24 Social Media Tools for Businesses of All Sizes

The social media landscape is constantly changing, especially in 2024! With name changes, the rise of artificial intelligence, and niche cryptocurrency platforms, it may seem impossible to keep up. However, from a marketer’s perspective, social media remains a goldmine for attracting customers, increasing traffic, and building brand loyalty.

Good social media management tools are essential to fully leverage these opportunities. Just imagine scheduling posts across all your platforms, analyzing results, collaborating with your team, and presenting the results as a beautiful flip book – all using one social media marketing software. It’s possible!

In this guide, we will describe the best social media management tools on the market. We’ll go over various options for creators, small businesses, and even large enterprises so that you can find the perfect solution for your needs.

What are social media tools?

Social media management tools serve as a central command center for your social media presence. Without such programs, you would have to learn how to coordinate different applications for each platform, from LinkedIn to TikTok, to schedule various posts or respond to comments on each platform individually. These tools eliminate this problem by combining everything into one media package.

What should your social media software do?

There are many functions your marketing agency or department should use:

1. Create and schedule posts: Social media tools enable you to create content and plan publication across all social channels at the perfect time. Develop a strategy for your socials; for instance, determine Fridays as Facebook Day and Mondays as Twitter Day based on popular posting times.
2. Monitor and analyze: The software should allow you to track conversations on forums or groups, track performance metrics, and gain valuable information about what’s effective. For instance, if someone mentions your company on YouTube – get in touch with them and give them free samples!
3. Engage with your audience: Your software should allow you to respond to comments and messages across all platforms seamlessly.
4. Collaborate with your team: Facilitate idea-sharing, task assignment, and seamless teamwork while developing the right social media strategy.
   
   
   

How can you identify an effective social media tool?

Although social media management tools often have similar functionalities, it is worth considering some key factors when choosing the right tool for your needs.

API capabilities

One key aspect is the access to various functions granted by the social network website (API). For example, to use Facebook data, the program must have access to a special key issued by Meta, connecting it to one or multiple social media profiles. This means that exact features can vary from platform to platform. For instance, recent updates to Twitter’s API have restricted the capabilities of numerous tools, particularly in terms of competition analysis and social media monitoring functions.

Moreover, API restrictions may also prevent a program from publishing posts to personal profiles or responding to comments on other people’s posts. Therefore, before purchasing a package, it’s a good idea to check what you can and can’t do with it.

Key features of effective tools:

• Support for multiple networks: Look for tools to manage major platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and potentially emerging ones such as Mastodon.

• Efficient scheduling: Effectively schedule posts across platforms in advance.

• Detailed analytics: Choose tools that provide robust analytics capabilities, allowing you to track engagement and content performance to better understand your audience.

• Time-saving features: Scheduling, caption writing, and visualization tools can be a huge help for busy teams.

• Cost-effectiveness: The price should justify the features, customer service, and collaboration tools.

• Fit for company size: Those running a one-person business may prioritize user-friendly content creation tools, while agencies managing multiple clients will need multi-account management features.

AI in social media management

Artificial intelligence (AI) is gaining popularity, with many scheduling tools already utilizing basic AI capabilities. These capabilities include ensuring optimal posting times, editing posts, and assisting in generating post ideas.

However, it’s important to note that AI-based post-writing is not yet significantly superior to existing options. AI-generated content may require correction, as AI systems can produce inaccuracies or unreliable results. While AI can be useful, it’s advisable not to rely solely on it.

The best all-in-one social media tools

1. Publuu (recommended)

Price: Publuu has 4 pricing tiers, ranging from $10 to $129

Pros: Great way to organize your PDFs for social media.

Cons: Can’t create a flipbook from scratch but integrates perfectly with Canva.

While Publuu may not be a typical social media management tool, it can be a valuable asset to your social media strategy. In an era of increasing PDF content sharing, Publuu is ideal for publishing and managing such materials.

PDF Library: Publuu allows you to convert existing PDFs (brochures, catalogs, etc.) into interactive flipbooks with a realistic page-turning effect, which can attract new readers and potentially increase conversions on social media platforms.

Seamless sharing: You can easily share flipbooks on your website, in email newsletters, or link to them from social media posts, seamlessly integrating them into your overall marketing efforts.

Brand matching: Publuu enables you to customize your flipbook backgrounds, select background music, or add animations to provide a consistent brand experience across social media channels.

Valuable analytics: Thanks to Publuu you can track your flipbooks’ effectiveness and align them with your social media ideas. See which content appeals most to your audience and adjust your strategy accordingly.

2. Hootsuite

Price: Prices start at $99 per month, with plans to suit different needs.

Pros: Easy to master, great analytics.

Cons: A lot of features, can sometimes have issues with the API.

Hootsuite is an all-in-one solution designed for both sole proprietors and large social media teams. It offers features for content creation, post-scheduling, and optimization, making it a robust software package containing all the features you need for social media management.

The platform includes several social media tools: Hootsuite Composer, which simplifies scheduling and sharing posts on major platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. Hootsuite Inbox helps you manage messages and social media interactions from different platforms in one central location.

3. Google My Business

Price: Free.

Pros: Easy to use, manage, and add reviews and photos.

Cons: No analytics and not enough customization options.

This free tool from Google is crucial for any business owner and is also beneficial for marketing agencies. It plays a key role in reputation management, essential for managing online reviews and customer service. You can use this tool to run the profile of a company in Google Tools, especially Google Business Profile or Google Maps.

A well-developed profile on Google can significantly improve a local business’s search engine ranking. Such profiles should be managed by professionals, especially on Google Maps.

4. Upfluence

Price: Various pricing plans, depending on your exact demands, basic version is free.

Pros: User-friendly, free, and easy to manage

Cons: Unpredictable price, not versatile.

This app connects you with relevant social media creators (YouTubers, Instagrammers, etc.) to collaborate with brands. You can easily get in touch and increase online sales through influencers, affiliate programs, and using data. This is a free Chrome browser extension with limited features – the basic package lets you get in touch with influencers all over the world. For more extensive features, contact Upfluence about their paid plans.

5. Canva

Price: Free, Pro, and Teams plans are more expensive. The pro package is free for non-profits.

Pros: Versatile package

Cons: Not enough features

Do I need to introduce the well-known Canva platform here? It’s a browser-based, user-friendly design tool for creating high-quality graphics, even without design skills. For many small businesses, this is a crucial social media publishing tool, allowing for the creation of simple posts and graphics.

With Canva, you can create various designs and even publish a PDF to Publuu with one click. This combination good replacement for complicated packages like Adobe for small businesses that need to quickly create original, branded visuals for social media.

 

Social media management tools for small teams

6. Buffer

Price: Free; plans start at $5 per month.

Pros: Simple, user-friendly interface; inexpensive; free plan includes basic features such as scheduling, analysis, and engagement tools.

Cons: Features are limited compared to more comprehensive options.

Buffer is a great toolkit for small teams or beginners. It offers a free plan with essential features such as scheduling, analytics, and basic engagement tools. Buffer integrates with most social media platforms you’ll need as a small team. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ and Pinterest. The free package also provides biography linking tools, an image editor, and a content remixing tool.

7. Later

Price: Free or starts at $7.50 per month.

Pros: Drag-and-drop calendar for easy visualization of posts, and analytics. Free plan available.

Cons: Even better tiers lack advanced features, such as social listening or team collaboration tools.

Later is another user-friendly social media tool ideal for small teams. This tool allows you to schedule posts on popular platforms such as Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest. Later also offers analytics to help you understand your audience and optimize your digital content strategy. You can use the iPhone and Android apps or the online version.

8. Falcon

Price: Varies depending on the plan

Pros: Advanced collaboration features, integration with other social media marketing platforms such as HubSpot and Salesforce, robust content calendar.

Cons: More expensive than other options on this list, and can be complicated for very small teams.

Falcon is a social media management platform designed for small teams needing advanced collaboration features. It features a complete set of tools for social media listening, engagement, publishing, analytics, and customer data management. It enables team members to work together on a shared content calendar, streamlining social media workflows.

9. Crowdfire

Price: Free plan (for ten posts per channel per month). Paid plans that include more channels and posts start at $9.99 per month.

Pros: Unique features such as blog and store integration, and follower/stop activity management on Twitter.

Cons: Limited post scheduling in the free plan, interface can seem cluttered compared to other options.

Crowdfire is another media management platform suitable for beginners. The app offers a free plan with basic post-scheduling capabilities, making it a good option for small teams with tight budgets. It also has some unique features, such as the ability to combine a blog, YouTube channel, and online store or to generate social media posts containing updates automatically.

10. Design Wizard

Price: Free or starts at $9.99 per month

Pros: Access to one million graphical elements, easy-to-use design tools, no design experience required.

Cons: Limited number of templates and exports in the free plan, watermarks on the results of the free plan.

Design Wizard is a great option for small teams that need to create graphics for social media without dedicated software. It offers a library of over a million images, videos, and templates to help you create professional-looking content. The free plan provides ample resources, making it a cost-effective solution for visual content. However, the free plan has limitations on the number of templates you can use, you will see a watermark on your design.

Social media management tools for Marketing Professionals

11. Sprout Social

Price: Starts at $89 per month per user; includes a 30-day free trial.

Pros: Comprehensive features for social media management, customer service, and data analysis.

Cons: Can be quite expensive; no free plan available.

Sprout Social is a powerful tool designed to handle all aspects of your social media strategy. It offers planning tools, customer service features, and data analytics functions to help you maximize audience engagement.

Whether creating content, scheduling posts, or analyzing performance, Sprout Social offers playbooks and a suite of social media tools for the entire marketing path, from content creation to post-campaign performance evaluation. It’s a good complex tool for large groups, especially if you have the budget.

12. Sendible

Price: From $29 per month for the Creator plan; includes 1 user and 6 social accounts.

Pros: Inexpensive, comprehensive solution, user-friendly interface with strong basic features.

Cons: Lacks advanced features of more expensive platforms; limited competitive analysis capabilities.

Sendible is an affordable solution for marketing teams focusing on basic social media management features over more complex social media packages. Sendible toolkit provides scheduling, reporting, and social media inbox management at a competitive price.

These social media tools also integrate with Google Analytics to get a holistic view of profile and site traffic. While Sendible may not offer the advanced features of some sophisticated platforms, it is a solid choice for marketing teams that need a user-friendly and affordable solution.

13. Quid Monitor (previously known as NetBase)

Price: Varies depending on the plan.

Pros: Advanced social media listening features for tracking brand sentiment and crisis management.

Cons: Quite expensive.

Quid Monitor is an advanced social media analytics platform designed for medium and large companies. It offers in-depth social media listening capabilities to track brand mentions, analyze consumer sentiment, and manage brand reputation.

It can be a valuable tool for identifying trends, monitoring public perception and proactively responding to potential crises. It’s a complex package fit for marketing teams with larger budgets and complex social media needs.

14. CoSchedule

Price: Free plan available, paid plans start at $19 per user per month.

Pros: Includes a shared marketing calendar; free plan covers basic features; great for social media planning.

Cons: Limited features in the free plan; advanced functionality requires paid plans.

CoSchedule is a project management tool designed specifically for marketing teams. It offers a comprehensive calendar for managing social media posts, creating content, events, tasks, and more. A free plan with basic features is available, while paid plans offer advanced features such as team collaboration tools and ReQueue with its automatic post-scheduling. CoSchedule is a great way to foster collaboration and keep marketing teams organized across projects.

Social media management tools for Content Creators

15. Zoho Social

Price: Free plan available; standard plans start at $10 monthly.

Pros: Various social media tools; free plan lets you write using AI.

Cons: Can be overwhelming for beginners.

It’s a complex suite of tools, ideal for managing and optimizing your social media presence. Zoho Social offers comprehensive features for scheduling content, having meaningful conversations, and collaborating with your team.

The built-in office suite makes Zoho invaluable for creative people, especially thanks to the AI editor integrated with word processing capabilities. It adds capabilities like scheduling posts with optimized posting time to boost your social media efforts. Social media tools are also easily integrated with the Zoho CRM to track customer interactions. The package also offers social listening dashboards to monitor mentions and keywords.

16. Adobe Lightroom

Price: Monthly subscription starting at $9.99; accessible to businesses of all sizes.

Pros: Integrates with Adobe and other tools and replaces a lot of functionalities.

Cons: Many similar tools can be available for free.

This is a great tool for creating stunning visual effects in your social media posts on Instagram. Adobe Lightroom provides advanced photo editing capabilities to make your social media images eye-catching and stand out from the crowd. This browser-based software includes user-friendly sliders and filters to help you enhance your photos.

17. Tailwind

Price: Initial package is $14.99

Pros: Small package with many capabilities.

Cons: The site can sometimes work slowly; users report issues with analytics.

Designed specifically for Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest, Tailwind is a robust tool for scheduling posts, analyzing engagement, and offering customized suggestions to boost performance. Its unique offerings include content promotion strategies, connection to influencers, and ease of communication with co-workers. Tailwind is among the best social media tools for industries focused on graphics, like fashion, cars, or design.

18. Preview

Price: Basic plan starts at $35 per month.

Pros: Offers a faithful mock-up of Instagram.

Cons: Not versatile; can be quite expensive.

This social media app is probably the best planner for Instagram. Preview allows you to carefully plan and visualize your feed on Instagram before publishing. You can view photos, videos, and carousels before posting to see how they fit together, and plan posts directly in the app.

19. Google Alerts

Price: Free to use.

Pros: Free, simple to use.

Cons: There are many false positives!

This is an indispensable, free source of information about your industry. Google Alerts notifies social media managers whenever their crucial keyword is mentioned – it helps you track trends, key authors, and important events that can help your content strategy.

While it has limitations, such as a lack of advanced filters and analytics, it’s a great tool for gaining insights into relevant topics and conversations.

 

AI Social media tools

20. Talkwalker

Price: Various plans are available, with a free option.

Pros: Versatile social media management tools, powered by BlueSilk AI.

Cons: Focuses mostly on English-language sites.

This app offers extensive social media listening and analysis, analyzing data from more than 150 million sources with more than 50 advanced filters. It can serve as an alerting tool, a social media management platform, or a tool to stay in touch with users. Artificial Intelligence fans will be interested in Blue Silk GPT helping companies monitor brand sentiment, influencers, and emerging trends.

21. FeedHive

Price: Basic plan starts from $19 per month.

Pros: Excellent customer support and intuitive interface.

Cons: No mobile app.

This social media tool specializes in content recycling and conditional publishing with AI support, enabling dynamic content creation – building on already created content. FeedHive also offers several AI tools for better social media management. However, some AI features, such as hashtag suggestions and performance predictions, are limited to higher-level plans.

22. Flick

Price: A variety of plans, starting with 11 GBP.

Pros: Great for keeping branding and visual consistency.

Cons: Few teamwork features.

Flick is a social media management tool that helps you turn simple content ideas into multiple social media posts, supporting consistent engagement and repurposing of content. It helps you maximize the reach of your content by repurposing the use of core ideas across media formats. Despite occasional delays, Flick’s Content Lab makes it easy to brainstorm, publish ideas, and create content across platforms.

23. Predis.ai

Price: $32 per month for a set of 5 social media tools.

Pros: AI proofreading and social media text generation.

Cons: Focus on US English, minor issues.

Predis is an end-to-end solution for generating text, carousel, and video posts with minimal prompting. Predis.ai offers competitive analysis of your social media content, AI tools, and social media management, but has a somewhat rough user interface. It excels at quickly generating visually appealing posts and suggestions, although there are sometimes discrepancies in media recommendations.

24. Taplio

Price: The standard plan starts at $49, but you want the pro $79 plan!

Pros: Useful AI tools for engaging with LinkedIn users.

Cons: Quite complex, focuses on LinkedIn posts only, poor customer service.

Designed specifically for LinkedIn, Taplio facilitates the development of personal brands by seamlessly integrating with the platform’s core features. It uses GPT-4 to create DMs and posts, although its full AI capabilities are not available in the basic plan. Taplio streamlines engagement and content creation, offering tools to track trends and increase interaction efficiency.

Which social media management tool is best for you?

Depending on your goals, you can pick various tools with different features, but it’s hard to pinpoint the best social media tools that will suit every company. It’s up to you to decide.

• Budget: Some tools have free plans, while others require a paid subscription. Publuu offers a two-week free trial which should help you decide if you want to use this package to manage your PDFs on social media.

• Features: Consider which features are most important to you, such as scheduling, analytics, collaboration, or AI writing. The choice of the best social media tool depends on your company and your exact marketing strategy.

• Number of social media platforms you use: Many tools on our list integrate with more platforms than others. In some cases, this can be great – you don’t need to serve multiple social networks if you care only about Pinterest or LinkedIn – but many social media managers prefer having access to various social media channels

• Team size: Some tools are better suited for small teams, while others can handle larger teams. Publuu lets you share crucial documents and could be a part of your social media management software!

As a result, you could start with small social media management platforms like Buffer and Later – then if you need more features you can switch to more complex packages like Hootsuite, Sprout, and Sendible.

Along the way use supplementary software like Canva, Adobe, or Publuu to help you create content and put out interesting ideas in your social media.

In conclusion

We hope our guide helped you to choose the right platform and tools for your needs. As new tools continue to emerge in the ever-changing landscape of social media, our guide is designed to help you identify the features that will best suit your needs.

In this guide, we’ve presented dozens of social media management tools – but don’t feel overwhelmed by the options! Our guide will help you make an informed decision based on your specific requirements.

Whether you’re building a small start-up team or a large marketing agency, our guide can help you streamline your social media ideas. Consider starting with free or basic plans from Buffer or Later, but also explore other tools. Publuu, for example, can be a valuable part of your social media strategy, allowing you to present PDFs in an engaging and interactive format. Don’t forget to use additional tools like Canva and Adobe to create compelling content that appeals to your audience.

You may be also interested in:
Complete Guide to Interactive Content
Digital Advertising – All You Need to Know