Social media tools are an excellent way for any business to increase its social media marketing efficacy. However, there are a lot of tools out there. Each has its own primary function that can help you in a specific area of your marketing campaign. Yet the best tools combine all these primary functions that the separate tools have into one easy-to-use platform. This article provides you with the current top 14 social media tools and gives you helpful insight into what exactly a social media tool is and the different types there are.
14 Best Social Media Tools
1) eclincher
Easy, affordable, and very useful – all things eclincher provides you to enhance your social media marketing. eclincher schedules social media posts, provides best-in-class analytics, does brand monitoring and so much more! When you use eclincher’s tools for your social media marketing (specifically Instagram and TikTok), be ready to experience an influx of traffic and, inevitably, a jump in Social Media ROI! It is the ultimate tool for sharing social media content with your audience!
2) Agorapulse
Similar to eclincher, Agorapulse also provides social analytics, manages all your social media interactions like comments, messages, and reviews in one place for all the social media apps. It also helps plan and construct your social media posts. All-in-all, a great alternative to eclincher.
3) Sprout Social
Sprout Social is also an extremely good tool, with numerous software awards in the past few years. They built their software and business service around five principles that they believe are key to enhancing any business’ social media marketing. These are listening, publishing, engagement, analytics, and advocacy – by using all these principles in conjunction with each other, they provide excellent service with very good results. This is a fantastic tool for marketing agencies to make things easy!
4) Sendible
If you want a tool that increases productivity and time management – this is the tool for you! Sendible specializes in helping you create posts in a fraction of the time you would normally do it. It also provides a very engaging collaborative experience between your team and clients – making communication just that much easier. The tool also constructs social media reports for you based on audience size, engagements, etc. It also helps to share content like social media images to your audience.
5) Hootsuite
Hootsuite is an excellent option if you have accounts on multiple social media networks. The tool manages all these accounts in one platform – making your social media production and marketing much more efficient. Like eclincher, the tool also has a content calendar that lets you plan all your content ahead of time. It also has a trend analyzer. Lastly, it provides recommendations on when the best times to post are for maximum user engagement. It can be a very useful tool to search social profiles of your customers & competitors!
6) Buffer
Buffer is basically a combination of Sendible and Hootsuite. The tool is great for social entrepreneurs and provides four major services:
- Insightful posting: Provides details on when and what you should post.
- Optimized posting: Buffer will give you some trending hashtags to ensure your content reaches the right viewers.
- Self-publish: The tool will post for you.
- Collaboration: Removes the need to have a micromanaged approach to team management.
7) Tailwind
Plan, create, schedule, and optimize are the four social media areas Tailwind can help you with. The tool gives post suggestions and helps you plan. It works with you when you create posts enhancing phrase structuring and photos. Many social media experts use this tool today! Tailwind automates social publishing and posts when they believe user engagement is at its peak.
8) MavSocial
MavSocial is basically a marketing team in one tool. The tool helps you schedule posts and makes managing engagement from multiple social media accounts easier with its single inbox. Additionally, like eclincher, MavSocial also provides industry trend analytics by tracking keywords and also constructing reports from your social media performance.
9) TweetDeck
Well, I guess it’s safe to say that you know on what platform TweetDeck operates – yes, Twitter! TweetDeck is a social media marketing tool that specializes in managing Twitter posts and accounts. The tool is directly integrated into Twitter’s interface and is really useful for enhancing user-generated content to be more engaging and reach a larger audience.
10) Crowdfire
Time management is what Crowdfire specializes in. The tool can save time by automatically searching for images and articles your audience will enjoy. It also allows you to create and post content much faster. Plus, it schedules posts to your social media calendar and automatically posts your content for you. Crowdfire also customizes each of your posts for every social media platform.
11) Foursixty
Foursixty is for all you business owners or marketing managers who want to spruce up your content design and quality. Foursixty’s tools make your social media accounts look more professional by optimizing and enhancing content quality. It also publishes directly to Instagram and helps you track influencers – to stay up to date with the latest trends.
12) Emplifi
Emplifi is a great overall business management tool. Apart from the social commerce cloud and service cloud, which makes your brand more shippable and increases customer service, respectively. It also has a great social marketing tool. With the help of AI, the tool can give you powerful insights and analytics on your potential and current audience. It is also a huge time saver – in one dashboard, you can manage your posting schedule, your overall content, and your community.
13) SOCi
SOCi is a platform that provides an extensive set of tools. I found these to be overwhelming initially, but after playing around for a couple of hours, I got the hang of it. The tool not only provides marketing services but also helps with customer relations and ad boosting. See this tool more as a “jack of all trades, master of none” kind of service provider.
14) Buzzsumo
Buzzsumo is for those critical and knowledge-hungry analyzers. The tool serves more as your insight manager than a marketing tool. I was really impressed by the tools Buzzsumo has to offer. However, you can choose between five packages. Each has its own set of perks and cons. To stay pertinent to the topic, you would probably opt for the content creation package – which provides really basic tools apart from its excellent analytics.
Four Main Types of Social Media Tools
1) Content Curation
Content curation, otherwise known as “listening platforms,” are specifically used for social media monitoring on various social media networks for the latest trends relevant to your industry. It can also gather useful information about what people say about your brand – brand monitoring.
You can use this information to enhance and optimize your content to be tailor-made for your audience. However, it would be best if you used content curation tools in combination with the other types of tools listed to get the best results.
2) Content Creation
Content creation tools allow you to take an average image and make it pop. These social media tools have integrated features that can enhance any type of photo. Additionally, when the tool is used in combination with the other social media tools, it can help you create content perfectly suited for your audience – boosting engagement and, ultimately, sales.
3) Social Media Management Tools
We all know how frustrating social media can be, especially when you have to manage numerous social media accounts. This is exactly why you need management tools – to make your life easier. I mentioned it a couple of times when discussing the top social media tools, but a social media management platform improves productivity and time management.
A social media management tool can have features like scheduling your posts in advance. And it can also gather all your user engagements, like mentions, messages, and comments, into one dashboard. Some social media tools even lets you post directly from their website.
4) Analytics Tool
Have you ever heard the saying “knowledge is power” – an analytics tool gives you that knowledge. They analyze everything from current trends, user engagement on posts, time users spend on your profile, what time of day it’s better to post, what demographic your posts resonate better with, and the list goes on. Using social media data analysis tools is a must-have!
The best part is a good analytics tool takes all the data and constructs it into a simplified report, and provides you with suggestions and areas on what and where you can improve – that is why I love eclincher so much!
How We Rate Social Media Tools
We rate social media tools based on how well they can fulfill their service as a tool for enhancing your social media marketing. Plus, the price they offer these services. Basically, the value a social media tool provides the client!
The social media tool should be priced competitively with the other marketing tools. Too cheap, and people will think the tool has no real value. Too expensive, and people will simply not purchase it.
The features the social media tool provides should take a social media marketing strategy to the next level. In other words, the social media tool should bring value to the team. It can either be through making management easier, improving post quality, automatic social media publishing, or providing powerful analytics for multiple social media channels the marketing teams can use to boost user engagement – all factors that influence ROI.
Another important factor we consider is how user-friendly the platform is. Taking time to learn the platform is important as you want to get the best value out of the tool. However, if it takes too long to learn, it will take precious time away from running your business – time is money!
We want a platform that is simplified and easy to use – one that provides an easy workflow structure.
Are Social Media Tools Worth It?
It depends on what stage of your business you are at. If you just opened a business, I would recommend waiting a bit more. Spending too much of your capital balance on marketing tools is very bad for your overall business prospect as you won’t have enough money to cover overheads, production costs, and potential expansion.
Instead, go for social media tools when you have built up your capital reserves and you are at a stage where you feel comfortable onboarding an addition to your marketing team. The social media tools will put your marketing in hyperdrive. You will see an exponential increase in engagement from your target audience.
Ultimately, your ROI will be sound, and you will see an increase in it – making a social media tool definitely worth it. However, choosing when to use it is crucial – sustainability is key!
Frequently Asked Questions
Which social media tool is best?
I found eclincher to be the best social media tool. It provides powerful keyword research, lead generation, content calendar planning, useful and in-depth social media analytics, and so much more.
What are social tools?
Social tools are tools that help constructs an effective social media strategy that boosts your social media marketing ROI. They enhance post engagements, expand your target audience, increase overall post quality and improve marketing management.
What are the 3 most popular social media?
For advertising purposes: 1. Facebook, 2. Instagram and 3. TikTok/ Twitter/ YouTube
What is the #1 social media right now?
Facebook has the largest user base currently. However, the fastest-growing platform is TikTok.
What are the pros and cons of social media?
For businesses:Â Pros:Â Expand your potential customer base much more efficiently and have higher ROI than general marketing methods like door-to-door or billboards. Cons:Â People can easily spread a false rumor that can cause damage to your reputation. Poor marketing on social media platforms can be more detrimental to your business than not marketing at all.
What is the best social media for adults?
Currently, the best social media for adults is Facebook for social networking, Pinterest for social media sharing, and LinkedIn for professionals.
The Bottom Line
There is a wide selection of social media tools, from social media scheduling tools and content analyzers to platforms that improve your post quality. But the best social media tools can combine all these separate tools into one single platform and still provide quality service – eclincher does that the best! If you are looking for a social media tool specifically for Instagram and TikTok, consider eclincher. The tool really is a dream to work with. Plus, it is guaranteed to boost your social media ROI and expand your reach. Why not start the free trial and watch as your social media marketing reaches new highs?
