offers 6 – Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Linkedin, GMB, and YouTube 
  • Sendible offer 7 – Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, GMB, and YouTube
  • Crowdfire offer 6 – Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, and Youtube
  • eClincher offer 7 – Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, GMB, and YouTube

Pricing

All these 10 social media tools offer different plans which include a mix of features. Here you will need to understand that some tools offer just publishing features and for analysis, you need to choose their separate plan.

  • SocialPilot offer plan from $25 to $83 per month
  • Buffer offers a free plan with limited functionalities and their paid plan starts from $15 to $99 per month for publishing. If you are looking for analysis-related features, you will have to choose different plan designs for them.
  • Hootsuite comes with both free and custom versions
  • Mavsocial offers both a free and a POA account
  • Meet Edgar offers two plans of $19 and $49 per month
  • Sprout social’s plan starts from $99 to $249 per user per month
  • The Agorapulse plan starts from $0 to $159 per month with multiple users as per the package. In addition, it provides a custom plan. 
  • Sendible plans start from $29 to $399 per month with multiple users.
  • Crowdfire plans start from $0 to $74.98 per month
  • eClincher plan starts from $59 to $219 per month with multiple users as per the package

Kindly review each plan by considering features like post publishing, team collaboration, social media account connection, and analysis. This way, you can utilize the best value for money.

Number of profiles

  • SocialPilot – between 3 and 200
  • Buffer – between 1 and 150
  • Hootsuite – between 3 and 150
  • Mavsocial – between 1 to unlimited
  • Meet Edgar – between 10 and 25
  • Agorapulse – between 3 and 40 plus
  • Sendible – between 6 and 105
  • Crowdfire – between 1 and 4
  • eClincher – between 10 to 40

Number of posts allowed per day

  • SocialPilot – Up to 1000 per day
  • Buffer – between 10 and 2000 per day
  • Hootsuite – Not Available
  • Mavsocial – between 10 and unlimited
  • Meet Edgar – between 10 and unlimited
  • Sprout Social – Not available on their website
  • Agorapulse –  between 40 and unlimited
  • Sendible – between 100 and 500
  • Crowdfire – between 10 and 800
  • eClincher – depend on social media 

All the tools support both chat and email support options and have a good user base already using these features.

FeaturesSocialPilotBufferHootsuiteMavsocialMeet Edgar
Social Media CalendarsYesYesYesYesYes
Custom FB BrandingYesNoNoNoNo
Bulk SchedulingYesYesYesNoYes
Bulk Scheduling with ImageYesYesNoNoNo
Team & CollaborationYesYesYesYesYes
Content SuggestionYesNoYesNoYes
Browser ExtensionYesYesYesNoYes
RSS FeedAutomated+ManualManualAutomatedNoYes
Video UploaderNoYesYesYesNo
GIF SupportYesYesYesYesYes
Link ShorteningYesYesYesNoYes
Social AnalyticsNoYesYesYesYes
Visual ComposorCanva Integration using Browser ExtensionPabloNoYesNo
Optimal SchedulingNoYesNoNoNo
Click TrackingUsing Bit.lyYesYesYesYes
ReportingYesYesYesYesYes
Re-use PostsYesYesYesNoYes
Pricing$25 to $83 PM$15 to $99 PMFree to CustomFree to POA$19 and $49 PM
Number of Profiles3 to 200 profiles1 to 150 Profiles3 to 50 profiles1 to unlimited10-25 profiles
Number of Posts Per day10-1000/Day10-2000/dailyNo Data10- UnlimitedNo Data
Advanced SchedulingYesYesYesNoYes
SupportChat + EmailChat + EmailChat + EmailEmailChat+ Email
Mobile AppsYesYesYesNoNo
API IntegrationYesYesYesNoNo
Queue Posts never get empty. Ready for reuse alwaysNoNoNoNoYes

Finally, it really depends on your precise needs as to which social media management tool to choose. It is necessary that you understand your need well and look for the best. If you are not sure about it and need help choosing the best tool for your social media management, write here by comment and I would love to share my views.

If you are already using any tool and found it worth sharing, do write here in the comment and our editors will definitely give them a try.

Disclaimer: This post is updated periodically and may miss some of the features being offered by the respective social media brand. It may happen that the information in this article is not 100% correct or outdated considering the rapid change in the functionality of the brand. If you want to suggest any missing part in this article, please write us here in the comments or through our contact form. We will modify the content by reviewing your suggestion.

FAQs on Social Media Management Tools:

What are the most popular social media management tools?

The 10 most popular social media management tools in the world are:
1) SocialPilot
2) Buffer
3) Sprout Social
4) Hootsuite
5) Mavsocial and
6) Meet Edgar
7) Agora Pulse
8) Sendible
9) Crowdfire
10) eClincher

What is social media management software?

This is a tool or software, which is designed to administer online social media accounts across different platforms to monitor, manage, and analyze social media activities.

Previous articleGoogle Workspace Review – Collaboration Tools & Business Apps
Next articleIs Your iPhone Battery Draining Fast? How to Stop Battery from Draining Fast?
Jignesh gohel is a Google Ads certified professional and digital marketing consultant having over 14 years of experience. He loves writing about gadgets, pay per click advertisement, ecommerce and online marketing. Connect with him here at Linkedin - Jignesh Gohel