We understand that being a social media marketer, agency owner, or business owner takes a lot of work and discipline.
However, having the right tools can amp up your brand’s presence and broaden its reach by bringing automation to the equation. They are like Swiss Army knives of the digital world, offering a wide range of features to help you manage and supercharge your social presence.
Whether you’re a solopreneur, an agency, or a new brand striving to make an impact on social media, this guide will help you shortlist the best tool for your social media needs.
What are Social Media Tools?
Social Media tools refer to the platforms that enable individuals and businesses to create, manage, and analyze their social media presence. You can streamline tasks such as creating content, scheduling posts, monitoring engagements, social listening, analyzing performance metrics on social media, and much more.
Manage multiple accounts across different social media platforms, simplify social media management efforts, save time, improve content strategy, understand audience behavior, and maximize your brand presence.
How We Analyze and Select These Tools:
We have meticulously curated this list of premier tools through detailed research and hands-on testing. We considered various factors such as user satisfaction, G2 ratings and reviews, pricing structure, and scalability. We also actively analyzed the abilities of these tools in automation, developing content, visualization, analytics, and collaborative workflows. We have assembled this list to provide marketers with essential insights, enabling them to make well-informed decisions on the best tools to expand their businesses.
Top Social Media Tools for Agencies
Best for:
Mid-size companies or enterprises that want to manage social media scheduling and collaboration in one place.
About Loomly
Loomly Loomly lets you after every aspect of your social media strategy, from scheduling posts to tracking the performance of your campaigns.
You can enable your team or clients to visualize all planned posts and campaigns through a content calendar and share customized reports in XSLV, CSV, or PDF format.
Loomly offers integrations with multiple popular platforms like Canva, Google Drive, Giphy, and more, offering you a seamless way to organize your chaos. It is available as a web platform and mobile app (iOS, Android).
Pricing:
The tool offers four pricing plans: Base ($42/month/2 users), Standard ($80/month/6 users), Advanced ($175/month/14 users), and Premium ($369/month/30 users). A 15-day free trial is available.
Pros
- You can add stock images and emojis to your content.
- It lets you schedule multiple posts at once.
- The tool gives suggestions for each platform, such as if the scheduled posting time or day is not good.
Cons
- Users cannot upload GIFs or videos.
- You cannot schedule long-form posts for X (formerly Twitter).
Best for:
Businesses, Agencies, and Enterprises who want a comprehensive solution to manage multiple brand accounts.
About Hootsuite
Hootsuite is a popular tool for managing social media, helping large teams to streamline their social media efforts. It allows users to schedule posts, engage with their audience, and monitor their social presence across multiple platforms from one dashboard.
Monitor keywords, conversations, and trends related to your brand across social media. This will help immensely in upholding your brand reputation online.
Measure crucial metrics of your organic and paid content in one dashboard to optimize your campaigns better. Hootsuite can cover your social media marketing from all aspects and help you build a concrete multi-network presence.
Pricing:
Hootsuite offers 3 pricing plans, i.e., Professional ($99/month/user), Team ($249/month/3 user), and Enterprise (custom pricing). The tool comes with a 30-day free trial.
Pros
- The tool makes it super easy for users to manage all their social media accounts from one place.
- Hootsuite monitors the KPIs of social profiles effectively.
- It lets you repurpose popular posts to reuse them on other networks.
Cons
- There is a learning curve that makes it hard for new users to use.
- The tool is priced higher than other competitors.
Best for:
Individuals and Agencies mainly looking to schedule content.
About CoSchedule
CoSchedule is a complete marketing suite with a prime focus on scheduling and project management. Like any other social media scheduling tool, it allows you to create, schedule, and publish social media posts with its social calendar. The content calendar gives you a complete glimpse of all your tasks, projects, and campaigns.
The drag-and-drop interface makes it easy for users to schedule posts and reschedule them in case of any change in plans. You can schedule your content for platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Instagram.
In any social media tools list, CoSchedule stands out with its collaboration features to help you streamline your workflow. To keep your audience engaged, you can use its ReQueue feature to reshare your best posts automatically
Pricing:
There are four pricing plans: Free Calendar (Free), Social Calendar ($29/month), Content Calendar (Call), and Marketing Suite (Call).
Pros
- The color coding feature on the marketing calendar makes task visualization effortless.
- The ReQueue feature is a great help in reposting the top-performing posts to garner maximum engagement.
- One content calendar to schedule posts on multiple networks.
Cons
- The users find it frustrating to navigate the platform because of its UI/UX.
- CoSchedule has limited platform support, which can disadvantage businesses with a presence on multiple social media platforms.
- No option to custom edit posts specific to each platform.
Best for:
Enterprises that want efficient social media management, especially reporting abilities
About Sprout Social
Sprout Social is a comprehensive tool that helps businesses do basic things like scheduling, publishing, and engaging with their audience. It also allows you to measure your account and post-performance to understand what posts resonate with your audience base.
The tool shares with you suggestions on the best times to post on social media based on 16 weeks of audience data. Speaking of engagement, the Social Inbox helps you manage all your conversations and comments in one place. You can even improve your responses using AI.
Social listening can help you understand what people are saying about your brand on social media. This tool offers integration with Zendesk, UserVoice, and Salesforce.
Pricing:
There are 4 pricing plans: Standard ($249/per user/month), Professional ($399/per user/month), Advanced ($499/per user/month), and Enterprise (contact us). A 30-day free trial is also available.
Pros
- The tool improves communication between sales, social, and support teams. You can even create a Facebook messenger bot to connect with your customers 24/7.
- The dashboard presents the data in an organized manner.
- Do sentiment analysis of your content based on keywords and phrases using AI.
Cons
- The pricing model is expensive for individuals, agencies, and even businesses.
- No integration with TikTok inbox.
Social Media Tools for Content Research
Creating social media content that generates a buzz successfully is not that simple. The competition is cutthroat, and fooling the algorithm is not an option. So, it is very important that you keep an eye on current market trends to create content that engages with the audience.
Using content research and planning tools is the smart choice to make your task attainable. We have listed down some of the best tools for content research.
Best for:
Marketers and content creators to identify trending topics and curate content that resonates with their audiences.
About BuzzSumo
BuzzSumo excels in content research and makes up for your needs. The tool helps users find the most popular and trending content across social media, including identifying the most shared content, popular topics, and influential authors. This helps you understand what people in your industry actively engage with on social media.
Analyze your competitor’s content strategy and understand what kind of content they create and how it performs. Use this to create an informed content plan.
You can even discover relevant influencers in your niche who are actively sharing content, making it easier for you to connect with them for collaboration or promotion purposes.
Pricing:
Four pricing plans, starting from Content Creation ($199/per user/month), PR & Comms ($299/5 users/month), Suuite ($499/10 users/month), and Enterprise ($999/30 users/month)
Pros
- Content analyzer helps you identify top content for a particular keyword.
- Monitoring brand alerts and keyword alerts enables you to monitor online presence and mention by third parties.
- This tool identifies thought leaders and influencers in your niche for marketing campaigns.
Cons
- The learning curve is complicated. Users take time to get used to the tool.
- BuzzSumo plans are not affordable for all small and medium-sized businesses.
Best for:
Agencies and businesses stay informed about upcoming trends and adapt their social media strategies
About Exploding Topics
Exploding Topics was created by Brian Dean and Josh Howarth with the aim of aid users discover new trends before they become popular. This tool uses data analysis to identify trending topics across various industries and niches, providing valuable insights to content creators, marketers, and businesses.
Inside the Trends Analysis, you will find a chart showing growth over a period of time, search metrics, and channel-level insights displaying how much social networks contributed. You can even segment research based on categories to dive deep into the analysis.
Pricing:
There are 3 pricing plans starting from Entrepreneur ($39/per user/month), Investor ($99/4 seats/month), and Business ($249/10 users/month).
Pros
- Identify emerging trends relevant to the industry and stay ahead of the curve.
- Great tool for topic ideas and keyword research.
- Export all data in a CSV file format.
Cons
- More critical metrics like top shared profiles, and liked and commented posts are missing
- The plans are priced on the higher side.
Social Media Tools for Content Creation
Whether creating videos, graphics, or Reels, having some good tools in your bucket can make your work a lot more attractive, engaging, and shareable. With their ready-made designs, templates, and diverse stock resources, content creation tools enable even non-designer individuals to create content effortlessly.
Here are some of the best content-creation tools for social media.
Best for:
Social media managers, SMBs, or startups looking to create high-quality social media visuals
About Canva
When it comes to creating quality content for social media, Canva is the preferred choice among marketers, brands, and many others. Canva makes it easy to create stunning graphics, videos, and animations for different social media platforms with its easy-to-use templates and graphic elements.
You can customize posts to match the size and dimension requirements of the specific platforms. Add captions, animations, objects, music, or playful stickers.
Collaborate with your team, manage brand consistency, schedule posts directly to your social media profiles, and more.
The best part, if you use SocialPilot, you can integrate Canva and bring your designs inside the SocialPilot app. Export your posts, Reels, or Shorts from Canva and directly schedule and publish them to your social media profiles from the app.
Pricing:
Canva has a Free plan and three paid plans: Canva Pro ($14.99 per user/month), Canva for Teams ($11.99 per user/month), and Canva Enterprise (Custom).
Pros
- User-friendly interface.
- Easily remove the background, download transparent images, and add effects.
- Seamlessly collaborate with your team and integrate with multiple platforms.
Cons
- You cannot edit the given presets.
- The platform does not work offline.
Best for:
Create engaging social media content without needing a professional video editing background.
About InVideo AI
Invideo is an AI-powered video editing solution that lets you streamline video creation for social media campaigns. Invideo AI offers features like text-to-video conversion and generates video suggestions using AI. This makes creating high-quality videos without requiring expertise easy.
There are over 5000 pre-made templates available that make creating videos quicker, allowing you to focus on other aspects of your social media strategy. The tool supports various video formats suitable for different platforms, such as explainer videos for YouTube or Shorts and eye-catching Instagram Reels.
Pricing:
Invideo offers a Free plan and 2 paid plans: Plus ($25/user/month) and Max ($60/user/month).
Pros
- You can access Invideo through the website, Android, or iOS app.
- Invideo has a massive library of assets, including premium images and footage from Stock and Shutterstock that can be added to the existing video templates or to create your own videos.
- Import images and videos from Google Drive, Dropbox, Instagram, and Facebook.
Cons
- Lacks customization abilities.
- Only chat support is available, and there is no email or call support.
Best for:
Anyone looking for high-quality visuals to enhance their posts, stories, and ads for free.
About Unsplash
For all those who keep looking for a free alternative to iStock, Unsplash offers free, high-resolution royalty images to elevate your social media visuals without breaking the bank. You can find royalty-free assets across categories, ensuring you can visually represent your brands effectively.
Unsplash allows you to refine your search based on specific colors and themes, making it easier to find visuals that align with your brand identity.
Pricing:
Though the platform is free to use, if you want access to unlimited royalty-free downloads, members-only content, and more, you can upgrade to a monthly ($16) or a yearly plan ($7/month).
Pros
- Royalty-free platform.
- A clean user interface, making it easy to navigate and scroll.
- Premium users can take access to API and integrate with different platforms to access its content inside those tools
Cons
- It requires sign-in to download high-resolution photos.
- Users feel consistency is missing in images as any photographer can upload them on the platform.
AI Social Media Tools
AI tools have become indispensable for marketers and content creators, transforming the landscape of social media engagement and performance analysis. They streamline content creation processes and provide valuable insights into user engagement, fundamentally altering the approach to social media strategy.
Here are some AI tools for generating content for your social media profiles.
Best for:
Those who want to generate fresh and captivating post ideas across social media
About Copy.ai
Copy.ai has established itself as one of the top contenders for AI-driven caption generation. It caters specifically to the needs of social media marketers and content creators. More than just a tool, Copy.ai serves as a creative ally, enhancing the quality of social media posts.
By leveraging Copy.ai, users gain access to an AI system finely attuned to the dynamics of engagement and audience preferences. This platform generates various captions, ranging from casual and playful to formal and precise, based on input regarding the brand or message being conveyed.
What sets Copy.ai apart is its versatility—it seamlessly adapts tones and styles to ensure that every caption feels authentic and tailored to the specific content for various social media channels.
Pros
- The tool supports integration with over 2000 platforms.
- Quickly generate branded content that resonates with the target audience.
- Copy.ai is able to create social media captions, blog headlines, and entire blog posts in a fraction of the usual time.
Cons
- Customer support lacks in quality.
- Purchasing credit is not possible without upgrading your plan.
Best for:
Creators and businesses who want to save time while turning long-form content into short clips.
About Vidyo.ai
Vidyo.ai is an AI-driven tool that transforms long videos into captivating short clips tailored for social media platforms. Using advanced algorithms, it identifies key moments within the video and generates multiple optimized clips.
The platform boasts a user-friendly interface with various customization options, including templates and adjustable clip durations. Particularly useful for speaker-focused segments and interviews, Vidyo.ai effortlessly enhances visual appeal.
Automatic subtitling ensures content accessibility, while scene change detection and subject focus optimization enhance efficiency.
Pricing:
The tool offers a Free plan and 3 paid plans: Essential ($35/month), Growth ($50/month), and Custom ($75-150/month).
Pros
- The AI algorithm efficiently pinpoints crucial video moments, facilitating the creation of compelling social media content.
- Designed for user-friendliness, the platform offers intuitive navigation and straightforward editing features.
Cons
- The Free plan is limited in terms of caption options.
- Some users sometimes don’t like where the AI feature cuts long-form video to clips.
Other Social Media Tools
Social media is huge, and the needs can vary. There are several tools that come in handy to solopreneurs, brands, influencers, and even large businesses. We have listed some of the popular and used tools here.
Best for:
Marketers and managers with Twitter as a core marketing platform
About Audiense
Audiense is a social media audience intelligence tool with one vertical focused on X (Twitter) marketing. The tool helps users get in-depth insights, such as understanding their audience and analyzing conversations, interests, and influencers, to tailor a picture of who their Twitter audience really is.
You can do community management, follower analytics, analyze hashtags, and more. All this enables businesses to make a more centric marketing strategy.
Pricing:
For Twitter Marketing, Audiense offers a Free plan and 2 paid plans: Pro ($$49/month), and API Access (Custom).
Pros
- Gives in-depth insights on audience segmentation and insights.
- Helps you understand demographics, interests, and behaviors.
- The integration with X (Twitter) enables users to access analytics and export segments directly to the Twitter ads dashboard.
Cons
- The free analytical capabilities are limited. Customization capabilities in the free version are also few.
- The UX is a bit confusing, and so is the in-app navigation. It could have been improved.
Best for:
Brands and agencies to identify the most suitable influencers, analyze performance metrics, and manage campaigns effectively
About HypeAuditor
For those who struggle with finding the right influencers for their influencer marketing campaigns, HypeAuditor is an all-in-one platform that meets all their needs. The platform has a vast database of influencers from various niches across various platforms, such as YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and Twitch.
You can discover influencers based on demographics, engagement metrics, and content niches. HypeAuditor goes beyond followers and analyzes metrics like estimated earned media value, AQS, and average views so you can identify high-impact collaborations.
Pricing:
HypeAuditor has not mentioned any pricing plans. You can register for a free demo.
Pros
- User-friendly site interface and easy-to-conduct influencer outreach.
- You can discover, analyze, recruit, and manage influencers.
- Manage your campaigns from within the platform.
Cons
- There are no pricing plans mentioned.
- Cannot a PDF report influencer for the normal package.
Best for:
Finding influencers, managing collaborations, and measuring results
About Upfluence
Upfluence is another influencer marketing platform with a vast database of influencers across various industries and platforms. It allows you to manage influencer collaborations from start to finish within the platform. This includes features for negotiation, content approvals, performance tracking, and more.
You can find influencers across various networks, including YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, Twitch, and Pinterest. To scale your business, you can manage affiliate programs, creator management, user-generated content, and brand ambassadors, in addition to influencer marketing.
Pricing:
Reach out to the Upfluence support team to know the pricing.
Pros
- Do influencer search and analyze influencers, workflow, and outreach.
- Track campaign analytics and creator marketing ROI.
- Offers integrations with Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento, ChatGPT, and more.
Cons
- Poor customer support.
- Costly campaign running prices.
Best for:
Influencers, creators, and startups looking to showcase a curated list of relevant links in a single location
About Linktree
Real estate on social media is very costly, and having all your profile or product links scattered across your bio can be a disaster. Linktree helps you maximize that valuable real estate by housing multiple links in a single, accessible location.
You can create a custom landing page with every link you want your audience to explore, elevating their experience. The tool seamlessly connects with Google Sheets, Shopify, Mailchimp, Zapier, Paypal, and many more.
Pricing:
Linktree offers a Free-forever plan and 3 paid plans: Starter ($5/month), PRO ($9/month), and Premium ($24/month).
Pros
- Measure impressions, clicks, and other crucial metrics through the Analytics dashboard.
- Customize URL, landing page colors, and theme as needed.
- The free version offers unlimited links.
Cons
- Some users feel the tool is not SEO-friendly.
- You need a paid plan to access all themes.
Best for:
Shorten URLs at scale and share them across social media
About Bitly
Bitly is a URL link shortening tool that condenses lengthy URLs into bite-sized links, freeing up precious space for captivating descriptions or calls to action. These shortened links enhance readability and make your content appealing, fostering a more polished brand image.
You can monitor every click on shortened links and gain insights into their performance within your social media strategy. The tool lets you create fully customizable QR codes and put Links in Your Bio.
FYI, if you are a SocialPilot user, you can automatically shorten lengthy links, put a Bitly shortened link, and track your clicks.
Pricing:
Bitly offers a Free plan and 3 paid plans: Core (Annual pricing available), Growth ($35/month), and Premium ($300/month).
Pros
- Better manage, track, and share links with your audience.
- Customize links to match your brand style.
- The free plan lets you shorten 10 links, create 2 QR codes, and 1 Link-in-bio page per month.
Cons
- The free plan does not come with advanced analytics.
- Some startups feel the paid plans are priced high.
5 Essential Features Every Social Media Tool Must Have
There are many tools out there in the market, and it can sometimes be confusing to distinguish them. We have listed some key capabilities you should consider when settling for a tool.
We created this list, which is sort of a quick guideline based on the insights of our social media team and what creators and brands usually look for.
- Time Saver: The primary reason brands, agencies, and solopreneurs use different tools is to automate redundant tasks and save time. The same goes for you; look for a tool that gives you the ability to schedule posts across multiple platforms (including your preferred ones) in advance and timely publishing.
- Analytics and Reporting: One of the key elements to understand whether your efforts are paying off or not is to look at your analytics. The tool should have robust analytics to track engagement, reach, audience demographics, the best time to post recommendations, and more valuable insights to refine social media strategies.
- Easy to Use: The tools should have no learning curve and be easy to use. This will help you and your team members easily navigate them and make the most of it. Also, the tool should be easily accessible through a desktop browser extension and come with a mobile app.
- Integrations with Multiple Platforms: The capability to seamlessly integrate with various social media platforms and bring all data to a centralized dashboard will facilitate the management of several accounts. The tool should also be able to integrate with popular platforms like Canva, Google Drive, Dropbox, Slack, Unsplash, Zapier, and Bitly. This way, you can manage all your tasks with a single app without going back and forth.
- Customer Support: Last but not least, complications or basic issues can sometimes occur, and having active customer support that is accessible through chat, call, or email can be handy. All these touchpoints increase the effectiveness of the tool and make managing your daily tasks more convenient and stress-free.
Get Your Hands on Social Media Tool
Whether you’re seeking social media management, in-depth audience insights, captivating visuals, AI capabilities, or efficient link management, there’s a tool out there to elevate your game. Among the above-discussed options, SocialPilot stands out as a comprehensive solution offering robust features for scheduling, analytics, and collaboration.
Each platform offers something unique, catering to diverse user needs and preferences. The key lies in experimentation and exploration. Don’t hesitate to combine these various tools, including SocialPilot, to craft a dynamic social media strategy that resonates with your audience and achieves your objectives.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which social media software is the most affordable?
SocialPilot is the most affordable social media tool for agencies that covers all requirements from content curation, social media analytics, content calendar, team, and client management, bulk scheduling, and advanced social media scheduling for $30/month only.
Which social media is best for business?
The best social media for businesses are:
- TikTok
- Snapchat
Is social media good for business?
Yes, social media is good for business. Here’s why:
- Social media presence increases your overall visibility.
- It also adds credibility and makes you trustworthy.
- Great for competitive analysis.
- You can customize and target customers on social media with ad campaigns.
What are the top 4 tools for overall social media management?
The big four social media tools that we all know of include SocialPilot, Sprout Social, Hootsuite, and Agorapulse. However, they sometimes refer to the four most popular social media platforms in terms of user base and overall impact on the social media landscape. These are:
- Facebook: Founded in 2004, Facebook is the world's largest social media platform, with over 2.9 billion monthly active users. It allows users to connect with friends and family, join groups, and follow pages.
- YouTube: Founded in 2005, YouTube is a video-sharing platform with over 2.3 billion monthly active users. It allows users to upload, share, and view videos on a wide range of topics.
- Twitter: Founded in 2006, Twitter is a micro-blogging platform with over 330 million monthly active users. It allows users to post short messages called "tweets" and follow other users to see their tweets.
- Instagram: Founded in 2010, Instagram is a photo and video-sharing platform with over 1.2 billion monthly active users. It allows users to share photos and videos, follow other users, and discover content through hashtags and the explore page.
Which are the social media tools for business?
Choosing the right tool for your business can feel overwhelming with so many options available. Here's our list of the social media tools for business:
- SocialPilot
- HubSpot
- Canva
- Bitly
- Unsplash
- Copy.ai
About the Author
SocialPilot
$30
per month
SocialPilot is a complete social media suite that makes social media management hassle-free while giving you optimum results. It allows you to automate tasks like scheduling and publishing across multiple social media networks, track analytics, get creative with post ideas, and more.
You can better plan your campaigns, seamlessly work with your team, better manage clients better, optimize your social media posts, and increase the ROI of your marketing efforts.
Furthermore, SocialPilot is trusted by more than 13,000 customers globally when it comes to anything social media.
Best for:
Marketing Agencies, SMBs, Multi-Location Brands & Professionals
Social Media Features
Here are some of the best features that make SocialPilot a top candidate for this list:
Schedule Across Platforms
Create and schedule posts on all social networks from one dashboard
Detailed Analytics
Find out how your page and posts are performing across all platforms
AI Assistant
Get creative with post ideas and captions and create content faster
Social Inbox
Monitor and manage all incoming communication from your audience
Team Collaboration
Invite team members and clients and assign them roles to simplify workflow
White Label
Get a uniquely branded experience with a custom dashboard.
Other Key Features:
SocialPilot Pricing
SocialPilot offers a 14-day free trial and access to all premium features (no credit card required & cancel any time). Choose a plan that meets your requirements.
$170.00/mo
$85.00/mo
$42.50/mo
$25.50/mo
What People Say About SocialPilot
Fady S.
I really like the overall SocialPilot platform. It has all the features we require for the 20+ pages we manage on our account. It was also super easy to integrate with all our pages on the different platforms. We use it several times a week to schedule posts and ensure our calendar is properly setup. I highly recommend this platform as it’s a great deal for the price as well.
Source: G2
Naomi S.
This is a great platform for someone who perhaps doesn’t know much about the different social media or how to post on them but wants to keep relevant and keep a schedule. I use SocialPilot to schedule posts every Tuesday at 10 AM, and it never fails me. It’s very easy to use and works great.
It always saves so much time, rather than having to log into each social media platform and post on each one, I can just post once, and schedule it, and it will post on all of them when I choose.
All in all, I love SocialPilot!
Source: G2