Are you tired of juggling multiple accounts of social networks? Do you wish there were a faster, more efficient way to update that Facebook fan page that needs hourly posts? If so, this article is for you. We’ve scoured the Internet in search of the finest social media tools to help you manage your social media profiles. Read these reviews before starting or resuming your social media marketing.
1. Hootsuite
Social media dashboard that supports multiple social networks and provides streams for tweets, retweets, mentions, direct messages, news feed, wall posts and other updates. Allows simultaneous and scheduled updates across numerous accounts.
Pros:
- Well-designed homepage
- Allows viewing of stream from multiple social networks and multiple accounts from the same network
- Supports Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, foursquare, MySpace, WordPress and mixi
- Schedule updates
- Customized analytics
- Can send several messages simultaneously
- Automatically posts updates from your RSS feeds
- Pro version’s reasonable price
- Mobile apps
- Helpful support pages
Cons:
- You can only sync five accounts for the free version
- Although comprehensive, the analytics are expensive
Verdict:
Hootsuite’s free features allow you to manage your social networks and send multiple messages simultaneously through an easy-to-navigate interface. However, to make the most of all the sophisticated features, you’ll have to shell out some money. If you want more solid analytics and free amazing features, consider other options.
2. Tweetdeck
Lets you simultaneously update an unlimited number of Twitter accounts and one Facebook account, and provides live streams of your mentions, tweets of people you follow, your own tweets, hashtags, trending topics and direct messages.
Pros:
- Very user friendly
- Supports unlimited number of Twitter accounts
- Gives previews of photo and video links, even Instagram photos, which have been
- Considerable options for URL shorteners for links and photos
- Latest version allows you to choose between a dark or light-colored background theme
- Subtle desktop pop-up notifications
- Ability to schedule tweets
- Hashtags, mentions, lists, trending topics, etc. can each have a column
- All columns are synced into one screen, allowing easy viewing between columns
- You can post the same message to different accounts simultaneously
- Accepts your bit.ly API key
- It’s free
Cons:
- Syncs just one Facebook account
- Doesn’t support other social networks aside from Twitter and Facebook
- Doesn’t have built-in analytics feature
Verdict:
Tweetdeck is a powerful Twitter management tool. It’s great for marketers who focus only on Twitter and another social network or two.
3. Buffer
Updates several accounts simultaneously and buffers your posts on your chosen schedule. Measures your tweets and Facebook updates’ performance.
Pros:
- Clean, simplistic design
- Supports Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn
- Simultaneous updates across several social networks and accounts
- Pro version is inexpensive
- Buffer your updates to post them during the best times
- There’s an add-on for your browser and mobile apps for Android and iOS
- Analytics for tweets sent through Buffer include data for potential exposure, clicks and retweets, so you know what tweets did well and could have done better
Cons:
- Free version only connects one account from different social networks, unlike other free social media tools
- Analytics options are more limited than Hootsuite — doesn’t give reports of tweets you didn’t send through Buffer
- You can only buffer ten tweets at a time for the free account
- Unless you connect your own Bitly account, you may get inaccurate data for your URL clicks because Buffer shortens links for many users. This means if you and another Buffer user shorten the same link, both of you will share the Bitly code and the same stats.
- You can get more features from other paid versions of the same price
Verdict:
Overall, if you manage only one persona on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn and don’t need to schedule more than 10 posts at a time, the Buffer free version will serve you will. But if you want more bang for your buck, go for something else, like Hootsuite and GrabInbox.
4. GrabInbox
From what I’ve gathered, GrabInbox stopped updating their blog at one point last year, in June, and currently their blog is under maintenance. But, that doesn’t make GrabInbox any less powerful. It supports an astonishingly large number of Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn accounts, and you can queue up to hundreds of posts. Best of all, it’s free.
Pros:
- Easy to use, clean interface
- Supports Twitter, Facebook profiles and fan pages, and LinkedIn
- Syncs impressively high number of Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn accounts
- Separate tabs for timeline, newsfeed, mentions, replies, etc.
- You can post updates across several accounts at one time
- Schedules your posts
- Provides time frame options for the length of time within the day your social networks will be updated
- You can queue hundreds of posts; the length of the queue depends on your chosen time frame
- Reply and new tweets/updates notifications
- Customizable tabs
- Available as a Google Chrome plugin and as a bookmarklet
- It’s free
Cons:
- Analytics is only for Twitter accounts and only shows your tweets’ number of retweets
- Posts can only be scheduled at every 15 minutes
Verdict:
GrabInbox is perhaps one of the most under-rated social management tools, what with these many powerful features. The analytics features is a bit of a disappointment, though. So, consider using GrabInbox alongside other social media tools designed specifically for monitoring your account or page’s performance.
5. Crowdbooster
Offers tiered pricing plans; for 10$, you can manage one Twitter and one Facebook, have access to comprehensive analytics, and update your social media accounts.
Pros:
- Latest version has nice, clean interface; provides single display for different social media elements
- Reasonably inexpensive plan prices; the price range makes Crowdbooster ideal for those with little to no experience in doing social media marketing as a profession
- Analysis provides clear understanding of your mentions, potential impressions, updates and retweets
- You can view your social media accounts’ performance according to timeframe
- Allows simultaneous publishing and scheduling of posts
- Gives time frame options for scheduling your updates
- Provides insight on your retweets and your followers’ follower count
- Identifies your most engaged fans, allowing you to reach out to them individually
- Exports data into CSV format
Cons:
- Other social media tools like Hootsuite and Buffer provide better auto-scheduling
- No free version, although the entry price offers lots of value
Verdict:
Crowdbooster’s strongest feature is its analytics. For an inexpensive price, you have access to substantial data. What needs improvement is the update scheduler (but that can be fixed if you use Crowdbooster alongside something else like Tweetdeck and GrabInbox). The tool is a favorite among many social media marketers.
Choose from these awesome social media tools. We’ve reviewed them for you so you don’t have to. What tool do you use? Tell us about your social media marketing so far in the comments below.
